Addazio reflects on mistake at Florida and future of BC offense
Boston College head coach Steve Addazio believes that the Eagles style of play on the offensive side of the ball presents similar problems that the Stanford offense presents.
Photo credit: USA Today Sports Images
According to Addazio, the downhill mentality has to be an edge for his program because of the region and historical success of the Boston College program.
Addazio told ESPN reporter Ivan Maisel today in Bristol, "When people can run downhill – iso, power, gap scheme, counter – if you don't really have big fullbacks on your roster that are coming down on those backers, that's difficult thing. Those backers are used to going side to side, playing nickel and dime defenses. Now all of a sudden they've got to come downhill on you and they can't play nickel or dime anymore."
It's a complimentary game, however.
"You've got to be aligned right though if you're in this style," said Addazio. "You've got to be aligned with your defense and your special teams because we're not a team that is going to play well from behind. Your defense has got to be able to play well. Your special teams has got to help your field positon. The battle cry of this style is get the game to the fourth quarter. If we're in that game in the fourth quarter, we're going to start wearing down that opponent. All of a sudden, we're going to start imposing our will and the big plays are going to come. Then the whole thing starts rolling. That's really where you have to be. If a team strikes you quick and gets out ahead of you, it's a little hard in this offense. You're not running enough plays. You're not throwing it enough, so there are pluses and minuses, but it's a thing of beautiful when you get the game into the fourth quarter and you're physical, tough, and rolling. They don't really want any more of it."
Addazio noted that he watch a lot of Stanford film last year in order to learn and evolve, but acknowledged that he hasn't met with the Cardinal coaches.
Addazio stated, "I don't really know David (Shaw). I think sometimes there is a tendency when you have a good going on maybe not to give out information. I think when we were at Florida, one of things we did that we probably would have done differently – we were on the cutting edge of what we were doing and everyone wanted to visit us and talk about our empty package, our this and our that -- Urban and I have talked about it since then. It's almost like we probably should have kept our mouth shut and not gone out and given away all of the ingredients. People starting using it and scheming us. They knew our scheme as good as we knew our scheme. And then it got crazy at the end, so I'm not sure Stanford is out and about saying…."
Boston College opens the 2014 season at UMass. The next four game are in Chestnut Hill against Pitt, USC, Maine, and Colorado State.
