Lots to do for coach Steve Addazio, Boston College football
Gerry Broome/Associated Press
BC football coach Steve Addazio has a playbook to install, a quarterback to break in, a baby-faced offensive line to mold.
By Julian Benbow Globe Staff August 10, 2015
From now until Sept. 5, when Boston College opens its season against Maine, every date on coach Steve Addazio’s calendar will be jammed with plans.
“Every minute of the day, every second’s occupied,” he said.
He has a playbook to install, a new quarterback to break in, and a baby-faced offensive line to mold.
Addazio knows he has four weeks to sort through it all. His plans already are meticulously laid.
“When you put your installation up on the board and you see how many days it takes you to install, your calendar gets eaten up pretty quickly,” Addazio said. “I think you feel like you’re up against it.
“There’s not all that much time in between. You’ve got to get your installation in. Then you’ve got the week before the game — you’re not messing around then. That’s when you’re set and locked in. In between there is the meat of it, which is probably just a couple weeks. So I feel like we’re up against it.”
So when the Eagles begin practice this week, he knows there’s only so much time to work with and every moment will matter.
“The first few days, it just goes fast. And when you’ve got a young football team, there’s so much development that has to occur, you need as much time as you can get,” he said.
Coming off their second bowl in Addazio’s two years as coach, the Eagles are trying to answer as many questions as possible before the season.
Signal-calling duties will be handed over to sophomore Darius Wade, a player who’s been in the system for a year but has limited game experience.
For the past two years, the Eagles have had one of the best rushing attacks in the Atlantic Coast Conference, thanks in no small part to veteran offensive linemen shoving bodies around in the trenches. But all of the faces on the line will be different from a year ago, and the only player with experience is senior Harris Williams, who missed all of last season with a fractured ankle.
With just 15 combined starts on the offensive line, only three other FBS teams have less experience at those positions.
“I think when it comes to the O-line, you’re playing with younger players, you’ve got to be a little patient,” Addazio said. “You can play younger skill players quicker and easier than you can play offensive linemen. So that’s going to take a little bit. So it just depends on how many younger players we have to play up front on the O-line.
“The quarterback thing, Darius has been here now a year and a half. So even though he doesn’t have a lot of playing experience, at least he’s been in the system for a while. So hopefully he can hit the ground with a little bit of confidence. So, I think those are the concerns.”
Addazio will take a steel-sharpens-steel approach to learning about the unknowns. He’s confident that the young players on the offensive line are talented, but he acknowledges that he won’t know what he has until they are put in game situations.
“That’s the footrace, that’s the secret, making good assumptions and making good decisions because I’ve been around times where you think one way in camp and then by the time you get to the middle of the season, it’s like it’s really different,” Addazio said. “So we don’t have that kind of time. So you want to make good decisions. You want to make sure the assumptions you make are correct.
“Sometimes you say, ‘Well, why are they assumptions?’ Because until you get into the heat of the battle, real game conditions, real stuff, actually you really don’t know.”
The best way to do that in the practice time they have left is to pit starters against starters.
“I think you’ve got to go as much good-good as possible, you know, ones vs. ones,” Addazio said. “When you do that, you run the risk of injuries, but I think we’ve got to go a lot of ones vs. ones, so you can get used to the speed of the game, see how guys react in those scenarios. So we’ll scrimmage a fair amount.”
With so much developing to do and so many questions to answer, some might predict this season will be a step back. But Addazio indicated that answering those questions doesn’t have to come at the expense of winning.
“We’re not going into the year settling or anything,” Addazio said. “We’re going into the year to compete. Win the opener, get bowl eligible, compete in our conference championship. It’s all on the table. You realistically know what your liabilities are, what your issues are. That doesn’t mean you’re not going 100 miles an hour attacking it with full optimism to win every game.
“There’s two different things here. One is accepting where you are. A veteran team doesn’t equate to wins all the time and a young team doesn’t equate to losses all the time. That story’s yet to be told.”
Julian Benbow can be reached at jbenbow@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @julianbenbow.
