Key Players for 2012: Ian White

This is a series on the key players for the 2012 season. Big things are expected for some, while others will need to improve over their previous performances. If 2012 is a good year, it will be in part due to the key players overachieving.

Junior Center, Ian White

What he's been: The redshirt JR has played a lot and almost all of it at guard. What's been frustrating is that White would be very, very good in some games and then off in others. Because he is playing primarily inside, the issues usually involve getting overpowered by bigger DTs. Like most of the olinemen the past few years, White's flashed moments of greatness but lacked consistency.

What he needs to be: In my opinion the offensive line play really started falling apart after Matt Tennant left. I think Centers are underappreciated...at times even by their own coaches. It seems like the Spaz/Devine MO was to put the best five on the field regardless of positional fit and not to worry about rejiggering the lineup. The way the staff yo-yo'd Mark Spinney and others at Center the past two years hurt our consistency. And it impacts the QB position too. White's new to the role, so this could lead to more chaos. I hope not. We need him to be good from Day 1. He needs to set the tone for the OL and communicate with Rettig. Other players are important, but White -- or whoever starts at Center -- will be the keystone to the offense.

Why I like his chances to shine: Like Cleary, I think White is one of those guys who would have thrived under old BC regimes. He's been smart and tough from the minute he was eligible to play. He might not be as powerful as needed, but now as a redshirt JR, he should be fully matured. Plus playing Center doesn't require as much power and is more reliant on smarts and quickness.

I don't know if White will be our starting Center for Miami or even later into the season. Under Devine positions and the depth chart were constantly being tweaked. I pray things are different with Bollman. Let White learned to be a Center. He has a chance to be a great one.

Staff is finalized

It has been floating around the BC message boards for a few days, but BC confirmed that this will be Spaz's staff for 2012.

Doug Martin -- Offensive Coordinator and QBs coach
Jim Bollman -- Offensive Line (running game coordinator)
Ben Sirmans -- Running Backs coach
Ryan Day -- Wide Receivers coach
Sean Devine -- Tight Ends coach
Dave Brock -- Special Teams coach
Bill McGovern -- Defensive Coordinator and LBs coach
Mike Siravo -- Defensive Backs and Recruiting Coordinator
Jeff Comissiong -- Defensive Line Coach

Ben Johnson -- who served as the interim Tight Ends coach this fall -- will be moving on. Per NCAA rules, he cannot move back to his Graduate Assistant spot.

On paper, I think this is the best staff of Spaz's four seasons. We will see if the results on the field change. The best moving of the pieces might be what Gene and Spaz did with Brock and Devine. Both are valuable recruiters, yet had questionable results as OC and OL coaches. Now we keep them on staff, yet have a tactical and teaching upgrade at those key positions.

What's interesting is that despite all the rumored grumbling, that most of the guys stayed. BC certainly has its drawbacks, but the grass is not always greener.

More staff changes as Spaz brings on new OL coach

BC's offense has been barely functional under Spaz. There were numerous reasons and issues, but I always felt it started with the offensive line. Without solid protection up front all of other other issues were magnified. For a school that prided itself on its offensive line tradition, this was unacceptable. Finally Spaz made a change. He hired former Ohio State Offensive Coordinator and Offensive Line coach Jim Bollman to be offensive line coach/running game coordinator.

Bollman comes with a wealth of college and professional experience. Almost as importantly he overlapped with Spaz one year at UVA and was Tranq's OLine coach at Michigan State (so there is more familiarity with Spaz than say Kevin Rogers had). He's available because Urban Meyer decided to bring in most of his own folks at Ohio State. They gave him the running game coordinator title, but I wouldn't read too much into that. Martin is still going to call plays. I assume that Martin and Bollman have a some familiarity given the Ohio connection between the two.

Ohio State fans are mocking us, but I am not too concerned. If Bollman can just get our guys to be more consistent and less confused on plays, he will have done his job.

