BC hires Spaziani
As expected, the next Boston College football coach already had an office on the third floor of the Yawkey Center as defensive coordinator Frank Spaziani was hired to replace Jeff Jagodzinski today.
After a quick search for external and internal candidates, BC athletic director Gene DeFilippo chose the 61-year old Spaziani for a variety of reasons, most notably that Spaziani best met the criteria the athletic director set when he announced Jagodzinski's firing last Wednesday. The official announcement was made at a 3 p.m. press conference today.
"I really want someone who wants to be at BC and will be here for the length of his contract,'' said DeFilippo in explaining the parameters of his search.
No one fits those criteria better than Spaziani, who has been at The Heights since 1997 and has been the Eagles' defensive coordinator since 1999. Spaziani's pedigree is as solid, as he has produced consistently excellent defenses, first for former Eagle coach Tom O'Brien, who hired him after a stint as an assistant coach in the Canadian Football League.
Spaziani played defensive end for Joe Paterno at Penn State and began his coaching career as a Nittany Lions graduate assistant. He then moved through the coaching chain, with stops at Navy (where he first met O'Brien), and the University of Virginia.
When O'Brien left for North Carolina State two years ago, Spaziani applied for the BC job, but DeFilippo went outside of the box to hire Jagodzinski. When Jagodzinski was fired after an internal dispute with DeFilippo, Spaziani was one of four internal candidates to express an interest in the job, along with offensive coordinator Steve Logan, offensive line coach and assistant head coach Jack Bicknell Jr., and director of football operations Barry Gallup. But Spaziani was the leader among that group.
DeFilippo did look for candidates outside the program, checking on Mike London of Richmond. He also had his eye on Florida offensive coordinator Steve Addazio. While both candidates were regarded as strong choices for a variety of reasons, there were no guarantees that they would be at BC for the long haul if the Eagles came close to matching the success of the last three years, during while they have produced 30 wins.
In his interview Thursday, Spaziano emphasized his passion for the Eagles, as well as his intention of remaining at BC as long as he was wanted. After spending the weekend studying the list of candidates, DeFilippo felt that Spaziani was the right choice at the right time for the Eagle program, which had been jolted by Jagodzinski's quick departure.
Although no financial terms were revealed -- they are being worked out this afternoon -- sources close to the program said Spaziani's deal should be in the range of what has become almost the minimum for BCS schools -- a five-year deal with approximately $1 million in total compensation annually.
For Spaziani, who had fretted over the turmoil of the past few weeks as much as anyone, it was the culmination of a career chase that finally has put him in complete control of a program.
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What a joke. BC just made a monumental blunder. I guess GDF decided that he did not want to continue the to push the program forward.
Well done!---Nice to see loyalty as well as performance (solid defense) rewarded..
Bravo for Frank. Great defenses win championships. This guy knows defense. I wish him and the Eagle team the best.
Congrats Coach Spaz!! Looking forward to the upcoming year. BC made the right choice.
Spanziani deserves the job. He should have gotten it two years ago. He has stood by BC over the years and hopefully will be as successful and as long termed as Paterno. GO BC
Spaz is a fine man and will represent the program very well. Where did Mark B. get the information that Mike London interviewed so well. He never even heard from BC according to Mike London. Who is telling the truth?
BC should have selected him after O'brien left but they always have to think tney need a big name,look what happens.
yawn yawn yawn
yawn yawn yawn
Gene should have hired this guy two years ago
Let's go spaz
BC needs to accept the fact that it will always be a second tier program. They might make it to a bowl (like that's hard) but top 20 is the best that they will do. They will not attract the best talent and nor will they find that coaches will want to stay there 10 years.
congrats coach Spazz,
Now go recruit some team speed!
Who gets the D-Coordinator job now? Hmmmm.....
RIP BC Football.
www.FireGeneD.com
SPAZ!! Congrats
Uninspired hire. Spaz may be right for DeFilippo, but I don't think he's right for BC in the long term. Disappointing.
great selection as a football season ticket holder, Coach spaziani is the right choice. now if he can recruit a kicker and get some offensive talent to go with that explosive defense things will be even better.
good luck to Coach Spaziani....
So I think it's a good choice. I have a question, how many recruits bolted from BC as a result of this coaching turmoil.
Good for Spaz and for BC. Too bad he inherits Jags's poor recruiting results. Hopefully he'll get the time he needs to build a strong program.
TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE DECISION.
Addazio? Charlie Strong? Gene dropped the ball BIG
HOW IS THIS FRONT PAGE SPORTS NEWS WHEN THE BOSTON BRUINS ARE ONE OF THE BEST IN THE NHL FACING THEIR HISTORIC RIVAL MONTREAL AT THE GARDEN!!!??? ARE YOU KIDDING ME WITH THIS!!!???
NO RESPECT FOR THEIR ACCOMPLISHMENTS WHATSOEVER!!!
