Another York surgery and other news

Jerry York had a follow up eye surgery Monday. Yet once again, BC took a real casual, calm tone in their press release. The assistants will continue running the show and BC Celebration to honor York on January 18th has been postponed.

Purdue hired Jim Bollman. Normally I congratulate coaches when they land on their feet, but not in this case. It seems Bollman is poaching BC commitment Dan Monteroso. I know it happens all the time, but in general BC and its former employees have shied away from the practice.

BCI  put up a good chart showing who we might play in the second week of the 2013 season. My guess is Florida State.

Olivier Hanlan earned ACC Rookie of the Week honors.

No official word from BC, but Washington did "like" BC Mike's Facebook comment on Washington staying on as RB coach. (See screen grab.) There must be some validity to it all. I will comment more on Washington staying and his new position once BC releases their announcement.

Finch injured, Oline struggles and I am still not worried

Eric Hoffses wrote a good recap of the second scrimmage. Rettig looked decent, but the big news was Duece Finch hurting his leg. (It is way too early to blame the recent spat of leg injuries on the new turf. but we will have to watch for a trend.) Hoffses also mentioned how much the OL struggled. The defensive line backups were even getting penetration.

Even as the players keep dropping, I am not worried about the latest impact. Finch is good, but I have a feeling we will pass more this season. If the carries are fewer, Williams and Kimble can fill the void.

I am frustrated by the offensive line, but not truly worried. If BC does pick up the tempo and Rettig matures, they can cover mistakes up front.

Every team suffers injuries. BC has yet to lose one player that cannot be replaced. We have decent depth all around and I think this season will not be about Finch or Pantale. It will be about Rettig and Spaz.

We only have a few weeks before kickoff. I don't care if by then half the roster is gone, things will still be better than we are now. Bad BC football is still better than no BC football.

Key Players for 2012: Ian White

This is a series on the key players for the 2012 season. Big things are expected for some, while others will need to improve over their previous performances. If 2012 is a good year, it will be in part due to the key players overachieving.

Junior Center, Ian White

What he's been: The redshirt JR has played a lot and almost all of it at guard. What's been frustrating is that White would be very, very good in some games and then off in others. Because he is playing primarily inside, the issues usually involve getting overpowered by bigger DTs. Like most of the olinemen the past few years, White's flashed moments of greatness but lacked consistency.

What he needs to be: In my opinion the offensive line play really started falling apart after Matt Tennant left. I think Centers are underappreciated...at times even by their own coaches. It seems like the Spaz/Devine MO was to put the best five on the field regardless of positional fit and not to worry about rejiggering the lineup. The way the staff yo-yo'd Mark Spinney and others at Center the past two years hurt our consistency. And it impacts the QB position too. White's new to the role, so this could lead to more chaos. I hope not. We need him to be good from Day 1. He needs to set the tone for the OL and communicate with Rettig. Other players are important, but White -- or whoever starts at Center -- will be the keystone to the offense.

Why I like his chances to shine: Like Cleary, I think White is one of those guys who would have thrived under old BC regimes. He's been smart and tough from the minute he was eligible to play. He might not be as powerful as needed, but now as a redshirt JR, he should be fully matured. Plus playing Center doesn't require as much power and is more reliant on smarts and quickness.

I don't know if White will be our starting Center for Miami or even later into the season. Under Devine positions and the depth chart were constantly being tweaked. I pray things are different with Bollman. Let White learned to be a Center. He has a chance to be a great one.

Key Players for 2012: Emmett Cleary

This is a series on the key players for the 2012 season. Big things are expected for some, while others will need to improve over their previous performances. If 2012 is a good year, it will be in part to the key players overachieving.




Senior Offensive Tackle, Emmett Cleary

What he's been: A long-time starter and one of the leaders on offense. Cleary has played on both sides of the line and at both guard and tackle.  When he first arrived, Jags said that he could be the next Costanzo. Tall and lean (for a lineman) Cleary's been a consistent contributor like Costanzo (playing in 36 games and starting 26) yet he's never been the consistently great like Costanzo. How much of Cleary's occasional mistakes or setback are due to talent, coaching or the offense? I think it's been a bit of everything.

