Spaz and Gene deserve each other. The BC community deserves better. I would say the Montel Harris story broke the camel's back, but the camel gave up long ago. We like to joke about Spaz's game management skills, but his people skills are the real problem. He's run off loyal long-time staffers and thrown multiple players under the bus. It was so predictable that he would run off at least one formerly loyal role model player, that Eagle Outsider posters created a pool about the topic back in March. This is supposed to the head coach that values loyalty. But loyalty is subjective. If Spaz was so loyal wouldn't he have followed TOB to NC State? Wouldn't he have been loyal to Jags? Or was his loyalty really just to Gene (which is all that mattered to Gene)? Montel kept our offense afloat during Spaz's first two winning seasons and what did he get for it? An overworked bum knee and a kissoff from BC.
We like to think that BC is better than this. We're not. Spaz's mismanagement is not all that different from his boss's. Instead of being straight forward or better yet taking the high road, Gene can't let anything happen without getting the last word. The list of smear victims is long. Tom O'Brien, Jeff Jagodzinski, Al Skinner, Steve Lively, Cathy Inglese, Mik Aoki, Kevin Rogers, Ryan Day, Gary Tranquill, and Dana Bible have all been on the receiving end of whisper campaigns from BC. Gene can disavow this because it is rarely a direct, on the record quote to the media, but it does come from friendly media and message board posters. I know from experience that BC keeps close tabs on every story, every rumor and every leak. If Gene didn't approve of the smearing he could have it shutdown. When you fire someone or they leave, why can't we just let it go? Take the high road and move on. By making everything personal -- whether it is UConn, Lively or Spaz -- you lose sight of what makes the most sense for Boston College. In 99% of cases in business and in life taking the high road is the better move.
It had long been rumored that Montel Harris wasn't going to subject his knee to another season under Spaz. If that was the case, why not talk to him? Agree to a mutual release, watch him graduate and let him play somewhere else. Instead you have the school's all-time leading rusher and a guy who will graduate in days, being "dismissed from the team." Is Spaz that worried about Montel lighting it up at another school, that he feels he needs the upperhand?
Spaz is a lame duck. I have little faith that he can win enough to keep his job. He'll leave the program in much worse shape than he found it. The question now becomes does Gene get to hire his replacement. My fear is that Gene will repeat the same mistakes, hire a bad coach and continue to alienate our fans and players.
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I don't know how to do this, but I've seen this picture before with the words "I'm with stupid" added to the white sign with an arrow pointing at - take your pick. They both fit the bill.
Spaz and Gene? No, this is not a duo in action.
Spaz is just a stooge, a yes man and pawn of GDF. This is all GDF. Spaz is good at acting stupid, but GDF is the one behind this current desire to 'punish' Montel -- who GDF now must perceive as disloyal 'after all GDF has done for Montel.' GDF must view (insanely) Montel as the enemy who has 'betrayed' GDF, much like how Jags 'betrayed' GDF, much like how Lively was perceived to have 'betrayed' BC/GDF and promptly attacked.
And now let's take a moment to examine the narcissist's personality (all taken from HERE). Does any of this sound familar?
Narcissists are preoccupied with power, status, recognition.
Narcissists are defensive & hypersensitive to criticism. They will launch biting, harsh attacks on those who dare to criticize and question them. They are also very controlling about how others view and think of them – by positively rewarding the praise and tyrannically punishing dissent. When it’s impossible for them to attack the critic directly, they’ll do anything in their power to block or sabotage their future success.
Narcissists indulge themselves extravagantly.
Narcissists keep score. They watch rivals with microscopic vigilance, and will come up with cunning ways to sabotage, outdo or humiliate them.
Narcissists demand total loyalty from their followers. Once you get on the bad list, there is no way off without heavy ass-kissing and contrition. (Unless you get access to something they desperately want.)
As I indicated back at the season end, Montel was not coming back. Someone close to the situation, who is the same perswon who told me he was not coming back has indicated the following: The major rules that have been broken was that Montel was speaking to other schools-obviously Temple. You can check the rules with the NCAA to verify the info, but the 5th year that Montel got was a petition from BC, not the player. In order to be eligable to transfer without sitting out Montel had to graduate from BC. He also had to be on the roster for spring practice. Spaz and big Gene have speculated that he pulled himself from spring practice and is not injured. Read Spaz's quotes about the injury. Always questioning it. Gene could not just let him go and wish him good luck and thanks.
Like I've said in every post in every similar article - we can vent all we want in cyberspace but unless everyone acts with their dollars when asked to by tickets or make a donation, and unless people make their voices heard to the board and President (yes, that means writing a letter or an email... which would take just as long as writing this post), nothing will change. If Leahy and the board get enough letters from people that regular donate saying make a change or you're not getting my money, it will force their hand.
The poor student soliciting my donation on the phone was literally laughing out loud last night when I told him to take me off the donation call list until Spaz is fired, said "I don't blame you," and ended the conversation politely. More people need to do it...
