College Football Coaching Hot Seat: Spaziani Saved By Longevity/Loyalty?
by Brian Favat on Oct 24, 2011 5:00 PM EDT
in Boston College Football
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PrintSB Nation's Bill Connelly has his latest hot seat Monday post chronicling the college football coaches on the proverbial "hot seat."
Surprisingly, Boston College's Frank Spaziani is just 10th on the list this week, behind a bunch of coaches that have just a few more wins under their belt this season -- Houston Nutt (2-5), Rick Neuheisel (3-4), Paul Wulff (3-4), Neil Callaway (1-6), Luke Fickell (4-3), Everett Withers (5-3), Turner Gill (2-5), Joker Phillips (3-4) and Larry Porter (2-6).
Huh?
6 (Saved By Longevity/Loyalty?)
Frank Spaziani, Boston CollegeRecord (Remaining Games): 1-6 (at Maryland, Florida State, N.C. State, at Notre Dame, at Miami).
Chance For Salvation (1-10): 3.
If I Were Athletic Director...: I probably wouldn't have fired Jeff Jagodzinski. But this is also why I'm not Boston College's athletic director.As I mentioned in my Mike Leach piece a couple of weeks ago, the fact that Spaziani signed a contract extension last year probably saves him here, as does his long career as a successful B.C. defensive coordinator. Still, B.C. looks completely hopeless right now, and the schedule does them no favors. At first glance, there is only one potentially likely win remaining on the schedule, and even at a school that preaches more about commitment and loyalty than almost any other at the BCS level, at 2-10 season, with growing apathy all around, would have to give even the most loyal athletic director pause, right?
Not sure if Connelly knows something I don't, but the mere fact that Spaziani is so far down this list gives me some serious reason for concern.
If we are truly marching towards a 1-11 season and GDF doesn't get rid of Spaz at season's end, then as far as I'm concerned, Gene can hit the road too. If DeFilippo is going to dig in his heels here and back his 2009 decision to hire Spaz out of some convoluted sense of loyalty or longevity, then this fan base will become even more apathetic to Boston College football than it already is.
Donations and ticket sales will hit bottom, despite a very favorable home sched that includes Clemson, Virginia Tech, Notre Dame and Miami. And while revenues continue to increase with the move to the ACC -- and will continue to grow after the conference renegotiates its TV rights deal with ESPN -- retaining Spaz's services for another year will do nothing for this program and will only further prolong any road to recovery, if there is a recovery to be had.
I know if Spaz is here another season, I'm going to stop answering those phone calls from numbers with a (617) 552- prefix. And though my contributions to the program pale in comparison to other more wealthy donors, I also know I won't be alone in decreasing contributions to the Flynn Fund. Our little corner of the internets can spend more time covering Boston College's winning varsity sports like hockey and sailing and less time chronicling Spaz's best efforts to run a once proud college football program into the ground.
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He just hates BC
Read his post about Leach where he says he just wanted to see how far down the list we would have to be. I messaged him and he said he had nothing against BC, bit his two pieces I’ve actually read have a distinct anti-BC slant to them.
I won’t read anything else he puts out.
GO BC!
by BCMike22 on Oct 24, 2011 6:32 PM EDT via mobile reply actions
Not all on Spaz
Look, the real reasons for this year’s problems are 1) injuries to key players, 2) inexperience on both the O-line and D-line and the secondary, and 3) stronger than usual non-conference schedule and ACC. If Momah, Harris, and Ramsey return, and Kuechly resists the urge to go pro for another year, and with Clemson and VTech being home games, next year could see BC go from the bottom to the top.
Yeah, we could go to the top........if we hire a real coach.
But that likely won’t happen.
My Twitter @totheights
Injuries to key players
I hate this excuse for two reasons: 1. BC is not the only school that has to deal with injuries, so using it as an excuse means that 2. BC hasn’t recruited for crap and the backups wouldn’t make a MAC roster.