BOSTON IS A HOCKEY TOWN AND YOU ARE DESTROYING IT BY NOT MAKING THIS A TOP HEADLINE!!!
Good hire. If de flip wanted loyalty he's got it. This guy is BC through and through
Spaz - Congratulations for all of your past hard work and best of luck going into the future. . The BC community is behind you and wants you to succeed.
Besides being very qualified for the job the second most important reason for hiring him was probably the noticeably short line of other interested candidates. The inflexible manner in which this situation was handled was foolish and put everyone in a no-win situation from the outset. Gene, I bet you would have fired Knute Rockne.
Yeah. This is a man that the kids can count on and learn from. His skill and loyalty are greatly appreciated. hanks BC and thanks Spaz.
Spaziani sounds like a nice guy. he can probably be GDF's butt boy and drive ths team right into mediocrity (well, they're already there) and maybe make the toilet bowl next season. Second rate move by a second rate institution
Spaziani sounds like a nice guy. he can probably be GDF's butt boy and drive ths team right into mediocrity (well, they're already there) and maybe make the toilet bowl next season. Second rate move by a second rate institution
Congrats to Coach Spaziano.
p.s. Look for the academic requirements of recruits / existing football players to be unofficially and very gingerly tweaked (i.e. softened). Coach Spaziano will have the mess of Jags' weak recruiting to deal with, plus, there is now no doubt that Gene and BC as a whole, need to prove that the school is not a stepping stone and Jags made a poor career choice.
Great choice!! Congratulations to both Coach Spaz and BC! Good job Gene.
It is wonderful to see loyalty rewarded, and even more so when the individual truly deserves as does Spaz. The AD made a terrific choice.
Let's hope he follows in the footsteps of his mentor, Joe Pa, and becomes synonymous with BC football and academic excellence.
...the right man at the right time.
Ever to excel, baby, ever to excel!!
good pick by DeFilippo given the circumstances. Any outside coach meant losing Coach Spaz who has demonstrated loyalty, the ability to recruit while keeping academic standards high and has been a very impressive recruiter and developer of talent, turning kids that top 10 schools passed on into great college players and even 1st round NFL draft picks. Current players (Herzlich 1st on that list) as well as incoming recruits should feel best about this choice (they all know the defense carried the team this year). Now all eyes are on what they can do to improve the offensive side of the ball.
Best move AD Gene has made since he got to the Heights.
Congrats, Spaz.
Great choice! BC doesn't pay as much because it's a private school. It needs a special guy who can get by on only a million a year. By the way along with ND (past tense) it's one of the best big time football programs that's not a part of a public institution.
Congratulations to Spaz, and best wishes for a successful tenure as the head football coach at BC. While the emphasis in the media has been on the stability that Spaz brings to the program, I think his coaching ability is most important - as reflected by his passion for the game, his relationships with players and his ability to build a formidable defense.
Great choice for the coaching position. Spaz has always made it clear that he wants to be here. He has done a remarkable job in providing great defensive teams. He can join Jerry York in providing the Athletic Department as another coach who wants to be here for the long haul. Hope he keeps Billy McGovern as defensive coordinator. Go Eagles!
Coach Spaziani could easily remain at the helm for the next 15- 20 years. It is exactly what the BC football program needs right now. Good luck, Coach!
Coach Spaziani could easily remain at the helm for the next 15- 20 years. It is exactly what the BC football program needs right now. Good luck, Coach!
Go get 'em Spaz! You wanted it, and now it's yours.
What a surprise, GDF hires Spaziani, the internal candidate who he can control, another step backward for BC.
According to former BC players, there were various NFL assistant coaches who were interested, many of which would have retired from BC.
I'm thrilled to hear this. Good luck, Frank. Hope you can get us to a BCS bowl (and then you can go to the NFL if you want).
This is well deserved and an excellent choice. Spaziani has the respect of the players and staff. He'll put his passion for winning into the program.
Just an awful hire. The program is going to take a major step back. They needed to get someone in there that can recruit and can be the face of the program and bring energy. Spaz is not that guy. Gene screwed this up bigtime.
Great news for Spaz, it remains to be seen if this is great for BC. Spaz will never be considered a Coach on the way up...
Spaz deserves a shot. Good luck Spaz.
Given the circumstances I'd say this is a good choice.
An excellent decision!! Frank is as good as it gets and is as good as his wife, Laura, is sweet. We have known her since she was a little girl.
Best of success to you frank!
Excellent match! Coach Spaziani knows and loves Boston College - its rich culture , traditions, and high standards. Both are big winners here.
Who cares. College football is Boston is a joke. Why should someone travel to a BC bowl game when they graduated from Harvard? What people need to understand is BC is maybe the 4th or 5th college in popularity rating in this town. Harvard, MIT, BU then maybe BC. People here are fiercly loyal to thier school and would see BC as the enemy, even though they are the only division 1 school in Boston. If you live in the middle of no where and the only school around you also happens to a division one school, yea, you probably would be a fan. But here in Boston when there are 100+ colleges and universities in a 50 mile radius... yea, not a big fan base
I am sure Spaz will do a good enough job, but really, no one cares.
