What are the most important high school programs for BC football?

When Tom Sweeney committed earlier this week, I mentioned that is was nice to keep the Don Bosco connection strong. The idea got me thinking, what are the most important programs to BC's success? The reality is that BC takes kids from all over and has to look beyond friendly programs to find talent. But I do think there are a few high schools that will always be important.

Don Bosco
Don Bosco is a national power, coached by a BC parent and it is a Catholic High School in a densely populated area three and a half hours from campus. Bosco wasn't great at football prior to Toal coaching the team. Since he got the job though, the program has been a nice foundation for BC. The team camps at BC every year so the staff usually has a good feel for the players and their capabilities. When Toal retires, it will be important the BC keeps close ties with his replacement.

St. Xavier (Cincinnati) 
TOB's deserves a lot of credit for opening doors at his Alma Mater. The entire Cincy area has been important to BC for nearly two decades, but St. X has really been our anchor. The large Jesuit school is a perfect place to recruit. We know the kids can handle the academics and play in a very competitive high school league.

Everett
There have been other nice high school programs in Massachusetts, but Everett remains the most consistently good and of late has produced the most BCS talent. The school has a long history of football success, but their coach John DiBiaso is the driving force.

These things also shift and change too. When I was at BC in the 1990s the team was heavy on Xaverian players. Yet we haven't had an impact player from Xaverian since Derrick Knight. Kiwi and Trueblood came from Cathedral High School in Indianapolis but we never capitalized on their success with more players/ We have two incoming recruits from Atlanta's Westminster, but  in my opinion that will be an anomaly. (I think the Atlanta Catholic schools do have promise though.) There are BC coaches sprinkled around some key high school programs that might help, but no one has built a Bosco equivalent yet.

Let me know where else we should have pipelines or programs that I might have missed.

Riffing on BC news

There are a few stories that deserve more than just a link but not their own posts...

Tampa Bay hired Greg Schiano and it had a ripple effect on BC recruiting. BC is targeting Don Bosco WR Leonte Carroo. They are also trying to get TE Michael Giacone. This shift is a gift for a BC class that had numerous holes to fill. Let's hope our staff is working overtime to close these kids.

Jags and McGovern were both mentioned as candidates for the Rutgers job. I don't think either will get much beyond an interview. Rutgers will reach for someone with some sizzle. I am not sure how Jags would fit in Piscataway, but I actually think McGovern would do very well at Rutgers. He's not the showman that Schiano was but he knows New Jersey. Leveraging those roots could build on Schiano's recruiting momentum. The question that will haunt McGovern in any interview is how much the defense is his doing and how much is Spaz.

Regardless of whether he salvages this recruiting class by flipping some Rutgers recruits, I think this recruiting season raises concerns about Spaz's ability and willingness to close on these BC targets. Two recent articles really jumped out with damning quotes. First Jameson McShea -- who called BC his dream school -- said this regarding head coaches in his recruiting process:

“I spent a lot of time with Coach Murphy and not much time with Spaz [BC head coach Frank Spaziani],” McShea said. “That's basically what it came down to.

BC slow played McShea so you can sort of rationalize Spaz not putting time in with the kid, but that just raises other questions. Why don't we cultivate our backups better? Why don't we kick up the sales pitch when it appears that other recruits are waivering? The other story was BC missing out on QB Matt Johns. How did we lose him? Mike London's charm and sales pitch.

“When I went to Boston College I was like, ‘this is it,’” Johns said. “My parents said, ‘let’s go visit Virginia.’ We actually went down and spent a day with the coaches and got to talk with them and then I had a little sit down with Coach [Mike] London.

“After that point, there was no No. 2 school.”

Army announced earlier this week that they had switched dates with BC. We will travel to West Point this fall and they will return in 2013. There's been speculation as to why they switched. I think it comes down to BC trying to change perception and tweek demand. A seven game home slate going into 2012 with Spaz and a lagging economy is not enticing to BC. If they keep it smaller and highly desirable (ND, Miami, Clemson, VT) there won't be as much Grouponing. The hope would be that the program and the economy would be in better shape to help ticket sales when Army returns in 2013.