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In the video above, new Boston College head coach Steve Addazio discusses what the day of the Boston Marathon bombings was like on campus. He also talks about what the entire week following the bombings was like and the decision to cancel the spring game.

Also, Addazio was on Mike & Mike this morning, talking about his thoughts on conference realignment, the College Football Playoff, coaching Tim Tebow, the expectations for the Eagles and more. Click here to listen to that interview.

NEWTON, Mass. -- As far as Steve Addazio is concerned, there’s no room for “my bad” at Boston College.

The new coach of the Eagles, one of the last people off the Alumni Stadium field on Thursday after practice, said he’s encouraged with how the players have responded so far this spring. But he knows there’s a long, long way to go.

As the team went through scrimmage situations late in the day’s session, shadows creeping farther and farther across the turf, the energy level was noticeably different from years past. Players on the sidelines were shouting encouragement to teammates on the field. Coaches were shouting instructions and exhortations, and voicing their pleasure (or displeasure) with results as they happened.

“I think it’s important that there’s energy, that there’s passion, there’s energy and they’re holding each other accountable,” Addazio said afterward about the noise level. “There’s no such thing as my bad. You gotta count on the guy on your left and the guy on your right, and they’ve gotta perform, when their number’s called they’ve gotta get the job done.

“Not being able to just brush off, ‘Oh, yeah, I made a mistake.’ Well that’s not acceptable. Can’t have that. It’s a fine line in football. It’s creating that atmosphere, and putting that pressure on and finding out who can really make a play when the pressure’s really on.”

For a program coming off a 2-10 finish, changing the mindset is important. So far Addazio has been pleased with the players’ attitudes.

“It’s important,” he said of seeing the offense and defense competing as hard as they did Thursday. “We’re trying to reestablish [a mindset of] winning is all that matters and losing is not tolerable. You’ve gotta fight for every inch, for every win. And how hard it is, how fragile it is to win a major college football game.

“We have to get back into that mindset, because we’ve had two years when we have not been bowl eligible. This is all about changing that and establishing that atmosphere. This is just the start.”

Asked where the team is in the process of installing new offensive and defensive systems, Addazio said the focus this spring is more fundamental than that.

“We don’t really know exactly which system it’s gonna be,” the coach said. “We’re really hunting and pecking to find our identity right now. It’s hard to know [what system you’ll run] until you really see what you have and what you can do. I know we can run some power football.”

Addazio said the staff is still figuring out how best to deploy the personnel at its disposal.

“We’ve got a lot of ball left to go. This was practice seven,” he said with a short laugh. “We’ve got a long way to go. But I like the attitude, I like the effort, I like where we’re headed. I really do. I do. I’d like to get a little bit more explosive, make a few more plays. Although we made a few today, [Alex] Amidon had a few today.”

The last hour of practice was devoted to game situations, complete with officials and down-and-distance markers. In one sequence, Amidon caught a ball from the left slot and exploded up the left side for a touchdown.

His offensive teammates chased him, cheering, all the way to the end zone to celebrate the practice score.

And later, when Sean Sylvia delivered a hit that produced a loud “Pop” of pad-on-pad, it was the defense‘s turn to turn up the volume.

It’s instances like those that have Addazio excited. But the veteran coach isn’t getting ahead of himself.

“I’m realistic about where we are,” he said. “I know where we need to be, and we’re not there. But I like our effort. I like our willingness, I like our energy.

“I know where we are, though, we’ve got a long way to go,” he said, with another short laugh. “But I like the fact that we’re scratching and clawing to get there. And my experience is we’ll get there.

“I don’t have a time clock on it. We’ll just keep working, building this thing the right way: on a good foundation of physical toughness and accountability.”

There’s no more room for “my bad” in Chestnut Hill, and that can only be a good thing.

Jack McCluskey is an editor for ESPN.com and a frequent contributor to ESPNBoston.com. Follow him on Twitter @jack_mccluskey.

When Boston College quarterback Chase Rettig takes the field to open spring practice today, he will be learning from his fourth offensive coordinator in as many seasons.

