"Beauty" is subjective, winning is not

I didn't want to spend this week lecturing Addazio again about what to say and what not to say. But he keeps using his radio show to defend the team against those who don't know what they're talking about. Hoffses assumes he means BCI and me. I am guessing Addazio also hears the noise from the fans on the message boards, twitter and at Alumni.

While Addazio thinks he's building something beautiful (see the clip below), my concern is that he and his current staff are not capable of delivering on that promise.

Wish vine was still around for this one from Daz pic.twitter.com/EwjtNkEm72

— ERIC HOFFSES (@EJHoffses) October 8, 2017

I agree with Addazio that the players are developing. I agree that the talent level is improved. But the coaching staff still has to mold that talent into a unit and give that unit a clean gameplan. The gameplan needs to be something they can execute. Since Ryan Day left, Addazio has shown no ability to produce a competent college football offense. You don't have to "know" football to notice a trend:

Boston College's Offensive Efficiency under Addazio
-- Current Offensive Efficiency: 106th
-- 2016 Offensive Efficiency: 117th
-- 2015 Offensive Efficiency: 123rd
-- 2014 Offensive Efficiency: 32nd
-- 2013 Offensive Efficiency: 48th

When you continue to struggle offensively over the course of three seasons, it is a failure. It is not due to youth, injuries or a tough schedule. It is a breakdown in teaching, coaching, planning, and adjusting.

Right now Addazio sits at 2-4. We only have one remaining game where we are currently favored. If he really thinks he can deliver on this team's potential, he can just ignore the critics and win. Go on a run and shut us all up. Trust me, it would make both sides happy. Until then, I suggest he spends less time reading his critics and more time figuring out how to improve his offense.

No scoring against the 'Noles

Now we know a bit more about the team. The BC D is legit. Aside from the opening drive, they dominated Florida State's Offense. But it was a wasted effort, because BC's Offense couldn't do anything in a 14-0 loss. It was the first time an Addazio BC team has been shutout. Aside from the losing, the bigger concern is that Darius Wade went down with an ugly looking leg injury. Both Flutie and Smith saw time after Wade went to the bench.

I have a lot of criticism of Addazio and Fitch's approach, but I will save that for the Sunday post. I am frustrated, but think the Defense is good enough to get BC to a bowl game. Let's just hope they can figure something...anything out on offense.

I will have second viewing thoughts and grades up late Sunday. 

No Crimmins, no big deal

Wednesday, ACC Sports reported that Dan Crimmins was no longer on the team. No reason nor confirmation came from BC, however, Crimmins is not listed on the roster. It is the offseason and I know that Crimmins accounted for 18% of our receptions last year, but I think this won't really impact the season.

Crimmins served as a nice hybrid WR/TE and was a decent blocker, but in the whole scheme of things, he was replaceable. We will remain a run first attack and the running game is where the majority of our playermakers are. Crimmins would have been a "nice to have" guy and we could have used his experience, but I think our current roster can backfill his productivity. The only real benefit of Crimmins over his potential replacements was his ability to play both positions. Now we are more likely to see pure blockers or pure WRs in what would have been his snaps.

Crimmins' absence does raise some questions. Will he return to BC next year to use his final year of eligibility? Will Addazio find a 5th year over the summer? I think both are unlikely. I don't know if Crimmins would want to come back and I don't know if BC has any recent grads in their pipeline.

Good luck to Crimmins wherever he finishes his career.

Grantland dives deep on OLine with Addazio

The Addazio offseason media tour continues as he is the main subject in this Grantland article on building an offensive line. There are plenty of good nuggets in there, but the most interesting to me was the drill he has the lineman run in the offseason conditioning:

At Boston College, winter conditioning includes a borderline-sadistic drill in which one player contorts himself into a chairlike position, back against a wall, and balances weights on his knees. At the same time, another player pushes a 45-pound plate around the room as fast as he can. The longer it takes the second player to finish the course, the longer his teammate has to support the weights on his knees; if the player against the wall drops the plates, his teammate has to go back to the starting line. Addazio’s description of this regimen alone will turn the listener’s thighs to jelly.

“We’re trying to create accountability with each other,” Addazio says. “Don’t let your partner down. Don’t let your teammate down. You work on these skill sets.”

While Addazio has a plan for building an Oline, I still think it can be as simple as coaching. As mush as we hated Tranquill or thought Spaz was inept, what really undermined his teams was the OLine coaching. Jags showed that a head coach who appreciates OL play combined with a very good position coach can come in and make an Oline thrive. Addazio did the same thing in his first two years. I don't love the turnover at the OLine this year, but I have full confidence in Addazio and Justin Frye to make these guys competent by our opener.

BC proudly calls itself OLine U and I hope we always do. We need that mentality to compete. It is an area where we've shown we can recruit and develop and it covers so many potential weaknesses.