I'll have more on Bollman as I learn more. For now I am optimistic. We needed a teacher and a veteran who has seen it all and can instill fundamentals back into our offensive line. On paper Bollman is that guy.

Sean Devine will remain on staff as the Tight Ends coach...and that is a good thing. He's been one of our hardest working recruiters. I know OLine U fell apart under his watch, but I think it was probably a bad fit from the start (I'll explain why in another post). Now he can redeem himself by helping us close out strong on the recruiting front.

What to do about Spaz's staff

At any normal BCS program, retaining a 3rd-year coach who just went 4-8 would require some staff changes. BC is not a normal program. Spaz doesn't have a 100% control in staffing, so I don't know what will happen. Obviously I have been way off before so take this all with a grain of salt. I have no direct contact with any current staffers so this is all second hand gossip mixed with my opinion.

Dave Brock
Brock needs to come back. Although our offense was terrible this season, it is not fair to Chase Rettig or the other offensive players to make another change. Brock is who Spaz wanted all along (over Day or Rogers) so I assume he is safe. If Brock comes back, he needs to have 100% control of the offense from Day 1. If he wants to scrap everything and switch to an option or a spread or whatever, it needs to be his call. He has BCS experience and has been the lead recruiter on many of our key offensive players. I also think that Brock should have a say in the offensive staff. If he thinks we need to make a change on a position coach, then we should make it. We can't have dissension on the staffs. We cannot have guys undermining each other based on their offensive preferences or cliques. If Brock returns, Spaz has his guy in place for the most critical BC season in 13 years.

Ben Johnson
Johnson received a battlefield promotion when Rogers was fired. The Tight End play remained consistent and supposedly Johnson has been good on the recruiting front. Johnson also has a history with Brock. There is absolutely no reason to make a change here.

Sean Devine
Sean Devine may be a great recruiter. He may be a really hard worker who is passionate about BC. He may have a great feel for Chip Kelly's offense. Those are all great attributes. But he's paid to coach our offensive line and the offensive line play has been declining for three years. I hear from football alumni at random times, but one recurring theme is former BC Olineman frustrated watching our current squad. They are never throwing players under the bus. Instead they are pounding their keyboards about technique and assignments. The coachable things. Perhaps Devine should stay on, but not as OL coach. BC needs to find a great OLine coach who can restore our tradition and help the guys on the roster develop.

Mike Siravo
People who following recruiting closely complained about Jags's approach to recruiting. Many of those same recruitniks are upset with Spaz's disappointing recruiting results. The one constant is recruiting coordinator Mike Siravo. Although we were in the same class, I don't know Siravo personally but he has plenty of defenders. They will tell you Mike works very hard but is undercut by his head coaches. The head coaches' folks will conversely throw Siravo under the bus and say he is Gene's boy. Who knows at this point? Siravo's career has been closely tied to Gene. I doubt he is forced out unless Gene decides to cut him loose.

Bill McGovern
Everyone talks about Spaz's loyalty, but Bill McGovern had a stint at BC well before Spaz hit the scene. McGovern is also a BC parent. I don't want him out. If anything I hope that like Brock he gets more autonomy in 2012. The rumors surrounding Spaz and McGovern are always interesting. Some people have referred it to an old married couple. But if the breakdowns in this year's defense are due to Spaz's meddling, then I want him to leave McGovern alone. Or, if Spaz is going to be the DC and call the plays, then let the public know about it.

All of our offensive issues captured on one drive

I know that we have many problems. But I think our issues on offense are more about coaching than talent and I think there was one series that captured all of BC's failings.

