One name that has been repeatedly mentioned as a potential Spaz replacement is Notre Dame Defensive Coordinator Bob Diaco. BC will get a first hand look at the candidate this week. I like Diaco and think has many of the qualities we should look for in a new coach.
Relentless Recruiter
We can debate the quality of our current roster but our ability to land key recruits is embarrassing. Every year we target a few key players and rarely get them to even consider BC. That won't be a problem with Diaco. He's one of Kelly's ace recruiters and on more than one occasion has been the salesman who helped flip a star player to Notre Dame. Notre Dame's talent is often overrated, but I think most experts agree that their front seven on Defense is elite and as good as any in the country. Diaco played a key role in bringing most of those guys in.
Understands a school like BC
Fit is always important when hiring a new coach. I don't think we need a BC grad nor someone who has worked here before, but we do need someone who understands recruiting limitations, making players graduate, and that our pitch must include academics. Diaco has worked and Notre Dame and Virginia. Diaco is also from New Jersey. He's not going to be a fish out of water in New England.
Xs and Os
Often times great recruiters are terrible at calling or managing a game. That doesn't seem to be an issue for Diaco. His defenses have improved each year and I don't remember many times when his scheme seemed terrible and I've also liked their adjustments.
Drive
Jags might have had confidence and TOB had a plan, but I don't think we've had a truly driven coach since Coughlin. This would be the type of guy who is not going to rest until BC is winning again. I only know this anecdotally through friends of friends, but Diaco is that sort of guy. He is going to work harder and smarter than any coach we've had in a long time.
The major downside to Diaco is that he's never been a head coach before. He will have to assemble a new staff and start to learn how to manage all aspects of the team and the program. Can he make that transition? We seen some guys do it well and others like Spaz do it poorly.
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Diaco wasn't on my radar, but on first glance I love the idea. I've always thought Iowa and BC had great similarities. Relentless linebackers and powerful lines leading a conservative offensive attack. I think this style of team structure is how BC can get back to glory (glory = 8+ wins a year).
Diaco and Stoops at FSU have to be the top candidates. Both are defensive guys. BC has always been built on defense. BC has always been built on linemen, both offensive and defensive. It is no coincidence that as these areas have fallen off, so has BC. Both Diaco and Stoops are touted as top-notch recruiters. I think they have to be #1 and #2 in the search. Ferentz is also a great candidate as he will likely get canned by Iowa. That said, not sure we need a once hot prospect who now seems a bit washed up. Same goes for Tedford who will be fired by Cal at season's end.
Diaco appears to be a very good candidate. He burns with the fire of youth. Notre Dame is a very good team and not a great team. They win on enthusiasm and their defense with Diaco is the difference.
Ferentz isn't going anywhere. If he gets fired though, he will be chased by schools with bigger wallets and more to offer. Tedford may get canned. But he wouldn't touch this job with a 10 ft pole. He's a west coast guy. Can go hang out and be a coordinator for a few years and get a good HC job again.
Yes, Bob Diaco is a wonderful guy. I've been thrilled with his work at ND this year, creating from whole cloth a soon-to-be Butkus and Lombardi winner in Manti Te'o.
Yet Boston College already has a coach who created a Butkus and Lombardi winner out of a backup Big 10 safety: Frank Spaziani. Coach Spaziani knocked off two of Nick Saban's best to win those trophies last year. All this while cleaning up the contamination Jags left, and while constantly fending off Coach DeFilippo and his undermining of the program.
So you're finally clearing out the remnants of Jagodzinski. You've finally removed DeFilippo, the one who kept giving the players fattening cookies from Au Bon Pain when Coach Spaziani had specifically reserved said cookies for the maintenance crew. What did you think Coach Spaziani was going to do--tell his BOSS that he couldn't give cookies to the O-Linemen??? So now you blame the O-Line for poor play, when Coach DeFilippo was there throughout the offseason fattening them up, telling them they don't really need to work out that hard in the weight room, why try to squat 350 when college linemen only squat 275, etc.
Finally Coach Spaziani has the chance to mold the program as he wishes, right from the start of the offseason. And you want to get rid of him? After he's outcoached Nick Saban!???
And the recruiting! This recruiting class!!! How can you risk vaporizing this class that you've poured the entire summer into building!??? You dismiss Coach Spaziani, and go through a transition, and you know what's going to happen!? Your recruiting rivals are going to skewer your "instability" and poach your recruits.
How are you going to fend off Maine when they offer your LB recruit a depth-chart slot TODAY, when you don't even have a coach? How are you going to stop your verbal from jilting you for Bryant when Bryant has an actual coaching staff? How are you going to stop CW Post from attracting your TE recruit when they can offer him a starting slot at Wingback in the Wing-T--something known to be a pathway to an H-back slot in the League!???