I hope Addazio has a long and successful tenure and I also hope that whoever replaces him has an Oline background. That works for BC.

Offensive staff finally settled

During his Signing Day press conference, Steve Addazio got surprisingly defensive regarding next year's offense. He sort of dismissed that the change in Coordinators would impact the team and noted that it was his offense and he touched every aspect of the program. In fairness to Addazio and Day, our offense has looked more like Addazio's Florida schemes (heavy on power) than it ever looked like Day's variation on Chip Kelly. The team and scheme should probably look very familiar next year with Todd Fitch calling plays.

Fitch has plenty of experience calling plays. His past -- with mobile QBs in the spread -- will also mesh well with what Addazio wants. Overall I give Addazio credit for handling the search well. He lost his OC somewhat unexpectedly, looked around and decided his best option was promoting from the current staff. For those who fear that BC went cheap, backfilling Fitch's position spot with Brian White indicates otherwise.

I thought White might make it up to BC, but as a play caller. The fact that he's coming as a position coach confirms that BC's giving out competitive staff salaries. A veteran guy like White, who has been a coordinator and worked at various Power 5 programs, had options. He picked BC to come back to New England and to work with Addazio again. That's great validation of where we are headed. White also fits well with BC's needs. He's recruited Florida, recruited the Midwest, and with ties to Harvard and Notre Dame, understands that BC recruits have to put in time in the classroom.

I was sad to see Ryan Day go, but think Addazio handled this offseason's staff changes well. We kept continuity on offense and upgraded our recruiting.

Meyer's offensive adaptations and what is means for BC

If you like wonky football Xs & Os and the evolution of an offense, read this Grantland piece on Urban Meyer's incorporation of Oregon schemes into his offense. Due to Addazio's ties to Meyer's power/spread/option work at Florida and Ryan Day's ties to the Chip Kelly/Oregon tempo/spread, there are elements of both styles in BC's offense. However, the Addazio/Day hybrid has been very different from both (so far).

As Grantland pointed out, Meyer still uses power, but also added much more zone blocking schemes and attacks the defense outside the tackles. Since leaving Florida and partnering with Day, Addazio has doubled down on power. We between the tackles all the time and even when we throw in a jet sweep to Alston, it still has power elements. BC also runs more than Oregon or Ohio State. The only programs that run more than BC tend to be teams that run variants of the triple option.

But how much of what BC does is by design and how much is necessity? Addazio didn't inherit a roster like Meyer's or spend the past decade recruiting speedsters like Oregon. Other than the power football, the only hallmark of Addazio's first two years is his ability to adapt his offense to the talent available. He's not stubbornly trying to shove a square peg into a round hole.

I expect BC's offense to continue to evolve. Will they follow Meyer's path or will they incorporate Kelly in different ways? It will be interesting to see. But at least Addazio and Day's peers and role models are showing that you have to keep adapting and changing. Hopefully their adaptations lead BC to a championship game like it did for Urban Meyer.

Sweeney talks 30 for 30 and other links

As we near the premiere of ESPN's 30 for 30 on the BC Basketball scandal, some of the participants are doing press. Former BC point guard Jim Sweeney has never talked about the scandal, but is now sharing his side. College kids do dumb things, but it will be interesting to see how these guys feel about it now. I obviously cannot wait for the film.

If we want to get a glimpse of what Addazio's future offense might look like when he gets his players, Mississippi State might be the best example. Daz took over Dan Mullen's scheme at Florida when Mullen became a head coach. BC currently uses more power running than MSU and fewer zone runs, but Mullen is showing that a run heavy spread can work in the Power 5 conferences.

The ACC named BC runner Liv Westphal their performer of the week.

Run, Chase, Run

Chase Rettig is coming off one of his worst games and we are facing (in Addazio's mind) the best defense we've faced this year. It doesn't appear like a great time to bounce back or regain your confidence. I don't know exactly what is going on with Rettig. He's always held the ball a bit too long, but now it is becoming a real problem. Is it the new offense? Is it a lack of faith in his receivers? Is he being coached to hold on rather than force a pass? Has he lost his confidence? Or are not enough guys getting open? Based on watching and on what Addazio said, I think it is probably a little bit of everything.

The most challenging part of this slump is that Rettig still represents our best chance of going bowling. We know he can get hot. We know there are winnable games left. And the alternatives are not better. This is not Porter-Ryan or even Shinskie-Rettig. It is much more equivalent to Crane-Davis. The backups can't do the one thing that Chase can -- throw the ball.

The answer is to make the game easier for Rettig within the confines of the offense. To do that, Rettig needs to do the one thing that against his nature -- run.