With 3:42 left in the 1st quarter, BC got the ball on their own 30 down seven. The first play was a designed end around for Spiffy Evans. This is actually a good call. The end around worked the week before. It helps take pressure off of Rettig and Finch. I also like giving it to Evans. He's shown good burst on kick returns. Plus FSU was probably keying on Amidon for the end arounds. The play was probably going to be successful (especially if you look at the open space in the image below). But of course BC had to shoot itself in the foot by having a terrible snap. Rettig had to fall on the ball and took an 11-yard loss. At the time Craig James yapped about BC being too excited or thinking too fast. That wasn't the issue. The real issue was that BC replaced Mark Spinney with Andy Gallik. Gallik screwed up the snap. Why was he in there? Spinney played later so he wasn't seriously hurt. Was it a plan? Maybe Spinney needed a breather or was being looked at. I don't know. But if you are starting a possession with a timing play that is dependent upon a good snap, you should probably have your starting SR center on the field!

Now if Spinney's issues were unknown then a good OC probably saves the play for later. If the plan was to bring in Gallik just for that play, then BC didn't work on it enough during the week. Either way it was either poor position coaching, poor sideline communication or poor planning in general.



That left BC at 2nd and 21. Now at this point BC has run the ball six times and Rettig is 3-3. You know you need to get some of the 21 back. So what does BC do? Run again. You can rationalize it a bunch of ways, but I assume that being down only 7, BC still wants to be careful deep in their own end. I would argue that you need to be aggressive against a team that is building momentum. You are 2-6. Why not air it out a bit? But no, BC runs. Then things got bad.

The play was a simple zone-option run. This is a college football staple and at times made Chris Crane-Montel Harris a deadly combo against Florida State in 2008. In this situation the line is blocking to their right. Florida State's R DE is left unblocked by design. He is who Rettig is supposed to read. If the DE crashes Finch, Rettig keeps it. If he waits on Rettig, Chase gives it to Finch. But we never even got that far because Wetzel and Vardaro did something that has me convinced our OL coaching is the worst in the ACC.

Take a look. Wetzel and Vardaro are supposed to double team the R DT (who is a true freshman BTW). It's a standard double team in a zone play. A good, well coached team drills this over and over. They should be able to execute it without problem. Not BC.




The image below is about a half second later. The DT used a simple swim move and went by both guys! How does this happen? Vardaro's head is down so he probably didn't even see the swim move. Wetzel is reaching but you can see he is slow getting off and his balance is terrible.

Now Wetzel has shown some good moments. He was recruited by BC, UConn, Pitt, some MAC schools and UNH (this will be important in a moment). He was evaluated by Jags and Bick JR (two guys who have good eyes for raw OL talent). Is he a future first rounder? No, but he could and should be much better than he is. Now you could say Sean Devine inherited him, but the problem is Devine recruited him when he was at UNH! Wetzel has been in our program three seasons. This isn't age or youth. It is about coaching and consistency.

That left BC at 3rd and 21. Now points have been an issue all year. Wasted possessions have been an issue all year. You need to win this game to keep alive any hope of any postseason alive. The home crowd is asleep and just hoping for any sign of life. What does BC do? Run again. Of course the crowd booed.

FSU knew a run was coming too. Just look at this clip below. Their Left DE is playing wide and tries to shoot past Anderson (who is getting no help). Meanwhile our left side is chop blocking. But they don't take their men down nor push them back. The right side guys are pulling but don't block anyone. Meanwhile FSU's right side didn't get faked or downblocked so they are crashing into the backfield ready to break things up.



Of course we punted next and it was the best play of the drive.

This may seem like cherry picking bad moments, but it is not. Roster management, execution, protection and ultra conservative play calling have been hallmarks of the Spaz offenses. This drive just happened to capture them all in three plays.

OLine shuffle and other links

The biggest news of the day was that Richman is going to start at LG, Spinney will move back to Center and Wetzel will go solo at LT. I hope this was the missing element with the line last week.

All the eyes are on Coleman to fill the Momah void. I hope he breaks out but expect Amidon to be the biggest beneficiary.

The BC guys from Florida are excited to play near home.

BC still has redzone issues.

Here is a Q&A with former Eagle and new Cowboy Alex Albright.

