ONLY DISTANCE CAN SAVE SPAZ

It's been tossed around a bit in the boards, the Twitter and the BC blogosphere, but it is still a valid question. While we all assume that Spaz is almost definitely in his last season as BC's head coach, there has to be at least a few random scenarios out there in which he can be saved.

No matter what it comes down to, though, it will involve distance.

...distancing himself from GDF's departure and the last few year's of Coach Flip's tenure, doing what he can to make it look like he isn't on a leash held by Gene.

...having key players, like Rettig, the receiving corps and the defensive line, stay healthy and making it the distance of the entire season. Don't forget, Spaz has played the injury excuse card a lot in the last years - if he actually has a healthy team, could he do what he claims?

...putting up some offensive yards that actually look like a legitimate amount of ground has been covered. If last year's pitiful numbers are not far off in the distance, things will not be looking good.

...going the distance and finishing out the season in a positive way - which he is oddly setup for. Don't forget, the schedule is backloaded this year, with 4 of the first 6 games as very winnable and a likely opposite ratio in the second half. If he can pick up one win in November (with rival games with ND and VT at home and a trip to TOBy at NC State), we're looking at a bowl. Seriously.

GENE DEFILIPPO STEPS DOWN

We could be mean. We won't be.

GDF brought this athletics department from a mid-tier conference and made it a legitimate part of the landscape of college sports in more than one program. He fought an entire state (albeit a kind of useless one, but my thoughts on Connecticut really should be left out of this). He brought us to the ACC and saved us from the conference wars - or perhaps even started them by protecting BC.

We thank him for what he's done, he's given us a peek at what something great looks like. Let's hope his successor can continue us in the general upward direction.

The official statement from BC:

My wife Anne and I have been discussing this decision for some time and we agree that this is the right time for me to retire," DeFilippo said. "It is also the right time for Boston College to have new leadership in the athletics director's position. In light of my recent bout with melanoma, which is treatable, this decision became clearer to me this summer. After the intensity of 40 years of intercollegiate athletics, this change will enable me to spend more time with Anne, my three children, and our granddaughter, Katherine. I look forward to this next stage of my personal and professional life.

INSTANT REACTION: GDF CHANNELS VINCE MCMAHON

We should be talking about BC's season ending victory over Miami - it's the first win to end a football season since 2007 and first win in Miami since 1984. It was the last game for a group of seniors who had seen the promised land of the ACC Championship Game in 2008 and potentially could be the last time Luke Kuechly suits up in Maroon and Gold. They played their hearts out today. Instead, we get to focus on these following comments, as relayed by the Herald's Dan Duggan:

Gene DeFilippo on Frank Spaziani: "Spaz is coming back next year and our future here is really, really bright.” (link)

DeFilippo also called called Spaz "The best coach that we’ve had in the 15 years that I’ve been here." (link)

The post-game (and post-season) posturing by GDF here is a spectacle, but completely prognosticated. Spaz is on GDF's clock, and he has to double and triple down on him. He would never back down. Even if his subjective use of "best" happens to involve a coach who has taken a double-digit win team slowly down the crapper into its first season without a bowl this millennium.

YEP, "FANS IN THEIR SEATS JOKES" STILL FUNNY

This bye week did bring some joy to BC fans in the form of @NotCoachSpaz and @FakeBCGeneD. Follow them. Enjoy. And the "fans in their seats" jokes will continue to be funny for awhile now.

GENE D VS. UCONN, PT. 2

While I have been pushing for his ouster for some time now, I can't help but feel with Gene on this one, he was quoted as saying:

"We didn’t want [UConn] in,’’ he said. "It was a matter of turf. We wanted to be the New England team.’’

While UConn has been pushing to join the ACC during the decline of the Big Least, the ACC seems to have turned most of their overtures away. Gene thinks it's because of his lobbying, it's more likely because the ACC wants to wait for Notre Dame to decide before going to 16.
Gene got a lot of flack for his comments, and today has modified his statement by saying:

"[I] spoke inappropriately and erroneously regarding ESPN's role in conference expansion"

His mea culpa was focused on his comments about ESPN and their effect on the decision, not the UConn comments.

