Should Boston College Fire Offensive Coordinator Todd Fitch?

If this blog had a manifesto, it would include the importance of avoiding overreacting to small sample sizes, setting realistic expectations, and avoiding scapegoats. For instance:

- Two solid years of overcoming roster limitations did not make Steve Addazio the equivalent of Vince Lombardi.

- A bad start to this season in the face of tremendous adversity does not make Steve Addazio the equivalent of Spaz.

- A heinous start to his BC coaching career—BC was 93rd in the nation in defense in 2013—did not mean Don Brown was a bad defensive coordinator

- One great pass or one bad mistake doesn't mean one QB or the other has established himself this season.

- Going 8-4 would not be a bad thing at BC

etc., etc., etc.

Generally speaking, all of us here at BCI understand that rebuilding the BC football program after the utter depths of 2011-12 is going to be a process, and we're willing to let this coaching staff get its system in place before evaluating their ceiling. The juniors and seniors on this team were recruited at a time when BC football was losing recruiting battles to the Northeastern track team. (Really.) So, we get it.

Thus, it's not something I take lightly to throw this out there: BC should strongly consider parting ways with offensive coordinator Todd Fitch, because even with all of the roster's inherent talent issues and injury problems, the level of failure on offense is completely unacceptable at the FBS level.

Some of the big picture issues that are plaguing BC's offense are certainly on head coach Steve Addazio and not the offensive coordinator. The decision to rotate quarterbacks even within key drives is certainly a head coaching decision. The clock management issues are on the head coach and have been problematic for three seasons. The complete disaster that is the kicking game, and the way that hurts the offense overall, can only be blamed on the head coach now that BC has churned through multiple kickers and special teams coaches without success.

That said, fair is fair here. People can't give Don Brown 100% of the credit for the defense and then give Steve Addazio 100% of the blame for the offense. Addazio deserves equal shares of credit and blame on each side of the ball. For the past two years, Ryan Day did an outstanding job maximizing BC's talent by running an offense tailor made to its best players. Day was a very good offensive coordinator and his experience is sorely missed right now by a BC team going through a ton of turnover.

BC hasn't come close to establishing an offensive identity in six games under OC Todd Fitch. BC has looked lost and inept offensively, and completely unprepared to handle various key situations. They also seem to have no idea what it is they're trying to run. They switch from the pistol to power runs to a Tyler Murphy style option offense all within the same drive; it's not surprising that the young roster isn't getting good at anything in particular.

The QB rotation is stupid, but the playcalling in conjunction with the QB rotation has been very bad. I have lost track of how many times BC has brought in Flutie in situations where BC was obviously going to either go play action or spread it out, or Smith in situations when BC is obviously looking for a designed QB run. For all the screaming about needing to throw the ball more, BC has attempted to pass more often in the last two weeks (20+ pass attempts each week, plus a number of sacks) than they almost ever did in the previous two years. It's not working.

Against FBS competition, BC is #122 out of 128 teams in offensive yardage. More importantly, they are dead last in points scored, with 6 points per game. Hawai'i isn't too far ahead of BC at 8.4 points per game, but above those two the bottom feeders (those ranked 100 or below) are at least averaging between 12 and 20 points per game.

The offense is so incredibly bad that it's not remotely unreasonable to think a coordinator change is necessary and appropriate. Steve Addazio is not going anywhere, for better or for worse (and I still think he will do a good job here over the long run). But he clearly misses Ryan Day, as play calling is obviously not his strong suit. BC needs to target a skilled, experienced offensive coordinator; at this point it's hard to imagine things getting any worse.