Two Problems With the Latest ESPN BC Football Piece

The media, not including The Heights, have been nearly universal in their praise of Boston College football’s head coach and athletic director despite the worst season in over a decade. Today was no different, as ESPN’s Heather Dinich posted an upbeat piece about BC football’s future. Now, optimism sure isn’t a bad thing, and Eagles fans could use some legitimate cause for optimism rather than the “4-8 wasn’t as bad as it looked” sort of spin, but in this case, it’s manufactured.

Even so, the Dinich piece raised two issues which stood out in my mind and need to be addressed.

First, with regards to the offensive coordinator situation: by now, many BC football fans have heard the rumors about North Carolina assistant John Shoop coming to BC to take over for Dave Brock. Shoop is not mentioned by name in this piece, and may not even be the guy at the end of the day, but Dinich confirms that

"“Boston College coach Frank Spaziani said he’d like to hire an offensive coordinator “the sooner the better,” and that he is considering both internal and external candidates.”"

Here’s my question: Why do we need a new offensive coordinator?

One of the reasons I’ve heard for keeping Frank Spaziani aboard — especially from folks like Dinich –- is that BC needs stability at the top and having our third head coach since 2008 is a bad thing. Yet, at the same time, having four different offensive coordinators in three seasons is nothing more than a “disruption.” If consistency and stability are king, why doesn’t that apply to the offensive coordinator position?

The jury may still be out on Dave Brock. In fact, we don’t even know if he really opened up the playbook in 2011 or if he was being influenced by more conservative sources. What I do know, however, is that Chase Rettig and the offense started to look a bit better towards the end of the season, and now BC is planning to change things again. Furthermore, based on a cursory glance of Shoop’s résumé, I’m not entirely certain that he’d be a big upgrade over Brock, and even if he was, would he have the liberty to call all the plays himself? The whole situation is depressing.

My second problem with this piece is a quote by the coach himself:

"“We’re still going to be young next year, but it’s a situation we’re working ourselves through.”"

Make no mistake: the youth excuse is already queued up and ready for launch in September; all they need are a few injuries and, along with the offensive coordinator turnover, you have the exact same excuses BC made in 2011 if all goes wrong. If you think they won’t trot them out once more next year to save their necks, think again. When they do, the same people will eat them up.