Spaz needs to hire an African American assistant ASAP

Quotas are messy and controversial. As I said during the Lively controversy, I don't think BC or any of its leaders are racists and leveling that charge is a cheapshot. But now that Jeff Comissiong also left for Rutgers, BC football is without any African American staffers. Spaz needs to hire an African American replacement soon. It is not about quotas. It's about combating negative recruiting. Every school uses negative recruiting and the race card is often played against BC. Other programs say Boston is a racist city and that the school is full of rich, white kids. Now those other coaches will throw in "they don't even have a black coach." Most recruits and their families see through the negative BS, but it will hurt. And the timing stinks. As Spaz just told Ivan Maisel, recruiting during the "Junior Days" period is critical. BC is talking to future targets right now. They need staffers quickly and they need diversity to combat any negative perceptions.

As much as I thought the departures of Sirmans, Day and Brock were losses, from a coaching standpoint Jeff Comissiong's departure is addition by subtraction. Comissiong had been on the hot seat at various times during his tenure at BC. He was never considered a great recruiter nor a solid position coach. Ironically he interviewed at Rutgers a few years ago and Schiano passed. This should be an opportunity for Spaz to upgrade.

Fortunately there are multiple, young African American BC grads in coaching. Doug Goodwin and Al Washington are two that come to mind. Spaz will fill these openings. As I said in my earlier posts about the staff changes, I hope he uses this as an opportunity to bring a new energy to the program. That way BC can change the perception to outsiders and the reality to the players.

Update: Day to Temple, Sirmans to Rutgers

The rumored has become official. Ryan Day is leaving BC to become Temple's Offensive Coordinator. Ben Sirmans is leaving BC to become Rutgers Running Backs coach. This is good news for both of them and bad, bad news for BC. BC is losing two of their younger coaches and two of their better recruiters. Staff changes are part of college football, but none of this speaks well to how Spaz is running things nor his future.

Day has always been viewed as a rising star in the coaching ranks. He turned down opportunities at Mississippi State and Oregon to keep coaching at BC. It was long rumored that he would be our Offensive Coordinator one day. After Tranq retired I was told and reported that it would happen. It didn't and I think that signaled the beginning of the end for Day at BC. You can only be the young guy for so long. If he wasn't going to get a chance to call plays at BC, he needed to move on to a place where he would have that power. He worked with Steve Addazio at Florida and worked at Temple under Al Golden. It was a natural progression. Let's hope he is successful there and maybe one day returns to BC as the head coach.

Ben Sirmans is another huge loss for BC. Not only was he a good position coach, but he was a critical recruiter (he covered Cincinnati for us). Where you can explain away Day's departure, Sirmans doesn't make as much sense. Rutgers is a lateral move at best (the Big East's BCS status is in question). Given their budgets, I don't think they are offering lot more money. What they may offer is stability. The Knights new coach will probably get at least three years at Rutgers. Does anyone think Spaz will be coaching BC in three more years? Sirmans is also a New Jersey native, so the "coming home" aspect might appeal to him. Plus he already has a working relationship with Dave Brock.

BC didn't want to make changes. After BC's Signing Day I was told the staff was set. But obviously the staffers were still looking for opportunities. Leaving for inferior programs after getting overlooked for bigger opportunities at BC speaks to Spaz and Gene's management of the staff. It also reinforces the rumors of staff issues that Spaz dismissed a few weeks ago. I hope Spaz uses these openings to bring in young and hungry guys. This is his chance to change the energy around the program. Old retreads are not the way to build for the future.