Dinich thinks BC could turn things around this year

With most of the media and fans predicting a long season that ends in Spaz's firing, ESPN's ACC blogger Heather Dinich took a different stance today.

2. Boston College: The Eagles could be one of the surprise teams in the ACC in 2012. Last year's roster was filled with underclassmen, including quarterback Chase Rettig. The running back position has enough depth even without Montel Harris, and first-year coordinator Doug Martin said the offensive line should be one of the team's most improved groups. The receivers remain a question. The defense -- and entire team -- will miss linebacker Luke Kuechly, but with 16 starters back, including seven on defense, the Eagles should be able to still show improvement.

I don't share her optimism, but I do see her point. But I think the optimists are overlooking some key aspects of last season's record. We didn't just lose because of injuries, talent and experience. We lost games because some of them were grossly mismanaged. That's not going to change this year. Spaz is still in charge of the clock and timeouts and our overall game plan. Northwestern and Duke games swung due to some head scratching decisions. We gave up way too early against Clemson and had numerous other issues in different games.

As long as Spaz is in charge, we will continue to play close games. That's the nature of his game management. And if you play enough close games some of them are going to break the wrong way.

The reality of clock management

One of the areas that I will be critical of Spaz in my write up will be his ultra conservative game management. After moving the ball out of our own end successfully with run and pass, Spaz starting killing clock once we got to midfield. The problem with that idea was that there was still way too much time left on the clock. Sure he forced Groh to burn his timeouts, but timeouts are fairly disposable in college football. Because the clock stops with a first down, you can easily drive the field with two minutes and never need a time out. Take a look at just this one example of actual elapsed time during Virginia's final drive.

After a few first downs, UVA has the ball at midfield. There is 1:38 left. The clock is stopped because of the first down. Sewall is throwing.

He checks down (which BC is giving him) and completes a pass for seven yards. Notice it only took him two seconds to complete the pass.

Virginia is in two-minute mode so they line up quickly and are ready to run the next play. The clock reads 1:22.



So let's review. By design BC wanted to force something underneath to keep the clock moving. That worked. UVA completed the pass short of first down. Just what BC wanted. Yet they only ran off 16 seconds and are now in BC territory. Is that really a winning strategy?

Spaz has seen plenty of comeback in college football. Why is he still going so conservative now that he is calling the shots? On BC's final third down, we ran off ten seconds and forced Virginia to burn its last timeout. If we had thrown on 3rd down would the game have been that different? That ten seconds and 1 TO is not what won the game.

The results of close games tends to even out over time. So far Spaz is 3-1 in close games this year. If he keeps playing so conservatively another one is going to go the wrong way.

Holding on for Herzy

That was how the day was supposed to end. There is plenty to discuss but ultimately you have to be proud of the boys and happy for Mark. Two less emotional takeaways are that Shinskie can play and the offensive line is now performing as we predicted. Harris saved the day with his TD run but there were plenty of individuals who stepped up.

My obvious concern was game management. For the third week in a row our coaching staff went too conservative and nearly cost us the game.

I'll have second viewing thoughts and grades late Sunday. For now, go BC, go Mark and beat cancer!