Even the Orlando media is getting behind the Red Bandanna movement.

The Field Hockey team moved into the Top 10.

Existential recruiting

I've often wondered if BC's current coaches understand how to sell the school. Maybe I've been missing the point and their efforts. Instead of "selling the school" it looks like they are turning the tables on recruits and asking them challenging questions. In a world full of slicksters how often are these guys being asked about life beyond football and why are they here. Read BC target Faith Ekakitie's blog on Sean Devine's recruiting:

I’ve come to develop a pretty close and healthy relationship with many of the coaches from Boston College, especially Coach Devine (offensive line coach) and coach Comissiong (defensive line). At first I’ll have to admit i was a bit skeptical about BC because coach Devine approached and just started throwing question after question after question at me during our first phone calls. Some of his questions made me stop and think (actually all of his questions made me think), “what in the world does this question have to do with football?”

In fact, one of his most memorable questions to me was “If you could talk to any member of your family who has passed away already, who would it be and what would you talk about?” If you want to know the answer to that question, you can email/call/text me personally and I would be happy to tell you. But you could imagine what was going through my head at this point whenever BC got brought up in conversation.

Will this work? I don't know but at least it is something different.

2011 Position Previews: Offensive Line

New season. New format. Instead of a digestible combo of factoids and opinions, I am going to write in a more narrative, free style post. As always, feedback is appreciated.

Reputation is a funny thing. Bad or good, it often follows you even when it hasn't been relevant or accurate for years. BC's reputation is for producing great offensive lines. The reality is our offensive line play has been bad the past two years. But offensive line play is tough to measure. It is not about points or size or style. It is not about sacks or rushing yards. Real great offensive line play is about harmony. It is about rhythm and balance. It is about setting the stage for the skill players to score and get the glory. Great play offensive line play is really about five big clunky guys playing as one to the point where no one even notices how well they are playing.

Before I get into what's ahead for BC's Offensive line, let me give you my belief as to why our OLines were so good for so long. Seeing a 18-year-old throw a darting out pass or run a 40 yard dash gives you a good idea of how their skills translate to the next level. Projecting how a tall or chubby or clumsy 18-year-old will perform three years later and 60 pounds heavier is much harder to do. Offensive line isn't about measurables. It is about coaching. You need coaches who can look at a lump of coal and see the diamond underneath. And you need coaches who can teach their diamonds how to work together for the common goal. BC became OLineU because we had head coaches and position coaches who understood and appreciated offensive line play. Bicknell had his sons on the OLine. Coughlin came from Parcells's school where OLine was considered the foundation of everything. Henning for all his issues knew that much of the Redskins success was about great offensive line. TOB was a longtime OLine coach as was Jags. While year to year, some OLines were better than others, there was enough continuity that you could count on BC being strong upfront.

Now getting a defensive head coach isn't the reason our offensive line fell apart the past two years. The awkward combination of Spaz, Tranq, Devine, the system we ran, the lack of playmakers and the OL players they inherited all played a role. I do believe that if the coaching philosophies had been on the same page, we could have been respectable instead of just bad.

Despite my growing cynicism surrounding Spaz, I actually believe the offensive line will play better this year. Rogers' Olines at Syracuse and Notre Dame were always decent. I think Spinney, Richman and Cleary make a solid foundation...all with a chance to be very good or even great. White was decent last year in spot duty. That leaves Wetzel, Goodman, Betancourt, Williams or Kramer to step up and fill the void. All have potential. They just need to be put in position to blossom and excel. That is about hard work, coaching and scheme.

For someone who only watches the games and doesn't attend practices, my predictions and suggestions would be Cleary at LT, Richman at LG, Spinney at C, White at RG and Betancourt at RT. (Sub in Wetzel if Betancourt is not ready.) But one thing I don't want is starts based on seniority. Put the best guys in their best positions.

