Steve Addazio thought it was 1999 or 2000. He was an assistant coach at Notre Dame under Bob Davie, years before he would become head coach at Boston College.
Davie was kicking around the idea of moving to an option-based offense.
“Coach Davie, he said for a long time, ‘I should just run the (expletive) wishbone,’” Addazio said last week at the ACC spring meetings at Amelia Island, Fla. “He loved that offense because he hated defending it.”
Davie sent Addazio and two other offensive assistant coaches, Kevin Rogers and a wide receivers coach named Urban Meyer, in the offseason to learn from perhaps the preeminent expert in option football. The three coaches went to Statesboro to spend a few days with coach Paul Johnson, then in the midst of winning two Division I-AA (now FCS) championships at Georgia Southern.
“We were on a fact-finding mission,” Addazio said.
Davie never adopted the offense at Notre Dame. Addazio said it was “because it just felt like, could you really do that at Notre Dame?” Meyer went on to use option concepts, some gleaned from Johnson, with considerable success at Utah, Florida and Ohio State. The visit has taken on different significance this year, as Addazio’s team will open the season in Dublin against Georgia Tech and his one-time tutor in the spread-option offense.
The trip to Statesboro, and Johnson’s subsequent successes with the offense at Navy and Tech, made a distinct impression on Addazio.
“Oh, my god,” he said. “He’s great. I mean, he’s great. He’s really good at what he does. Really good.”
Going into his fourth season, Addazio has used the option at Boston College. The Eagles were particularly successful with it in 2014, when quarterback Tyler Murphy was second in the country in rushing yards per game by a quarterback (90.7 yards per game) and the Eagles were 15th nationally in rushing yardage (254.7).
Addazio had been a devotee of option football — the wishbone in particular — even before Notre Dame and his visit to Statesboro. In his first coaching job, at Western Connecticut State in the mid-’80s, the team ran the wishbone. He stuck with it when he took a high-school coaching job, and his team set the Connecticut state record with 49 consecutive wins.
“I love the offense,” Addazio said. “Like, I love that offense.”
(Addazio is an easily enthused person.)
To counter the Yellow Jackets, Boston College began preparing for Tech’s offense in the spring. Addazio ran the scout-team offense, and made the unusual decision to draft offensive starters to the unit to give the Eagles defense the best portrayal possible of what it will see in Dublin’s Aviva Stadium. (Addazio calls the Tech scout team “my baby.”)
“We’re going to make sure that we’re going to simulate the speed of how they play,” Addazio said.
In February, Addazio hired former Syracuse coach Paul Pasqualoni in February to coach the defensive line. Addazio coached for Pasqualoni at Western Connecticut State and then Syracuse. Addazio merely calls him “arguably the best football coach in the country. I mean, he is unbelievable.”
The season opener in Dublin portends to hinge on what Tech games often do, how well the opponent coaches can prepare their defense for the Jackets offense.
Boston College’s may be more suited to the task than most. The Eagles were among the nation’s most unyielding defenses in the country last season, ranking first in opponent yards per rush, yards per play and third-down efficiency. Six starters return, although Boston College lost three All-ACC defenders to graduation.
“We lost some guys, but the guys we had behind those guys are really good,” Addazio said.
It’ll be Addazio’s job to help get them ready for what they’ll see in Dublin. It won’t be easy. Just ask Addazio.
“So I respect the offense is what I’m trying to tell you,” Addazio said. “I respect it a lot.”
As for Davie — he returned to coaching in 2012, at New Mexico, his first job since he was fired at Notre Dame. He runs what is described as a triple-option attack out of the pistol formation.
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