The BC Stuff from Havoline Football Saturdays

Here is the Matt Ryan interview and most of the middle portion is BC talk.

The Addazio stuff is a little cliche, but you still here plenty from Addazio and the 9/11 aspect of the USC win.

Here is Harold Landry.

Addazio is putting last year behind him

Give Addazio credit. He continues to show nothing but confidence. If he is right about his talent evaluations, this team should be fine.

Crowther featured in Havoline Football Saturdays

Every year Raycom produces a series of human interest stories on each team to use in their pregame shows and halftimes. This year they are featuring the story of Welles Crowther. Though Welles' heroism has been extensively covered, it is always welcome to a new audience. Raycom did a nice job on the piece. The above version is long and probably not what we will see during a halftime, so take the time to watch it before the season.

Addazio at the ACC Media Days

The coach hit on all his talking points in his ACC Media interviews. He mentioned 60 of the scholarship players being freshmen and sophomores. He talked about Wade. He mentioned Ireland and Fenway. He joked about the Offensive Line. But I am not concerned about the talk. We will hear all these stories for the next few months. My positive takeaway is Addazio's confidence.

Watch the video above. This is a guy who likes his team and thinks he can win. That sort of confidence will help the young team and help his staff come together.

I don't think confidence is the only key to winning. If it was Addazio's second season at Temple would have been better. But I do think that he's on the right path.

Carlos Reyes talks about his BC commitment

Here is BC newest big man John Carlos Reyes talking about his decision to commit to Boston College. It is a casual conversation and he reviews his finalists and BC's ultimate appeal. I know we spend a lot of time talking about what BC has to offer, but as you can see, sometimes it is as simple as playing time in the ACC.

Good luck to John. I look forward to seeing how he develops.

$10,000 decision

You probably heard about this story last week, but here is BC golfer Brian Butler explaining why he turned down the $10,000 prize that came with a hole-in-one he made at a recent tournament. I am glad he loves BC Golf enough to keep his eligibility. He seems like a smart guy, but he clearly doesn't understand BC jinxes. As a junior he should know that when he said he won't make a second hole-in-one (which would trigger a $1 million prize) he reversed the mojo and will now be faced with a $1 million decision.

Throwback Thursday with Luke Kuechly

This current video of Luke Kuechly is making the rounds.


Since it is Thursday, it is a great time to look back on some of Luke's highlights at BC. He's also set to graduate in a few days.

Luke's years might not have been the most fun time to follow BC Football, but we were and are lucky to have him.

My kind of lullaby

Let the players sing you to sleep, so you can dream about Andre Williams winning the Heisman.

(Thanks to Bob for the video.)

ATLeagle Google+ Hangout with ESPN's Drew Gallagher

I've known Drew Gallagher since our days at WZBC in the 1990s. After graduation, Drew joined ESPN and rose through the ranks to become a producer. In 2011, he produced a feature on his friend and fellow BC classmate Welles Crowther. If you are reading this blog you probably know Welles' story and have seen Drew's piece. In this Hangout, we discuss Drew's history with the piece and working on emotional subjects. 

[ATTN: This Hangout seems a little more glitchy than the first one. I apologize and hopefully it is not too distracting.]

Once again, here is Drew's Emmy-winning feature on Welles Crowther.

Addazio pregame and other links

Here is Addazio's pregame speech on Saturday. Do things feel a little different to you?

Addazio was happy with Wolford's performance.

If you missed it last week, BC will play Notre Dame in a Frozen Fenway game.

Future Eagle Darius Wade is ready for a big Senior Season.

NFL stuff: the Eagles cut Momah and Cleary will probably go on IR for the Colts.

Men's Soccer tied Quinnipiac. Women's Soccer beat Hofstra in OT.

ATLeagle Google+ Hangout with Austin Tedesco

New feature alert! As much as there is a routine to the blog, I do like to try new things. This is my first attempt at a Google+ Hangout. My guest is Heights Sports Editor Austin Tedesco. We talk mostly football but do get into basketball at the end. 

Forgive any technical issues as I learn and adjust. There will be new Hangouts throughout the school year. As always your feedback is appreciated. 

Addazio surprising national recruitniks and other links

As Addazio piles up commitments, the national recruiting writers are starting to take notice. New coaches obviously have a natural momentum to their early classes, but I think Addazio deserves credit for what he's pulled in so far. None of this means these guys will be any good, but I think your player development starts from a better place when you get your first choices into the program.

Congratulations to the Women's Lacrosse team for their NCAA tournament bid.

Sports Business Daily thinks real movement on the ACC Network will begin soon.

Here are the ACC's bowl affiliations for this season.

The Orlando Sentinel doesn't expect much of us this fall.

Here is the highlight video from the basketball banquet.

In case you missed it, this is Maria Pandolfo's catch from Sunday that went viral on Monday.

Opening up the video vault

Every once in a while I step across a link to BC minutia and I get excited to share it. I know that only someone reading a BC blog like this is looking for a random assortment of partial BC's football broadcasts. If you haven't been and are looking for one of those classic internet time eaters, go to the page and watch 15 or 20 minutes of one of these old games.

The page is heavy on the Flutie era, but there is a freshness to watching these games that I rarely get. I've seen the Miami game a million times and the West Virginia game is often on ESPN Classic, but I've never seen the Alabama or Penn State games prior to this page. Now go enjoy ten hours of random BC watching.