At least there will be some familiarity with Ryan Day, who was Boston College receivers coach from 2007-11, before leaving to join Steve Addazio at Temple in 2012. Day returned to BC when Addazio was hired, and both are now charged with trying to jump start the offense while easing their players into a new system.

Again.

Addazio said the staff plans on keeping as many alike principles and alike terms as they can. But even still, Rettig and his teammates have to learn an offense that will be different from the pro-style set the Eagles ran last season.

"The fact of the matter is I’ve talked to Chase and other guys about it, all these guys have ambitions to play at the next level, and that’s part of that, too. There’s a lot of turnover, there’s a lot of change," Addazio said in a recent phone interview. "A zone play is a zone play, and a quick game is pretty universal, protections are universal, six-man, five-man, seven-man protections are pretty universal.

"So it’s not too crazy. Sometimes it’s more formation, calls, that’s what it is more than anything else. How you’re reading coverages and progressions in the throw game. One thing here is our guys are very bright guys. And I think one thing we do very well here is pick things up pretty quickly."

Though Addazio has a history of running a spread-type offense, he insists he will not try to fit a round peg in a square hole -- and he wants to be able to establish the run first and foremost.

Whether the Eagles have the personnel to get that done right away remains to be seen, as they were not very good in that department last year. But they do have the luxury of returning an experienced quarterback who threw for over 3,000 yards last season with 17 touchdown passes.

So what does Addazio want to see out of Rettig this spring? Rather than discussing Xs and Os improvement, Addazio wants to see Rettig work on his leadership.

"Chase is a guy who throws the ball well, and that’s a positive," Addazio said. "That’s a piece, but the biggest piece is winning. At quarterback -- whether he’s a thrower, whether he’s a runner -- it’s kind of irrelevant. What’s relevant is he’s got it, and he’s got the ability to lead and find a way to win. What we’re working on right now is getting our seniors and getting our players at a position like quarterback, like Chase, to understand how important his leadership, his demeanor, his ability to drive a football team, how important that is.

"To me, the quarterback on offense, that’s huge. The linebacker on defense, those are the apexes of your team on both sides of the ball and those guys have got to have 'it.' Sometimes today, everybody gets tied into talking about this guy runs really well or this guy spins it really well. All those things are important but what’s really important is the ability to lead, the ability to win. Buying into that mindset is really critically important because we’re coming off two years that aren’t representative of what Boston College has been. We’ve got to make sure that we develop that kind of leadership."

Boston College will be the first ACC team to open spring practice, one week from today. I had a chance to speak at length with new coach Steve Addazio about a wide variety of topics.

We covered so much ground, I present a few highlights here today. Stay tuned for more from Addazio when the Eagles put the pads on next week.

Now that you have been in place for three months, do you have a better idea of what you want to run schematically when you open spring ball?

SA: What I know right now is work ethic. What I know right now is attitude. I still don’t know that I know who’s capable of what on the football field, so you’ve got to get the pads on. No matter what we do, where we head, the starting point is going to be a two-back, one-back, zone-power counter concept, a real strong pro-style running game, play-action pass, nakeds. That’s going to be a starting point, no matter what direction we ultimately head. You head into Week 1, and you find out if you can rock off the ball, you find out the strength of your backs, you find out about your quarterbacks, your receivers in terms of your play-action passes. Then we’ll be able to tell after the first six practices or so how quickly we’ll migrate more of those shotgun, spread principles and how they’ll come into this offense.

You inherit a team coming off a 2-10 season. How do you deal with going about trying to change the mentality of a program that hasn’t seen its best days the past few years, especially when you have been a part of successful programs at your past few stops?

SA: At Temple, obviously Al (Golden) did a tremendous job of building that program so there was a built-in expectation level and we had to come in and find a way to take that expectation and exceed it, and we were able to do that. At Florida, we came into a similar situation, maybe not to the point of which there was a two, three or four-win team. But to Florida’s standards, it was very similar. Because Florida’s standards, six, seven, eight wins might as well have been two or three wins. I did have the experience of going into Indiana with Gerry DiNardo, which was a complete utter rebuild from every sense of the word, and then when I went to a high school program, and I had to build the thing from Ground Zero. I’ve got to rely on all those experiences together, but I will say this to you: There is a tremendous amount of pride here at Boston College, and rightfully so. This has been a very strong football program, consecutive bowl games that we had been to, eight of them. You talk about first-rounders, you talk about great players, rookies of the year, NFL players of the year, so, OK, we’ve had two down years. We haven’t had 20.