Is there any wonder why more than half of the students at the BC hockey celebration booed GDF. He's completely classless and as credible as Bagdad Bob. There is no hope for BC sports as long as IL Duce is in charge.
Never forget that Montel is a Jags guy. Spaz needed Montel last fall to keep the bowl streak alive, something that should matter to Montel if he had any sense of loyalty. So what does Montel do? He finally debuts against Wake, plays great, then comes out because he says he has a boo-boo on his knee.
Yet even after that, Coaches Spaz and Flip still showed such loyalty and concern for this boy. They went to the NCAA and secured an injury redshirt year so Montel could play college football next year. Montel's end of the bargain was that he plays for BC.
So what does Montel do? Again he claims a boo-boo on his knee the first day of spring practice, and sits out the rest of the way. Until now, once he's secured his degree.
Traitor. Montel doesn't realize that Spaz constantly teaches life lessons to his troops. Buying lunch for the maintenance workers--a modern-day version of Jesus washing the feet. Moving up spring practice so that it doesn't conflict with Hingham High's baseball schedule--showing the kids that someday they'll be 60+ and want the job flexibility to watch their own (real) kids play. Skipping the ACC media day to spend time with family--demonstrating that family always comes first to those who are REAL fathers.
The tragedy out of this is that Coaches Spaz and Flip won't be able to trust the kids anymore. They'll have to use a firm hand so that the kids learn the life lessons being taught every day. Kicking Montel off now is one route--letting the rumor mill run its course for Google to preserve in perpetuity.
Another is to look askance at any kid who thinks he can milk the system and put one over on Coaches Spaz and Flip. Your next Montel will hear something like this:
Coach Spaz/Flip (like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, it really doesn't matter): "How's your (body part)?"
Jags recruit: "It's coming along."
Coach Spaz/Flip: "You'd better hurry your a** up because you only have eight games left in your college career."
Jags recruit: "I'm redshirting."
Coach Spaz/Flip: "No, you've been cleared by the doctor to play. You're choosing not to play."
That's the only thing Coaches Spaz and Flip did wrong. They trusted a kid. With Jags's poor recruiting still hurting the program through 2013, something had to give.
Never again. No longer will a player take advantage of a BC football coach's humanity and decency.
It will take another 4 or 5 years to clean out the stench of Jags and Montel, but Coaches Spaz and Flip will get the job done. Look to BC hockey for faith. Jerry York had four straight losing seasons before Coach Flip came on the scene. York realized he couldn't mess around, and finally put things together.
Hahaha that was brilliant.
Season ticket holder for 11 years. Had already renewed mine for this season. Just wrote a long letter to the ticket office and associate ADs asking for a refund for this season and got it. Just one person and prob doesn't matter to them, but hopefully enough of these will make them open their eyes.
Does anyone maintain a "hot seat" list for ADs? Hard to imagine GDF isn't on it.
If I weren't in the middle of finals right now I would devote more time to the disgusting reactions of everyone here.
If Montel broke team rules, he should be kicked off the team. End of story. I hardly see how this is a smearing campaign. The release, as best I remember it, said he had repeatedly violated team rules. That's it. It didn't even say what the violations were.
BC's integrity and emphasis on compliance is supposed to separate us from the other schools in the country, who might have more wins, but do so at the expense of playing fair.
Obviously we have our own history of scandal and our players aren't perfect. However, the implication here that we should give Montel a free pass because of how "good" he was is sickening.
I also think it's a big disingenuous to on one hand celebrate how Montel is so great because he's our all time leading rusher and then on the other criticize the coach and coaching strategy that enabled him to get there.
Montel only got the records he got because he happened to be at the school where we had no passing game to speak of.
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaaf-dr-saturday/boston-college-teeters-edge-irrelevance-171536461.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
at least people outside the bc community are recognizing the situation..
Yes Walter, and we should fly drones over all our roads with cameras and radar tracking, in order to ensure that anyone who goes even one mile-per-hour over the speed limit get a speeding ticket. Rules are meant to be followed and are virtuous by their very existence! Every BC player who breaks a team rule has and should have been kicked off the team immediately. And the release did say that he broke the rules, so there you have it.
It is disgusting that we could possibly overreact to an inept coaching staff pushing out Montel Harris. The same Montel Harris who hasn't been arrested, suspended or removed from the team in years past. The guy who ran the ball a brutal 35+ times per game, because we didn't have a great passing offense.
Maybe you have some great insight into the terrible things he's done or details of the egregious violation which occurred repeatedly (please note the press-release only mentioned a singular "violation"). If so, please share these details (or detail, since it was a singular violation) - it will allow us to see how sickening our comments truly are.
Good luck with your finals. Then I'd like you to get a cardboard box. Please clean out your cubicle in the AD's office and put your things in it.
