It’s not often that a university sees both its football and basketball programs go through an entire season without a win in conference, but that’s exactly what the Boston College Eagles have done. This is a proud institution that houses one of the more storied programs in the history of college football, but lately they have fallen on hard times.
The Eagles joined the ACC on July 1, 2005. The conference, more commonly known for its basketball prowess, has long understood the power of college football and has done everything it can think of to raise the level of play on the gridiron. Over and over, they’ve added schools with excellent football tradition in hopes that those teams would force their rivals to raise their level of play and standard. Each time, the opposite has happened. Those teams play well for a while, but over time they erode and begin to play down to their competition.
For the Eagles, things started with a bang and eventually culminated with two straight ACC championship game appearances. They’d lose both to the Virginia Tech Hokies and ultimately fire Jeff Jagodzinski, the coach who got them there. Okay, he did interview for a then vacant New York Jets job after being warned not to do so by the athletic director, but maybe he should have been given some sort of a second chance after going 20-8 over the span of two years. They haven’t reached that level of success since.
The best high school football players in the country don’t remember when Boston College was good or the great games this team played in throughout history. Honestly, some of the great high school players in this country probably couldn’t pick current coach Steve Addazio out of a lineup. This team won’t be improving any time soon, and it may be time for a complete overhaul. Football is a huge concern, and some might start to look at this program and begin to wonder why the Maryland Terrapins were ever allowed to leave in the first place.