BC has managed to compete despite terrible line play the past two years. That trend cannot continue as the schedule is more demanding. If Devine doesn't get the guys clicking this year, than our days as Oline U may be on hiatus.

Oline questions and other links

Eric Hoffses posted a good interview with our Offensive Line coach Sean Devine. The coach gives assessments of most of his prospects without tipping his hand on the starters. Everyone has good things to say about Devine, but this is really a make or break season for him. The Oline has not been as consistent or as great as BC needs it to be. This year the old excuses of talent or scheme don't fly. These are Devine's guys. Let's hope he closes Spring Ball with a good idea of who his starting lineup is and doesn't have to reshuffle midseason like he did last year.

The seniors are getting read for Pro Day. Although the Panthers's writers are covering Castonzo, I think there is 0% he goes No. 1 overall. If Carolina likes him, they can trade down.

BC is one of many schools interested in Florida DB Jordan Diggs.

As expected, Tennessee fired Bruce Pearl. Andy Katz explained how the smaller secondary violations really broke the camel's back. As I have said, BC shouldn't ever touch him as a coach, but I expect him to land at one of our rivals. If it is not Providence or NC State this year, it could be another ACC or Big East school in 2012.

Getting ahead of the Offensive Line Narrative

Most BC fans agree that Oline U hasn't been itself for two years. We've been inconsistent and worst of all, the guys didn't always play well as a group. BC had talent, but the parts were greater than the sum. Who was to blame? There was plenty of finger pointing. Some say it was scheme. Others blamed coaching. Maybe BC's coaching turnover and talent attrition just came home to roost.

BC enters the season with a new offensive coordinator and three new starters on the Oline, so the excuse making is starting already. But we fans shouldn't accept this narrative just yet. Look at the talking points and then the reality.

1. BC lost three starters on the offensive line. Although it is technically true, the impact and importance of those starters is subjective. Castonzo started all 13 games and is a loss. Claiborne was in and out of the lineup last year and only started eight games. Lapham was inconsistent prior to his injury and the line play actually improved once Cleary stepped in for him. Lapham only started 8 games. Now the good news:
-- Cleary started 10 games
-- Richman started 10 games
-- Spinney started 11 games
-- White started 3 games
-- Davis earned 1 start
Plus BC has some promising depth on the roster. But look at that list of 2010 starters again. Spaz could open the season with an offensive line with an experienced starter at every position. That's a nice problem to have, especially since the media won't notice.

2. The offensive line has dealt with numerous coaching changes. The four oline coaches in four years was a nice tidbit excuse the media could trot out when covering BC the last few years. Now we've had a bit of stability. The current OL guys on the roster have only had two position coaches: Jack Bicknell Jr and Sean Devine. Most only know Devine. While they are learning another system, conceptually it is still "pro style" and shouldn't be a huge adjustment.

3. They were recruited for a different system. The zone blocking body type is overrated. Most good players on the Oline can do both. And if the oline and its coach are not capable of teaching and adapting then Spaz has a big problem on his staff.

I actually think the Oline will be good next year. If we get the right guys in the right positions things should be much much better.

Mock Drafts and other links

Everyone thinks Castonzo will be a high pick but no one knows which teams really like him yet. This mock draft has him going to the Dolphins at No. 15.

The NFL.com also forecasts Castonzo as a Top 20 pick.

For a position coach and nice guy, Sean Devine draws a lot of criticism among the diehard BC fans. He has been the whipping boy for our OL struggles the past two years. But maybe he has more value to BC as a recruiter. Rivals listed him as one of the best recruiters in the conference. I am glad we have a closer but I also want think we need a great OL teacher. If Devine's pupils don't improve this year now that we are "free from Tranq" than I think we might want to keep Devine as a recruiter but move him to another position.

The BC women will be playing in the Championship of their Beanpot too.

New blogs, new BC names for UConn and other links

Welcome Around the Res to the BC blogosphere. They are off to a promising start with this interview with Codi Boek. I wish Boek had gotten a little more playing time while at BC since he embodies so much of what we want our guys to be.