Generally, BC has every right to feel this way about UConn given their lawsuits following the first ACC expansion and their treatment of BC during our exit from Big Least.

This all begin said, I am not modifying my position that both Gene and Spaz should be fired immediately.

#PROTIP FROM SPENCER HALL: WE DESERVED THIS

We do love EDSBS around here, and Spencer Hall for years has been one of our most followed college football bloggers and arguably - even as an SEC guy - gives a better perspective on the broad landscape than just about anybody in the business. With that said, when he calls out your team, you pay attention. From SB Nation's Alphabetical on Week 5:

Q is for Quaeritur. Latin for "the question is asked," as in "who was the last ACC team to lose to both Wake Forest and Duke in one season?" Boston College, the double-barreled shotgun of eastern seaboard football failure just went off in your mouth, because you are the answer thanks to a 27-19 loss to Wake this past Saturday. We remind everyone that Boston College fired a perfectly good coach because he went on a job interview, and deserves all of this.

Sigh. He's right. There is nuance here to follow, though, that may shed some light on our current situation and why action could very well happen:

1. It was neither the entire university nor even just a portion of the athletic department that showed Jeff Jagodzinski the door. It was AD, Coach Flip, Gene DeFilippo, but...
2. ...the university and its administration have no problem letting GDF call the shots with his personnel. So, they can step aside and let the AD be the AD. That's fine, that's the "Harvard on Wednesdays" spiel that gets thrown around from the administration.
3. If the program is about the top of the athletic department, the biggest standard bearer, visible player and shot-caller wouldn't let himself be embarrassed by a two-year coach sprinting for the NFL; would he really let his reputation be crushed over continuing a coach after a 1-11 (or 2-10 or even 3-9 campaign if we get really really lucky)?

Discuss.

STATE OF BC IN ONE PICTURE

If you're gonna troll, troll hard.

WHERE TO GO FROM HERE?

DL has been taking the brunt of the posting workload lately, given that I am across the country in San Diego (it means Whale's Vagina), but I wanted to chime in about the tumult that is our program at the moment.

The firing leave of absence of Kevin Rogers gives pause to all of BC fandom given that he was brought in to replace Rip van Tranquil who's offense was about as exciting as watching grass grow.  Most analysts (including Kirk Herbstreit) felt that his hiring would be the change that BC needed to get back in the game, that he would bring an exciting style of offense that could upgrade our flaccid scoring from 2010.  (I want to note that I did not see it so favorably).

Now with his offense doing absolutely nothing for two weeks (even though Tranquil was given 2 years of failures before "retiring") he is gone. So we bring in Brock to head up the offense and move a grad assistant up to TE coach. Why not move up Ryan Day ("The next great BC coach?") and give him a chance to make a difference? IMHO, its because he is the biggest threat to GeneD's best buddy, Coach Spaz. The #FireSpaz bandwagon is rolling on, and getting quite heavy, and if the ruse around Kevin Rogers is true, #FireGeneD might be next.

So where do we go from here? In my (albeit pessimistic) opinion, we will likely have to scrap this season anyways, so why not get rid of Spaz now, and start a coaching search. Who will be available at the end of the year? No one is sure, but I could easily see some decent names on the market such as Mark Richt (not that he would be interested, but he might need a job!). Why not get ahead of the game and make it clear we are looking and start talking to hot seat coaches and scoop up the best one available at the end of the season.

Who would be your ideal coaching hire (realistically)?

BC SPINNING ROGERS' HEALTH?

ATL Eagle has posted a rumor to both EagleOutsider and his Twitter account that the health excuse given by the BC PR department was spin: Kevin Rogers was fired and is not taking a health-related leave of absence.

If this is true, it means two things:

1. Not even the BC sports information office can successfully pull off a play action misdirect.
2. GDF is not looking so good.

ATL is the Godfather of the BC blogosphere, and he has a longstanding reputation of credibility. This would be a really tough pill to swallow if true, but does that really question whether or not the entire department - if it's using health as a cover-up excuse to save face on its hiring and firing decisions - needs a purging.