Thinking back to Logan, it’s night and day with this coaching staff – when Crane went out, Davis came in, he stumbled, but we were still able to win enough games to make it to the ACC championship game as Logan built an offensive plan around the tools he had. Think about it – Ryan graduates and we make it back to the ACCCG the next year. With the current staff if we lose a running back all of a sudden the whole season is lost. It’s bull crap.
the reason this season is lost....
Our defense and line play. Our offense has never been prolific or high powered, even with Matty Ice leading the charge. The one thing that has been consistent is our defense. Specifically our defensive line, we always (last 10 years) had playmakers. Since BJ Raji and Brace left we haven’t recovered. On the offensive line, during the Jags years we switched our offensive line philosophy and maybe that’s the reason that our O-line has been sub par. I’m not an offensive line expert, and don’t want to throw this on Jags (actually i kind of do), but we’ve been covering up our two biggest weaknesses the past two years with the Montel harris & Herzlich show 2007/2008.
And i know the rebuttal to this is our defense is always on the field, please remember how often Chris Crane or DD would go 3 and out, or have untimely turnovers. Also this might sound like blasphemy, but Luke Kuechly while a tackle machine, needs to be a playmaker at this position, for us to have any success. Force turnovers/TFL, Sacks.
I do think Spaz will get one more year no matter what, just because of how young this team is. Do i think this is the right decision, no.
3) stronger than usual non-conference schedule and ACC
Sorry but as we have seen, Duke, Wake Forest, UCF and Northwestern are not strong opponents.
Writer at BC Interruption SBN's Boston College Eagles blog
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I don't believe apathetic covers how I would feel...
ENRAGED would be a good start.
VIOLATED also a possibility.
INCENSED has a nice mouth-feel.
BELLICOSE would be about right..
APOPLECTIC status would be approaching.
by CSOM_97 on Oct 25, 2011 8:45 AM EDT reply actions 1 recs
Agreed
Our little group of season ticket holders already decided not to renew if Spaz is back. Why bother when the games never sell out anyway? Can get tickets cheaper on secondary market.
2012
There’s a very real possibility that 4 of 7 of BC’s home opponents will be ranked in the Top 25 next season — Notre Dame, Virginia Tech, Clemson, Miami.
If Spaz is still coach, driving up to Chestnut Hill on Saturdays would be a waste of gas.
I’ll likely still go out to Evanston to watch the Eagles lose again to the ‘Cats (dueling alma maters), but if Spaz is still around, that’s probably the only game I’ll attend next season.
Doubt I’ll make it to campus for a game. What would be the point? I could just as easily watch BC be non-competitive from the comfort of my own couch against Notre Dame, Clemson, Virginia Tech, Miami and Maryland. Hopefully we can beat Army and Maine … well, hopefully there’s no carry over from the last time we played the Black Bears in hoops.
http://www.bcinterruption.com/pages/2012-boston-college-football
Editor, BC Interruption
probably going to stop reading this blog now!!!!!