Bill McGovern is getting mentioned as a candidate for the UConn opening. In the past McGovern interviewed for openings at Holy Cross and UMass. I would be surprised if he gets the job, but good for him getting in the mix. As for the other BC-UConn connection, Jags is still mentioned yet his contract was not renewed with the UFL. Of course, this being Jags it is never that simple. The UFL called it a firing and said Jags wasn't getting it done on the field. Perfect timing when you are trying to get another job. What is interesting is that the UFL's news might have derailed his UConn shot yet his UFL GM said he is hoping Jags gets the UConn job?! What a strange two years its been for him.

The Patriots put Ron Brace on the IR which means he's done for the playoffs.

In case you missed this article on Wes Davis over the weekend, it is well worth the read.

I've harped on the Chip Kelly connections in the past. With the BCS Championship approaching I think you'll see more articles like with quotes from Sean Devine.

Why don't we look more like Oregon?

Chip Kelly is changing the face of college football. His team is scoring more and faster than anyone else in the sport. Three thousand miles away we struggle getting a first down and cannot effectively run a two-minute drill. Why does this matter? Because outside of Oregon and UNH there is no other staff in football that has as much working experience with Kelly as BC does!

When I first mentioned the UNH clique my hope was that Spaz would emulate Sean McDonnell and Mike Belotti and empower his assistant to maximize BC's talent on offense. So far that isn't happening.

I understand that assistants aren't always able to emulate and replicate their mentors style and strategy. But I don't believe Sean Devine and Ryan Day have been given much of a chance. I don't think Spaz will ever change course midseason, but he needs to do some serious evaluation of his staff and team this offseason. He has guys who had front row seats to the cutting edge. I don't care if they themselves haven't proved it. Handing things over to them is no risk. What is the downside: losing by 40 instead of 20?

How to ruin the best OLine in the ACC part 2

As you will see the offensive line was not the only problem yesterday, but the breakdowns up front and the failure of our coordinator to react all come back to confusion and execution on the offensive line. These shots are all from Shinskie's second and thankfully final series.

1st and 10
-- At this point Clemson has no respect for our passing game and has put 8 in the box. We will see this all year until we prove we can exploit it.

-- We run a trap with the three interior guys moving. Ricky Sapp -- the guy Doc Walker circled is unaccounted for. In theory the play is going away from him. The hope is he will be too late or someone will rub him and keep him from the play. This is tougher to do when there are 8 in the box and the Tigers were smelling blood.

-- Here is where it starts to breakdown. Cleary (77) is ready to clear a hole. The right side is okay. Claiborne is a little behind but has a position on his man. Tennant and Castonzo are doubling the DE and letting Sapp run free. Is that the design? I don't know. I would hope Tennant would occupy his man and Castonzo would jump out on Sapp. Why aren't they reading and adjusting?

-- At this point Sapp is through. Claiborne has lost his man and the right side is losing.
-- Harris is toast.


2nd and 13
-- Clemson is loading the box again. We have two TEs which should offer extra protection if needed.

-- Clemson drops one of their 8 back. This takes away some of the big play.

-- Good straight forward pass blocking. It can be done! Now the problem is Shinskie. He never looks off Anderson.

-- This pass is completed. It is positive. Put enough of these together and you actually have an offense. But no, we used many more slow to develop plays.

3rd and 10
-- This is the final play of Shinskie's day. It had a breakdown in protection and in QB play. It is an obvious passing down and Clemson has 7 in the box.

