Spring Practice Begins

Along with the (sort of) warm weather of spring come the earliest signs of the new football season in Chestnut Hill. For Boston College, this spring will be different than any of the past ten.

After a few months of intense recruiting and getting-acquainted, Jeff Jagodzinski finally gets to coach his new team. The Eagles’ new general, who takes the helm ten years after Tom O’Brien’s arrival, took some time to address the media Tuesday afternoon, three days after BC’s first spring practice.

Just three months removed from his offensive coordinator duties for the Green Bay Packers, Jagodzinski won’t be changing his pro coaching style for the college game.

“I took the same formula that we had in Green Bay, as far as practicing, and I put it here,” Jagodzinski said. “The pace of practice is fast. I told those guys what to expect. I think they were surprised on Saturday.”

Jagodzinski, standing in the corner of the bubbled-over Alumni Field, seemed eager to get rolling. With a new coaching staff, some new players, and a new offensive scheme, spring will be a crucial introductory stage for BC.

“The first few days, we’re just trying to get to know these kids,” Jagodzinski said before starting practice Tuesday afternoon. “We’ve put a lot of our offense and defense in already, our base package. We’re trying to get these guys to understand the pace and how we want to practice and the practice ethic and how I want things to look. They’ve been coming along pretty good.”

Jagodzinski and his players, though, aren’t strangers. They’ve already had several opportunities to get to know each other.

“I got a pretty good idea watching these guys in winter conditioning and now I’m getting a chance to see them out on the field,” he said. “I’m getting a better feel everyday for these guys and I think they’re getting a better feel for me, too, as far as what I expect of them.”

Without going into much depth, Jagodzinski touched on a few other subjects, from his thoughts on Matt Ryan to playing true freshman to the possible impact of his first recruiting class.

Ross Applegate, who redshirted last season as a freshman quarterback, has decided to transfer, according to Jagodzinski. Which school Applegate will attend has not been made clear, but it seemed as though he would not fit into Jagodzinksi’s new scheme.

“I have no idea where he’s going, I think he’s going to stay down south somewhere,” Jagodzinski said. “Ross is a great kid and we were looking at where our offense is going and he didn’t really fit what we wanted to do and he decided to transfer. It had nothing to do with the kid, it’s just really the style and type of play that we want to get."

Applegate is more of a pocket quarterback than anything. With Ryan, Jagodzinski said, the Eagles already have one of the best pocket QB’s in the conference. But the returning captain, who led the ACC in passing last season, can make things happen with his feet if all else breaks down. That’s one of the reasons why he should fit seamlessly into the new system.

“[Ryan] reminds me so much of Matt Hasselbeck,” Jagodzinski said, referring to a quarterback he coached at BC. “I loved having Matt [Hasselbeck] way back, nine years ago and he reminds me so much of him in that – he’s very talented – but in the way he leads the team in the huddle and all that. It’s a lot of fun working with him.

“He gets it. He’s very, very smart. Very smart. He picked up this offense we’re implementing very easily.”

Ryan has been moving around well in the first few practices, showing signs that he has fully recovered from the foot injury he battled during most of the 2006 season. The same can’t be said about Brian Toal, who will be sitting out spring ball for the second straight season with a persistent shoulder injury.

Jagodzinski didn’t rule out the possibility of Toal redshirting next season, but seemed optimistic that it wouldn’t be necessary.

“We’re going to see how his rehab is going, it’s going really well right now. I said to him today, ‘You better get that thing right or you’re not going to be in the backfield at all,’” Jagodzinski joked about the linebacker’s infamous goal line, offensive participation.

Rather than risk a further setback, Jagodzinski is more comfortable holding Toal back in the hopes that he’ll be ready in September.

While the majority of BC’s latest recruiting class won’t arrive until the summer, Jagodzinski spoke briefly about what we might be able to expect from his latest signees, however far down the road that may be.

“You really never know what you have until two, three years down the road,” he said. “When you get a kid into your program and let him develop and see what he can do and get him within your schemes and within your environment, you see if the guys can blossom.”