Boston College Football Recruiting: Building A Fence Around Massachusetts

Yesterday during the 2013 Boston College football recruiting class press conference, head coach Steve Addazio talked about owning the Northeast for recruiting, targeting a four-hour radius around Chestnut Hill and focusing on states like New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland and a bit of Florida. One of the areas where the previous coaching staff really dropped the ball was in recruiting Massachusetts.

2013 Prospect Ranking Rivals.com Massachusetts Postseason Top 10 2013

1. 4* OT John Montelus (Everett) -- Notre Dame
2. 3* DT Maurice Hurst Jr. (Westwood) -- Michigan
3. 3* DT Tevin Montgomery (Marion) -- Boston College
4. 3* OL Jack McDonald (Dorchester) -- Virginia
5. 3* TE Brendan O'Neil (Cambridge) -- Wake Forest
6. 3* DE Sha-ki Holines (Springfield) -- Connecticut
7. 2* QB Mackay Lowrie (West Roxbury) -- Boston College
8. 2* DE Peter Ngobidi (West Roxbury) -- UMass
9. 2* WR Lincoln Collins (Dorchester) -- Villanova
10. 2* DB Aaron Gilmer (Braintree) -- claims an offer from Bryant

Another year, another missed opportunity to keep in-state talent on the Heights. This year, the Eagles offered five of the top 10 Massachusetts products (Montelus, Hurst Jr., Montgomery, McDonald and Lowrie) and landed two of them (Montgomery and Lowrie). That's an improvement on recent years past, particularly last year's 1-for-8 showing.

If Addazio is to be successful, he's got to keep what little talent comes out of the Bay State on the Heights. That starts with rebuilding relationships with local area high schools and making Boston College a destination program once again. Boston College football has to remain relevant in its own backyard, particularly with other rival programs -- Notre Dame, Virginia, Wake Forest -- pulling talent out of Massachusetts.

Using Rivals.com Massachusetts Top 10 from 2008-2013, here's how BC has fared over the past couple of years recruiting the state:

2008
Number of Mass. Top 10 signed: 3
Number of Mass. Top 10 offered: 4 (missed on RB Jordan Todman to UConn)
Players: No. 1 RB Isaac Johnson, No. 2 DE Nick Halloran, No. 3 TE Mike Stone
Other Schools Represented: Connecticut (2), Columbia, Duke, Northeastern

All 3 of the top highest rated recruits in the state chose BC, though ultimately none of these guys ended up panning out. In fact, Johnson left the program after his junior year and recently resurfaced at AIC, which (no offense) but I didn't even realize the Yellow Jackets had a football program. Similarly, Stone never saw the field, redshirting for the 2008 season, while Halloran played in just six games on the line during the 2009 season.

2009
Number of Mass. Top 10 signed: 2
Number of Mass. Top 10 offered: 4
Players: No. 3 DB Jim Noel, No. 4 OL Keith Bourne
Other Schools Represented: Georgia, North Carolina, N.C. State, Iowa, Massachusetts, Syracuse, Connecticut

In 2009, the Jagodzinski-Spaziani transition class missed on both the top two in-state prospects in TE Arthur Lynch (Georgia) and OT Brennan Williams (North Carolina), though BC did pick up both Noel and Bourne, who ranked 3 and 4, respectively. Still, BC was the most represented program of this year's Rivals.com Top 10 Massachusetts prospects.

2010
Number of Mass. Top 10 signed: 4
Number of Mass. Top 10 offered: 5 (missed on TE Blake Barker to Harvard)
Players: No. 2 OL Robert Vardaro, No. 6 James McCaffrey, No. 9 Dominique Williams, No. 10 Aaron Kramer
Other Schools Represented: Harvard, Connecticut (2), Miami, BYU

BC was well represented in Massachusetts in 2010, bringing in four of the five Top 10 recruits they offered. The Eagles only missed on TE Blake Barker, who committed to Harvard over BC, Duke, Florida, Maryland, North Carolina, Penn State, Purdue, Rutgers, Stanford, Syracuse, Tennessee, Virginia and Wake Forest. Breathe. BC didn't offer Jimmy Noel's younger brother Rodman, who wound up at N.C. State with Tom O'Brien.

2011
Number of Mass. Top 10 signed: 4
Number of Mass. Top 10 offered: 6
Players: No. 1 TE Brian Miller, No. 2 DB Al Louis-Jean Jr., No. 6 OL Liam Porter, No. 10 DB Manny Asprilla
Other Schools Represented: California, Iowa, Nebraska, UCLA, Harvard, Nevada

For the second straight year, BC hauled in four Massachusetts recruits, including the top two ranked players in the state in TE Brian Miller and DB Albert Louis-Jean. If you include Groton Academy's Marcus Grant, who wound up back at BC after transferring from Iowa, BC snagged half of the Rivals.com top 10 players from the state, and five of the six they offered.

2012
Number of Mass. Top 10 signed: 1
Number of Mass. Top 10 offered: 8
Players: No. 7 LB Tim Joy
Other Schools Represented: Ohio State (2), Maryland, Virginia, Northwestern, Connecticut (2), Northeastern (track)

BC offered the top six ranked recruits in the state and missed on all of them. Catholic Memorial's Camren Williams and Armani Reeves, the state's top two recruits, signed with Urban Meyer at Ohio State. Maryland snagged 4* LB Abner Logan, Virginia 4* ATH Canaan Severin and Northwestern 3* OL Eric Olson. CB Donovan Henry, the 10th ranked prospect, committed to BC but then backed out to sign with Northeastern to run track (BC doesn't offer track scholarships). BC's only get from the state's top 10 was at number 7 - LB Tim Joy.

2013
Number of Mass. Top 10 signed: 2
Number of Mass. Top 10 offered: 5
Players: No. 3 DT Tevin Montgomery, No. 7 QB Tim Joy
Other Schools Represented: Notre Dame, Michigan, Virginia, Wake Forest, Connecticut, UMass, Villanova

John Montelus and Maurice Hurst Jr.'s public rebuffs of the Boston College football program are well documented. Addazio went hard after OL Jack McDonald but the BC High lineman is sticking with his commitment to the 'Hoos. Can't be too upset about losing Montelus and Hurst Jr. to Notre Dame and Michigan, respectively, especially given the season that the Eagles just had. Still, I hope that with Addazio's connections in the Northeast the program is able to return to 2008-2010 (and even 2011) levels of being able to attract and retain local talent.