101 Days of BC Football: OL Coach Jim Bollman
By Joe Micik
Not all of the new faces Boston College hauled into their 2012 coaching staff are younger and inexperienced coaches. The new offensive line coach and “running game coordinator,” Jim Bollman, is definitely seasoned and has a great deal of coaching under his belt.
Jim Bollman has spent decades on the sidelines of college football programs, but before that, he spent four years as an offensive lineman at Ohio University. Running through his resume will take a little too much time, so here are some of the highlights:
• First coaching gig was at Miami (Ohio); worked there in varying capacities from 1977 to 1982.
• Bounced around to four different schools (NC State, Youngstown State, Virginia, and Michigan State) between 1983 and 1997.
• Spent three years as a tight ends coach in the NFL; 1998 with the Philadelphia Eagles and 1999 & 2000 with the Chicago Bears.
• Coached primarily under Jim Tressel as offensive coordinator of the Ohio State Buckeyes from 2001 to 2011; was let go by Urban Meyer.
It’s a fact that Bollman coached in BCS title games and other significant games of note — games far bigger than anything BC’s ever seen. After having spent 11 season in Columbus, they know him quite well, so what was their verdict on his Buckeye tenure? Well, FireJimBollman.com was a real website and @NotJimBollman exists, so a few fans were unhappy at least. That doesn’t represent everyone, but I shudder when I see things like this:
"For the better part of a decade, Jim Bollman became the chosen punching bag for [Ohio State] fans. Not only did his offenses lack the remotest levels of creativity – need I say Dave? – but the offensive line, a strength at Ohio State for generations, went by the wayside."
Not exactly a ringing endorsement from Buckeye land. Lacking “creativity” would fit in pretty well with the vanilla, ultra-conservative offenses BC has seen since 2009, but Bollman does deserve a fair chance from BC fans to get some things done here.
Boston College right now has a running backs coach and a “running game coordinator.” I don’t know what the hell the latter is supposed to be but whatever it is, that’s what Bollman does, in addition to coaching the offensive line. The “O-Line U” reputation suffered with the unit having a sub-par 2011, not to mention the fact that BC will probably get nobody drafted from it in 2013. Bollman will have a lot of work to do in order to get these guys playing better.