Sad Day in Chestnut Hill

As you all know, Athletic Director Leahy overruled Assistant Athletic Director DeFilippo today and hired Cheesehead Jeff Jagodzinski as BC's new head coach over a clearly superior candidate in Mark Whipple. If Leahy did indeed throw his weight around to get either a Catholic or a Midwesterner in the corner office of the YAC (as one blogger with apparent inside info asserted), what an embarassment for the school and the region.

Decisions like this ultimately can only be judged at the time they are made--without the benefit of hindsight--and this was a horrible one, make no mistake about it. When you compare the resumes, it's a no-brainer that Whip should have been the guy. He won at every level, and has been a collegiate head coach for 15 years, winning a national championship at UMass. Ohio State certainly didn't blink when they had a 1-AA candidate like that in their back yard (Jim Tressel at Youngstown State). How did that work out for the Buckeyes? A national championship in 01 and maybe another in 06, that's how. Jags has been a coordinator for all of 3 years (2 of which were at BC 10 years ago), that's the closest he has come to calling the shots. He's been a positional coach the rest of the time. From what I hear, he got the job because he was a great interview. But that is the WORST reason to hire someone, just ask Bob Kraft after the Pete Carroll fiasco was over with the Patriots. I really hope I eat crow on this one, but I think the best thing we can hope for is that Jags surprises us all for a couple of years before bolting for the NFL or the Big Ten the first chance he gets.