So there’s a lot of pride here and I think a tremendous willingness and buy-in to getting back, realizing we’ve got to do a great job recruiting. We’re working like crazy on that right now. I want to have a legitimate bona fide great recruiting year next year. We’ve got to restock our team. We have to redevelop that winning culture, that winning attitude. We’ve got to come in here, and we’ve got to shock everything right now and that’s what it’s all about. You walk into our building and you walk into that lobby and you’re just a couple years removed from some very good football teams and very good successes. This is not an instantaneous one, now. We’ve got to build this and it’s going to take a little bit of time. This is not just come in and let’s just get going, and turn this and twist that and bam we’re right in it. We’ve got some situations at quarterback where we have more drop-back mentality guys here. We have a depth problem at running back, and at wide receiver, so it’s a combination of things. It’s going to take some time. I want to build this thing the right way, with a great foundation, and get BC back to where BC was.

You mentioned Indiana and some of the other places you’ve been. How would you categorize this in terms of the type of rebuilding process you have ahead?

SA: That’s a good question. There’s similarities -- in a different way -- to Florida when we got there. Because Florida wasn’t where Florida wanted to be at that point in time, but Florida had come off some pretty successful years. Not that far removed from the Spurrier era. So there was a lot of pride. There’s a lot of pride here, whereas at Indiana it was a little bit more removed from the Bill Mallory era. It was a little further removed and it wasn’t as long lasting. Then when I was at Notre Dame, it probably wasn’t all that different, either. We were trying to reignite, re-recruit, restock a program that had success at a high level at one point. There’s similarities in all of them. Our kids here want to win, know they can win, know where this was, know what needs to be done. It’s not like we’re coming in here saying we have to learn how to win. Guys were here when this program was winning. Matt Ryan’s not that far removed. Luke Kuechly just walked out of here. Anthony Castonzo, those guys are not that far removed and they’re always around. I just feel like a sense of, we just have to dig our feet in right now, fight back real hard, give ourselves some time to restock and rebuild. But it’s around the corner, so to speak.

Along those lines, I’m going to ask you the dreaded timetable question. How long will it take before you get back to a bowl and contend for championships?

SA: We’ve got a real goal in front of us right now. The first thing we want to do is look at it like this: We want to win the opener, and then we’ve got to get bowl eligible. Now, I think you’re always looking at building consistency and working toward championships. The first thing we have to do is we’ve got to get back to a bowl.

I never believe in saying, ‘We can’t do this.’ The power of a team is so big when you bring that chemistry together. But we want to get bowl eligible immediately. That’s realistic, as opposed to me saying it’s going to take one year to do this and two years to do that. You just don’t know that. But I want to get bowl eligible right away and our team wants that, our program wants that and that’s where we’re headed right now.

Boston College has hired UConn’s Don Brown to be its new defensive coordinator, new coach Steve Addazio announced Wednesday.

“We’re very excited to have Don Brown joining our Boston College family,” Addazio said in a statement. “Don is a New England guy who has tremendous ties and relationships in the Northeast to go along with a great coaching resume.”

Brown, who spent the past two seasons as the defensive coordinator for Paul Pasqualoni, has deep roots in the Northeast.

The Spencer, Mass., native has been a head coach three times -- at Plymouth State (1993 to 1995), Northeastern (2000 to 2003) and UMass (2004 to 2008). He also has ties to the ACC, as he was the defensive coordinator at Maryland for the two seasons (2009-10) prior to joining the staff at UConn.

“He has tremendous character and is a great family man who is a perfect fit here at Boston College,” Addazio said.

Brown, 57, will take over a BC defense that was in disarray in 2012. The Eagles finished 113th in the country in rushing defense, 73rd in passing defense, 75th in scoring defense and 102nd in total defense in Frank Spaziani’s last season in the Heights, according to cfbstats.com.