Walter,
Normally I would agree with you, but at this point even I have become skeptical of the press releases coming out of the Yawkey Center lately. Our OC suddenly contracts a mysterious illness and leaves the program hours after one of our worst offensive performances in recent memory. Our womens hoops coach suddenly develops a mysterious illness and leaves the program after one of our worst seasons in recent memory. Our all-time leading rusher, who has had no reported academic or discipline problems in four years, suddenly has committed repeated rules violations and much be dismissed from the team.
Right...
It's a FACT that Montel broke a rule--that's what the BC press release says so it's true. It's a FACT that Montel is not to speak about what happened--Montel said so himself. It's a FACT that Montel has a lot going on in his life--that's what Coach Spaziani said so it's true. It's a FACT that Montel has a name like "Montel"--that's what it says on his birth certificate.
That's what we know. He's off the team, so he must have done something to deserve being thrown off. At some point we have to let coaches coach.
Now look, nobody has said for attribution that Montel uses drugs or sells dope or gets girls pregnant. The only place this has been stated is in whispers and on anonymous message board posts.
But to think Coaches Spaziani and DeFilippo have some sort of responsibility to prove that Montel DOES NOT do these things is ludicrous!!! In case you haven't taken Logic 101, here's the lesson: You can't prove a negative!!! So why would Coaches Spaziani and DeFilippo get involved responding to whispers or message board posts about someone who isn't even on the team anymore!!???
If people are going to draw conclusions because Montel is off the team, or has a name like Montel, or a sister with a name like Sheniah, or looks like he could be on "The Wire", or "has a lot going on", or can't hear Montel's story---how is that a smear perpetrated by Coaches DeFilippo and Spaziani!???
In fact I can prove with 100 percent certainty that Coaches DeFilippo and Spaziani did not smear Montel. Coach Spaziani hasn't said he smeared Montel. Coach DeFlippo hasn't said he smeared Montel. So they haven't smeared Montel.
I understand you might have some pleasant memories of Montel, but the past is the past. This Jags recruit couldn't take the field when Coach Spaziani needed him. So he doesn't get to take the field now. End of story.
I have difficulty believing that our administration cares enough to lie about the reasons why coaches need to go. I admit it's suspicious, but are we really talking high stakes here? If they did lie about various illnesses, it obviously hasn't worked to hide controversy, so why would they do it twice? At some point you can't disbelieve everything GDF or Spaz says just because you don't like them. [And the immediate response to this is and at some point you can't believe everything they say either, great, I get that.]
They may have said one violation, but it was a repeated violation. Why on earth would Spaz get rid of one his better players unless he had to? Would everyone really be happier if the next story to break is the NCAA investigating repeated violations at Boston College? It would be the same rhetoric about how Spaz can't even stay in touch with his players to keep them compliant.
OC,
I think you forgot to mention the service Spaz has done for team unity: an organization lacking discipline is not an organization at all, but a collection of individuals.
We all know there is no 'i' in team and that is for a good reason. ClaIborne had a "i" and so does HarrIs. Matt Ryan lacked an "i" and Luke Kuechly lacked a "i" Our friend Walter here has no "i" and also knows well the value of uniform, unbending enforcement of team normative values.
If Spaz lets the high and mighty special boys flaut the rules, who is going to respect Spaz.
Unless Spaz enforces the rules evenly and unflinchingly against all transgressors, BC is not going to continue to be a successful football program. In fact, it won't amount to a hill of beans.
The ying and yang of the press release is what causes the problems for me. I think if Spaz where a strong leader there would not be the dischord amongst the players that we have seen over the last five years. All of these players have left under shaddy circumstances: Legrande, Ohkpora, Hayden, Montel, Shakim Phillips, Conor O'neil, Dominique Davis. They are all talented starting players.
The vitriol against Spaz is acceptable because these issues never really came up under the TOB regime or the Jags regime, although a number of the shaddy players are his. So the vitriol against Gene is also acceptable becuase Gene hired Jags.
So what we have here is transcendent player in terms of production who has been removed from the football program for violating rules repeatedly. Eventhough he has repeatedly violated rules that are severe enough for him to be removed fom the program the University is working to help him graduate and working to help him reach his goal of making the NFL?
It doesn't add up to me. If what he did is bad enough that he could be removed from the team then why would the school make a point of saying that they are still supporting him academically and professionally. If they are supporting him academically and professionally then why would the press release be as detailed as it seems to be.
Basically, fired him from the football team, agreed to let him graduate suppossedly, and then they slammed him in the press release with "repeated violations" and the fact that there is alot going on in his life.
Sounds like the same gang of scumbags that run the Fenway Sports Group, who have trashed Terry Francona, Nomar Garciaparra etc etc after they were let go from the Red Sox are writing the press releases for Boston College.
Boston College attendees and alumni watch out for each other. The Springfield grad and the Penn State grad DO NOT CARE about the consequences of the words that they speak or the words that others write and direct them to speak.
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