Wednesday, November 25, 2015

All coaches should rent

A few days ago I was exchanging emails with a long-time and frustrated BC fan. I had to remind the fan that all of this is fluid. Every once in a while a school locks onto a Beamer type, but very few coaches end up being lifers. Just look at the ACC landscape. 

Clemson -- Dabo Swinney, 8th season
Duke -- David Cutcliffe, 8th season
Georgia Tech -- Paul Johnson, 8th season
Florida State -- Jimbo Fisher, 6th season
Virginia -- Mike London, 6th season
North Carolina -- Larry Fedora, 4th season
NC State -- Dave Doeren, 3rd season
Boston College -- Steve Addazio, 3rd season
Louisville -- Bobby Petrino, 2nd season
Wake Forest -- Dave Clawson, 2nd season
Pitt -- Pat Narduzzi, 1st season
Miami  -- will hire a new coach
Virginia Tech  -- will hire a new coach
Syracuse  -- will hire a new coach

Assuming Virginia fires Mike London soon, Addazio will have been around longer than half the coaches in the conference. And that is after just three years. Of the coaches with more seniority, who has the potential for real staying power? Maybe Swinney. Johnson is rubbing a lot of Georgia Tech fans the wrong way. Age and health will catch up with Cutcliffe. Fisher flirts with enough SEC and NFL jobs to know that he's looking beyond Tallahassee. Fedora could also be in the mix for the LSU job.

If you lost faith in Addazio this year, take the long term view. He will either bounce back next year, or he is probably not long for BC. And even if his ceiling is low, he's not going to be here in much beyond five or six years anyway. That's just the nature of the sport. 

15 comments:

Big Jack Krack said...

Frank Beamer's first 6 years at Virginia Tech, before he got "Beamer Ball" going.

1987 Virginia Tech 2–9
1988 Virginia Tech 3–8
1989 Virginia Tech 6–4–1
1990 Virginia Tech 6–5
Virginia Tech Hokies (Big East Conference)
1991 Virginia Tech 5–6
1992 Virginia Tech 2–8–1

Concerning Steve Addazio - in many ways his tenure at BC begins right after the Syracuse game. Spaziani left an absolute horror show for whoever came after him in terms of holes in the roster due to poor recruiting, etc.

By his own testimony, it's a 4 to 5 year building process. Well, we need to see significant progress next year then. He will have landed his 3rd recruiting class (his first was all Spaziani's plus Rouse, I think) and it's time to rock and roll.

Let's go BC. Beat Syracuse and get this thing going again - positive energy going into next season.

Happy Thanksgiving to all, players, coaches, families, administrators, bloggers.

Thanks for giving us a forum, ATL. :-)

blist said...

The Dazzler get sa big benefit of the doubt. Spaz was a horror show, Daz outperformed years one and two, underperformed year 3, so year 4 is big for him/us/BC Ledger is at zero. Much better to end with a W than the worse losing streak in 35 years.

Big Jack Krack said...

During Addazio's years at Syracuse under Pasqualoni, the teams were pretty good.

9 and 3, 9 and 3, 9 and 4, 8 and 4 with some big bowls.

Pasqualoni fell out of favor, of course, but after he left, it has been difficult for Syracuse to put together several good strong seasons in a row.

As a long time fan, I am optimistic that Addazio can recruit the players we need and that he can turn us into a force to be reckoned with. However, he was exposed for some weaknesses this year that must be corrected - weaknesses that really irritated us fans.

We don't want to hear "Lack, Loss, Limitation" excuses. We are young - the players didn't execute, etc.

Some coaches didn't execute, and that 's the real issue. Addazio will have to do something about Todd Fitch. Fitch did well as an OC at East Carolina. Either Addazio has to turn him loose to call his own plays or face getting fired himself.

If Addazio's footprint was such that Fitch was that limited, the HC has to back away, and Fitch needs to stand up for himself. If Fitch was solely responsible for the pitiful game plans and play calling, he needs to be reassigned or told to find new opportunities. Bye, bye.

Also, what was Justin Frye's role in the bad performance of the O-Line this year. Was he alone responsible for the mis-management of the players? Why was 260 pound 18 year old Lindstrom chosen over veterans early on? Should the blocking schemes have been simplified because of the limitations of the players? Flutie couldn't believe what he was seeing "BC didn't block one person on that play - not one."

And so, long before we see our guys scrimmaging next season, the Head Coach is being watched for how he handles coaching personnel and decisions.

We will know this winter what kind of Head Coach we really have - decisive or ineffective. This year has made us very jittery.

Hoib said...

ATL

Great post. Puts it all In perspective. These schools are swimming in TV money, so they can afford to play coaching musical chairs. Myles has best winning percentage in SEC, but will get canned. Jumbo will either replace him or parlay the interst into more FSU millions.

