AJ Dillon Commits To BC: What We Learned

Yesterday, 4 star running back AJ Dillon stunned the college football universe when he flipped his commitment from Michigan to his hometown Boston College. While this move immediately improves the Class of 2017, we also learned a few things about Steve Addazio and the state of Boston College football

1. Winning Matters: Look, we as fans were not happy with BC going 6-6, but recruits felt otherwise. Dillon even said so on Twitter. The kids see Boston College winning, and it doesn’t matter against who, and that matters to them. If BC didn’t bowl this year, I doubt BC would have snagged Dillon (or kept Addazio for that matter).
2. Addazio And His Staff Still Can Recruit: One of the biggest selling points for Daz when he was hired was his ability to recruit, and we saw that the first two years when he was here. He brought in legit recruits like Connor Strachan, Harold Landry and Jon Hilliman. But over the past two classes, those “big” names have vanished, which has rightfully worried the fanbase. Couple that with losing bigger name recruits like Danny Dalton last year and Kwity Paye this year, and it gave the impression that recruiting had become a lost cause. Is it completely fixed and up to ACC standards? No. But it certainly is a step in the right direction
3. The running back position will be a position of strength in 2016: With Myles Willis and Tyler Rouse graduating, the running back position looked to be a big concern especially with the question marks surrounding Jon Hilliman. But with both A.J. Dillon and Gatorade Player of the Year from Maryland Travis Levy coming in, this has turned into a position of strength. Even if Hilliman can’t find his step again, that means BC will have at least three running backs that could compete for snaps (including Davon Jones).
4. None of this means a lick if the offensive line doesn’t play better: You could line Andre Williams in the backfield, and he would have been completely ineffective in 2016. If Daz can’t fix the O-Line, and get defenses to stop lining 8-9, even 10 guys in the box, then this commitment won’t matter.
5. Dillon’s Commitment Should Help Bring In Other Highly Sought After Recruits: Getting a kid like Dillon is a big deal in terms of how BC is perceived by other recruits. They notice this kind of stuff, and it can help BC on the trail. The name bouncing around on the internet is QB/WR CJ Lewis, a former Tennessee commit, but there may be others. It could just mean that Daz moved up in line for 4* OL Finn Dirstine. Daz needs to ride this momentum on the recruiting trail, and use Dillon’s commitment as a piece to attract others to the Heights.
6. Some Recruits Aren’t Buying That Daz’s Job Is In Jeopardy: This kind of goes along with the whole winning thing, but one takeaway we can take from this is that some recruits still believe that Steve Addazio is going to be the coach for a while. If Dillon worried that Daz was going to be gone at the end of 2016/17 he would have stayed at Michigan. Certainly there are recruits that are buying the instability message, but there are others who think BC is heading in the right direction, and that Addazio is the answer.