I wanted confidence. I got it. Addazio seemed happy and excited about the season ahead. The correlation between his confidence and BC winning might not be great, but it gives me some hope going into the season. None of these coaches say much, but Addazio did say a few things that we can over analyze. Here are a few of my takeaways.
1. The QB job is Anthony Brown's for the taking. In his press conference Addazio mentioned Anthony Brown first. That's telling. He acknowledged that Wade would be the starter today and had more first team reps in the Spring, but he still mentioned Brown first and made it clear the job is up for grabs. Since most of the media prepared their questions with Wade in mind, Addazio did address Wade and said he thinks the veteran is finally coming into his own. Wade will get a chance. But Addazio's gut is clearly with Brown.
2. Addazio has heard the criticism of the offense. He makes reference to scoring excitement and that comes off a little condescending as if fans know nothing. But he misses the point. BC's offense hasn't just been low scoring and boring, it has been highly inefficient and detrimental to the world class defense. It sounds like we will keep the bowl-game tempo and also have the pro+spread concepts. My fear is that it sounds like a grab bag approach again. Why do three things well, when you can do a dozen things poorly! My hope is the oline and run game are mature enough just to run over people. If this season comes down to offensive schemes and execution, we're done.
3. The D should be great again. Despite the personnel loses, Addazio rattled off the whole returning roster and is pleased with the talent. With just those returning stars playing at their same level as last year, we have a Top 30 D. If those guys improve and the new guys make an impact, BC should have a Top 10 D again.
As more reports and content come out in the coming days, I will post it. But for now, it looks like Addazio is feeling good. I hope he has reason to feel that way.
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26 comments:
World class defense? Whatever you're smoking, I want some.
Seriously, that has to be a joke.
You're kidding, right?
Please New York Times style this one and retract.
I'll let this one slide.
I'll pretend we played well against good teams.
Yes - world class. We will have a better defense than any amateur team outside the United States. We are that hot.
Goo old ATL, the eternal optimist.
CT you do realize that having an inept offense is the most harmful to a defense when playing a capable opponent right? Florida State, Clemson and Louisville were starting most of their drives beyond their own 40 yard line because our offense went 3 and out every possession. You give Clemson that kind of field possession against the ALABAMA D in the national championship and they hang 50 on them too
Field position*
CTs inability to recognize the prowess of the defense, consistently ranked top 10 over the past few years, demonstrates a clear lack of appreciation for what is being done on the field with that unit. They consistently give the team a chance to win, with very rare exceptions.
I typically hold CTs comments to little or no regard and this just reinforces that attitude.
CT is correct. The D last year dominated weak teams, ho;ding them to 100 plua yards of offense per game. Against better squads ( FSU, Clemson, Louisville, VT, Syracuse and Maryland )they gave up almost 500 yards per contest. Two years ago the D was strong. Much less so last year. 2. Does the talk about Brown indicate a lack of trust in Wade? Or is Daz setting up his usual excuse that his players are young and if we just wait a year or two and they will dominate? As the Sec. of State said the days of strategic patience are over.
BCs defense is clearly overrated. They simply can't stop the powerhouses.
No NED CT is not correct. You can't look at the defense and say since they gave up so much to good teams they aren't good. Any defense in the nation would get destroyed when the opposing offense gets as many possessions as those teams did. You can blame the offense for literally every loss in the past two years.
Alabama allowed 511 yards of total offense to Clemson in the national title game last year.
When our offense is so inept and the defense is on the field and human factors such as exhaustion begin to take over in the 3rd and 4th quarter then I do not blame that on the defense.
But please, do not let facts get in the way of your narrative of defensive ineptitude.
Total Defense Rankings (from ESPN.com)
2016 - Boston College - #8
2015 - Boston College - #1
2014 - Boston College - #11
Just another reason to fire Daz and get a real head coach.
With these rankings it is pathetic he is proud of beating Wagner, Buffalo etc.
You're not going to win many games giving up 49+ points so that's a fairly weak argument. BC cleans up against the weak offenses and gets mailed by the strong ones. They're lucky they play cupcakes OOC and that their division has some pretty weak offenses.
Haha. I told you douchebags in April after the spring game that Brown would be the QB. Losers.
