Maybe We Should Go A Little Easier On Daz

Are people actually rooting for Steve Addazio to fail?

While the head coach of a school’s most important sport should certainly be criticized, critiqued, and held accountable (and I’ve been more than willing to dish out that criticism), the Anti-Steve Addazio train seems to have screamed right on past Reasonable Criticism station on its way to No Matter What Happens He Can’t Do Anything Good terminal.

The justifications for Why Steve Addazio Is A Bad Coach have gotten a little out of hand, particularly since we’ve actually managed to get a couple wins. The success of Andre Williams was entirely because he was Andre Williams. The success of Tyler Murphy was entirely because he was Tyler Murphy — let alone the fact that coaches at Florida never squeezed nearly as much talent out of him as we saw at BC. Defense is good? Well, Daz doesn’t have anything to do with the defense. Offensive struggles? That’s all on Daz, not the OC. Offense actually did something good? Well, clearly that’s because Daz wasn’t involved.

There have been comments that suggested that after the success of the first half against Maryland, Daz overruled Scot Loeffler to go to “his” more conservative “preferred” offensive style, which according to everyone who doesn’t like Daz just means running into a wall for three plays and punting. BC went up-tempo in the first half, and it worked great! Couldn’t have been Daz’s doing, though. Obviously Daz “took over” in the second half after seeing our offense doing too well in the first half.

Come on. Doesn’t anyone realize how absurd that sounds?

No, this wasn’t a good year. No, beating Maryland in a bowl game sponsored by a regional Jiffy Lube isn’t the long-term goal of the program. Yes, there are very real concerns about Addazio’s coaching. But what does he have to do to get some degree of a cap tip for doing something right? We were placed in a bowl game and we won that bowl game, and in pretty exciting fashion. Yet that’s still a negative? We throttled both FBS schools in our region, but those wins don’t count? He’s unquestionably had a very strong month recruiting. The players very clearly love him and get up to play for him. These are all things worth acknowledging.

This is not to say that Addazio should be free from criticism. He deserves plenty. This is not the level of success we hoped to see in year 4. But look at northeastern football in general — as Joe pointed out earlier this year, everyone except Penn State has struggled. Is there a single other northeastern football program that you would trade places with right now?

Like it or not, Daz is going to be around next year. I don’t know if many people would openly say that are rooting for him to fail, but from what you read in the comments and see in the Twitterverse, it sure seems that way. Next year’s a new season, with a new quarterback, an offensive line that will have had another year to bulk up, and a defense that has shown the ability to reload with talent from the lower classes.

We’ve looked respectable, and have beaten some good teams, with Addazio as our coach already. He hasn’t suddenly forgotten what he’s doing, and he’s going to be here for the foreseeable future. Stop hoping that he won’t get us back to and surpass that level. If you’re not here rooting for the team and the coach to succeed, then what are you here for?

Criticize what should be criticized — and yes, there are and will be plenty of opportunities for it. But let’s not be ridiculous about it and disqualify Daz from being the reason for any good thing that happens.