-- The right side of the line is fine. The first mistake though is Cleary looks to his right and starts to get out of position to the uncoming defenders. To make it worse, Clemson is overloading and sending three guys at the gap between Cleary and Castonzo. Ugh.
-- Hope is not lost. Castonzo makes a strong move to fill the hole. Clearly recovers to get the trailing guy. Our receivers start to get open. The ball needs to start coming out.
-- Harris makes a huge block to give Shinskie that much more time. (BTW, our running backs have been great pass blockers under Sirmans.) Yet the ball is not out!!! Look, guys were open.
-- We had a breakdown. We had a two seperate saves from two of our best (Harris and Castonzo) yet Shinskie takes the sack. As I said, multiple problems but it started with protection.

How to ruin the best OLine in the ACC part 1

We have four returning offensive lineman. Three of those four earned all ACC honors last season. Coming into today's game they had a combined 63 starts. They looked lost today and I am afraid they don't know what to do. That's coaching. Now our coaches have plenty of experience and should be able to turn things around. My fear though is there is too much going on and we are doing nothing well. I am also a bit concerned about things like spacing and execution. This stuff should not be happening three games into the season with a mostly experienced group. The execution is probably due to too many varied schemes (part Tranq, part Logan) and four different QBs splitting time. Here are a few of the issues. (I may add more as I continue to go through the rewatch).

First Quarter. 3rd and 17. BC calls a draw that gets blown up.
This was the first real cowardly call of the game. But I can understand why we did it. The draw is low risk. It should be easy to execute and it plays to your strengths: the line and Harris. However, we failed to execute. Here are some issues:
-- Doesn't Harris seem awfully deep? This might make it seem like he is staying into block and sell the draw, but it also means he has to cover a lot of ground just to get to the line of scrimmage.

-- Anderson releases downfield and takes a defender with him. Now Clemson only has five guys in the box!! Although this doesn't guarantee a first down, it should at least mean a decent gain. But you can already see problems. Lapham (on the right side) is drawing his man downfield away from the play. That's good. However, the rest of the line is clustered at the line of scrimmage? This is a draw. These guys have runs thousands of draws. What are they doing? They should also being drawing/driving their men downfield too. There should be a big hole. Yet Clemson -- with only five in the box -- is ready to gobble up the runner.

-- Castonzo won his matchup. But the three interior guys (two of who were all ACC) shuffled around and left three defenders ready to crush Harris. Ugh.


1st and 10. Basic run play. Offensive line is asked to do something (pull I think? but it is so sloppy you can't be sure) and leave Haden out to dry.
Pulling and trapping is a staple of many offenses. Gary Tranquill might have multiple plays that call on it. One problem though...our guys have not been drilling in this for two years. Should we have these plays in our playbook? Can you do this and still mix in zone? Does anyone have clue what is going on? Take a look:
-- Clemson has five men on the line. That is problem No. 1. Do we audible? Have any counters? If so we didn't use them.

-- The play starts off ok. Richman, Claiborne and Pantale all block down and win their battles. Castonzo doubles the End with Anderson. I don't love the decision but you can live with it (I would prefer if one of them went to the second level). The real problem is that Lapham and Tennant are supposed to pull and clear the way. Yet Tennant doesn't disengage quickly enough and Lapham is a big dude who is probably never going to cover that much land quickly enough.

-- So now Haden is heading towards a hole with two Clemson guys waiting for him. Tennant and Lapham are never going to get there. Haden decided to kick it out and go around the end but was tackled for a loss.



1st and 10. Shinskie's first drive. 1st use of one of Logan's staples: the zone option read.
We are struggling. We haven't moved the ball. Someone (Tranq?) decides to go and use one of the plays that worked well for BC last year. Only we use it with the one guy who wasn't around in the Logan days in Shinskie!?!? But once again I think these guys have so much going on in their heads, they are screwing up basic things like spacing. Take a look:
-- Look how big the space is between Tennant and Claiborne! What's going on? Both are smart and experienced. Why is this happening? It screams lack of repetition or confusion. The Clemson DT picks up on it and gets right in the gap.

-- At the snap he is already by Claiborne. But the play is not totally lost. A good QB who knows this play might be able to make something out of nothing. But instead we have a relief pitcher who hasn't played football since 2002. Now if Tuggle had been in there, he might have done something...after all he saw film of Crane and Tuggle dealing with this same situation last year.

