Boston College LB Coach Bill McGovern To Join Chip Kelly's Staff In Philadelphia

In a rather shocking move, former Boston College defensive coordinator and current linebacker coach Bill McGovern has reportedly accepted a position on Chip Kelly's staff with the Philadelphia Eagles. Per the report, McGovern will be joining former BC tight end Bob Bicknell on the Eagles' staff.

Sources telling us BC LBs coach Bill McGovern will join Chip Kelly's staff w the Eagles FootballScoop.com/the-scoop

— FootballScoop Staff (@footballscoop) January 20, 2013

His role hasn't been clarified yet, but best guess would be that McGovern would be coaching the linebackers for Philadelphia. Philly hasn't named a defensive coordinator yet, but are looking at Jim Hermann, the linebackers coach with the New York Giants.

McGovern, whose defenses have struggled the past two years, was basically demoted by Steve Addazio late in December. While his schemes left much to be desired, his work with linebackers had superb results -- producing such standouts as Luke Kuechly, Mark Herzlich, Ray Henderson and Robert Francois. This is a great career move for McGovern, so congratulations to him.

This is mixed news for the Boston College football program. On the one hand, McGovern was an excellent recruiter, who had great reputations with many of the schools in New Jersey. His results as a recruiter are hard to argue with, and as a position coach he created some of the best linebackers BC has ever seen. On the other, many BC fans wanted a clean slate from Spaziani and his coaches. This move will remove a coach that oversaw one of the worst defenses in the country. Sometimes a complete fresh start for all parties is a good thing.

With McGovern gone, Addazio will need to fill another coaching roles on his staff. If my notes are correct BC now has two slots to fill: linebackers coach and defensive backs coach. Also Addazio hasn't named a recruiting coordinator yet.