“Coach Addazio has presented me with a great challenge -- one that I am very excited about,” Brown said in the statement. “I’m excited to be back in the ACC. The positive thing for me is that I’m a New England guy. I’m from Massachusetts. Coaching at Boston College has always been a wish of mine.”

As for philosophy, Brown’s approach may be music to the ears of Eagles fans.

“I’m a firm believer that you play the game on the balls of your feet, not on your heels. From day one, we’re going to be aggressive,” he said. “We’re going to attack the line of scrimmage. We’re going to get after the quarterback. We’re going to play with our hair on fire on defense. I’m a big believer in playing for tackles for loss and being disruptive and making life difficult for the quarterback. We’re going to attack. That’s the style of defense that I’ve employed. We’re going to fly around and attack the pass.”

While at UConn, Brown led a turnaround on D. The Huskies went from 58th in total defense in 2010, the year before he was hired, to 51st in 2011 and 10th in 2012.

The Huskies ranked seventh in the country in rushing defense in 2012, allowing an average of just 97.92 yards a game.

Brown’s defense also proved capable of getting to the quarterback, with 33 sacks in 2012 -- good for a tie for 19th in the country. BC finished dead last, 124th, with just six sacks in 2012.

Addazio also officially announced the hiring of Ryan Day as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.

New athletic director Brad Bates praised Addazio’s hires on Twitter on Wednesday, writing: “Coach Addazio assembling excellent staff. Ryan Day and Don Brown will be terrific coordinators.”

The news also made its way to defensive lineman Connor Wujciak, who said via Twitter:

Don Brown as Defensive Cordinator??? Wow I am PUMPED.

— Connor Wujciak (@Wuj90) December 19, 2012

Jack McCluskey is an editor for ESPN.com and a frequent contributor to ESPNBoston.com. Follow him on Twitter @jack_mccluskey.

One of the key reasons Brad Bates chose Steve Addazio as Boston College's new head football coach is his ability to recruit.

With his passionate, fiery personality, Addazio plays well to a crowd, but the coach is also able to build meaningful relationships with recruits and, if he gets them to sign on, his players.

In fact, when he was an assistant to Urban Meyer at Florida he managed to get a top recruit in the Northeast to decommit from UConn and head south to play for the Gators.

"He was definitely one of [the reasons I committed], because he's a straightforward guy," New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez told ESPNBoston.com's Field Yates on Thursday. "He doesn't just tell you what you want to hear. That's what you want from a coach."

Asked on WEEI's "The Dennis & Callahan Show" on Thursday morning about recruiting Hernandez, Addazio said he pitched the tight end on the chance to contribute to a top-flight program and to make an impact in a high-powered offense.

"I had a great relationship with him," Addazio said. "I had a great trust factor, obviously being from the state of Connecticut going into Connecticut [to recruit]. I thought [Florida] ended up being a terrific fit for him. And certainly so, so proud of all the things that he's accomplished. He's a great guy with a great work ethic and great talent."

Hernandez was also full of praise for his former coach.

"He's a great coach," he said. "He's a great person on and off the field. He can be a little intense at times, but I loved him and I loved having him as a coach."

On the morning talk show, Addazio was also asked about the academic standards at BC and how that will impact recruiting, leading to this exchange:

Isn't it true that there are going to be players you can't get past admissions at BC?

"Yes it is," Addazio answered, matter-of-factly.

And you're prepared for that?

"Yes, I am," Addazio said. "Obviously there are plenty of really talented student-athletes that are really looking for a powerful degree and want to play a high-energy and passionate, great brand of football and want to be in a city like Boston and be on a beautiful campus like Boston College. That group is out there and I'm really looking forward to attacking it."

Hernandez was asked a similar question later Thursday, about how Addazio will fare recruiting in New England and bringing talent to the Heights.

"I know it's hard to get into a school like BC," Hernandez said, "but he's a great recruiter, and knows how to get recruits, so I'm sure he'll get a bunch of athletes there."

