Dan Rubin has published the official BC post-mortem on The Addazio era in
The People’s Daily bceagles.com
The Steve Addazio era ended on Sunday with Martin Jarmond's announcement that there would be a new head coach for the football program in 2020.
The decision ended the latest era of Boston College football. The Eagles finished this season 6-6 after beating Pittsburgh on Saturday and will compete in their sixth bowl game in seven years. But after entering into an unavoidable discussion, Jarmond made a recommendation to the school's head administration and decided to take the program in a different direction.
"We look at the whole body of work," Jarmond said in a news conference on Monday. "We evaluate throughout the year, but I started talking with Father Leahy at the end of the season. We connected and we just felt like the trajectory that we were on, I didn't feel like we were making the progress competitively that we needed to. We want to be more competitive in (the ACC) and nationally, and I just felt, with the total body of work, that it was time to make a change.
Making a change is never an easy decision, but the Addazio era closes as one of Boston College's more nuanced chapters. The head coach restored pride to Chestnut Hill by providing a stark contrast to the consecutive losing seasons of the team he inherited. Those first two seasons led BC back to bowl games after the program slipped to a 2-10 finish before his arrival. The second season included a massive upset over Southern California and ended with a memorable trip to the Pinstripe Bowl, a Tier One bowl game within the ACC structure.
It formed the bedrock of a construction project, and BC became known nationally as a tough, rugged football program. It valued simple core pillars with a run-first mantra running against the grain of the current pass-happy offenses. A bumper crop of young talent understood the complex schemes and ideas, and it harmonized around a tough defense capable of winning field position battle.
The program under Addazio reached its zenith in 2018 when one of the deepest, most talented rosters in recent BC history started the season with a 7-2 record. It created a fever pitch around a return to the national polls, and it brought ESPN's College GameDay roadshow to Chestnut Hill. The full momentum of the crowd frenzied Alumni Stadium when Michael Walker's punt return gave BC a lead over No. 2 Clemson. But a disappointing end to the season combined with the denouement of the First Responder Bowl's cancellation shrouded the program's early-season rise.
"We're not taking a step back," Jarmond said. "This is all about moving forward. This is a solid foundation. If you look at our team, we have a lot of talent coming back. This is a launch pad. I don't really get into the 'how many wins' (discussion). I know that's important to fans, but I look at momentum. I look at energy. I look at progress. If you're not progressing, you're either stalling or moving back. We want to move forward. When you look at everything, I want a program that's constantly moving forward. That's what we want to do."
Addazio's tenure will find positive light because Boston College is in a much healthier position than it was when he began. The 2011 and 2012 seasons produced a combined six wins. It was a difficult time for a team recognized as an annual bowl contender.
He brought all of that back to BC with a counterculture mentality. The coach kept developing and building the scheme, leveraging his players' intelligence in a college football brand of Moneyball. It got the team to bowl games every year, save for one, which in turn meant more practice time and further development. That turned every player into a professional-grade talent. BC became a factory for NFL skills coaches, and last year's Pro Day became an indication of what that meant. The wins and losses just never seemed to get over the hump, creating a complex, nuanced discussion. The end result is final and complete, with Boston College moving in a different direction, but how it got to this point is never going to be easily summarized.
Even with this latest chapter closing, there's still a belief and energy in Chestnut Hill and BC teams are exploding onto the national scene at every turn. Football is on the verge of doing something incredibly special. The goal now is to capitalize on the momentum and move forward with the right steward capable of moving the existing infrastructure into its next phase.
It's a unique opportunity to combine all of that energy throughout the entire athletics department with the upward trajectory of the football team. It ends the latest chapter, but the next one is already ready to start.
"We talk about greater heights," Jarmond said. "We want to achieve more. You saw that last year when we were in the top-25. One of our strategic goals in our strategic plan is to be a top-25 football program (annually). That's a goal I feel strongly about. Last year, when we got back into the (polls), we were competitive. That, I think, is really important to understand what we can be. We have a rich tradition and history. We have done it before. I know we can do that. We have a lot of talent, we have a lot of potential, and I think we have to maximize that.
"I'm excited," Jarmond reiterated. "This is not something that's a rebuild. This is a retool to go for greater heights, and that's what this is about."
Posted: Mon Dec 02, 2019 9:26 pm
