Addazio introduced as BC football coach

By Austin Tedesco

Addazio introduced as BC football coach

Steve Addazio is the new head coach for the Boston College football team.

A press conference was held yesterday to introduce the former Temple University head coach, who will take over for Frank Spaziani less than two weeks after the former coach was fired.

“The mantra of Boston College is ‘Ever to Excel,’” said Athletic Director Brad Bates. “Today we celebrate a leader who thrives in the context of daily striving for excellence.”
Addazio was signed to a six-year contract. He most recently led the Owls to a 9-4 record and their first bowl win in 32 years during his first season as a head coach in 2011. Temple then moved to the Big East from the Mid-American Conference last year, and went 4-7. Addazio also served under head coach Urban Meyer at the University of Florida, and won two national championships during his time with the Gators.

“I’m here for the long haul, and I’m here to win championships,” Addazio said. “And win championships with class and honor and develop young men on the football field and off the football field and in the classroom—men that are going to leave Boston College one day and are going to make a difference in society and this world we live in in a positive way.”
Addazio is from New England and remembers where he watched Doug Flutie’s pass to Gerard Phalen. He also was a four-year starter for Central Connecticut State University during the late ’70s, and he recalled driving up to BC with his friends at the end of every season to watch the Eagles play Holy Cross. He knew back then that he wanted to be a college football coach someday, and as he sat there watching the game, he told himself that one day he would like to bring his team out onto that field.

“My dream was to come to a university that was all about the family concept,” Addazio said. “I grew up in a strong family with strong faith, and I have an opportunity to now lead a football program within a tremendous family with a strong faith.”

Bates described the coaching search as thorough, meticulous, and deliberate. He was looking for someone who had a strong history of facilitating a family culture within a program, an inspiring passion for his students and the sports, and a pedigree of winning and building championship programs.

BC has gone two straight seasons without making a bowl game, and the team went just 2-10 this year.

“It’s time to turn the page,” Addazio said, “To come together and unite and all work together for the same goals.”

He announced that Ryan Day, formerly a wide receivers coach at BC and the offensive coordinator at Temple last season, will take over for Doug Martin as BC’s offensive coordinator. He will take time to evaluate the rest of the staff as he gets settled, but he is already infusing the program with his enthusiasm.

“When you press play on the video, what I’ll expect and what I’ll want you to see is a team that plays with energy and passion and a love of the game and is excited,” he said. “A team that plays hard. A team that you can tell loves the game of football and treats it as a privilege and not as a right.”

The players met the coach for the first time during a team meeting before Addazio’s introductory press conference.

“We’re not playing in a bowl game,” he said. “We’re hungry and we’re disappointed. I talked to the team before I came in here. I said to the team, ‘You sit in that chair and I hope there’s a disappointment. I hope it hurts. I hope there’s a hunger and I hope there’s a drive. I hope that you understand that you came to Boston College to win championships, and I hope that fuels as we start this offseason workout program, because we’re all striving for success and we’re all competitors.’”

Addazio stressed the importance of his role off the field as well.

“I’m a teacher, and it’s very important to me to know that I can be a small piece of the development of a young man,” Addazio said. “The whole young man, not just the football piece.”

He also emphasized that BC is the perfect place for him.

“I want to be here and finish my career here,” he said. “This is where I want to be. I have a home up in Cape Cod. I’m in New England. I’m at the most wonderful place I could possibly be at, and I couldn’t be more clear about that.”

It will be nine months until Addazio coaches his first real game as an Eagle at USC to start the 2013 season, but his energy and his passion are already evident.

“I’m proud to be a Boston College Eagle, and I won’t let you down,” he said. “I’ve got drive and I’ve got energy. I’ve got a love and passion for what I do, for these student-athletes, and for Boston College.”

Read more here: http://www.bcheights.com/football-addazio-introduced-as-head-football-coach-1.2965327#.UMDDndl3DKQ
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