Jack McCluskey is an editor for ESPN.com and a frequent contributor to ESPNBoston.com. Follow him on Twitter @jack_mccluskey. Information from ESPNBoston.com Patriots reporter Field Yates was used in this report.

Steve Addazio has called his new job at Boston College his "dream job." I had a chance to ask him why, and plenty more during a recent phone conversation after he was introduced in Chestnut Hill.

Why are you the right fit for Boston College?

SA: First off, I’m a Northeast guy. I’ve recruited the Northeast my whole career. And I’ve got a real proven track record throughout the Northeast and just have great relationships with high school coaches. and then of course, I’ve recruited into Florida. I’ve had a great bunch of relationships in that state, and really did a fair amount of national recruiting at Florida, so really I feel like I can get into Florida and understand where I can go with the right programs. And then of course being at Notre Dame, recruiting nationally, always my main target was in the Northeast, but I was involved in Indianapolis, Chicago, Ohio Catholic Leagues and just being at an institution where you’re really looking for players, student-athletes that really respected the opportunity to get a great education and be at a Catholic university. That’s a piece of it.

For me, my Catholic faith is very important to me and my family. That’s absolutely an important piece. This is a family place. It’s a small school. My whole thing is great chemistry, kids that respect football, respect academics. I just love the atmosphere here, the all for one and one for all among the coaches, the faculty and administrators. My experiences, where I’m from, my recruiting, they want the big thing here is a guy who can excite, unite the alumni, the fan base, the city, Boston College and bring in here a great deal of energy and passion and embrace recruiting and embrace all the things that go along with college football. Honestly, it felt right, right from the start. When I met everybody here, I walked away and I was like, this is me. This is a tremendous fit and sometimes you feel good about certain things, but I felt good about everything.

How did the whole process go down?

SA: It happened pretty quickly. They reached out to me. We had a chance to get together, and they were exactly what I was looking for and I was exactly what they were looking for. It was just a sincere click. Right away you felt this was right. Brad (Bates) is one of the really great ADs in the country. I’ve known of him and known him and all the people I know and respect, (Florida athletic director) Jeremy Foley and those guys speak the world of Brad, and (former coach) Gerry DiNardo and so an opportunity to be with him really meant a lot to me. So yeah, it happened pretty quick and I think both sides just felt like this is really, really the right fit, the right chemistry.

There have been some down times, and Boston College is in a tough division. What is it going to take to get things turned around and get back to playing for ACC championships?

SA: Obviously recruiting. You’ve just got to do a great job recruiting. That was a big component here, the ability to recruit. You just can’t come into the Northeast and show up as some coach who’s never recruited here and think you’re going to have great success. You’ve got to pay your dues. Just building a real chemistry and an energy and a toughness I think there’s a lot of things that can be done. You’ve got a veteran quarterback coming in here, and a young defense.

I just think we have to keep recruiting, we have to keep developing and there’s absolutely no reason why we can’t get back to where we were, and go beyond that. That’s the job at hand right now. It’s not a quick thing. It’s not like bam, bam and you’re all set. You’ve got to build it. Recruiting takes time. It’s all about getting on the young players and developing relationships and Boston College, and I am, we’re in it for the long haul. We’re going to build it, develop it and then win as many games as we can win. I like the future, but I know the work that’s at hand. The real grind. There’s a reason why I’m here.

Check back Friday for the second part of our interview, where we talk about his offensive philosophy and fitting what he likes to do with the team's strengths.

NEWTON, Mass. -- Like many interested observers, more than a few Boston College players were surprised by Brad Bates' hire of Steve Addazio to be their next football coach.

"A lot of the guys were surprised," quarterback Chase Rettig said. "This is why you can't listen to everything that's going on in the media, because there's a lot of names out there and Coach Addazio wasn't necessarily one of the different things people were talking about."

No, Addazio wasn't mentioned in many (any?) reports, but he's here now. The new coach introduced himself to the team in a 2 p.m. team meeting in the Barber Room of the Yawkey Center, then met with the media, boosters and athletic department staff in the same room an hour later.

And while Bates might have been stealthy about whom he was hiring, there's little stealthy about the man he hired.

A big man with a bald head and a booming baritone, Addazio can make quite the first impression.