Ok, you have so much irrational hate for Spaz, its sickening!!!! I will probably stop checking this blog daily now! Spaz is so far down on the hot seat because those are all more prestigious (ie BETTER JOBS) programs that have a history of not winning recently. If you were a college football fan, and not a BC homer, you would know that we are a perennial 7-8 win team at BEST!!!! Looking at the schedule, the pre-season depth chart (or lack there of) plus the loss of our starting safeties, we were looking at 6-6 at the very best! If you followed this program (3 coaches in 4 seasons) its surprising we didn’t crash and burn sooner. We CAN"T fire Spaz because: 1 it would only make things worse! What recruit would want to go to an academic institution with a revolving door at head coach! it would ruin the program for the rest of the decade! 2 what coach would want the job?! No big time coach would want to be over a program that puts serious limits over recruits and no up and comer would want to work for GDF! As soon as you did a good job, and rumors started to swirl, they would have to be worried about being fired! GDF should not be allowed to hire another coach after the disaster before. You could argue that if Spaz was good enough for the job, he should have gotten it to begin with! Thats solely on GDF and it will take a few years of lost revenue to get him out! We shouldn’t fire Spaz because: 1 unless we signed the huge name coach (Coughlin or Weiss really miss Boston?) we would be still be bottoming out, if it not 2 seasons ago! WE had 1/2 a recruiting season in 3 years! Jags had 4 players making major contributions! (but oh no, here comes the injury excuse! Harris and Moymahn) The rest of the good players transfered! (Haden, Davis) We need to give Spaz at least 1 more season for his first FULL recruiting class to reach Junior status. Now if you want to call for GDF head, go for it! But , it will take a lot to get him out! With Syracuse and Pittsburgh joining the ACC, he clearly made the right call back in 2003, even though it probably cost us 2 BCS games and an undefeated regular season in 2007! I feel like your attitude of “WE ARE NUMBER 1!” contributes to all the irrational BC hate in the area! You complain about gas money, so you probably drive far enough where you spend upwards of $1000 so you can tail gate in a parking garage, right? Maybe you should have cut back on that 3 years ago so you wouldn’t be enraged at a down season! And while we are on the personal attack, when I messaged you about 98.5 broadcasting BC hockey games, I thought you would actually do some research and read the press release! Only select FRIDAY HOME games are on 98.5! Guess your Spaz rage got in the way, maybe you can talk Flutie into taking up coaching!
by Joseph Symolon on Oct 25, 2011 11:01 AM EDT reply actions
Mark Blaudschun is that you?
Writer at BC Interruption SBN's Boston College Eagles blog
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Nope
Mark Blaudschun doesn’t know what a “blog” is.
Editor, BC Interruption
by Brian Favat on Oct 25, 2011 12:50 PM EDT up reply actions
Sorry couldn’t tell. They format their paragraphs the same way.
Writer at BC Interruption SBN's Boston College Eagles blog
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OK, here’s a list of fan-operated, pro-Spaz BC blogs you can read:
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(cough)
Soaring to Glory: On the #FireSpaz bandwagon before it was cool
by SoaringtoGlory on Oct 25, 2011 12:51 PM EDT up reply actions
It would then appear that Joseph is giving up all BC blogs.
Editor, BC Interruption
by Brian Favat on Oct 25, 2011 12:54 PM EDT up reply actions
Is www.trustinspaz.blogspot.com still available? Thinking about branching out and starting my own blog.
Writer at BC Interruption SBN's Boston College Eagles blog
Follow me on Twitter
Looks like it. If he’s bashing you guys then he’s also bashing me, ATL, the Around the Res dudes, Heights and Lows, and all the rest.
That guy’s in the minority, not us.
Soaring to Glory: On the #FireSpaz bandwagon before it was cool
by SoaringtoGlory on Oct 25, 2011 1:00 PM EDT up reply actions
outsider view
I’ve visited this site several times and have enjoyed reading some of the articles and posts.
I may have missed it, but it was my impression the editors and staff didn’t harbor unrealistic expectations (ACC champs and BCS bowls). But I and everyone else in ACC land thought BC would have a winning record and make a bowl game.
Now you’re staring a one or two win season in the face. That has to suck big time.
If I were an Eagle fan, I’d be saving my booster contribution and putting it in a fund to take out a contract on the head coach so I totally understand the frustration.
I want to wish you luck on all your remaining games except for one.
You’re correct, nobody had expectations all that high over here. We expected they’d play better, but didn’t necessarily think it would reflect in the standings with the tough schedule. I was down for a 6-7 win season before it started, and the most I saw any BC blogger predict was 8.
The collapse of this program has been swift and painful and even when they were winning 7-8 games in prior years, Spaz still made a lot of boneheaded coaching decisions. Now, with the way he still does that, combined with a lot more losing and throwing players under the bus, there’s no way we intend to support him any longer.
Soaring to Glory: On the #FireSpaz bandwagon before it was cool
by SoaringtoGlory on Oct 25, 2011 3:33 PM EDT up reply actions
I predicted 8 wins.
I maintain this is a 6-win team with 1- (or 2- … please?) win coaching.
Editor, BC Interruption
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