Why Addazio the Developer is ultimately more important that Addazio the Recruiter

When BC hired Addazio, the first thing most of us mentioned was his reputation as a recruiter. He was known for beating the bushes, working the phones and selling kids on his program. The Rah Rah intensity we see on the sidelines tends to connect with high school kids. And as you saw last year, Addazio also embraces any tool he can to help him recruit (Twitter, Vines, TV). For a "recruiter" Wednesday's Signing Day is their Super Bowl, Christmas, and Fourth of July rolled into one. It is the culmination of a long process and one final way to keep score. I welcome Addazio's passion for recruiting and his energy. Wednesday should be fun as BC is expected to sign a really big, well regarded class. But ultimately Wednesday is not that important. What happens between now and September is.

When BC is at its best -- regardless of the coach -- we are deep and a mix of elite recruits combined with a mature roster full of recruits who developed in the program. This incoming recruiting class will be huge. If Addazio is thinking long term, he will try to redshirt as many players as he can. Then five years from now, he will have a bunch of fifth years who know his systems and have physically grown under his Strength and Conditioning program. Under TOB redshirting and players coming up under one Staff started paying off in the early 2000s. However, coaching changes, attrition and some bad luck, has seen our player development suffer. As Addazio fills the team with his players, he can hopefully start taking the same long view, instead of just patchworking the current roster to maximize wins.

The way the OLine and Andre Williams blossomed in Year 1 has me optimistic about Addazio's ability to identify underutilized talent and teach under-performing players. It showed that he's more than just a salesman and gets me excited about how the team will perform once he's got his recruits in his system.