"Obviously he brings a lot of passion and enthusiasm," Rettig said. "He wants to create a buzz for our football program."

In regard to personal style -- and certainly volume -- the difference from former coach Frank Spaziani couldn't be starker. While Spaziani sometimes seemed to be whispering in postgame sessions with the media, Addazio barely needed the microphone on the podium.

Heck, he barely even used the podium, instead wandering around behind it, gesturing to accentuate his points.

The energy, which Bates mentioned multiple times Tuesday night after announcing the hire, is already rubbing off on his new charges.

"Just having him in here today, it made me very excited," linebacker Steele Divitto said. "He's basically told us to buckle up and be ready for a tough offseason, and I'm looking forward to it. And I'm looking forward to this team's successes going forward."

Divitto said he knew Addazio a little previously, since both are Connecticut natives. The linebacker is impressed with his résumé, but the first thing he mentioned was that personality.

"He brings a lot of energy to the table," Divitto said. "I think it's very important to have a head coach that the players get excited to play for. It makes the game more exciting, it makes the players more excited, it makes it more enthusiastic. It makes them want to be out there and compete at the highest level.

"And that's something that a lot of guys have been looking for, and it seems like we're getting it now."

Said Rettig: "He's bringing passion, enthusiasm and he wants to do something special."

But back to that résumé for a moment. In two years at Temple, Addazio went 13-11 (9-4 the first year, 4-7 the second) and won a bowl game (37-15 over Wyoming in the Gildan New Mexico Bowl in 2011). Before that, he spent six years on Urban Meyer's staff at Florida, where he helped the Gators win two BCS National Championship Games (in 2006 and 2008).

Being at Florida in those halcyon days, of course, meant he also coached a certain famous quarterback who now plies his trade (sparingly) in New York.

"Even the guys he's coached, Tim Tebow," Divitto said. "I love Tim Tebow. He's extremely passionate, extremely intense. I love that. That's kind of the way I am. So personally I'm very excited. I know a lot of the guys are excited, as well."

On Wednesday, Addazio wore one of the rings he got in his time at Florida -- an accessory not lost on the Eagles.

"Experience is a big thing, because the more experience they bring to the table the faster kids will buy in," Divitto said. "And that's what we're looking for."

In Addazio, the Eagles hope they've found the coach they were looking for. Now, all that's left to do is to get to work.

Jack McCluskey is an editor for ESPN.com and a frequent contributor to ESPNBoston.com. Follow him on Twitter @jack_mccluskey.

NEWTON, Mass. -- In his sometimes-thunderous introduction to the Boston College community, new head football coach Steve Addazio said all the things you would expect.

He's dreamed of being in this position all his life, he said. There's no place like BC, no place like Chestnut Hill on a football Saturday in the fall.

Addazio declared that he's here for the long haul, which had to be reassuring to Eagles fans with memories long enough to remember back past the Frank Spaziani era to Jeff Jagodzinski and the chaos that has ensued since the latter left after just two seasons to pursue bigger ambitions.

When questioned after his opening remarks about just what the long haul means to him, Addazio left no wiggle room.

"I want to be here and finish my career here," he said. "This is where I want to be. I have a home up in Cape Cod. I'm in New England. I'm at the most wonderful place I could possibly be at. I couldn't be more clear about that."

The big man paused, then turned a bit where he stood and went on.

"You can ask that lady in the red jacket right there," he said, gesturing to his wife, Kathy, seated in the front row.

"It's not red," she replied, drawing laughs from the room.

"In that maroon jacket right there," Addazio said, correcting himself as the laughter continued.

When the room quieted down again, the line of questioning shifted to something else Addazio had said in his remarks. Something you might not have expected, knowing the situation at the Heights at the moment: that you can win a national championship at Boston College.

"I think that any time you're at an institution like this," he said, "which has great tradition, has a beautiful campus, has a great education, in a city like we're in, in the city of Boston -- you can recruit, you can build, you can compete and you can win a national championship.

