College Football Coaching Hot Seat: Spaziani Saved By Longevity/Loyalty?

SB 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 College

Record (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.