Sure, you can chase where the grass is greener. But think about what you're losing by ashcanning someone who has finally cleared out the stench that was infesting Boston College football.
Did God fire Jesus when the "Messiah" got himself crucified"? Uh, that would be a "no". Instead, God doubled down on Jesus. And what happened? Jesus resurrected and eventually built Christianity and, more importantly, the greatest college football program known to man (and reserved prime seats for himself above the goalposts). While Coach Spaziani is no Jesus, he's got some of those traits. Don't let the Pilates undermine him when it appears to be darkest. Let Coach Spaziani lead you to the light.
. . . ATL, I want an AD who is paying attention to the people who care about the direction of the program.
The people here and other BC sites care about the success of football and academics not one or the other. Which is what Bates will be confronting at Boston College, internally, as the AD
This site is another vehicle to get the word out on a coach who would be perfect for Boston College.
A fine post, ObserverCollege, but you missed a point
We need to keep this coaching staff in tact so they could gel for another few years. Let's keep our eye on that 2020 match-up with Ohio State.
Bollman hasn't had nearly enough time to work with the O-Line and develop the running game (everyone is so impatient with him), and McGovern (if he doesn't get the Texas or Tennessee job) is starting to get some traction with our post-Keuchly/Herzlich defense. In the past two games, we've kept the Wake Forest and Maryland offenses to a total of 14 points in the fourth quarter. If that's not a sign of effective adjustments i don't know what is
Diaco looks like a great candidate. I worry if bigger schools will call him up, especially if ND is able to make a BCS run. spaz is paid a tad over a million bucks and i'd imagine we'd offer something similar, so the question becomes whether that's enough to lure him from ND/other competiting offers.
ferentz and tedford both seem over the hill.
BC used to have a big donor who fronted the cost of the HC position, but pulled his support after Gene's handling of the Jags fiasco. Can Bates bring this guy back into the fold?
I thought that was Barber, who stopped paying after TOB left.
to observer,
Gene is gone because he would not fire Spaz. You have it reversed.
Hiring Diaco is not about getting him from ND. It is about his background as a player and under the radar status, until very recently, which makes him manageable for Boston College financially.
Knucklehead, have it wrong. Coach DeFilippo would not fire Coach Spaziani, but Coach Spaziani wants more. Coach Spaziani wants to be judged on his own merits, on the program that he institutes without shackles from a football-groupie AD.
Coach DeFilippo realized on his own that he did not have the fire to continue as the AD at Boston College. At one time DeFilippo did great things, but in his core he must have realized that his attempts to make friends with the players, to distribute cookies and White Mountain ice cream and whatnot, simply served to undermine Coach Spaziani's coaching efforts. And to his credit, Coach DeFilippo wants far more for BC to win than he wants any sort of individual glory or rewards. So for the good of the program, for the good of Coach Spaziani, Coach DeFilippo graciously decided to step away so that Coach Spaz could finally lead his team free of restrictions.
The result, of course, is a team that has clearly won the majority of the minutes it has played this season--all while building a recruiting class that is the pride of Northeastern New England. A team that has numerous promising freshmen getting it done on the field, taking some lumps now at the end of games while they learn how to win.
Those lessons will pay dividends in the next two years, as the stench of Jagodzinski and DeFilippo is cleansed from the program. But that only happens if and only if Coach Spaziani is entrusted to lead this program.
I am not sure that Farentz is quite in demand like he was 5 years ago. His Iowa teams have been pretty mediocre to bad of late. I think the more likely outcome after he is canned is that he takes a year off regardless. Either way, he probably would not come to BC nor is he likely the right candidate. Tedford I was never a fan of regardless. I think Diaco and Stoops have to be the #1 and #2 candidates. The issue with either of them is that they are both young, ambitious guys at big name programs that are having great success this year. That means they will be in very high demand and might potentially get some big-time interest or want to wait around for the right gig (i.e. Muschamp at Texas or Holmgrensen sp? at Oklahoma St). The next set of candidates might be the "hot shot" mid major coaches. Not sure who they are this year.
Observer,
Do you have any thoughts on our new man Brad Bates?
Seems like a company man to me who is preachy and a procrastinator.
non-sensical response
Both Diaco and Stoops played for Hayden Fry, who nurtured one of the most prolific coaching trees in the history of college football. I like both and as a native Iowan, I remember when both played for Iowa. Also, Fry was a master at the turn-around job (Iowa had over 20 losing seasons before Fry arrived. 20!). These guys have the recipe to turn around a program and, like it or not, BC is now in the turn around stage. We need to act fast. If Iowa were to can Ferentz, they will make a run at both Stoops and Diaco and they have 3 mil to spend on the coaching position.
Wow. BC has to have the most deluded fan base in CFB. Your program will never be more than an ACC also-ran. No name recognition, poor facilities and located in an area of the country that knows nothing about college football.
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