The Doug Flutie Interview: EA Sports, BC Football, and More

Doug Flutie on Boston College football in 2013

Joe: Onto your beloved alma mater and mine. As you know, there’s been some change in the Boston College football world lately; what’s your sense of how Steve Addazio is doing so far in terms of revitalizing the program? What’s your sense of the energy around the program?

Flutie: I think you hit the nail on the head — the energy around the program. The one thing Steve did when he came in was brought fire to it. I love Frank; Spaz and I have been friends for a long, long time, but things were getting a little stale and stagnant. When Steve came in I sat down with him for a while, and the one thing you realize is that he’s going to find out who wants to be here and who doesn’t. He’s going to push these kids and get their attention in a hurry. He worked their tails off throughout the offseason; he brings an energy level to this team that hasn’t been there in a little while.

I think talent-wise, there’s talent on this team. Chase Rettig at quarterback — I’ve thrown the ball to Chase. The kid can flat-out throw and he’s very athletic. He’s had four different offensive coordinators and he couldn’t get comfortable with an offense, but I like what they’re trying to do now, spreading it out and throwing the football.

Boston College has always been good, though, when we had a good, strong line and could run the ball at people. There’s talent at the tailback position as well, but I think the talent level is secondary to the change in attitude. I think the change in attitude is the number one thing that’s going on right now and I’m excited about the direction in which it’s going.

I just know from what I saw — my nephew, Billy, still works there and I get secondary information from him — that people are excited.

As far as recruiting goes, we’ll see how recruits pan out. I think there was a decent talent level there already, but I think guys were starting to lose their edge and their hunger for playing. As soon as Steve stepped in, he got that back in the spring.

Kyle: Right now, BC has a capable senior quarterback under center in Chase Rettig. You like his game, obviously, but what sort of year do you see him having?

Flutie: The one thing holding him back is that it’s a brand new offense again. He’s been through so many offenses already — you need to grow in an offense to where it becomes second-nature, so you can just go out, be instinctive, and play. It’s going to be his first year in an offense, where he’s going to be thinking, but you’ll definitely see improvement from a numbers standpoint. It’s basically the old Texas Tech-type offense, spreading them out and throwing the football all over the map.

In talking to Chase, he was excited about the change of offense, and I think he’ll have a good year. I think he’ll have a solid year; I don’t think he’s going to blow it out of the water only because it’s his first year in an offense.

The Doug Flutie interview concludes on page 3, with more about recruiting, Eagle athletics, and one of Flutie’s football stories