At Boston College, winter conditioning includes a borderline-sadistic drill in which one player contorts himself into a chairlike position, back against a wall, and balances weights on his knees. At the same time, another player pushes a 45-pound plate around the room as fast as he can. The longer it takes the second player to finish the course, the longer his teammate has to support the weights on his knees; if the player against the wall drops the plates, his teammate has to go back to the starting line. Addazio’s description of this regimen alone will turn the listener’s thighs to jelly.
“We’re trying to create accountability with each other,” Addazio says. “Don’t let your partner down. Don’t let your teammate down. You work on these skill sets.”
While Addazio has a plan for building an Oline, I still think it can be as simple as coaching. As mush as we hated Tranquill or thought Spaz was inept, what really undermined his teams was the OLine coaching. Jags showed that a head coach who appreciates OL play combined with a very good position coach can come in and make an Oline thrive. Addazio did the same thing in his first two years. I don't love the turnover at the OLine this year, but I have full confidence in Addazio and Justin Frye to make these guys competent by our opener.
BC proudly calls itself OLine U and I hope we always do. We need that mentality to compete. It is an area where we've shown we can recruit and develop and it covers so many potential weaknesses.
I hope Addazio has a long and successful tenure and I also hope that whoever replaces him has an Oline background. That works for BC.
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