-- Claiborne is beat. Lapham is blocking air. Haden is about to be lunch. Since the end is starting to crash though a running QB who knew the offense might have kept it himself and tried to make positive yards.

-- Yet Shinskie gives it to Haden and we have another negative play.


I may have more of this, but you get the point. There is too much going on with the team and our experienced guys are lost. There is more talent than we saw today, but we need the staff to quickly put together a plan that plays to their strengths!

When the coaching staff has their come to Jesus meeting Sunday, it is on Spaz, Day and Sirmans to speak up and get us back on track. They know what can work with these guys. They know what drills will work. They are the carryovers. They have to help bridge the gap. If they don't we will have serious issues.

Blogosphere posts and other links

EDSBS parody post of ND student Tommy Kilborn.

If you like play breakdown, I think you'll appreciate Smart Football's look at the FSU-Miami game.

Here is a great article on new offensive line coach Sean Devine.(Thanks to Tony for the link.)

Chip Kelly -- influencing BC football from 3,000 miles away

Outside of Lane Kiffin, no new coach is getting as much press as Oregon's Chip Kelly. Considered the latest college football offensive genius, Kelly is the next big thing. Lost among all the hoopla is that the only staff outside the Pac 10 with three of Kelly's former colleagues and proteges is Boston College. What does it mean when you have the pupils working under a different leader and coordinator. We will soon find out, but first let's look at the Kelly guys in Boston and what they bring to the table.

Ryan Day is the known commodity among BC fans. Just 30, he is considered the rising star. He reportedly turned down opportunities from Mississippi State, Florida, and the chance to join Jags in Tampa. Kelly even makes reference to Day joining him in Eugene if not for some timing and move issues. While at BC Day has been a very good position coach and a hard working recruiter. While nothing has ever been formally announced, it is rumored that he'll be the next offensive coordinator when Tranquill retires (for the third time).

Day gets all the pub, but Sean Devine has the resume closest to Kelly's. In fact, he took over the play calling duties at UNH when Kelly left for Oregon. While he never reached the offensive heights Kelly did in 2005, UNH was 17-8 in Devine's two seasons as OC and scored as often as most of Kelly's Wildcat offenses. Devine won't be calling plays, but he will be using the same blocking scheme as the Ducks. This is important as it provides continuity to Jack Bicknell Jr.'s (yet another former UNH assistant) teachings. Having spent the most time actually working with Kelly, you hope that Devine will share the same drive to learn about other offenses and relentlessly recruit. The BC OLine coaching job has been a great springboard in the past. Combine that with everyone looking for the next Chip Kelly and you have to consider this a great platform for Devine's career. If his veteran line plays well, he'll join Day as a hot coaching name.

The final branch of the Kelly tree in Boston is Mike Dawson. Dawson spent most of his time at UNH on the defensive side of the ball, so he had the fortune (or misfortune) of going against Kelly every day in practice. Those experiments, gadgets and new looks -- Mike Dawson saw them first. The UNH defenses were never dominant, but that might not be relevant for Dawson's new role as special teams coordinator. You'd hope Kelly's experimentation bug bit him and he brings fresh ideas and good excecution to a BC unit that he struggled under the past two staffs.

What does it all mean? BC has disciples of the hottest name in college football working under one of the most experienced Head Coach-Offensive Coordinator combos in DIA. These guys may all share Kelly's ambition and perspective, but a big reason for Kelly's success was the encouragement and freedom he received from Sean McDonnell and later Mike Bellotti. Will Spaz and Tranq do the same for their young turks? Ideally these guys will have the freedom and BC will succeed and eventually have a transition like Oregon's. How Spaz mentors and works with the UNH clique will probably be the biggest factor in the success of failure of his first two seasons. Let's hope he gives Bellotti a call.