The facts surrounding Montel Harris' dismissal from the team on Tuesday are limited. We know that he is no longer a part of the Boston College football program. We also know that had he remained on the team, he would have been by far the most recognizable name on the team and the most accomplished.
Montel Harris offered us a glimmer of hope that next season had a chance to be something special. If he had returned and been at nearly 100 percent of his old self, while the rest of last year's team returned for the most part and had one more year of time in the weight room and experience on the field, there was some hope that next season could see some breaks our way and a win total of more than double what we saw in 2011. Now, though, that hope is gone. The team can still be significantly better than its 2011 self, but there is no longer the hope that we'd have someone on the long list of Heisman candidates halfway through the year or that BC will be able to often say that they have the best player on the field.
Since there are little to no facts that have surfaced yet about his dismissal, all we can do is look around Twitter, Facebook, blogs and message boards for reactions. Some of the reactions naturally come from people with extensive knowledge of the program but the majority come from fans with little knowledge of the program. There have been many people angry, many people wishing Montel luck, many people blaming Spaz and many people blaming a combination of Spaziani and DeFilippo.
So far though, there seems to be no one saying that Harris absolutely did no wrong, but there are people saying BC handled his dismissal wrong.
I am fine with whatever reaction you would like to have to this news, but I do question why there are a lot of people refusing to acknowledge that Montel let his teammates down to at least some degree and putting this whole mess squarely on Spaz. If those are the same people who are constantly screaming #FireSpaz and #FireGDF from the mountain tops, please explain.
If Harris gets a pass for what he has done recently because of the great things he did on the field previously, shouldn't Spaziani and DeFilippo have gotten cut some slack up until this point? Spaz did great things for BC while serving as defensive coordinator before becoming a head coach. If Montel Harris gets a free pass why doesn't Spaz? Harris was among the best running backs BC ever had while Spaz was the best coordinator BC ever had for a decade.
Montel Harris's career with BC ended abruptly, unceremoniously, and inappropriately just as Spaz's almost certainly will given the road we have been headed down. The end of each of their BC careers should either take away from both of their previous accomplishments or neither.