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Former Boston College Eagles‘ head coach Frank Spaziani had quite the demise of his head-coaching career. He had been with the Eagles for 15 years, starting out as a running backs coach from 1997-98 and then transitioned into the defensive coordinator from 1999-2008, being one of the most successful at his position during that time.
Jeff Jagodzinski was the head coach prior to Spaziani and then fired for interviewing for the New York Jets‘ open coaching spot in 2009 and then Spaziani took over permanently.
He had a record of 1-2 in bowl games — one win as an interim coach in 2006 and two losses as the head coach in his first two seasons at the helm. He then suffered two seasons with less than five wins in 2011 and 2012. His wins decreased every season as a head coach, which ultimately led to his firing following last season and the hiring of former Temple head coach, Steve Addazio.
New team, new regime and hopefully a different result. Here is how the No. 98 team in our Rant Sports Top 100 in 100 days looks for the 2013 season.
Top Players
Chase Rettig leads the way at quarterback for the Eagles and has done so for a couple seasons now. He had his first season with over 2,000 yards passing last year and also had 17 touchdown passes. His only downfall? Interceptions, which he had 13. Time to improve on that mark for the soon-to-be senior QB.
Alex Amidon is a stud wide receiver for the Eagles. He caught 78 passes for 1,210 yards and seven touchdowns and will look to improve on that number, if at all possible, in 2013.
On the defensive side of the ball, linebacker Kevin Pierre-Louis looks to be the guy at the top of the totem pole. He recorded 85 tackles and two sacks while missing three games in 2012. If he can improve on those numbers in his senior season, watch out college football.
Offense
I am going to take a look at the side of the ball that needs the most work in 2013: the offense. They ranked near the bottom of the entire country in rushing yards (119th) and points per game (111th). While Rettig ensured that the offense wasn’t completely useless, many guys failed to step up, like the running backs and contribute.
Johnathan Coleman was the No. 2 receiver with just 489 yards, but it was his first year of extended playing time. He will need to contribute a bit more to the offense.
Utilizing the tight ends more would also be useful for Rettig, as that was an issue in 2012. Although they ranked in the top-50 in passing yards in the country, very few were distributed to the tight ends, making them just glorified linemen at that point.
As I said earlier, the offense struggled because of the running backs as well. The offensive line didn’t do their job to open up holes for the backs and, in turn, they ranked at the bottom of the nation in yards per game with under 100. Both running backs, Andre Williams and Rolandan Finch are back for another year and will be poised to improve on their mark.
When Boston College (2-10, 1-7) was losing as much as they were, they couldn’t rely on the run game. Both backs averaged over 4.5 yards per carry — pretty impressive marks, but not enough carries.
2013 Schedule
While the Eagles don’t face the toughest schedule in the country, the bottom-dwellers in the ACC from a year ago will struggle a bit under the new head coach. I say struggle as in terms or trying to make a bowl game, but the Eagles will come just a bit short of the six-win mark necessary to become bowl-eligible.
Their toughest games: @ USC Trojans, vs. Florida State Seminoles, @ Clemson Tigers, @ North Carolina Tar Heels and vs. Virginia Tech Hokies.
I predict they will win one of those games and finish the season 5-7 under their new head coach. Quite the improvement from 2-10.
Connor Muldowney is a columnist for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @Connormuldowney, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.
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