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Jul
18
2012

Ask a Blogger Series – ACC Question of the Week (Coastal Division) – Coaches Hot Seat

Good evening from @HokieGuru and all of us at All Sports Discussion.  We continue our Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Question of the Week with blogger representatives from the Coastal and Atlantic Divisions. Today, we interview six blogger representatives from the Coastal Division.  Their bios are below:

  • @ztevans:  Evans is from Princeton, NC and currently attends the University of North Carolina, graduating in December 2012. He is a staffer on The Daily Tar Heel’s Multimedia desk by day, tweeting too much about sports by night.. NOTE: He is not a sportswriter; he merely tweet/talk about sports from the perspective of a lifelong ACC fan “for fun.” The opinions presented are his alone and do not reflect the views of management or staff at The Daily Tar Heel.

  • @vtechfanblog: Justin Clark is a Radford University graduate.  He is an avid Hokie fan and blogger that has been writing for Virginia Tech Fan since December of 2009.

  • @Category6UM: Josh/Jerry Writers/Operators of Category6UM. Based in Miami, Florida. Went to University of Miami for Undergrad. Let’s go ‘Canes…

Now that we’ve introduced you to our blogger panelists, let’s get started with the ACC Question of the Week.  Here is the question for our panelists:  Which coach has the hottest seat in the ACC?  For clarity, you can make your pick from either of the ACC’s Coastal or Atlantic Divisions. If you’d like to give us your top three, you can also do that.

@ztevans: I think you have to go with Frank Spaziani.  His departure would make my Twitter timeline a lot less interesting, but after crossing the ten-win threshold in the mid-2000s, you have to expect more success from the Eagles have garnered under Spaziani.  You could make a case for David Cutcliffe on his record (a good bit worse than Spaziani’s), but then I have to remind you that Duke kept Ted Roof employed for five seasons.  Coach Cut already has as many Atlantic Coast Conference wins in four seasons as Roof had TOTAL wins during his stay in Durham.  It’s all relative: One coach is moving forward, the other is moving backwards. And if things don’t get better in Chestnut Hill, Frank Spaziani may simply be moving at season’s end.

@DukeBlogMKline:  Well is there really a coach that is more disliked and unwanted among his own fan base than Frank Spaziani? Obviously Duke’s David Cutcliffe is coaching the least desirable program in the ACC and one that has been the worst but his fan base expects a little less than does BCs. So I feel that Cutcliffe will get the benefit of the doubt a lot longer and aside from the win and loss record every other facet of Duke Football is improving. You can’t say that for BC under Spaziani. The fact that BC is struggling on the field and his fan base seems to hate him make me think that a poor showing by the Eagles will quite possibly cost him his job.

@vtechfanblog:  I think you have to go with Frank Spaziani.  Not only has he struggled since inheriting the head coaching job in 2009 but he has failed to bring in any highly recruited talent.  Combine that with the expectations of another losing season in Chestnut Hill and it would not surprise me to see Boston College elect to go in a different direction this offseason.  Unless the Eagles can somehow stumble into a bowl game, I just don’t see them keeping Spaz around for an additional year.

@younglefhander: The ACC finds itself in a pretty interesting situation as far as the hot seat goes.  Few programs in the conference are drastically underachieving, and those that have been recently have already turned over their coaching staff.  In reality, there are only two candidates for the hot seat in the conference, and one of those two is unlikely to be fired due to budgetary concerns.  That leaves Frank Spaziani at Boston College.  Here’s hoping that this is the last year the BC faithful have to suffer under Coach Spaz.

@Category6UM: This is a tough one. Let’s use process of elimination. Certainly Frank Beamer is safe. With a recent contract extension given, and tie sales at an all time high in South Florida, Al Golden also appears safe. Dabo Swinney and Clemson seem poised to do big things, ditto Jimbo Fisher at FSU. Mike London and UVA overachieved in 2011,  should buy him time.  One would think Randy Edsall at Maryland would be given a few years to recruit his own players. Dumping Paul Johnson would require a drastic change in strategy (plus he has been Coach of the Year 2x) at Ga Tech, so we’ll eliminate him as well. I doubt the AD at NC State can find a better coach than Tom O’Brien, so he should safe too. So my top three coaches on the hot seat would have to be #1 David Cutliffe at Duke, #2 Frank Spaziani at BC, and # 3 Larry Fedora at UNC. Cutliffe and the Dukies just haven’t been able to turn the corner. They always have some talent, yet never seem all that competitive. A Bowl this year could save him. Spaziani and BC are coming off a bad 4-8 year, and could be in for an even longer one in 2012. Fedora should be given some time to get things turned around at UNC, but if success isn’t immediate and a bigger name coach is available…..

@WillsWorldMN I would say Frank Spaziani at Boston College. He won eight games in his first year as coach, and they have dropped off in the two years since, down to four wins last year, and look pathetic on offense, and the defense (other than Luke Kuechly) wasn’t that great either. The Eagles will need to get to a bowl if Spaziani wants to keep his job. My number two would be Randy Edsall after the way things went last year, in addition to the mass exodus of players that left after the season. The only issue here is does the Maryland athletic department want to pony up the cash they may not have to run him off, so I think unless they win two games again this year, he’ll stick around.

We thank our panelists for their time  Please stay tuned for further episodes of our Ask a Blogger Series – our ACC Question of the Week.

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