FanPost

Of Joe and Jeff and Steve

Jamie Rhodes-USA TODAY Sports


Joe Marzetti was probably a very nice kid. He played quarterback at BC for parts of three seasons in the 1960s. Joe didn't play a lot, probably because (it seems that) he couldn't throw the ball especially well. He completed just 62 of 200 career pass attempts (30.5%) for 959 yards (4.9 yards per attempt).

Why do we care? Because Joe Marzetti is the only BC qb in history (with more than 50 pass attempts) to throw the ball as poorly as Jeff Smith (16/52; 30.8%; 173 yards [3.3 yards per attempt]).

Look, I'm not busting on Jeff Smith here. I have repeatedly said that neither Darius Wade, nor Jeff Smith, nor Troy Flutie can be fairly evaluated playing in this sorry excuse for an offensive scheme. But I am baffled by those attacking Troy Flutie for his performance while ignoring or casually dismissing the fact that statistically, so far, Jeff Smith is the worst that BC has ever had.

"But Enzo, Smith brings an explosiveness to the running game that makes him more dangerous than Flutie." No, he doesn't. He ran (backwards) for -33 yards in Louisville. The offense finally scored its first points with Jeff under center these last two games, but every one of them have been giftwrapped by the defense. I don't know the precise length of his longest drive this year, but I'd be surprised if it were much more than 30 yards. When you can't throw, you can't run. So he can't do either. That's why the Smith-led offense picked up all of 2 first downs in Louisville.

So, when the supporters of Addazio and Smith say that there is only a qb controversy because of Troy's last name, keep in mind that the Addazio/Smith combination has delivered our worst passing offense ever. EVER. And neither Addazio nor Smith give us hope for improvement.