Boston College Football: Tough Schedule Excuse Doesn’t Fly

On BostonHerald.com today, Rich Thompson wrote a piece entitled “Boston College football not helped by murderer’s row of teams on schedule” that lays out another reason Steve Addazio feels that BC is struggling. Facing elite football teams, and not just a few, a whopping THREE of them on the schedule. According to Thompson:

“Each of those schools ranks among college football’s strongest, with their sights set on the College Football Playoff nearly every season. That makes for a tough hole for BC, which has won just one ACC game in the past two seasons.”

Ok fine, but this is the ACC, playing good teams doesn’t justify getting walloped by 50 points a game. Yeah, we aren’t expecting Boston College to beat these teams, but to get straight out embarrassed each week with no quantifiable improvement is inexcusable. Especially given that teams in our stratosphere have been able to hang with these teams: see N.C. State against Clemson, and UVA against Louisville.

But what about Coach Addazio, what does he have to say? In the article:

“There’s no question we have some of the elite teams in college football, and they are all on our side, and we’ve got a big challenge ahead of us this week,” Addazio said. “It’s Friday night on the road in Tallahassee against a very talented Florida State team. You watch them and they are very explosive. It speaks really well to where the ACC is and what we are playing against.”

Look I get it, some of this is coach speak, and you want to talk about how great your opponents are. You see that in the NFL, college, and the last thing Addazio needs to do is give FSU bulletin board material going into a tough game. But there are two pieces about Addazio’s comments and the premise of Thompson’s article that bother me.

One, BC does not have a murderer’s row of a schedule. Addazio and Brad Bates scheduled a cupcake out of conference schedule, one that helped pad wins, but clearly has not set them up to be ready to play these “elite” teams. This may be a tough schedule, but this is a Power Five schedule, what teams in the ACC are expected to have. You want to play with the big boys, you get a schedule like this.

Secondly, after getting blown out by three good teams, and getting lit up by Syracuse, I don’t think the fans want to hear about how great these teams are. We know that. Yes they are tough, yes they are probably going to win, but how are you going to prevent getting your bell rung again? It’s frustrating for fans and ticket holders to get excited if all we hear about is how these teams are elite, and we are just little ole BC, a team that is “developing”. Why bother tuning in if the results seem inevitable?

Then again I’m just a writer, and you’re just a reader, and Addazio let’s us know what he thinks of posts like this: ““If you can’t see that for (what it is), then you don’t understand football. Again that’s not an excuse, just the facts.”

Alright Daz.