"I know what I’m doing."

-- Frank Spaziani, Oct. 24

I think we're all realistic about the ceiling for Boston College football, right?

This isn't ever going to be USC or Alabama or Oregon, and we know exactly why and we're all OK with that. There are academic and regional roadblocks that always will be in the way of Boston College and anything resembling a consistent national power.

Now, there can be individual years when things are different, though almost everything has to go exactly right. We've seen that, though, with Matt Ryan and Tom Coughlin and Glenn Foley and of course with Mr. Flutie. But best case from a season-in, season-out perspective? Pretty much what we saw during the Tom O'Brien era. Lots of seven-, eight-, even nine-win years with close to annual appearances in a mid-level bowl and a Top 25 finish every three years or so. No shame in that. 

But the days of wins in the MPC Computers Bowl (now the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl) and Continental Tire Bowl (now something called the Belk Bowl) are Camelot right now at Chestnut Hill, because Boston College football is at its all-time low. 

Boston College has one win this season in seven games, and that was against Maine. Against FBS teams, the Eagles have allowed 41, 22, 45, 34, 51 and 37 points. They've been dusted by good teams (Florida State) and terrible teams (Army, which I would suggest has some excuses not to be competitive each season, is 1-6 this year). They've lost at home and on the road, day and night, in 75 and sunny and in lousy weather.

Boston College will host and lose to a mediocre Maryland team on Saturday and then lose its last four games to finish 1-11. I'll have to triple check, but even in this world of 388 bowl games I don't think that'll be enough for one more loss on the schedule in late December.

This is as bad a major-conference team as there is in college football. What happened? Well, the academic standards are the same as they were five years ago, the facilities are about the same, the fans are the same, the competition is the same and, until very recently, the athletic director was the same.

The difference? Frank Spaziani. By every account a hard-working man who cares about his players and also a very successful defensive coordinator, Spaziani has been a colossal failure as head coach of Boston College. The program has suffered a staggering regression under his watch and he is to blame for it. It's time for new athletic director Brad Bates to make the first significant move of his tenure and fire Spaziani. 

And the move shouldn't come at the end of the season, either. College football is a business, plain and simple. We can agree or disagree on the merit of billions of dollars being made on the backs of 19-year-old kids who don't see a nickel of it (at least they don't see it at BC), but it's not going to change. And it benefits the school financially if the team wins more football games. Spaziani is costing Boston College money, and that's the first, second and last reason Bates is going to relieve him of duties. And this isn't a situation where Spaziani can win out and save his job -- we've got enough of a sample size to know it's not going to work. The mistake was not firing him before this season, which has turned 2012 into a wasted year for this program. If Bates isn't careful he'll be punting on 2013.

But to win games you need (wait for it) players. And the talent level has suffered a fairly serious decline in the Spaziani years, which has meant this:

2009 (Spaziani's first year): 8-5

2010: 7-6

2011: 4-8

2012: 1-6

I know there's a trend there somewhere. And there is no reason to think it's going to improve. The combination of Spaziani the coach with Spaziani's players has equaled disaster. So why keep him around when there still is 3 1/2 months left until National Signing Day? If Bates waits until the end of the season to start the search for the next coach he potentially is hurting the program for years. If you bring in the right guy -- no guarantee, of course, but it can't be worse -- and he brings in a couple of the right guys in his first recruiting class, you've got the start of something. Keeping Spaziani around for a couple of months out of respect for his years at the school is swell in theory but harmful in reality.

This isn't about the move to the ACC, or competing with other schools that are more liberal in what kind of student they'll accept and what they'll do to bring them in. All that existed before. The 1-6 record is all on Frank Spaziani, who served the school well as an assistant but was spectacularly miscast as the lead guy and has managed to turn the football program from a consistent winner into a national joke in less than four years. 

It's time for Spaziani to go. And the longer Bates waits to make this obvious move the longer it will continue to damage the program.