Gerry Broome/Associated Press
BC football coach Steve Addazio has a playbook to install, a quarterback to break in, a baby-faced offensive line to mold.
By Julian Benbow Globe Staff August 10, 2015
From now until Sept. 5, when Boston College opens its season against Maine, every date on coach Steve Addazio’s calendar will be jammed with plans.
“Every minute of the day, every second’s occupied,” he said.
He has a playbook to install, a new quarterback to break in, and a baby-faced offensive line to mold.
Addazio knows he has four weeks to sort through it all. His plans already are meticulously laid.
“When you put your installation up on the board and you see how many days it takes you to install, your calendar gets eaten up pretty quickly,” Addazio said. “I think you feel like you’re up against it.
“There’s not all that much time in between. You’ve got to get your installation in. Then you’ve got the week before the game — you’re not messing around then. That’s when you’re set and locked in. In between there is the meat of it, which is probably just a couple weeks. So I feel like we’re up against it.”
So when the Eagles begin practice this week, he knows there’s only so much time to work with and every moment will matter.
“The first few days, it just goes fast. And when you’ve got a young football team, there’s so much development that has to occur, you need as much time as you can get,” he said.
Coming off their second bowl in Addazio’s two years as coach, the Eagles are trying to answer as many questions as possible before the season.
Signal-calling duties will be handed over to sophomore Darius Wade, a player who’s been in the system for a year but has limited game experience.
For the past two years, the Eagles have had one of the best rushing attacks in the Atlantic Coast Conference, thanks in no small part to veteran offensive linemen shoving bodies around in the trenches. But all of the faces on the line will be different from a year ago, and the only player with experience is senior Harris Williams, who missed all of last season with a fractured ankle.
With just 15 combined starts on the offensive line, only three other FBS teams have less experience at those positions.
“I think when it comes to the O-line, you’re playing with younger players, you’ve got to be a little patient,” Addazio said. “You can play younger skill players quicker and easier than you can play offensive linemen. So that’s going to take a little bit. So it just depends on how many younger players we have to play up front on the O-line.
“The quarterback thing, Darius has been here now a year and a half. So even though he doesn’t have a lot of playing experience, at least he’s been in the system for a while. So hopefully he can hit the ground with a little bit of confidence. So, I think those are the concerns.”
Addazio will take a steel-sharpens-steel approach to learning about the unknowns. He’s confident that the young players on the offensive line are talented, but he acknowledges that he won’t know what he has until they are put in game situations.
“That’s the footrace, that’s the secret, making good assumptions and making good decisions because I’ve been around times where you think one way in camp and then by the time you get to the middle of the season, it’s like it’s really different,” Addazio said. “So we don’t have that kind of time. So you want to make good decisions. You want to make sure the assumptions you make are correct.
“Sometimes you say, ‘Well, why are they assumptions?’ Because until you get into the heat of the battle, real game conditions, real stuff, actually you really don’t know.”
The best way to do that in the practice time they have left is to pit starters against starters.
“I think you’ve got to go as much good-good as possible, you know, ones vs. ones,” Addazio said. “When you do that, you run the risk of injuries, but I think we’ve got to go a lot of ones vs. ones, so you can get used to the speed of the game, see how guys react in those scenarios. So we’ll scrimmage a fair amount.”
With so much developing to do and so many questions to answer, some might predict this season will be a step back. But Addazio indicated that answering those questions doesn’t have to come at the expense of winning.
“We’re not going into the year settling or anything,” Addazio said. “We’re going into the year to compete. Win the opener, get bowl eligible, compete in our conference championship. It’s all on the table. You realistically know what your liabilities are, what your issues are. That doesn’t mean you’re not going 100 miles an hour attacking it with full optimism to win every game.
“There’s two different things here. One is accepting where you are. A veteran team doesn’t equate to wins all the time and a young team doesn’t equate to losses all the time. That story’s yet to be told.”
Julian Benbow can be reached at jbenbow@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @julianbenbow.
