Sports Illustrated: Steve Addazio New Head Coach at Boston College

Nov 3, 2012; Louisville, KY, USA; Temple Owls head coach Steve Addazio watches during the second half against the Louisville Cardinals at Papa Johns Cardinal Stadium. Louisville defeated Temple 45-17. Mandatory Credit: Joshua Lindsey-USA TODAY Sports

Black Tuesday chugs along, with a third BCS conference program tabbing its new head coach. This time it’s Temple’s Steve Addazio, who Pete Thamel of Sports Illustrated reports is primed to take over at Boston College. BCEagles.com confirms the hire. Addazio will succeed Frank Spaziani, who was fired after a dismal 2-10 campaign and 6-18 mark over the last two seasons.

Addazio enters a much different situation at BC then what he took over at Temple. His Owl predecessor, Al Golden, had built what was long the measure of Division I-A/FBS futility into a consistent program. Addazio continued Golden’s success in 2011, leading the Owls to a 9-4 record and New Mexico Bowl win. This season, Temple underwent growing pains on its return to the Big East and BCS competition, going 4-7.

Boston College bottomed out this season after a steady decline since Jeff Jagodzinski. Jagodzinski led the Eagles to an 11-3 finish in a 2007 season that saw BC reach No. 2 in the polls. The next year, Boston College went 9-5 and Jagodzinksi drew feelers from the NFL. Interviewing for the New York Jets’ vacancy caused a dust-up with athletic director Gene DeFilippo, and Jagodzinski’s firing.

Spaziani’s teams had worse records from the season prior in each of his four years at the helm. A 4-8 mark in 2011 snapped a run of consecutive bowl appearances that dated back to 1999. Those Spaziani-led teams suffered through offensive anemia.

Perhaps not coincidentally, Addazio has an offensive background. He was coordinator on that side of the ball for Florida in 2009 and 2010, replacing Dan Mullen. Addazio’s first unit was among the best in college football behind Tim Tebow, but the coach drew his share of criticism in his second season when the Gators struggled to replace the former Heisman Trophy winner.

Addazio has no one resembling Tebow at Boston College, but he was successful establishing a consistent rush offense at Temple. An interesting coincidence is that this season’s Temple team was paced by 1000-yard rushing back Montel Harris, who transferred into the program from Boston College. Addazio inherits running backs Andre Williams and Rolandan Finch.