Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Day Three: BC AD Coach Standoff

Brian: No news. Certainly no news is NOT good news, as the longer this situation drags out, the messier it becomes. And sports writers and pundits are coming out of the woodwork with opinions on the matter. The Globe's Bob Ryan is one of those sports writers, understanding Gene's position ...

"A school like BC, which does not have the kind of ancient football tradition or residual fan base to open its doors and assume that great football players will pour through them just because, needs continuity to have a successful program. DeFilippo doesn't think that allowing a coach to go interviewing two years into a five-year contract is good for recruiting."
but openly questioning whether "Gene DeFilippo really thought Coach Jags had gotten the NFL out of his system?"

Michael Wilbon on PTI yesterday questioned when "Boston College fell asleep and woke up thinking they are Southern Cal." I get the point, but am I then to assume Southern Cal can get away with some baseless AD ultimatum of Pete Carroll? I don't think so ...

Another thing that bothers me. Yes, Boston College football is not a final destination job. But what college coaching job IS a final destination job these days? The days of Joe Paterno and Bobby Bowden are over. The revolving door of college football coaches is beginning to compare to that of the NHL, where NHL coaches on first place teams are fired midseason just for the hell of it. It's insane.

Gerry Callahan of the Herald opines about Jags motivation in all this: "Maybe it was the recruiting process or maybe it was the admissions standards. Maybe it was the athletic director or maybe it was a combination of all of the above. Maybe he feels he doesn’t have a quarterback at BC, which begs the question: Do you see one on the Jets?"

OK. Now you can certainly question Jags motivation but if fans and alumni start connecting the dots to paint the Jags era of BC football unsuccessful based on poor recruiting or whatever, that's crazy. I like Jags. No one expected us to do anything in the ACC this year and we (yet again) won the Atlantic Division. Yes, we won with some of Tom O'Brien's players, but we also won with guys Jagodzinski recruited (Haden and Harris starting in the backfield, a retooled secondary, etc.). He has done a good job at this school and if this is the end, then I'll get in line to thank him for two great years of BC football.

And here's what the two Boston newspaper reporters had to say:

Steve Conroy of the Herald says Boston College officials are still in a holding pattern ...

Mark Blaudschun of the Globe says the Eagles feathers have been ruffled ...

Jeff, what do you make of all this?

Jeff: I don't honestly think Gene thought Jags would never go to the NFL if he had the opportunity. He just didn't expect it to be this soon. Also, the coaches typically approached by the NFL are those who won BCS bowl games, not those who went 1-1 in third tier bowls. Had we won the Orange Bowl maybe Gene would've been more understanding.

Also, in this case I think no news is good news. Hopefully Jags will be back. Finally, any publicity is good publicity.

No comments: