NEW YORK — So what about Michigan?
The rumors were swirling, and when the question about maybe heading to another destination after the season was posed at Boston College’s New Era Pinstripe Bowl media day earlier this month, it marked maybe the only response that Steve Addazio didn’t deliver with his trademark smile.
Could the Michigan job being open, and the Wolverines evidently doing some research into him, possibly be a distraction?
“It’s not a distraction to me,” he said stoically. “It’s the nature of the business when you have success. These things happen. I’m not one of those coaches who look around for the next thing.
“I’m all about giving your whole to the team, the players and the university. Right now, I feel
like I’ve got the greatest job in the world right here.”
A few days later, Addazio was smiling again. He signed a contract extension that would keep him in Chestnut Hill through the 2020 season, and there were no more doubts about how focused on the future of Boston College football and Saturday’s Pinstripe Bowl against Penn State he could be.
The man who has seemingly been everywhere these last few years is finally where he wants to be. And that, his players say, is a boon to the Boston College program that has found rebirth on his watch.
“He definitely gives you a lot of confidence. He challenges you,” sophomore running back Myles Willis said. “This is my second year here, and I’ve done things I’ve never done before. Whether it’s the kickoff team or kickoff return, I had never returned a kick before I got here. I never even played running back before. You just play, and you don’t want to let him down.”
As Addazio’s career has taken off over the last five years, one team he seems to keep running into is Penn State.
He was the offensive coordinator under Urban Meyer at Florida in 2010, when the Gators beat Penn State, 37-24. Florida ran for 178 yards against a tough Penn State defense that day.
He went on to become the head coach at Temple after that season, and the Owls gave Penn State fits in each of his two seasons there — a 14-10 loss in which they led in the fourth quarter in 2011, and a hard-fought, 24-13 Lions win the next season.
“They’re always, obviously, a very good defensive football team, and they still are,” Addazio said. “They’re Linebacker U, and Mike Hull was the Big Ten Linebacker of the Year. They’re always big up front. Over the years, they’ve always had a pro-style quarterback with a pro arm, and that’s Christian Hackenberg now. So I think there are some similarities.”
Addazio is hoping the second trip to a bowl game after inheriting a program that won just two games in 2012 will be the Eagles’ first win in one since beating Michigan State in the 2007 Champs Sports Bowl.
If it is, it will be against a familiar opponent in what, finally, is becoming a familiar place for him.