Offense Will Be Audible in '07

In Part II of Boston College Media Day we go over new changes in coaching philosophy and the impact on the team of Brian Toal red-shirting.

For the past few seasons, there were a lot of question marks that BC fans had involving the offensive side of the ball. People’s questions ranged from:

-How much freedom do the BC quarterbacks have to audible plays at the line of scrimmage?

-Why do the Eagles seem to run the same plays all the time?

-Aside from running up the middle on 3rd and short, and 4th and short, do the coaches throw darts at a dart-board to select plays?

Rest assured with new Offensive Coordinator Steve Logan, BC fans won’t have those questions much longer. Logan told me that there are zero restrictions on Ryan when it comes to audibling.

“Every play he (Ryan) can audible. I kiddingly say with Matt If you do this right I should be eating hot dogs and drinking Diet Pepsi and watching the game.”

It seems instead of a one way street like the BC offense ran in past seasons, the BC offense is now run by both the OC and the QB. Logan says that he likes to take QB’s on a “guided discovery tour”. The “tour” simply involves Logan asking his quarterbacks why they made the decisions to audible when they did. It doesn’t mean they’re wrong, it’s meant more to brainstorm some ideas. In fact, Logan said, “I’ve learned a lot from them, and said 'that’s a good idea'."

QB Matt Ryan seems happy that has he more freedom.

“Anytime as a quarterback, when the coaches offer you more freedom that’s exciting," Ryan said. "With that freedom comes more responsibility. It’s a challenge but it’s a challenge I’m excited to have."

Most times people think of an audible as just a mechanism for the QB to change the plays at the line. However, Logan thinks it has been a useful tool to the offensive lineman with regards to their focus in preparing for the season.

“In the spring, particularly in the first week there had been little to zero audibling done here (by the old staff)," Logan explained. "Again, that just the way it was done. It was taxing for the other 10 men. They’d jump offsides; fall out of their shoes…..When we came back this fall there’s been very few illegal procedures, falling out of their shoes, things of that nature. So everybody had to become attuned to listen to not just the snap count but what the heck are we doing out here. It’s progressing well.”

BC fans should get ready for a much, much different offense this season. Just watch some footage of Jeff Blake in college in you’ll know what I mean. That’s the good news I have today.

The bad news? The one negative from media day was the discussion of Brian Toal red-shirting. Toal has been a nasty linebacker for BC the last several years, and this year they must find a replacement for him for the entire season. Luckily, Defensive Coordinator Frank Spaziani this he has a few players lined up to replace Toal.

“Francois will be over there, and we have Mark Herzlich who played a lot in the middle for us,” Spaziani said. “He’s (Herzlich) a freshman who played a lot last year, and he’s a good football player. Both of those guys will be at that position.”

Herzlich seemed to be a surprise answer to the question of replacing Toal, only because Herzlich didn’t play outside at all last season. However Spaziani didn’t seem worried about Herzlich’s transition as he said, “It's an adjustment for him and he hasn’t done it, but we like what we see about Herzlich. We wouldn’t have moved him over there if we thought it was going to handicap him to the point that it negated his skills."

Coach Jags echoed his DC’s comments.

“Our linebacking corps is the best position overall, the best group that we have on our football team. So, is it a loss? Yes, but there will be guys that will step up. (Robert) Francois will step up, Pruitt will step up. We've got depth at this position,” Jags said.

It seems like even when things aren’t going right (like Toal’s red-shirting) there aren’t excuses being made… and that’s a nice change.