Monday, November 21, 2011
Heights Sports Editor signs off with strong column
For those who don't pay attention to these things, the Height transitions its staff on the calender year, not the school year. So that means the different editor jobs change around this time. With that, they all get to write their send off pieces. With his time nearing an end Sports Editor Paul Sulzer wrote a very strong column on Spaz. Go read it now. It's comforting to know that the next generation of Eagles do share our passion.
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28 comments:
Good points by the Heights, esp:
"With the football team struggling through its worst season in over a decade, the two most prominent papers in Boston have accepted the excuses of head coach Frank Spaziani and athletic director Gene DeFilippo at face value. They have chalked up the team's record this year to injuries, youth, and bad luck. Neither The Globe nor The Herald has criticized the decisions from the sideline. Too often, people accept what they are told and look the other way."
ATL, take a sip of courage from this young man and please do not continue to be the unwitting spokesman for the "reducing expectations" crowd.
How many times have I read predictions from you supposedly based on inside dope that Spaz will be back?
Be like the Heightsman. Say Spaz sucks and should be replaced. SAY IT! Or, better yet, present economic argument that keeping Spaz for one more year will derail revenues for X more years -- synergistic negativity, if you will.
I know you want to inspire yourself ATL, and now you have done it; ACT, do not provide unwitting cover for lower expectation.
"High expectations are the key to everything." -- Sam Walton
UMass football coach out after three years, 16-17 record. Spaz is 15-19 if you don't count the three nonsense FCS games. UMass guy probably makes half of what Spaz does. If Spaz isn't let go it shows that an in-state FCS school takes football more seriously than BC. Sad.
Good points in the Heights Article - congratulations to Sports Editor Paul Sulzer.
Here is how our state university handles mediocrity.
The University of Massachusetts will have a new head football coach when it becomes an official member of the Football Bowl Subdivision.
Kevin Morris, who went 16-17 in three seasons as the coach of the Minutemen, was "released from his contract" this afternoon according to a press release from the university.
“I thank Kevin for his hard work during his eight years with the UMass football program including the last three as head coach,” said director of athletics John McCutcheon in the release. “With the transition to the Football Bowl Subdivision and the Mid-American Conference, I felt it was important for the program to have a new direction in leadership.”
A consultative committee will be formed shortly to assist with a national search for the next coach.
Will we see such an announcement.
Would have posted the UMass story 1st but blogger isn't working on this end.
Anyway, the parallels between Morris and Spaz are pretty interesting. They were both well regarded coordinators who hadn't had opportunities elsewhere. They were promoted to maintain stability and because of their loyalty to the program (along with the work they did as coordinators). Both have had below average careers as HC and brought their programs into performance decline (UMass had been competing for D1-AA championships).
Now if only Gene had the wherewithal that UMass' AD has... Even he realizes stability has to get thrown out the door if you want to make progress and invigorate a fan base. With UMass moving to Gillette Stadium next year, with the right hire, they could start picking off New England/NJ/NY/PA recruits and the casual fans that attended BC games real quick. Sad state of affairs that Gene has sent BC into... and this is all on Gene
Although I cancelled an earlier trip to Boston for the FSU game and to work in the Northeast in order to attend the NC State game, I have not cancelled my Miami trip in honor of our players.
My wife and I leave tomorrow for Thanksgiving in Miami - Doral (dinner at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables - great Thanksgiving celebration).
I am curious to see how our players respond to this short week and how they play against The U in what amounts to its bowl game.
Miami has suspended itself from a bowl game. We'll see if they can draw 30,000 for our game. If the stadium is empty, you can bet that Spaziani will be able to hear me yelling at him - as well as DeFilippo if he's on the sideline - especially if we come out with the prevent offense/prevent vistory game plan.
I hope it's not Keuchly's last game - what a shame.
Go BC players - beat Miami for yourselves.
mod34b:
In ATL's defense, he HAS been saying Spaz sucks and should be replaced. There's a difference between hopes and expectations. I hope we win every game. When we don't, I hope the players at least show improvement. When they don't, I hope Spaz gets fired. When he doesn't, I hope Gene gets fired. I always hope for the best. But I expect those hopes will get dashed over and over for the next year. Cases in point...
WI&1331: There go the good members of our staff, I expect. I further expect they'll get replaced with lesser doofuses willing to pledge loyalty to a poisonous work environment in exchange for a BCS-program title to stick on their resumes, knowing they'll only need to be here for a year before everyone gets dumped. Hooray for "loyalty."
BJK: Short week--what do YOU think is going to happen? I expect the gameplan to resemble every other Spaz gameplan. I expect the team to be every bit as well-prepared as they were on November 3, their previous short week. I expect the same excuses and catchphrases in the post-game presser.
Unfortunately, Darius - you're right on with everything.
And I know exactly what is going to happen. The only thing I don't know will be Miami's "give a damn" factor. I think Golden will have them ready.
I hope our players continue to play hard and to try in spite of the Prevent Victory approach of their Head Coach. It's unbelievable when you think about it.
Darius -- I hope and I also expect Spaz will be fired/demoted/removed from being the BC HC.
Any rational observer would come to the same conclusion. I refuse to indulge GDF with his usual BULLSHIT excuses.
Fire Spaz, and if not, we fans will take some actions. We are down to threats, but most present fans will absolutely carry out the threats to stop supporting BC in some way.
I am sure there must be some economist out there. Please tell me what is the 'cost' over the next 5 years of retaining Spaz for another season vs firing him now?
