Good signs
http://www.accsports.com/teams/boston-c ... rce=feedlyCHESTNUT HILL – Steve Addazio hasn’t coached a single game at Boston College yet. Heck, he hasn’t even coached the team through a summer practice.
But despite the relatively short time Addazio has been on the job, he has hit the ground running, changing many things at BC. To say that Addazio is off to a quick start reversing the losing culture and attitude that has been prevalent at the Heights over the last few seasons is an understatement.
With only one session of spring practice under his belt, Addazio has the Eagles believing that they can be a winning team in the ACC this season, even though they won just two games overall last year.
“There’s a phrase running through my mind that I heard in years past,” running back Andre Williams said. “The phrase is that if we worked hard and come out Saturday, we will throw it up in the air and see what we got. Maybe we will win and maybe we won’t. There was a lot of ‘if we,’ ‘maybe,’ ‘lucky,’ and it wasn’t really a message like, ‘Yeah, we are about to go out and win this game.’
“(Offensive coordinator Ryan) Day and Coach Addazio have a poise and confidence about them. They are emotional people, and I think their character is starting to engulf the entire team.”
Teammate Al Louis-Jean, BC’s starting cornerback, had similar positive things to say about the new coaching staff.
“They all love football, and they have all the right ideas to move us forward as a football team,” Louis-Jean said. “They all are great coaches with great attitudes. They coach with intensity and bring a lot to the table. When coaches are like that, it’s better for the coaches and players coming up with the product to win football games.”
While confidence was clearly a big reason why the team had a different swagger this past April, that alone isn’t going to turn around a program. At the end of the day, it comes down to on-the-field performance, and quite frankly, the program has been horrible recently in that aspect. Aside from creating a new winning attitude, the staff has put an emphasis on doing the small things correctly.
“They say losing is unacceptable, and it’s not just losing,” Williams said. “If something isn’t right, then it isn’t right, and we are going to fix it before the end of practice. It’s black and white, and there’s no gray area. It was hard for some people to swallow, and it was an adjustment and a transition, but when you are coming off of a two-win season, there has to be an aggressive takeover. They know what they are walking into, and they are addressing it the right way.”..............
Williams also said that the new staff is putting players in a position to succeed. “I think the coaching staff now sees what they have, and they know who they need to put where to make us successful, and I’m excited about it,” Williams said. “I think the main reason is the coaching staff is exuding confidence, and that in itself gives me confidence.” ..........