The Steve Addazio Long Term And Short Term Goal Checklist

It is pretty clear that with the bowl, and finishing the regular season 6-6, that Steve Addazio will be returning to be the head coach of Boston College in 2017. Unless something major was to happen, his job has to be considered safe going into the offseason. So, given what we know about Addazio, what can he do to improve both his team and the program moving forward. To look at this I came up with some short and long (ish) term goals for him moving forward. Can he do these? That remains to be seen. But they are certainly things that need to be addressed.

Short Term:

Close Out 2017 Recruiting Class Strong: Momentum is on his side right now. He can tell recruits that BC has bowled 3 out of the past four years (I know we hate it, but it will work on the trail). Grabbing an AJ Dillon and someone like Kofi Wardlow would really solidify this class. And as we have seen in year’s past, Daz has been pretty good with grabbing a last minute recruit (Elijah Johnson, Jon Hilliman), getting one of those type of recruits would be huge.

Avoid a 5th Year Transfer QB: I have no idea who the 2017 quarterback will be, but one thing it can not be is another 5th year transfer. BC should have at the minimum Anthony Brown, John Fadule, Darius Wade and EJ Perry next year. Not a very experienced group, but Daz can hardly afford to go out and grab another 5th year as it will make it VERY difficult to attract quarterbacks to develop here.

Stop Trolling The Fanbase: Look BC, we get it, we have had a pretty contentious year together, but knock off the comments that are going to anger the fans. Trash the media all you want, but you have to get these fans to buy in to your program, and you need to get back on their good side and get their butts back in the aluminum stands. There is some good will right now after you did what you said what you would do and got BC back to 6-6, so build on that. Stop the “US AGAINST THE WORLD!!!!!1111!!!” narrative too, fans are pretty sick of it.

Win the Bowl Game: Can’t say this enough, this bowl game is going to set the tone for the offseason. If you win, you’ll have 7 wins, three against decent teams, something you can sell to fans/recruits. You have to win it.

LONG TERM

Develop Someone...Anyone...At QB: Brown, Perry, Wade, someone is going to need to show that Addazio/Scot Loeffler can develop young quarterbacks. Daz seems really high on Anthony Brown, get him ready for 2017. We haven’t seen you develop anyone at QB since you’ve been here, this is your time to prove everyone wrong.

Take Responsibility When Things Aren’t Working: Look, it’s okay if you make mistakes, we al do, but Addazio need to own up to them when they happen. Don’t blame “youth”, or playing “elite” teams, just take responsibility and let the fans know how you are going to fix it.

Make the Offensive Line His Baby: Addazio’s bread and butter or so he said when he got here. Next year, youth will not be an excuse when it comes to this line. He should have Jon Baker (Sr.), Chris Lindstrom (Jr.), Aaron Monteiro (Jr.), anchoring the line, along with sophomore Elijah Johnson and Sam Schmal (Jr) around. Some of the problems up front has to do with an offensive scheme that doesn’t get defenses to respect the pass, and that’s a problem, but the barrage of penalties and mistakes should be things Daz can fix.

Close The Fence: Daz doesn’t need to be perfect when it comes to local recruiting, because that clearly isn’t realistic, but he needs to get back to snagging a few that light up the recruiting boards. Next year the top MA recruit is already committed to PSU so that’s a loss, but Finn Dirstine a Lawrence Academy OL might be right in his wheel house, along with a few higher rated recruits from UConn.

Note: I purposely left off changing the offensive scheme, because that’s a pipe dream Addazio is who he is when it comes to that. Also, I left off pass the ball more, because again, pipe dream.