Lempa gone too

As speculated online in various places, Kevin Lempa is off to Hawaii to serve as Defensive Coordinator. Joining him will be former Eagle and current BC grad assistant Sean Duggan. Duggan will be Hawaii's Linebacker coach, which is a pretty good spot for your first staff job.

I don't see Lempa as a critical loss. He's always been well liked by players and his familiarity and ties to BC were always nice, but he's not some ace recruiter or great strategist. He also seems to consistently have weird relations with his BC bosses. TOB did not offer him a job at NC State and Spaz and Gene both wanted him out when Jags took over. His relationship with Don Brown is what brought him back to the Heights. It doesn't surprise me that with Brown gone, he's not staying with Addazio. 

The only thing that Lempa might impact is the timing of the other Defensive replacements. Addazio might speed up the process a bit so that he's not short-staffed when the quiet period ends. 

What's causing the coverage breakdowns?

If BC makes one stop, we win the CSU game. As we know, that didn't happen, primarily because BC had another coverage breakdown at a critical time. In this case it was 4th and 10. Unfortunately that breakdown wasn't an anomaly. While this becomes a bit of one blogger echoing another, BCI's Dan Rubin saw the same thing in his game review. While pressure and aggressiveness have been hallmarks of Don Brown's BC scheme, so have those blown assignments. Why is this still happening? Statistically the defense is improved from last year, but these breakdowns are still killers. If BC just fixed them, they would be that much better defensively (and probably 4-1).

Usually when there are issues with one particular unit, I blame this position coach. However, BC has a little history with Defensive Backs coach Kevin Lempa. This is his third go-around at BC and while he's never been the best recruiter or Mr. Personality, Lempa has always been a solid teacher. When Lempa coached under TOB, his DBs were not always the most athletic or speedy, but they were well positioned and knew their assignments. I don't think it is a Lempa-Brown issue either. Lempa worked under Brown at Maryland. At this point he should know what Brown wants and what works.

The players certainly deserve some blame, but not all of it. We've lost DBs to injuries, transfers and attrition yet there are still blown assignments. This is not about talent. If anything our DBs are more talented than they were last year...or at least more talented than they were in the final Spaz years.

The front seven is a factor too. Many of our defensive issues are related to lack of pressure up front. Think back to the last CSU play. That is essentially a broken play. If the three downlinemen get to the QB -- and not just force him out of the pocket -- there is no pass to the endzone. Every missed sack or failure to get to a QB, gives him a few more seconds. Each additional second puts that much more on the shoulders of the DBs. Those extra assignments are when guys get free and coverage is blown.

So the short answer to what's causing the breakdowns is everything. Ultimately this is Don Brown's Defense. If he cannot get the pressure upfront or his players cannot learn their assignments or don't have the talent to stay with their receivers, than he has to alter his gameplans. It is the same sort of adjustment that Day had and has to make when his passing game cannot execute. Brown was the known of the two coordinators when he arrived at BC. He's taught and coached this scheme for years. Now we need him to figure out these breakdowns so that BC can hold on during the next 4th and 10 with the game on the line.

Thoughts on SI's Addazio article

I am sure most of you have read SI's behind the scenes article on Addazio's first recruiting class. It is great publicity for the program and provides an interesting look at how Addazio is attacking our talent issues head on (since he is his own recruiting coordinator). These are a few of the things that stood out to me:

-- Addazio is more than just "rah, rah" and high energy. There is some simple sales strategies and statistics at work here and that is a good thing. I don't know if this is his original thought or he is adapting from other coaches whom he worked under, but having X amount of prospects that require X amount of contact and calls per week is familiar to anyone who has worked in Sales before. You are never going to close every deal in football or business, so you need enough prospects lined up to reach your goals. It is a simple concept, but one that has been lacking around BC. Too often the past four years we went from our A List to our C List without any rhyme or reason in between.
-- Institutional guys are buying in. Most programs have a few coaches and guys who have been around a while and have seen many come and go. BC has two on staff now in Kevin Lempa and Al Washington. Both have been part of multiple BC regimes and know what works and doesn't. Both are quoted in the article and seem to be enjoying the new culture.
-- #beadude is going to get played to the hilt this fall by the media. I like the idea behind Don Brown's viral hash-tag. But as we know a good thing can become a tired cliche when we hear about it every week. I predict it will get mentioned weekly in our games and will be all over the feature articles this fall. I will try to keep from rolling my eyes as long as recruiting is going strong. I also expect Brown's magic to keep us competitive this fall. I do feel for him that he didn't trademark the phrase as it will be on signs and t-shirts in the near future.
-- High School Coaches talking about Spaz. The contrast in John DiBiaso's (Everett) and Greg Toal's (Don Bosco) comments about our former staff were telling. DiBiaso was more candid in saying the former was "all over the place." While Toal didn't defend Spaz, he did point out Spaz's success as a defensive coach. This is all validation of what most of us thought -- things were a mess under Spaz. And his staff not being cohesive was also a byproduct of the AD having influence in who was hired and who was not. None of us know if Addazio will succeed but I think it is clear he is in control. I also like that his "energy" is translating to critical high school coaches and players.

Kevin Lempa back at BC for third go around

Steve Addazio hired Kevin Lempa and now officially has an NCAA approved 10-man staff. Lempa should be a familiar name to BC fans as this is his third stint with the program. He was on Bicknell's staff in the 1980s and then returned to BC in the later TOB years. He is a decent hire and a bit of a BC bad penny (which I'll explain) and I am okay with having him on board.

Lempa likes BC, likes the area, is a pretty good coach and an underrated recruiter of New England high schools.  That makes him a positive addition to the staff. He also has ties to Don Brown, so I am sure that was a factor in the decision to bring him back. But after his last go around, I never thought he would be at BC again.

Like most work places, football staffs can easily form cliques. Sometimes it is by age or race or which side of the ball you are on. In the later TOB years, Lempa was sort of the man without a country. Like many of the other staffers with New England roots, he wanted to stay, but wasn't given that option by Gene, Spaz (and therefore Jags). He left without even cleaning out his office. But unlike most of the guys who weren't hand selected by Gene, Lempa was not offered a job with NC State. Fortunately for him, he caught on with Maryland.

And because he didn't follow TOB to Raleigh, Lempa felt free to go on record with ESPN with regards to the Ryan Glasper story (my take, ESPN's). While the Glasper story reflected poorly on TOB, I thought Lempa's association with it was enough to make him persona non grata now. The doctors criticized in the situation are still with the program. Perhaps Lempa's loyalty to the players and guys like Glasper was enough to overlook any issues related to the story.

I wish the staff was a little younger, but overall it is a nice mix. You have nice base of institutional knowledge, talent scouts and solid positional teachers. It should be a strong spring.