BJK

Nice stats on Beamer. He was almost our coach way back when. Think about how that might have turned out. Next year will be interesting for sure.

Osi said...

Steve Addazio @BC 2013: 7-6, 2014: 7-6, 2015: 3-8
Frank Spaziani @BC 2009: 8-5, 2010: 7-6, 2011: 4-8

Lenny Sienko said...

Perhaps Head Coach at Syracuse U. will become DAZ's "Dream Job"? Wouldn't that make things interesting?

Hoib said...

Lenny

Last year Daz was a hot commodity, this year the only thing hot about him is the seat on which he sits. Cuse won't touch him w/ the proverbial 10 ft. Pole.

mod34b said...

Hoob - i know! i remember last year someone was saying Daz was on the short list for MIchigan! So good we retained him. NOT! Daz was not hot last year. DAz was a .500 coach with an antiquated offense. No one was looking to hire Daz. Only one fooled by Daz was dumb-dumb Bates.. what a dope. turns our 2014 at .500 might have been Daz's high water mark

Lenny - i would luv to see Daz leave for any "dream job". I will now throw salt over my left shoulder... or is it my right shoulder?

BJK - Daz is an offense guy and an OL guy. Those are his calling cards. He is also a control freak. He is all over what Fitch and Frye do (or don't do) on O and OL. All that is on Daz. Likewise, Daz gets zero credit for the D.


In better news, Don Brown is a nominee for the Broyles Award for best assistant coach. Brown for Broyles

5 finalists announced Monday. I can see Brown on the list of 5. He should be.

eagleboston said...

Osi, horrible, horrible comparison. It's fuzzy math at best. Spaz inherited an ACC Championship Game team with a decade long culture of winning. Daz inherited a debacle of a program who had no clue how to win. Further, Spaz left multiple scholarships on the table his last 2 years. That guaranteed that this year's junior and senior classes would be weak. This year's team lost 5 games by 3 points or fewer. Just a couple bounces our way and we might be looking at 6 or 7 wins right now.

Mod is very insightful but I currently disagree with him about Daz. This would be the worst year imaginable to ditch a coach given the number of openings. Since the BC job is a 3rd tier position (pro sports town, tough academics, no indoor practice facility, weak fan support), there would be slim pickings for Bates to hire as coach. Mod would have ditched Beamer in '88 if he were the Va Tech AD. Not a good move. Stick with Daz for another year and see what he can do. He's already got the defense firing on all cylinders, so he just needs to focus on the offense (and defenses are much, much harder to develop).

Hoib said...

EB

Good points all. The Cuse search will give an idea as to the alternatives to Daz. The people who are calling for his head, should mention a reasonable alternative. Instead of just letting out allot of hot air.

Big Jack Krack said...

Spaziani Teams might have had a few good, or surprising wins, but they were also humiliated in several games - especially by FSU, Virginia Tech (although I think Beamer felt sorry for him) Clemson and even UCF. I was at that game (The Kevin Rogers fiasco) and what a disgraceful performance by a BC team. And how about losing to Army?

We haven't had anything approaching that under Addazio, and this, his worst year, will be soon behind us.

Addazio has to answer his jittery fans, but we will wait and see. The turnaround should begin this Saturday for sure. A loss to Syracuse will not be good - winless in the ACC.

Go BC - let's begin the turnaround now! Please.

mod34b said...

EB - you might have noticed from an earlier post by me that i agree with you.

As i mentioned earlier, this is shaping up to be a big year for HC vacancies - lots of programs in the market. And, agreeing with your conclusion, but not necc. reasoning, BC is not positioned to do well in luring the right coach this year.

I do think Daz should be fired, but i think we need to wait a year for market timing reasons

always sunny in cleveland said...

As long as he doesn't do something crazy, he will not be fired.

By the way, as far as Daz being on Michigan short list, I heard that was not the case. They were gunning for Harbaugh by September. The main reason being is that the estimated alumni donations to the University overall over the course of Rodriguez and Hoke years decreased by a billion dollars. That's right, a billion dollars. Somebody like Daz would never turn that around. If Harbaugh turns that around, then he's a bargain.

always sunny in cleveland said...

As long as he doesn't do something crazy, he will not be fired.

By the way, as far as Daz being on Michigan short list, I heard that was not the case. They were gunning for Harbaugh by September. The main reason being is that the estimated alumni donations to the University overall over the course of Rodriguez and Hoke years decreased by a billion dollars. That's right, a billion dollars. Somebody like Daz would never turn that around. If Harbaugh turns that around, then he's a bargain.

mod34b said...

@alwayssunny

Of course Daz was on no such list. .500 coaches don't get dates at UM.