Fiu's Daily Cavalcade of
Whimsy
Boston College & Coach Jags ... Jan. 8
a.k.a.
Frank Costanza's Festivus Airing of the Grievances ... or the obvious attempt to keep readers coming to the site on a
regular basis during the off-season.
By
Pete Fiutak
What's your beef? ... Fire
off your
thoughts
This Week's Whimsies: Wednesday -
Auburn's big coaching moves
Monday -
10 Reasons Why Florida Will
Win
Past Whimsies: Tuesday -
The Andre Smith suspension
Monday -
NFL Mock Draft (top 10
picks)
Tuesday -
Holiday Wish List For All
119 Teams
Wednesday -
Chizik, Gill, & the Race
Card
Friday -
Why Paterno isn't too old
-
10 Reasons Why Oklahoma
Will Win
"It'll be a cold day in hell when Harry Flugleman
let's an actor tell him what to do! Do you know what the word nada
means? In all those Mexican movies you made... did you ever hear that
word? It means "nothing"! Zero. Zip. It's what you're gonna have when
I'm through with you! You hit Harry Flugleman on a bad day." ...
In the there's-no-crying-in-football
department, Boston College athletic director Gene DiFilippo told Jeff
Jagodzinski that he'd be fired if he interviewed for the New York Jets
head coaching job. Jagodzinski interviewed for the job, and now, after
two successful seasons with two straight appearances in the ACC title
game, he's gone.
Let's say DiFilippo is in the right. Let's say he really does want
another Jack Bicknell who'll plan on making Boston College a home for
his career. DiFilippo is still misguided and Boston College looks
small-time.
If you have differences with your head coach, fine. Not everyone can get
along and there's no real problem if you want to fire a guy before he
leaves you. But that's not the case here. Reportedly, DiFilippo and
Coach Jags were friendly, but if you're going to be an athletic director
with a major college football program to run, you can't tell your head
coach he can't at least explore all his options. After all, coaches have
short shelf lives and get canned all the time after a bad year or two.
If you're a young head coach and you have a shot at the NFL, you jump
all over that opportunity the second there's an opening, and schools,
especially a place like Boston College, should encourage that.
If Jagodzinski wanted to look into taking a job at a place like
Syracuse, or North Carolina, or Michigan State, then BC would have a
beef. You don't want to lose your head coach to a lateral move, even if
it might be for more money. But if you can become known as a place that
cultivates head coaching talent and can be a place where young stars
come to shine, that's a plus. If you have head coaches that you don't
have to fire, you're ten steps ahead of the game.
Boston College isn't a destination. It should be, it might have the best
combination of city, conference, opportunities for success and realistic
expectations, but it's not. You want the NFL to want your head coaches.
You want to get coaches good enough to be on the short list for the
cream of the crop gigs. You want the reputation for being a place that
will get a star head coach no matter how often the transition. Recruits
all know there's a realistic chance there will be a coaching change
before their five years are up, but if they know the school is going to
replace one good coach with another, that makes the recruiting game far
easier.
Now, why would any coach with any dreams of upward mobility want to take
the BC job? Oh sure, the program can go the retread rout and move up
offensive coordinator and former East Carolina head man Steve Logan, or
defensive coordinator Frank Spaziani, but no matter who takes the gig,
the coach will be expected to 1) stay until he's fired or retires,
whichever comes first, and 2) be DiFilippos's good buddy. In today's day
and age of big-time college football, neither one is realistic.