Boston College Football: “Coach Addazio Gets It”

Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

Former Boston College Eagle and current Jacksonville Jaguar Will Blackmon said it best.

Specifically, this statement was in response to Boston College’s transfer acquisition of Tyler Murphy, ex-Florida Gator who is reuniting with his former offensive coordinator.

That could apply to many football-related things, however. Addazio has been in charge of the Boston College football program for about thirteen and a half months, and in that time, things have drastically improved. Is it perfect, no, but the Eagles jumped five wins between 2012 and 2013 and, more importantly, are laying the groundwork for a stable, victorious future.

Murphy’s transfer not only changed the dynamic of the 2014 quarterback competition for the better, but it added depth to a position where we lost our starter. Now, there will be a competition in which Murphy and Darius Wade, amongst others, will push each other to be better if they want to start. If Murphy gets the call, Wade will redshirt and get an extra year to practice and learn before ostensibly taking the reins.

Speaking of Wade, he and several others locked in to Boston College. Addazio and his coaching staff know the importance of sealing off their top recruits, and they made sure that they got some of them in school as soon as possible. Wade and Harold Landry, believed to be the class’s top recruit, are two of seven players who enrolled for the Spring 2014 semester at Boston College. The others are Ian Silberman, another Florida transfer, Murphy, Isaac Yiadom, Jon Baker, and Allen Dawson. Importantly, these young men will also be around for spring football.

While working the recruiting angle hard and bringing in some veteran depth where he can find it, it’s pretty clear what Addazio is trying to do: namely, avoid a drop-off in 2014. It was expected that the Eagles would fall backwards next year as they break in a new quarterback and other young talent to replace the outgoing seniors. Now, the Eagles might well have an experienced quarterback and a few newcomers who will have been at the school for eight months already by the time the season starts.

What we see is aggressive, smart program-building. This comes with the acknowledgement that there are still areas of concern that need to be resolved; for example, Alex Amidon was the only show in town when it came to wide receivers for the last two years, and now we’re nearly out of credible depth. Issues like that are why the Eagles might not necessarily improve upon last season, but thanks to a multitude of other steps they’ve taken, they might not drop too far back, either. The idea is to keep Boston College’s forward momentum going and not have that drastic “reboot” year like the basketball team did by bringing in as much talent as possible.

That would seem to qualify for “getting it.”