Boston College Football Recruiting: Addazio Closing the Deal

Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Things are going well in Boston College football recruiting lately, but for some perspective on that, one needs only to look at where the program was one year ago.

At that point, BC was bad and getting worse. The coach was a lame duck, whether or not he knew it, and the results continued to diminish. When Steve Addazio took over as head coach in December, he inherited a 2-10 program which had just had its worst season since 1978, when Addazio was just starting his collegiate playing career at Central Connecticut.

Fast forward 35 years, and again, Boston College football can go nowhere but up. Enter Addazio and his heralded skills at recruiting.

It’s not everyone that has the willpower or stomach to beg 17-year olds to play for their team, but whatever Addazio and his staff do, it’s apparently working. The list of recruits for the 2014 class has grown in the last two weeks, and with ten months until 2014 signing day, it’s up to four. They are:

Marcus Outlow, RB, Norwich, CT. National Underclassmen (NUC) 5-Star Showcase participant; BC’s first commit in the class. Three-star recruit.

Isaac Yiadom, DB, Worcester, MA. Three-star recruit; also had UConn offer.

Harold Landry, DE, Fayetteville, NC. 4.68-second 40 time; also had Duke offer.

Darius Ware, QB, Middletown, DE. Three-star recruit; dual-threat quarterback. Had offers from Nebraska, NC State, Syracuse, and Temple. Rated #23 dual-threat QB by Rivals in this class.

The list is going to grow beyond four, but the focus should be more on quality than quantity. Right now, it would appear Boston College is getting it. At present, Rivals rates BC’s 2014 class at #32 in the country and 24/7 rates BC as #27; Scout has not ranked this BC class and they would seem to be the outlier. Considering that Boston College had seasons under Frank Spaziani where they didn’t crack the Top 80, this is quite an improvement.

Part of BC’s current recruiting momentum also has to do with perceived stability. Last year, there was absolutely none. The losses were piling up much faster than the wins and it seemed difficult for young men to commit to a coach who probably wasn’t going to be here much longer. Now, we have a coach who actually can make a pitch and, at least for now, is going to stick around.

Turning around a sinking college football program is about more than Xs and Os: it’s about roster-building through recruiting (though a great recruiter also needs to know a thing or two about how to coach; ask USC fans if they think Lane Kiffin is good at the latter despite having all-world recruits). There is a long way to go before this class is finalized, but at least we know Boston College is moving upward in the talent department.