Steve Addazio is looking to steer Boston College back in the right direction after a brutal 2-10 campaign in 2012. Credit: Getty Images
Steve Addazio’s Temple Owls found themselves down to UConn for nearly a full hour, in football time, last October. But despite Connecticut leading on the scoreboard through the majority of the afternoon, there was one noticeable difference between each sideline: passion. The Temple sideline was into every snap, every tackle, every ball put into the air by the Huskies’ quarterback.
Addazio, introduced as Boston College’s new head coach last December, helped guide the Owls to a dramatic 17-14 overtime road win over the Huskies that day due, in large part, to a defensive unit that refused to bend. Passion and a stingy defense are two of the things that Eagles backers are hoping Addazio re-installs at The Heights following a brutal 2012 campaign that saw BC fall to 2-10 overall.
“He’ll be a disciplinarian,” Boston College athletic director Brad Bates said at the time of the hire. “He will be incredibly demanding on and off the field, but at the end of the day, the students are going to know he genuinely and sincerely cares about them.”
Despite Addazio once coaching an offense at Florida under Urban Meyer which routinely put up point totals in the 40s, Addazio is likely to take the old fashioned path in turning BC around. In Addazio’s first year at Temple, the Owls’ defense posted back-to-back shutouts against Ball State and Buffalo and held opponents to an average of just 16.5 points per game during a four-game win streak to close out the season. According to ESPN, the Eagles return eight of their top nine tacklers from last season. Linebackers Steele Divitto and Kevin Pierre-Louis are the anchors of a defense that slowly improved as the 2012 season wore on.
Offensively, senior Chase Rettig returns at quarterback and should find an even better rhythm with senior wide receiver Alex Amidon.
Fifth-year seniors Kasim Edebali, a defensive end, and Ian White, a right tackle, were named captains by Addazio last weekend.