BC doesn't "clean up" against anyone. Historically, they play to the level of their opponent.
Over the last three years they have gotten smacked down by the best offenses in college football because they cannot control the line of scrimmage on offense and played to their other opponents level.
The special teams could be a disaster this season especially early on. We need to win the first two games but something tells me the special teams is going to have a negative impact on our first two or three games.
Knuck why do you think Special Teams could be a disaster?
The offense ran 862 plays last season. The defense was on the field for 803. They gave up 44 touchdowns, 28 through the air.
Avg ToP was 33:30 to 26:30 IN FAVOR of BC.
No one disputes the idea of our offensive incompetence, right? We all remember how fun it was to watch the NC State game. Wow, creativity!
The anomaly for sure.
But to suggest that we had essentially 3 top 10 defenses is patently absurd. Above average, yeah. Elite as you suggest? Come on. Elite defenses, even given the offense we all agree about, are competitive vs the big boys. At no point last year did you go into a big game and think, "if we hold them to 20, we have a shot," because there was no way that unit could contain better athletes. Sorry.
Clemson scored 21 in the first quarter. Game over. FSU had 14 in the first and 7 in the second. Louisville had 21 in the first and 17 in the second-38 vs an "elite" defense in one half? 6-6 Maryland scored 30 on that defense. VT had 21 in the first half and 21 in the third qtr. Syracuse had 532 yds of offense in a close game.
Wake scored 14. GT 17. NCSU 14.
UMass, Wagner (seriously, wtf?), Buffalo and UConn? Those four opponents, using the term lightly, scored a combined 20 points! Hell yes we look good with that schedule.
A little stat padding there, ya think?
Numbers are fun. But they're much better in context.
CT how many possessions in the Clemson, FSU, and Louisville game started beyond their own 40 yard line? Clemson ran all over Alabama without that being the case. Is Alabama not an elite defense as well?
NYC eagle - bottom line if the defense was as good as you believe and the ranking would suggest - we don’t get blown out by 5 touchdowns. Nuff said.
If you train all year and can’t compete in your league stats do not matter
NYC, we're on the same team here. You keep citing Alabama and Clemson. Of course Clemson won the day. Really, the second half. And of course no one has better defensive talent than Alabama. And if you would like to check the number of drives above the 40, I will politely read it. And still disagree.
There is very little evidence to suggest that that unit is elite, except for last year's schedule. Four cream puffs. Additionally, Wake finished 119th out of 128 teams in scoring offense. They had Tulane, Delaware and Army on their schedule and finished 23rd in defense (context). NCSU finished 75th in offense. GT 70th. Would you have guessed the 90th best scoring offense in the country would put 532 yds of offense on an elite defense? That's what Syracuse did. In a very winnable game! At home.
My point, the eight games I just mentioned were against substandard scoring offenses. The narrative in the OP is simply wrong. When framed against that offense though, it looks downright '85 Bears like.
Word up.
Valid points but this all goes back to the number of "glitch plays" as SB Nation put it. The major difference in our defenses the last 2 years was the number of plays we allowed of over 30 yards, largely due to coverage and communications mishaps in the secondary. We eliminate those plays (which hopefully will be the case this year with the amount of experience we have back there) and stats wise we don't look all that different to 2015
Our front 7 wil go toe to toe with any team in the ACC. We've proven that year in and year out against the likes of FSU and Clemson. Our secondary cleans up their act and we reach Elite status. Just my opinion but the proof will be in the pudding
J Brooks, Al Washington is gone.
Last year the elites blew us out by the first half. The defense couldn't have been exausted that soon. Stop blaming everything on the anemic offense. Button line: BCs defense is not as awesome as some people think.
The offenses at the big time programs are stacked with talent and designed to spread the field which puts the defense at a disadvantage that coupled with the terrible O is the reason for the points against the top 10 programs.
Don Brown was poached by Harbaugh and recommended by Belichick. It is essentially the same D(although Browns players are filtering out). The Defense is very very good.
Difficult to understand why people think it is overrated.
@Knucklehead: So far, I agree. NIU will tell the tale. The D is ranked top 10. The offense is considered bottom 5. This is disturbing.
They can't stop quality teams from scoring massive amounts of points. Overrated.
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