Nobody wants to buy tickets to watch a team in rebuilding mode, and with that said, fans should find relief in how their football coach is approaching the season.
Tom O’Brien, the man who reeled off eight consecutive winning seasons at Boston College, wants to win now.
He even said as much at this year’s Media Day by making a bowl game an expectation for the upcoming year.
“This team should be an angry football team; they ought to play with a chip on their shoulder,” O’Brien said. “They were 3-9 last year. They didn’t like being 3-9, and the only way to rectify that situation is to have a winning season and go to a bowl game.”
From that statement, O’Brien is making it clear that he wants a quick turnaround from his players.
And by looking at his depth chart, he has put those words into action.
J.C. Neal and Levin Neal are starting at corners because of their tackling and ability to force turnovers. Those are areas that change games, and O’Brien is in the habit, and certainly the business, of winning.
“J.C. was probably the leading interceptor on the football team through the preseason, and Levin’s done a nice job,” O’Brien said. “Plus, they’ve done a nice job tackling.”
No matter what rating Harrison Beck – a.k.a. QB No. 12 – has in your NCAA ’08 game, Daniel Evans was the man for the QB job.
Evans may not have the biggest arm, even he has admitted that, but he’s certainly the man for fans to pin their bowl game dreams upon.
The occasional 60-yard bomb doesn’t necesarily win games or go to bowls if you continually throw the ball to the other guys.
“He was very consistent; he understands the offense; he plays with a lot of confidence,” O’Brien said, of Evans. “He gives us the best opportunity to win.”
Evans’ numbers in preseason backed up his case as the candidate that can win the most games this season.
In the Red and White game and the first two scrimmages, Evans (33-56, 4 TD’s, 1 Int) whalloped the efforts of Beck (14-46, 1 TD, 5 Int) and Justin Burke (17-48, 2 TD, 5 Int).
Beck and Burke are still works in progress. Perhaps they’d be good quarterbacks for a rebuilding project — but they were not qualified to take O’Brien to his ninth straight bowl.
And until the Wolfpack becomes ineligible for a bowl, O’Brien’s not interested in “rebuilding” — not with a team that lost seven games by eight points or less.
His team is also of the same mindset. They’re quicker to point out how close the losses were as opposed to how few the win total was.
Martrel Brown said this wasn’t a “losing team” last year, but rather a “team that lost games.”
I like that optomistic philosophy. Sure, it’s rooted in denial, but there’s something to be said for ripping off the rearview mirror and trying to look forward.
