End of the Week rant: Where is the renaissance of New England youth football?

I was at BC when Bill Parcells sparked the turnaround in Patriot Football. His success, combined with the Krafts and obviously the Brady/Belichick combo turned the region into a Football mad hotbed. At the time and periodically since, I have read about how this passion trickled down to the youth levels and more kids than ever are playing youth football in New England. I also read that the quality of youth and high school coaching in the region improved dramatically. Then you throw in UMass and UConn jumping to FBS in the past two decades. This should be the best time ever to recruit out of New England! We've had 20 years of football passion and growth. The kids who were born during that era should be on BC's roster now or on our development radar! Yet, it is the same old same old. Where is the talent? When does the bumper crop mature?

On Saturday both UMass and BC will call on plenty of talented players who came up in the state. But given the population, there should be more. I know the usual excuses are still in place (the demographics of the region, the popularity and diversity of youth sport options, the weather, etc.) but there is still something missing.

Even if UMass grows their program and BC becomes a perennial contender, I don't think Massachusetts is ever going to become like Ohio or Texas (on a relative basis). If the Patriots hugely popular run couldn't deliver on new talent, college success isn't. Plus the new fears about head injuries are also going to scare off parents.

This will leave BC to continue going outside the region to fill out the roster. But I hope that soon BC coaches start looking at local basketball, lacrosse, and hockey talent and find a few more athletes who slipped through the cracks or who should really be playing football. There's got to be some out there.

In recruiting a "wall" is not important, knowing the players is

A.J. Dillon is just the latest Massachusetts star to take his talents elsewhere. The state's top-rated prospect verballed to Michigan Monday. Surprisingly this didn't generate the usual hand wringing among some fans. I don't know if people are resigned to lowly recruiting or if the rumors of Dillon being overrated calmed fears. But Dillon did have a BC offer and he did decide to leave. When that happens, it undermines Addazio's goal of building a wall around New England. I don't really care about "walls." What I want is for Addazio and his staff to use New England proximity to make better evaluations.

When was the last time a Massachusetts prospect who spurned BC really became a game changer for someone else? In general, even going back to the TOB days, if gossip got out that a guy was overrated, he usually doesn't amount to much elsewhere. I don't mind losing Dillon if Addazio wasn't high on him. The key to local recruiting is having better evaluations than teams from outside the region.

The idea of a wall plays well with fans, but who cares if guys leave the area? It works both ways. We get players from outside New England. Wanting to go somewhere new is natural for many 18-year-olds. I wish Dillon the best in Michigan, but I have a feeling we are not going to miss him. While he's done a lot to have me question aspects of his program, I am still going to trust Addazio on player evaluations.

Trojan trap and other links

The Big Lead called our game with USC a trap for the Trojans. It makes sense given their new coach, cross-country travel and coming right after Stanford. Even if USC struggles this year, it would still be a huge win for BC and Addazio in Year 2.

Andre Williams got the NYT feautre treament during Giants Training Camp.

Future Eagle Nolan Borgersen is ready for his final high school season.

Other sites covered this earlier in the week, but ESPN noted how strong BC's recruiting efforts have been in Massachusetts.

Is the Northeast a better recruiting territory than we realize?

The above map was part of a series posted on Deadspin Monday. It is a per capita display of where college football players come from. If you look at their other maps you will see that the Northeast (for this purpose Washington, D.C. north) produces a lot of college football players. I used the per capita map to show that even though this area is densely populated, it is not a wasteland that some make it out to be. New Jersey remains the focal point of the region.

Obviously parts of New England are barren, but the maps does show that Massachusetts and Connecticut produce relatively in line with other areas that people would assume are better (Western PA, pockets of the Midwest, large swaths of California).

Where players come from doesn't tell the whole story. The type of talent is a factor that the map doesn't cover. Aside from the mythical speed in other areas, I would say that many prospects in New England and the Northeast lack skills and would benefit from better year-round programs and better high school competition. But considering it is only our base and we continue to recruit the Midwest and Southeast, I would say BC is not as disadvantaged geographically as some assume.

Making the most of Mass

Massachusetts is not Texas or Florida. That's pretty obvious on many fronts, but is especially noticeable in college football recruiting. If BC coach wants success on the field, he is going to have to recruit far beyond the state border. But Massachusetts has provided a good foundation for some of BC's best teams. That is why is was so frustrating to watch some of the states best players not commit to BC in recent years. Considering this is his first full recruiting cycle, Addazio seems to have a better grip of Massachusetts recruiting than his predecessors. With the early enrollees serving as a the most recent reminder, BC has nearly every elite Massachusetts target they recruited this year. Take a look at Rivals Top 10 Players in Massachusetts:

1. Connor Strachan -- 4 stars | Boston College
2. Johnathan Thomas -- 3 stars | Penn State
3. Jon Baker -- 3 stars | Boston College
4. Isaac Yiadom -- 3 stars | Boston College
5. James Hendren -- 3 stars | Boston College
6. Kevin Cohee -- 3 stars | Boston College
7. Tom Rodrick -- 2 stars | UConn
8. Lubern Figaro -- 2 stars | Wisconsin
9. Miles Wright -- 2 stars | uncommitted
10. Kevin Bletzer -- 2 stars | Boston College

Of the Top Ten, the only player who BC aggressively recruited who went elsewhere was Figaro. Thomas was highly rated, but many of the experts rank our incoming RB recruits higher.

I don't know if BC will ever get to the point where they take all of the Top Ten but this is progress. And if tradition holds, these guys will be key to our success over the next five years.

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.

Who is left in Massachusetts?

With Troy Flutie's commitment, the BC Class of 2014 now has six players from Massachusetts. Even in the early stages of a big class like this one, that is a lot of local kids. Addazio claimed he wanted to keep local talent and rebuild relationships with Massachusetts high schools. I would say he's done that. But will there be more? Using Rivals and 247, these are the top uncommitted prospects in Massachusetts.

Miles Wright, QB, Tabor.  -- BC has interest but hasn't made an offer. If we do offer, I doubt it will be at QB.

Dante Holmes, DE, Dean Junior College -- BC rarely takes Junior College guys and they are not listed as interested now.

Jarrell Addo, DB, Leominster -- BC has not offered and has plenty of DB prospects in other regions.

Lubern Figaro, DB, Everett -- Figaro has a very good offer list and has been recruited hard by BC. I would say he's a guy BC really wants.

Jason Sylva, LB, Dean Junior College -- Another Dean kid. I don't think BC is going to go that way.

I asked Chris Anderson from 247 his thoughts. This is what he had to say: "Lubern Figaro is the top remaining player in the state of Massachusetts, and may be the only other player Boston College takes from the Bay State. A few other guys - such as Dan DiNicola from Dexter School - will continue to get looks, but there are bigger targets elsewhere. I think it's important the staff gets another RB, such as Qadree Ollison or Richard Wilson. One more in-stater to keep an eye on - Leominster (MA) athlete Jarell Addo."