Is there a significant difference?
I am thinking there will be a big difference because Spaz is actually damaging recruiting efforts, damaging BC's football/sports/general reputation and he is damaging the internal structure of the football program by not knowing WTF he is doing. For example, why are half the assistant coaches retained? Many simply suck at what they profess to do (like Devine)and should never have been hired. Another cost, loss of fan support -- when will that come back?
In short, how long will it take to recover from Spaz? gotta be a few years
spaz was loyal and for his loyalty BC gave him 3 years to try to prove he had the chops to be a head coach.
i'm sorry but you cannot make excuses like "we are young" and "injuries" when you're in your 3rd year. we have seen enough from the spaz.
"Spaz - From spastic, the disability. Means a person that acts insane or mentally retarded."
we should have known. enough with an inarticulate, diffident, careless leader of our football program. give me someone like donahue who will engage the students and alumni and actually build something instead of making excuse after excuse and being happy b/c we only lost by 2 points.
How sad that BC sports have fallen so far under the little man. I would never have thought that we would be looking at an empty Alumni Stadium and Conte Forum. Lose to Holy Cross by 20 points. We play Umass tonight and nobody knows it. This used to be a big game, sell out crowds. Now played on a Monday night during Thankgiving week with nobody on campus and nobody at the game. Was Gene trying to hide another bad loss? The one great local bball player who wanted to go to BC but was told he could not play basketball and baseball is starting as a freshman for Notre Dame and will be playing baseball for the ex BC coach. And I think we all know that the 16-14 score will bring back Spaz. This is just sad.
I think that the answer is to have some sort of petition under the name of "Big Jack Krack" who will represent those in the trenches.
I read somewhere that the greatest test of courage on earth is to bear defeat without losing heart.
What will happen to us if there is no change at HC and/or with some of the under-performing/over-their heads assistants?
How long before we fan(atic)s lose heart, courage be damned?
Let's look at it this way. If Spaziani remains as HC, and we get back Keuchly, Harris and Ramsey - and maybe Momah; and if there is positive development with our players - particularly in the lines - what on earth will the excuse be in 2012? Any excuse will be unacceptable - and Spaziani would have to be fired during the season. Much better to do it now, Gene. Or would you prefer to seal your own fate?
Is there a list of the players who have left the program since Spaziani took over?
JBQ - I'm getting ready. :-)
The opinions expressed here are not to be dismissed - and might need to be expressed more formally.
Umass 82, BC 46
Fire Spaz, Fire Spaz, Fire Spaz, Fire Spaz, Fire Spaz, Fire Spaz.
There, now I feel better.
As I said earlier - this will be a year to forget. Or an unforgettable year - take your pick.
In all my years of following college basketball, I have never seen a team come in with all new (mostly freshmen) players - except maybe because of tragedy.
Let's see what kind of courage we have this year when dealing with hardcourt results.
I don't follow basketball as closely as football, so will someone please clarify for me why the cupboard is so bare this year? Lousy recruiting by Skinner?
dixie, thats what donahue is saying, along with injuries, youth, and the fact that we outscore our opponents in 30 of the 40 minutes each game.
we have 7 freshman playing, along with a grad student, a transfer. moton and rubin, the only guys who played last year, hardly get any time, which is either because they are hurt or they stink.
there will be lots of growing pains with this team. they are young, but they a legit 7 footer (clifford) and a few other guys look promising (anderson, heckmann, daniels). we'll see what coach D has in store.
Thanks, BlockParty and El Miz. Call me naive, but it seems to me that no ACC basketball team should find itself in this bad a fix. I can understand an occasional down or "building" year, but this seems beyond that.
Let's hope Donahue knows what he's doing and this year is a terrible anomaly.
Dixie. The year before Skinner was fired he recruited no one or maybe one guy who was not any good. Once Skinner was canned, there was high attrition of players and recruits.
And then Our hold over star went to the NBA.
Hence Here we are.
0-for-ACC seems very possible
Thanks, mod. Geez, BC sports are fun this year. :(
I guess I'll just have to hope that hockey comes on strong when it counts.
i agree dixie, it is a bad position to be in right now. Donahue apparently did this at Cornell -- built from the bottom up. he won the ivy's a few times and got to the sweet 16. rakim sanders transferred, and a bunch of recruits de-committed. reggie was our best player last year and he left (although i bet he wishes he could be back now and actually playing!), so we are left with a bunch of guys who have never played with each other, much less in the ACC. its going to be a long season and i'd be surprised if we got to 10 wins.
The situation is embarrassing. This is no way to build a program. These kids are getting overwelmed by Holy Cross and Umass.
They could get so discouraged and humiliated that they might never recover. I don't think any marginal top prospects will want to be coming here to be part of that.
It did not have to happen this way.
It seems to me that something is seriously wrong at the top (GDF) when two "marquee" sports at an ACC school that has long been competitive have both gone deep into the toilet at the same time.
Those who are anti-Spaz should email Gene and tell him you will not be donating to the Flynn Fund and purchasing season tickets if he does not fire Spaz.
If you think of BC athletics as a business with GDF as CEO, you could say that for the last three years he ignored his two largest business units, the ones that produce 100% of the revenue, and focused all his attention on other, lower-profile activities that, while good for the employees and community relations do little for the overall business. Hence, we have a top-notch sailing team, but our football and basketball programs are in disarray.
Spaz and Gene both must go, but I think that BB is on track to be a credit to BC. I don't know what could have been done differently. Al had to go. He was in cruise control.
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