"It's been done. It's been done at a lot of places. That's the job, that's the mission, that's what we strive for. I've been in a couple of those. I've been there when that confetti comes down, and the feeling and elation and all the hard work that goes into it. There's absolutely no reason why that can't be accomplished at Boston College."

Heady words, indeed, especially coming as they do on the heels of a 2-10 season (which followed a 4-8 season, which … you get the point).

When he was pressed further, in one-on-one interviews, Addazio clarified. He isn't saying the Eagles will win a national championship, he's saying he believes it's possible they can.

"Can you? Absolutely you can," he said. "And I'm not coming in here as some bragging coach, 'Oh, yeah, we're gonna go win the national championship.' That's just not my style."

The task at hand, Addazio knows, starts with simpler ambitions.

"Where are we right now as we stand here?" he asked in his remarks. "We're currently not playing in a bowl game. We're disappointed. We're hungry.

"I talked to the team earlier before we came in here. I said to the team, 'As you sit in that chair I hope there's a disappointment. I hope it hurts. I hope there's a hunger. I hope there's a drive. I hope that you understand that you came to Boston College to win championships. I hope that fuels as we start this offseason workout program. Because we're all striving for success, and we're all competitors.'"

Linebacker Steele Divitto said part of the new coach's message to the players was, "Trust in me and I'll trust in you."

Addazio didn't just set out some lofty goals and leave it at that. He told the Eagles what he believes they'll need to do to achieve them.

"How are we going to get there?" he asked. "With a great offseason, by pushing each other, by pain and sacrifice, by strong will, a tough spring and a great summer, leadership by our seniors and a foxhole mentality. That's my job. We're going to have the toughest offseason we've ever had with winter conditioning and spring football because by pain and sacrifice you build bonds.

"And we're going to build a great chemistry, and we're going to feed off that hunger that's in everybody's belly and that disappointment. We're going to drive. That's what we're going to do. That's going to happen -- step by step."

It's clear the new coach has a vision for the program he wants to build at Boston College, and if Wednesday was any indication he should be able to communicate that vision well.

Where exactly that vision will lead, remains to be seen. But it sure had to sound good to Eagles fans.

Jack McCluskey is an editor for ESPN.com and a frequent contributor to ESPNBoston.com. Follow him on Twitter @jack_mccluskey.

NEWTON, Mass. -- While introducing Boston College’s new head football coach, athletic director Brad Bates had words of praise and also a warning.

“For those of you who have yet to meet Steve,” Bates said in a crowded conference room at the team’s Yawkey Center, “buckle up.”

Steve Addazio then took to the podium and talked -- or, more accurately, preached -- about dreams, about family, and, yes, even a little about ambition.

“I’m very humbled and I’m very honored to stand here as your head football coach at Boston College,” Addazio said. “This is my dream job. … I’ve been a lot of great places, and everywhere I’ve been and all the friends that know me and the people that I’ve worked with, knew that I wanted to one day be here at Boston College.”

His voice rising and falling as a preacher’s would from a pulpit, Addazio talked about how thrilled his family had been to get the chance to move to Philadelphia two years ago when he took the head-coaching position at Temple.

“And now I have a chance to come to New England, which is truly home, and we’re just ecstatic,” he said.

“I’m here for the long haul and I’m here to win championships,” he said, “and to win championships with class and honor. And develop young men on the football field and off the football field and in the classroom. Men that are gonna leave Boston College one day and are gonna go make a difference in this society, in this world that we live in, in a positive way.”

The new coach said he was excited about the family feel at BC, and called that an important factor for him.

Addazio said he’s evaluating his staff, and had one announcement to make: He’s bringing Ryan Day with him from Temple to be the Eagles’ offensive coordinator.

Day, of course, was the Eagles’ wide receivers coach from 2007 to 2011, before he left for Temple with former Eagles offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Kevin Rogers. Day knew Addazio previously from a one-year stint on the Florida staff in 2005, when Addazio was the tight ends coach and Day was a graduate offensive assistant.

Addazio, who is from Farmington, Conn., and played college football at Central Connecticut State, said he remembers sitting in his family room and watching “The Pass.” He said he had a chance to become a graduate assistant at BC under then-coach Jack Bicknell, but instead decided to pursue his dreams of playing in the NFL.

