BC Football: Brad Bates Can Make the Spaziani Call Now

Melina Vastola-US PRESSWIRE

Last week, I argued on this very site that Boston College’s new athletic director, Brad Bates, deserved a honeymoon period. That applied also to his evaluation of the football program, and one Mr. Frank Spaziani of Hingham, MA. I said the following:

"After his press conference, Bates gave some general platitudes in the direction of Frank Spaziani and indicated that he would be willing to wait until the season was over to make a full evaluation of his “body of work.”As much as this blog and a number of fans and alumni want Spaziani gone, this is a totally defensible position and Bates deserves no backlash for it. From his perspective, he just got here. It would not be fair to expect him to have the depth of knowledge about the recent history of the program that we do — the fans have spent the last four years watching this thing crumble every day, while Bates was in Ohio not paying a lick of attention."

This is still a defensible position today, and Bates is within his rights to want to take the time to evaluate the program, but at this point, I must insist that following Saturday’s disaster at Florida State, Bates has already seen everything he needs to make his choice.

Boston College football is not getting better, and has not for the last four years. If anything, one could make a convincing argument that the 2012 Eagles are getting worse over the course of the season. Before Bates arrived, BC lost to Army for the first time in 17 years, and on Saturday, the Eagles suffered their worst defeat by points allowed and final margin in 12 years.

Yes, Saturday’s loss at Florida State was BC’s worst in over a decade.

We say they’re getting worse because the offensive line is not holding up as well as it had earlier in the season, the defense is very bad and still digging, and the coaching is as inept and useless as ever. Frank Spaziani has leveled this football program and left a smoking crater where it used to be. I regret to inform Bates that things are not likely to get any better. This is the Boston College football team we had before you got here, and is the same we will have the rest of the year. Saturday’s loss was not a fluke: it is part of a pronounced trend of failure, directly stemming from the inadequacy of the head football coach. This season is only half over and it has already yielded some of the most pitiful efforts I have seen in my nine years of watching BC football.

This was not some outlier. What Bates saw first-hand on Saturday evening was BC football in its current state. Spaziani’s body of work is terrible. It isn’t going to get much better, or better at all. There will be no miracle comeback for a bowl game, because a team with a defense this bad and a coach this gutless is incapable of winning 5 of 6 to close out the year. Spaziani has done enough damage to my alma mater, and he absolutely must go immediately.

Bates can wait if he wants, and we have to respect that choice if so, but I submit with all due respect that there is nothing he will see in the remaining six games that will speak well of this coach or what he has done to this team. Several years ago, BC was an elite team, contending with other elite teams. Now, we are legitimately one of the worst teams in FBS. That is not going to change in any appreciable manner.

Brad Bates can make this call now. Boston College must be rid of Frank Spaziani at once, and our new athletic director took a big step on Saturday to understanding why.