Bates tries to build on Saturday's excitement and other links

Brad Bates used his latest "Letter from the AD's Desk" to sell people on coming to the final five home games. It is not a bad idea. Everyone's in a great mood about BC sports and the word of mouth from those who attended the game was great. Not every game will be as special and I think there are many factors in a home attendance issues, but a big one that has been overcome is our competitiveness. BC no longer has a sad sack as coach, so I think some of our fans can start to get excited about the games instead of feeling like they are wasting their time. Bates's focus was on the memories of Saturday night, but his office did add a new face this week. Bates hired Marcus Blossom as Associate Athletics Director for Business and Administration. On the surface this is not a major hire, but it is important for Bates. Even two years into his tenure many of the Athletic Department staff are holdovers. Bates did not clean house when he took over. The fact that so many stayed speaks to Bates' ability to win them over but also their love for working at BC. I expect we will finally see some top-level changes once Bates announces the Master Plan.

The story of Henry Hill fixing BC Basketball games will lead off the latest series of 30 for 30 films.

Brian St. Pierre St. John's team is off to a good start.

Here are the Game Notes and Depth Chart for the Maine Game.

Soccer lost to Harvard.

This article on Barry Gallup's role within BC Football is from last week, but still worth your time to read.

Final scrimmage feedback and other links

The BC scrimmage pattern fulfilled itself Wednesday. As always, the unit that was ahead in the early scrimmages was brought down to earth. This year that meant the defense finally looked strong in scrimmage 4. There is usually some design to this. I imagine Spaz added new wrinkles this week to keep the offense off balance and give the D a mental boost. We won't know anything until Northwestern. I am not concerned about the INTs. Rettig won't face a defense as tough as ours until October.

Hampton Hughes's move to the defensive backfield seems promising.

Alex Amidon has made big improvements from last season.

Brian St. Pierre embraced the chance to join BC's broadcast team.

Media Day roundup

I usually wince during Spaz's media sessions. This one I enjoyed. It's the most clear he's been about the team's objectives. There was no hedging. No deprecation. I don't know if there is growing confidence or if there is pressure to raise expectations with the fanbase. Who cares why he is finally changing his tune? The change is welcome.

BC Football's Twitter account did a great job covering the event. Check their timeline for links, quotes and pics.

The Herald had a good interview with Quigley.

Montel has a new haircut and is ready to perform at his pre-injury level.

Here are some select pictures from the day. BC also posted select player quotes.

The notes section of this post, mentioned Brian St. Pierre joining BC's radio broadcast team.

Saint's alive and other links

I've said it before but let me say again, that if this blog had been around when Brian St. Pierre played, I probably would have vilified him for his senior season. I also never would have predicted that his NFL career would last this long. Now look, he is making his first career start this weekend for the Panthers. I wish him the best of luck except for when he plays the Falcons.

The men's soccer team lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament to Brown.

In HD's factoid column she notes that BC has more graduates on our roster than any other school (just ignore how this undermines the whole "young" narrative that people have been using for our losing).

The BC women's soccer team hosts West Virginia tonight in their NCAA tourney.

An opponent's take on BC hoops and other links

The Washington Post got an unnamed ACC assistant to provide a scouting report on BC. Very interesting to read what outsiders have to say about Rice, Trapani and our offense.

BC is still on the bubble.

Brian St. Pierre is now a blogger.

A look back on the difficulty of projecting QBs from high school to college.

Bill Coen is leaning on his D to win games at Northeastern. Where was that defensive prowess when he was at the Heights?!

Looking back at St. Pierre

If this blog had been around when Brian St. Pierre was quarterbacking at BC, I probably would have spent an inordinate amount of time criticizing him.

St. Pierre is an interesting link in the chain of BC QBs. He was TOB's first true QB recruit and served as the template for how TOB and Bible would recruit and groom QBs for the next ten years. Tall, smart, reasonable athleticism and arm strength, BSP came to campus, redshirted, was used as part of the second quarter experiment and then played as the starter his final two years. Things went according to plan until St. Pierre regressed as a Senior. All his major passing stats declined, but worse, his decision making and ability to play under pressure went away. I still remember him throwing a pass at a wide open Sean Ryan's feet in a tough loss at Pitt. BC went 9-4 in 2002, but St. Pierre was shaky (at best) in the big games and tough losses.

Perspective and time has been kind to BSP. He doesn't have the signature performance or charm of some other BC QBs, but as we've seen with Porter and Davis, BSP clearly wasn't rock bottom.

He's hung around the NFL since leaving the Heights waiting for his Matt Cassel-Kurt Warner moment to spring up the depth chart and save the day. It hasn't happened and may never. I still don't know if BSP has that special something in him. But by all accounts, he's a good guy, making a good living and still in demand around the league...as a back up.

His hometown paper still loves him and apparently the Cardinals owe him a bit of thanks for the win on Sunday.

I am not emotionally invested in either Super Bowl team. Given St. Pierre and Pat Ross's BC connections I will probably root for the Cardinals. Who knows, this might be the pinnacle of his career or maybe he'll finally get his shot. And not that he is waiting or cares, but I think I am overdue to thank Brian for his time at BC and for representing the school well as an alum.