As a parting gift for the Addazio fans, here is a clip of BC vs Temple in 1984:

Recruiting news and other links

At his Signing Day press conference, Steve Addazio said 2014 recruiting was already in full swing. You can start to see some of the activity based on the recruits talking to the media. BC has an offer into Florida QB Sean White. Illinois OL prospect Chase Gianacakos just visited campus. Despite an ACL injury, BC has interest in Florida WR prospect Charles Nelson. 

Because of the Rangers's schedule Chris Kreider was able to see his old teammates win another Beanpot. 

After playing 2012 in the Arena League, the Seattle Seahawks are giving Will Blackmon another shot at the NFL.

The NFL invited Montell Harris to the Combine. Based on how he ended his season, you would have to think he's back to full strength. Let's hope he gets a shot at the next level.

Finally, BC produced a 'Tribute to Jerry York" If you haven't already watched, click on the Youtube video below. It is well worth your time.

A glimpse into how BC is selling the program to recruits

We all love BC, but how do you convince a high school prospect that it is the right program for him? Below is a recruiting video the Football program put together to sell our history, sell Boston, sell Addazio and sell the opportunity to get to the NFL. It's a solid package and should be what we emphasize. While short on recent highlights, all Addazio needs to say to kids is that just means more opportunity for you to play and contribute to BC's history of excellence. 

Good news on Finch and other links

Who needs the Boston papers when BC updates the injury status of its star players. I am glad Finch will be back quickly. Now it will be interesting if and when BC makes a coaching change if the twitter account will continue to break news. (Also check out BC's twitter account for great behind the scenes shots of picture day.)

This is a decent and straight forward preview from Yahoo! and it was also written by a BC guy.

More on Marshalls' BC transfers.

BC didn't wait long to backfill its open scholarship. New Jersey WR Charlie Callinan committed Thursday.

This article on new freshman David Dudeck gives good details on the life during BC's summer sessions.

Former Eagle Craig Smith decided to play in Israel. Interesting that the move wasn't about money. Smith is hoping that getting playing time will open eyes in the NBA.

Another preview video

Pantale news puts damper on Media Day

Media Day is about fluff, a happy outlook and getting to know the players a bit better. Things didn't go according to plan though as BC announced that Senior Captain Chris Pantale broke a bone in his foot and will miss significant time. That's a tough loss out of the gate as Pantale has real potential and was hoping for a breakout season. Supposedly with Martin's scheme, BC can use more WRs in place of TEs, so I don't think it will derail the offense. It is also a chance for Naples to step up.

Spaz later explained that Ramsey and Miller were both dealing with injuries too.

The good news was that the media turned out in force. The Globe even sent someone!

Spaz was in a light-hearted mood and asked for pitches right down the middle.



BC Sports Information Department did a great job tweeting comments, taking pictures and shooting video.

There should be even more news tomorrow. And for those fans going to the open practice, be sure to take pictures and send them along.

Spaz Uncut

Every year at the ACC Media Days, accfootballnews.com plops down a camera at each coach's table and hits record. It's barely edited. What I appreciate about the clips are how the coaches come off in their most natural state. Usually by the time they get to the table interviews they are tired of talking and repeating the same cliches. There are fewer cameras and plenty of tape recorders around but the interactions are much more casual. He's still "on" but for a guy like Spaz you get a better feel for what he can be like in private. Here are the two videos. In the first he mainly discusses Penn State. While Spaz doesn't really say much about Paterno or the NCAA decisions, I am glad he always says the focus should be on the victims.

In this second clip, he's asked about Penn State again, but mostly he talks about improving on last year. Of course he takes a short shot at the bloggers and the twitterers and people on the internet. It's similar to the quip Blauds made this week. This just reinforces what I've told people before: all of these coaches have thin skin and definitely follow what is being said and written. (The only exception to this is Al Skinner, who really didn't follow it.)

Overall Spaz comes across perfectly fine here. He's not embarrassing. He's not exciting. He's Spaz. What else should we expect at this point?

ACC Media roundup and other links

The ACC Media voted BC 5th overall in the Atlantic Division. That's not particularly surprising since the majority of the reporters are from Carolina and still view us as a secondary program. Although I teased him on twitter, even Meter avoided his usual "BC: 1st" vote.

The recurring question for Spaz was regarding Kuechly. He handles it well and points to Ramsey as the type of player who can fill the void. Not too many asked Spaz about the "Hot Seat." (I didn't embed that video due to the auto play issues.)

It will be interesting to see if BC benefits from the looming exodus at Penn State. We are positioned well since we have scholarship space and recruited many of their kids. But I wonder if Spaz will have any hesitation in taking advantage of his alma mater.

Virginia Athlete Atem Ntantang committed to BC.

 The ACC Digital Network is running a countdown of great moments. Of course they included BC comeback against Virginia Tech. It doesn't have Chris Fowler yelling "Lane Stadium goes silent" but it does have Meter losing it.

BC is one of the schools to leverage the transfer up phenomenon in college football.

 

ACC Kickoff, Day 1 -- UPDATE

UPDATE: I took down the video since it was auto playing for people. You can listen to Ramsey and Cleary here.


I hoped that Spaz would address the Penn State situation. Knowing that those types of questions were coming, the ACC coaches released a joint statement on Penn State and Paterno. Someone should still ask Spaz on Monday since he does know Sandusky and played under Paterno.

This is a shot of Kaleb Ramsey talking to the media. And here is all the players together. Cleary also fielded questions, including those about biology and chemistry.

I expect more on Monday when Spaz talks. I also think all the newspaper guys (including Blauds) will write up their interviews from Sunday into Monday posts.