This is not the kind of site that will claim the target is all bad. Gene Defilippo has done a lot of good things for Boston College athletics. The move to the ACC has been terrific for the athletic program. Even some of his recent moves have been good like hiring up and comer Steve Donahue as basketball coach. However, Gene is destroying the football program.
The current state of the Boston College football program is sad. The Frank Spaziani Era has been poor thus far. A hollow 8-5 season might have beaten the expectations of some last year, but it was more the product of a cream puff schedule than anything else. When BC had to step up against "quality" opponents like Virginia Tech, Clemson, and USC, the Eagles were not competitive.
2010 has been even worse. BC beat up on Weber State and Kent State early, but the team has looked horrendous since starting competition against BCS schools. There are certain things the coaching staff cannot control. Spaziani did not inherit enough talent to compete for a National Championship. However, he has shown without a doubt in a short time that he is not the man to lead BC to an ACC title.
Although a good defensive coordinator at the school, Spaziani has offered numerous signs that he is not equipped to handle the head job well. The first was the hiring of Gary Tranquill as offensive coordinator. Tranquill had been retired. Although he had a long and distinguished career, his last college stop at offensive coordinator of the University of North Carolina. He was part of the staff that refused to play running back Willie Parker because it did not believe Parker was fast enough to be successful as the speed back. That staff told him to bulk up. Parker became a successful speed back in the NFL, where he started for a Super Bowl record for longest touchdown run and started for the World Champion Pittsburgh Steelers.
Tranquill's offenses are painfully vanilla. While coaches throughout college football develop productive offenses by scheming to make up for a lack of talent, BC's offense has been anemic. His players lack fundamentals, particularly on the offensive line, a direct indictment on the coaching staff. The staff somehow failed to see that Dave Shinskie was not progressing in camp and refused to remove him as the starting quarterback until three games through the season.
As head coach, Spaziani is responsible for these offensive issues. He is also responsible for horrendous in game decisions. His decision to call a timeout with 17 seconds left in the first half against Notre Dame to punt comes to mind. The Eagles had a fourth down near midfield. They had all the momentum. The right call was to go for it and try to score points before the half. Spaziani let over 10 seconds run off the clock before calling his timeout, wasting valuable time. Maybe you don't think BC should have gone for it. That's fair. What is not defensible is calling a timeout to punt instead of just running the clock out. The only things that could happen there are a blocked punt or a big return.
After that blowout loss to a 1-3 Notre Dame team, linebacker Luke Kuechly said the team came out flat. No argument here. How does that happen, though? This was a primetime home game against a bitter rival. The team wasn't fired up? How is that not on the head coach? Maybe he didn't believe his team could win like during that 2009 game at Clemson, where he told the television sideline reporter, "It could get really ugly," when asked about his team trailing at halftime.
At best, Frank Spaziani will be Tom O'Brien with a mustache.
Why isn't this site about getting rid of Spaziani or Tranquill? While this site advocates that, these guys are only in place for one reason, the ego of the school's athletic director. Please explore the site further to find more.
