Boston College Gets Fun Transplant

This got buried in The New York Times on Saturday, but ace college sports writer Pete Thamel spent some time on the Boston College campus and came away with an engaging read on the Eagles, and particularly new offensive coordinator Steve Logan, who is, to put it mildly, a character.

Logan describes himself as an “ex-garage band hero” who owns four guitars; a lover of red zinfandel wines (“that’s when it gets good for me”); an avid tennis player; and a fan of blues music. (He has 4,932 songs on his iPod, and the ring tone on his cellphone is a vintage Elmore James blues lick from the song, “Dust My Broom.”)

Logan operated high-powered offenses at East Carolina (he coached future NFL QB’s Jeff Blake, and David Garrard) and said he knows how his tombstone will read: “He scored 61 and lost.” What Logan can do with big-time quarterback Matt Ryan will be one of the top storylines this season, and it has BC followers excited after 10 years of the dour Tom O’Brien on the sideline. O’Brien’s tombstone will definitely not have anything to do with scoring 61 points. Ever.

True, O’Brien’s departure after 10 very good years to become the head coach at North Carolina State wasn’t handled in the most graceful manner. But there has already been some revisionist history applied to the O’Brien years (i.e. they were good but not great and he “failed” to take BC to the next level), and that has earned him something of as bad rap. He did, after all, revive a program that was in crisis.

In this town college programs need to be better than good to get noticed. They either need to be great or they need to be interesting and there is no doubt that Logan will make things interesting this fall.