College Football World Catching On to Boston College’s Hot Recruiting
By Joe Micik
Howard Smith-USA TODAY Sports
Think about how long it has been since Boston College Eagles football has been known as an aggressive recruiter. We heard that Jeff Jagodzinski did not like to recruit, and that Frank Spaziani had his own challenges; in the recent past, it almost seemed like a stroke of good fortune when the team ended up with newcomers like Luke Kuechly or four-stars like Al Louis Jean or Steven Daniels. Now, it’s not a fluke and it certainly isn’t luck: it’s hard work paying off.
We are at the stage where the inner circle of Boston College fans are no longer the only people who realize it. Word of the Steve Addazio coaching staff’s recruiting successes has made it outside of Route 128 and is being picked up by more national sources and writers.
One of the more glowing articles on BC football recruiting came just today from Rick Stavig, who called the team the “surprise darlings” of the 2014 class already.
"Is Addazio the reason for such a resurgence in recruiting? I don’t see how you could appropriately attribute BC’s success elsewhere. The Eagles have 10 verbal commitments for the 2014 class, with one 4-star prospect, eight 3-star prospects and one 2-star.The beautiful thing? There’s a nice blend of local talent and national talent, which is exactly what Addazio needs to do for sustained success in Chestnut Hill."
Clearly, Addazio is at the forefront of the recruiting charge, but just as much credit must go to the assistant coaches. Thanks to the fact that most of them are on Twitter now, we know straight from them how hard they’ve been working at traversing the east coast and elsewhere to vacuum up new talent for this football team. It’s an energy the likes of which we have not seen around here in a long time.
247 Sports has been all over Boston College football recruiting and has not been afraid to call this a “hot streak.” Even Bleacher Report (accurately) finds that Addazio and company have dominated recruiting so far, while ESPN praised Addazio several weeks ago.
"As far as recruiting goes, Addazio looks to be the right man for the job. He built a solid foundation at Temple, where new coach Matt Rhule is reaping the benefits, and Addazio has the energy to turn BC into a contender in the ACC. He’s adding the right recruiting pieces to do that, too."
This roll for BC football is creating positive buzz for the program that could lead to even more upper-end recruits wanting to be a part of the Eagle renaissance. Just last week, Addazio and company added to the haul by getting a commitment from Cameron Seward out of Atlanta, a Southern recruit who turned down several Southern schools to play in Boston. The 2014 is filling out with quality as well as quantity, and that has gotten BC into the Top 30 in several major recruiting team rankings.
When Addazio was hired, we knew from his time in Florida he could recruit, but what he and his assistants have done so far has exceeded our wildest expectations. If they can coach as well as they can recruit, then the necessary rebuilding period might not take nearly as long as we all thought.