We don't have a pages and pages of the playbook dedicated to QB runs like we will next year. But there are still plenty of plays where there are running opportunities. There are a few options and plenty of rollouts. Either by nature or by coaching, Chase rarely runs in those plays. However, there is plenty of open space. Early in one of our drives, he handed it to Williams on an option play when he could have kept it for a big gain into huge hole. Some of his rollouts (if he stays close to the line) could go for positive yardage. The biggest area where he could benefit from the run, is scrambling forward from the pocket when no one is open. The opponents are not spying him. On many of these plays he could escape for short gains.

I don't think Rettig is ever going to look great running or break open the game. Running has its risks. Rettig could get hurt, but I think the upside of running outweighs the risk of injury.

Right now we are predictable. Rettig running changes that. On true running plays adding him to the mix keeps the linebackers from crashing hard on Williams. On pass plays he can keep the chains moving and maybe start to get safeties and LBs hedging a bit -- which would help our receivers later in the game. Finally on dropbacks, if nothing is there, running helps his timing. He should take his steps, scan and then throw or run. The waiting is a killer. Nothing good is coming of it. He either forces a bad pass or takes a sack. By pushing him to run, it creates a rhythm or a natural clock in his head to make a decision. It might not lead to big plays and will probably result in even fewer attempts, but we may become more efficient on offense.

Things will probably get worse before they get better. After VT we face the easier part of our schedule. Who knows, Rettig could be fine and start completing passes once again. I still have faith in his arm. I just think we need to use his legs to fix things.

Maybe we should keep the current offense

Some of football's most revolutionary offenses were happy accidents. Bill Walsh's West Coast system came out necessity when his big armed QB went down and he needed to adapt for a weaker but more accurate Ken Anderson. Rich Rodriquez's read option spread came about after a QB and Running back screwed up an exchange in practice while he was coaching at Glenville State. I don't think Addazio planned to create a new offense when he came to BC, but maybe our circumstances and the early results are reason to keep doing what he's doing.

Addazio's ideal offense
Addazio has been pretty forthright that BC is not currently running the offense he would want. His ideal is something similar to what he had at Florida with some Chip Kelly influences. It would be a run-first, uptempo spread with a mobile QB.

What is running this season
When Addazio took over he realized forcing his desired scheme on a roster that wasn't recruited for it would cause some unnecessary pain. So instead he and Ryan Day took elements of their offense and molded it a bit with BC's current roster and added some power running, jumbo packages that Stanford put in under Jim Harbaugh. While BC is not lighting up the scoreboard, there is certainly more efficiency than we ever saw under Spaz. It is working well enough considering it was only designed as a transitional offense.

The future
Next season BC will have a more mobile QB, hopefully a few more playmakers and an improving offensive line. We should start looking like Florida did when Addazio ran their offense. It will be our own but many of the concepts will be like fellow ACC spread teams FSU, Clemson, UNC, Louisville, and Wake Forest. Those shared concepts with half the conference are my concern. BC won't be unique in the future making it easier to prepare and easier to gameplan against.

The case for keeping the hybrid
In any sport there is an advantage to being different. Think of the problems caused by Triple Option teams like Georgia Tech. Their opponents are not used to playing them and that can make up for talent differences or other weaknesses. I bet Georgia Tech's unique scheme gives them at least one extra win a seasons. This year BC's differences are creating some of the same problems. When we go into our big packages and/or unbalanced line, teams have to decide how to defend it. It creates mismatches. And even once teams have seen it, we've started adding wrinkles (play action, straight drop backs, late releasing players). If BC were to keep playing this style there are many more wrinkles to add that would keep our opponents guessing. Having a dual threat QB will also create new opportunities in this offense. Think of how effective naked bootlegs will be with a QB who can run if needed.

But being unconventional isn't the only reason to keep an offense. I think we can recruit to it. BC has always been able to find, recruit and develop big offensive lineman. Our trackrecord with Tight Ends is underrated, but I think we've done better with Tight Ends/H-backs/Fullbacks than we've done with elite WR recruits. I would also argue that our history of recruiting and finding running backs is good. The one area on offense where we haven't brought in a lot of elite talent nor sent any to the NFL is Wide Receiver. These playmakers  -- who may be a bit undersized but have plenty of speed -- are the key to Addazio's ideal offense. Speed is also a big deal at Oregon. I am not trying to say we can never do something or perpetuate regional or racial biases but where do you think BC can recruit elite players: Tight Ends or WRs?

I also like mixing the Stanford Offense with the Spread because it doesn't make BC one dimensional. If recruited well and practiced well, we should be able to grind it out or get into pass-happy shootouts.

The Future
The offense hasn't been revolutionary enough for any to take notice or probably even get people in the Yawkey Football Offices thinking differently. Maybe next year if we struggle, Day or Addazio might say, "let's break out some of that power stuff we used last year" or "I think our unbalanced line would work against this team." I hope our finish to this year is strong enough that they realize what they have. Who cares if it is new or a mix as long as we can make it work?