I've been as guilty as the next fan of reading too much into the Spring Game. This year I can justify obsessing of the minutia! For the first time in 16 years we will have completely new schemes on both offense and defense. I don't think Addazio will play all his cards nor will the team be a well-oiled machine, but here are some things that I will be focusing on during the annual Spring Game.
Blitz!
Don Brown signature is blitzing. This probably more than anything else will be the biggest culture change for BC fans. Gone are the days of bend but don't break. What I want to see during the game is where the pressure comes from. Will it be LBs or Safeties or corners? I also wonder how much we will drop DLineman into coverage and offset it with a oncoming LB or DB.
Tempo
We know the QBs will run this year. The scrimmages reaffirmed it. What we don't know is how fast the offense is going to run. Temple did not use the no huddle exclusively like Oregon, but they did play relatively fast. Certainly faster than BC under Spaz. I don't think we will mimic Oregon yet, but the Spring Game might be a good time to test a hurry up offense under game conditions. The guys are still learning the offense, so asking them to play fast can get sloppy. But Rettig has been so good as picking up new offenses, that this should be a relatively smooth transition.
Fan Support
Despite various Marketing efforts over the years, we never pack the house during the Spring Game. The tailgating and later (warmer date) helps this year, but I didn't expect a big turnout. That sort of changed with the Marathon Bombing. I cannot gauge the mood of the fans on campus right now, but based on the other events around Boston, I think people want to be out and want to be part of a crowd. Think of all those students who wanted to run the "Last 5" this Friday night. Will their energy be redirected at the Spring Game? Who knows, but it wouldn't surprise me.
Old Guys
As a new twist this year, there will be an Alumni Flag Football game too. I don't know whose idea the Alumni game was, but it is a good way to rebuild relations with the football Alumni, many of whom felt under appreciated and ignored by previous department leadership.
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I think that it should be a high priority to do something about the helmets. I do not like Coughlin's stripe to mimic the Giants. I liked the Flutie helmet but a little originality like the Eagles couldn't hurt. Maroon helmets wouldn't be bad either. Something dramatic for opening day would be "spiffy". A new way of doing things across the board is in order to get rid of the stench left by the previous "office holder".
I think we've reached the point where any enthusiasm and participation by the BC student body involving BC Athletics qualifies as surprising.
Really?....
Really?
Really?
Every football game during lats year's mind-numbingly dreadful season had a full student section. Think about that for a bit, and how absurd that is - honestly, why would anyone want to go to those games at all last year? And then consider the fact that the student section didn't even fill up for all games as recently as 2004-2006ish...
BC's student section at the Beanpot basically doubled both BU's and NU's. Season tickets sold out despite a gigantic increase in the student section. Student attendance even at traditionally low-interest games like Merrimack, etc., was about 300% higher than it was 5-6 years ago, with the sections behind the nets filled along with parts of the balcony.
I haven't been to a game in two years, but soccer games were also starting to draw a fairly large and rowdy crowd on Newton Campus, especially on fall Friday nights (current students - is this still a thing?)
That's a really Incorrect statement.
Yeah we've had pretty good soccer support- I even went with a group to our NCAA game at Northeastern (we lost and got toasted by the NU fans but whatever)
I think the student section at Alumni is tremendous. They absolutely carry the atmosphere as the alumni are....meh. They fill their section, they are on their feet the whole game, and they sing along with the music the band plays. They have enthusiasm and school spirit. The students are way more into it than we were in the 80's. Think how great they will be when Daz puts an exciting product on the field.
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