What he needs to be: Good isn't good enough anymore. Cleary takes on the big responsibility of left tackle this year. Rettig has been running for his life the past three years. If the offense is ever going to take off, they need to improve pass protection. That will start with Cleary. And in the ACC, he'll be facing some of the top defensive linemen in the country on a weekly basis. Cleary's always been good with speed guys on the edge. He'll also need to improve on run blocking. If Martin uses more stretches and zones like Logan, that will leave Cleary often sealing off edges on run plays.

Why I like his chances to shine: We've seen offensive lineman make huge leaps from season to season before. Part of it is maturing into their bodies and understanding the position. But a lot is coaching. I think Cleary has been underserved in that department. Even if Bollman is not some OL guru, I think Cleary playing in a more pass happy, up tempo offense will play to his strengths. I  think his leadership position and the coaching staff's confidence in him will make him shine at LT. I think he will live up to his potential and have multiple games where he dominates and plays mistake free football. Plus he still has the NFL on his horizon. If he can perform at an elite level, he can jump up from a late round afterthought to a high-round pick.

I think if Cleary stays healthy, he shoot up draft boards. If BC's offense breaks out of its doldrums he'll be named an all conference player.

Staff is finalized

It has been floating around the BC message boards for a few days, but BC confirmed that this will be Spaz's staff for 2012.

Doug Martin -- Offensive Coordinator and QBs coach
Jim Bollman -- Offensive Line (running game coordinator)
Ben Sirmans -- Running Backs coach
Ryan Day -- Wide Receivers coach
Sean Devine -- Tight Ends coach
Dave Brock -- Special Teams coach
Bill McGovern -- Defensive Coordinator and LBs coach
Mike Siravo -- Defensive Backs and Recruiting Coordinator
Jeff Comissiong -- Defensive Line Coach

Ben Johnson -- who served as the interim Tight Ends coach this fall -- will be moving on. Per NCAA rules, he cannot move back to his Graduate Assistant spot.

On paper, I think this is the best staff of Spaz's four seasons. We will see if the results on the field change. The best moving of the pieces might be what Gene and Spaz did with Brock and Devine. Both are valuable recruiters, yet had questionable results as OC and OL coaches. Now we keep them on staff, yet have a tactical and teaching upgrade at those key positions.

What's interesting is that despite all the rumored grumbling, that most of the guys stayed. BC certainly has its drawbacks, but the grass is not always greener.

More staff changes as Spaz brings on new OL coach

BC's offense has been barely functional under Spaz. There were numerous reasons and issues, but I always felt it started with the offensive line. Without solid protection up front all of other other issues were magnified. For a school that prided itself on its offensive line tradition, this was unacceptable. Finally Spaz made a change. He hired former Ohio State Offensive Coordinator and Offensive Line coach Jim Bollman to be offensive line coach/running game coordinator.

Bollman comes with a wealth of college and professional experience. Almost as importantly he overlapped with Spaz one year at UVA and was Tranq's OLine coach at Michigan State (so there is more familiarity with Spaz than say Kevin Rogers had). He's available because Urban Meyer decided to bring in most of his own folks at Ohio State. They gave him the running game coordinator title, but I wouldn't read too much into that. Martin is still going to call plays. I assume that Martin and Bollman have a some familiarity given the Ohio connection between the two.

Ohio State fans are mocking us, but I am not too concerned. If Bollman can just get our guys to be more consistent and less confused on plays, he will have done his job.

I'll have more on Bollman as I learn more. For now I am optimistic. We needed a teacher and a veteran who has seen it all and can instill fundamentals back into our offensive line. On paper Bollman is that guy.

Sean Devine will remain on staff as the Tight Ends coach...and that is a good thing. He's been one of our hardest working recruiters. I know OLine U fell apart under his watch, but I think it was probably a bad fit from the start (I'll explain why in another post). Now he can redeem himself by helping us close out strong on the recruiting front.