After Boston College football suffered three consecutive losses to end the regular season, there was plenty of speculation surrounding head coach Steve Addazio’s job security. On Tuesday afternoon, those rumors were put to rest.
In a statement from Director of Athletics Martin Jarmond released on BCEagles.com, it was announced that Addazio’s contract has been extended for two additional years, through the 2022 season.
The announcement follows a 7-5 regular season that will culminate in a trip to the SERVPRO First Responder Bowl near the end of the month. It was an up-and-down sixth season for the head coach, who saw his program rise to brief prominence in the polls before slipping back down in the home stretch.
Earlier this year, Addazio and BC had earned the national spotlight. On Nov. 3, the Eagles grabbed a road win over Virginia Tech to move to 7-2, vaulting them to No. 17 in the country. The victory earned the program a visit from College GameDay for a primetime clash with No. 2 Clemson, and created a buzz around the program not seen since the 2007 and 2008 seasons, when BC made back-to-back appearances in the ACC Championship. A win over the Tigers would have been one of the biggest in BC history, and the surest sign that the Eagles’ rebuild under Addazio was complete.
Instead, BC lost quarterback Anthony Brown to injury in the first quarter, then proceeded to gain just 113 total yards of offense in a 27-7 loss to the Tigers. The Eagles followed that game up with a 22-21 loss to a sub-.500 Florida State team before being blown out against Syracuse at home on senior day. The three-game skid to end the season means that—pending the result of BC’s bowl game against No. 25 Boise State on Dec. 26—the Eagles still have yet to finish with more than seven wins in a season under Addazio, who has been with the team since 2012.
What’s more, it’s another year in which BC finished the regular season with seven or fewer wins—and the fact that the Eagles did so despite having likely the most talented team of Addazio’s tenure—ignited a round of questions about his status as BC’s head coach moving forward.
In the statement, Jarmond cites much of the buzz surrounding the program earlier in the year as one of the primary reasons that Addazio’s contract was extended.
“While all of us wish our regular season in football had ended with more victories, we took important steps in the right direction this year: returning to the national rankings for the first time since 2008, capturing the nation’s attention with ESPN’s College GameDay on-campus, being in the running for the conference championship in November and playing in another post-season bowl,” his statement reads.
The specific terms of the extension have not been disclosed. For now, the Eagles will prepare to face Boise State in two weeks with the knowledge that Addazio will be the program’s head coach moving forward.
Featured Image by Bradley Smart / Heights Editor