Great choice he is the real one for B C
FABULOUS!!!!
BC needs to realize they are NEVER going to get high quality talent on their football team due to more than a few reasons. Number 1, Location, location, location. If a student has the talent to play Division 1 football why the the hell would they want to come to play at BC in the cold and overall bad weather of New England when they could go to an SEC school. Number 2, Ability to compete for a title. As everyone but Gene Dephillipo knows BC will never compete for a BCS title they have ZERO shot of even finishing in the top 5 ever they will never even sniff a BCS bowl. Number 3, Nobody gives a rat's ass about the football team Boston is a PRO Sports town, and it's pretty simple, If the students who attend the school don't care, Non- alumni/students ceratinly won't
Good for Spaz! He should have been picked over Jags anyway! GO EAGLES!!!
This is the right choice for BC -- a great guy committed to the program. There was more to firing Jags than most of the media has discussed -- it wasn't just long-term commitment to the program or just honoring a contract. When Notre Dame fired O'Leary it wasn't because they were really disappointed he hadn't lettered at the University of New Hampshire - it was because he lied. Academic institutions and athletic departments have to work on trust - if you run and experiment and say it confirmed your hypotheses, it darn well better have confirmed your hypotheses, but it is hard to police. If you tell a 22-year-old assistant tennis coach they can't help a kid with the SATs or give an alum permission to pay a bill for a recruit, no one can police that completely but you need to know it won't happen. So, Gene was surely disappointed that Jags violated their agreement; Gene has the right to say "We can't be a stepping stone for coaches like some schools, we are going to reach agreements with coaches that say they won't do what everybody else does (if it is even true that "everybody else does it" -- there are plenty of instance where schools have said "heck no you can't go" -- take PC and Barnes when he said he was headed to UVA, just as one off the top of my head example). So, it had something to do with Gene saying "I don't care what everybody else does - this is how we do it" -- always a good thing for a leader who hopes to differentiate his or her organization to establish -- and it had a lot to do with integrity in general. If Gene let's Jags do what he wants and interview while supposedly being prohibited from interviewing, and especially if he asked him if he was going to interview and he said "no," then Gene did exactly the right thing. It is not by chance that he is one of the most respected and liked people in college athletics... and it is likely that no one in the BC athletic department would need to think long when asked "Who's in charge around here?" These boards are populated by a bunch of people who's posts can really be reduced to "look what I know, aren't I smart?" In this case, we ALL know the simple answers about this, we learned them in kindergarten: tell the truth, do what you're told, and be nice.
Congratulations to Spaz! His incredible coaching and loyalty to BC has made him beloved at The Heights. I think this was a hire DeFilippo had to make, after so many current and former players, including Herzlich during his announcement he was staying, gave Spaz a vote of confidence. I couldn't be happier with the new coach.
BC needs to realize they are NEVER going to get high quality talent on their Football team due to more than a few reasons. Number 1, Location, location, location. If a student has the talent to play Division 1 football why the the hell would they want to come to play at BC in the cold and overall bad weather of New England when they could go to an SEC school. Number 2, Ability to compete for a title. As everyone but Gene DeFiillipo knows BC will never compete for a BCS title they have ZERO shot of even finishing in the top 5 ever they will never even sniff a BCS bowl. Number 3. Nobody gives a rat's ass about the football team. It's pretty simple, If the students who attend the school don't care Non- alumni/students won't either
Oh, humm
Hooray! I could not be more pleased that BC rewarded Coach Spaziani's loyalty today. As an alum, it reinforces the importance of dedication to the College's ideals; i.e Jerry York and Greg Brown. I hope that Coach Spaz. will retain Billy McGovern and other staff members who have stayed the course throughout all of the tribulations of this program. Well done, Gene, well done!
Sincerely,
Gina S, 91' 93'
Alum and BC Women's Hockey
EXCELLENT CHOICE!
Screw BC!
Go UNH! Go BLUE!
Great choice. It's about time Gene went with a coach who wanted BC. O'Brien wanted Spaz to go to NC State but Spaz showed tremendous loyalty to BC and stayed, even with a head coach no one knew.
Hopefully this hiring will attract more tough defensive players and Gene will work with admissions to allow Spaz to continue to build speed into the program.
This should be fun!
Good choice with no interruption of the consistency needed to advance the program.
This about summed it up for me: "Although no financial terms were revealed -- they are being worked out this afternoon -- sources close to the program said Spaziani's deal should be in the range of what has become almost the minimum for BCS schools -- a five-year deal with approximately $1 million in total compensation annually."
Addazio, Gill, London, et al would have required a much higher salary.
As a Navy fan I am happy to see Frank get the job. He was a terrific assistant under George Welsh at Navy (and for a decade more at VA). I wish him the best of success
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