“I often look back and say, ‘Boy, I wonder if I had been a graduate assistant at Boston College,’ ” he said. “But I guess as faith has it, I’m gonna have a chance to get to Boston College.”

The new coach arrived at his news conference prepared, with notes printed out in large font on white pieces of paper. Wearing his wedding band on his left hand and one of his Florida Gators national title rings on his right hand, he rarely just stood behind the podium while he was speaking.

With his booming voice and rising cadence, he didn’t need the microphone to be heard.

While the coach was speaking, Bates sat at a table nearby, left leg crossed over right knee, hands interlocked on his knee and a small smile on his face.

Addazio said his plan on the field is simple: play great defense, run the ball, score in the red zone, have great special teams and don’t turn the ball over.

“I’m honored, I’m humbled, I’m excited, I’m determined. You’re gonna get the best out of Steve Addazio, my family, my staff and my program,” he said. “I’m proud to be a Boston College Eagle, and I won’t let you down.”

Jack McCluskey is an editor for ESPN.com and a frequent contributor to ESPNBoston.com. Follow him on Twitter @jack_mccluskey.

From an Owl to an Eagle, Steve Addazio is going from one bird of prey to another.

Boston College’s new head coach, Addazio spent the past two seasons as the head coach at Temple, where he compiled a 13-11 record (9-4 in 2011, 4-7 in 2012) and coached the Owls to their first bowl win in 32 years.

The new head coach will be introduced at 3 p.m. ET on Wednesday, in a news conference at the Yawkey Center (you can stream it live here).

So what can you expect from Addazio on Wednesday? Here are a few things you should hear about:

• Passion.

This was one of the words that came up again and again immediately after the hire was announced.

“He is one of the most energized, passionate people I’ve ever been around,” BC athletic director Brad Bates said of Addazio on Tuesday night. “His enthusiasm is contagious. Just sitting around him, you’re going to feel more inspired. So imagine that playing out in a coaching methodology.”

Bates said he gave a lot of weight to the input of the current Eagles, who he said told him they wanted someone who could bring some energy to the program. By all accounts, Addazio should do that.

When he was an assistant at Florida, his players reportedly called his pregame pep talks “Vitamin Addazio.”

• Knowledge of the area.

A native of Farmington, Conn., Addazio has had success recruiting in the Northeast corridor. In his second class as Temple head coach, he secured commitments from 21 three-star recruits, according to ESPN Recruiting Nation.

According to Sports Illustrated’s Pete Thamel, who broke the news of Addazio’s hiring on Tuesday, the coach was a candidate for the Eagles’ head-coaching position the last time around but couldn’t interview because of emergency knee surgery.

“He knew us incredibly well,” Bates said. “He had done his homework. He studied us. It was obvious he was incredibly interested in this job.”

• Stability.

The Eagles haven’t really had much stability in recent years, because while the top job didn’t change hands for the four years Frank Spaziani was in charge there was a revolving door in the assistant coaching ranks.

Bates said that while you can never be totally sure, he hopes that this hire will give BC some much-needed continuity in the coaching staff.

“This is a guy who grew up in the Northeast and has dreamed of being at Boston College,” Bates said. “He is thrilled to be here and he’s already hitting the ground running. We bounced over a lot of things today in terms of what needs to be prepared and what he’s already getting into.

“The second part of the answer is, who can predict the future? Is any place a destination anymore? The landscape of college athletics is evolving so quickly, and there’s so many different variables that are involved in how people choose jobs and their longevity. I can’t predict the future completely. But back to the original answer, here’s a guy who’s incredibly enthusiastic to be at Boston College.”

• Accountability.

After the season ended, some of the Eagles talked about there being a lack of accountability among the players. Bates said he thinks that will change now that Addazio is in charge.

“He’ll be a disciplinarian,” Bates said. “He will be incredibly demanding on and off the field, but at the end of the day, the students are going to know he genuinely and sincerely cares about them.”

Jack McCluskey is an editor for ESPN.com and a frequent contributor to ESPNBoston.com. Follow him on Twitter @jack_mccluskey.