Boston College Athletics
“The Best Coach I’ve Ever Been Around”
August 03, 2016 | Football
Paul Pasqualoni joins Steve Addazio’s staff, ready to get to work with the Eagles
To long-time Boston College fans, Paul Pasqualoni is probably best remembered for his time along the Syracuse sideline as the Orange's head coach from 1991-2004. The teams' annual BIG EAST meetings helped create the rivalry that continues on today in the ACC.
Fans may recall that current BC head football coach Steve Addazio also patrolled that same sideline alongside Pasqualoni, from 1995 to 1998, as his tight ends/assistant offensive line coach and then OL coach.
Those four years with the Orange were Addazio's first as a college assistant coach and Pasqualoni was his first college boss.
That relationship came full circle last winter, with the student turning to his mentor.
After his 18-season stay in Syracuse – including four seasons as an assistant before he was elevated to head coach – Pasqualoni spent six as an NFL assistant in Dallas and Miami. In 2011, the Cheshire, Conn., product returned to his home region as the head coach at Connecticut. He stayed in Storrs for three seasons before returning to the NFL ranks in 2014 with Chicago and last season in Houston.
But life in the NFL was getting to Pasqualoni and he made the decision to leave Houston this January following the Texans' playoff exit.
When he made that decision, it was his former assistant coach that called with an offer that would bring him closer to home and his family.
"Once I made the decision to leave the Texans, Steve was good enough to reach out and talk about BC and the possibility of an opening being here based on staff movement," Pasqualoni said. "Being from the Northeast – we had spent a lot of time in the Northeast at Syracuse, at UConn, lot of years here – my family is here." That family includes his 94-year-old mother and his children, who are now just 90 miles away.
However, it wasn't just about coming home; it was also about relationships. Namely, his prior work with Addazio and several members of Addazio's staff, including Frank Leonard (at Western Connecticut State in the early 1980s), Reggie Terry (at Syracuse) and Jim Reid (at Syracuse and the Dolphins).
Plus, with extensive experience coaching against Boston College, Pasqualoni was quite familiar with the unique nature of the Eagles' program.
"Obviously we've known about BC for a long time," Pasqualoni said. "I always admired the place and the character of the program and the players in it, so it was a very logical fit for me and my family."
Addazio noted, "Coach Pasqualoni is the best football coach I've ever been around, period, end, in my career. There aren't a lot of people that would argue with that. He can coach on either side of the ball in complete detail. His experience level is second-to-none.
"It's our great fortune to have (Pasqualoni) right now with us helping not only our kids develop, but helping our coaches and helping myself develop. I have a great amount of confidence with Coach P because I started with him. I know exactly what he represents," Addazio said.
Pasqualoni has coached some of the game's greatest players, both at the college and pro levels.
At Syracuse, that group included Donovan McNabb, Dwight Freeney and 2016 Pro Football Hall of Fame Inductee Marvin Harrison, who have 24 NFL Pro Bowl selections between them.
In the NFL, count more recent All-Pros DeMarcus Ware and J.J. Watt, the 2015 NFL Defensive Player of the Year, among his pupils.
That's a fact lost on neither Addazio nor the Eagles.
"You're talking about a guy that just got done coaching J.J. Watt at the Houston Texans and now he's coaching our defensive line and our pass-rush," Addazio said. "When I tell you he's the best football coach I've ever been around, I'm telling you that, and I think I've been around some pretty darn good ones."
Pasqualoni is quick to dismiss credit for the successes of his former athletes, instead giving a nod to his part of the larger team.
"And all I'm trying to do, all I've ever tried to do, is just be a good teacher and help them to help the team to succeed," Pasqualoni said. "It's all about the team. So all I'm trying to do is just be a part of that team concept and hopefully make the unit that I'm attached to be a factor in helping the team win."
Pasqualoni admits his current crop of players – the Eagles' defensive line, which is already coming off a 2015 season that saw the unit lead the nation in scoring defense and rank second in rushing defense – have bought into his ways … and how those ways have helped his former football players.
"I think that the guys here probably (responded) even more than I expected," Pasqualoni said. "They're an outstanding group of young men. They work very, very hard. They have excellent character. But the players here in my first six or seven months whatever it has been now have just been outstanding. They're very, very eager to learn."
Part of that what the Eagles are so willing to learn from Pasqualoni – is that all-around toughness and attention to detail lead to success. Those have been hallmarks of his teams, as well as Boston College teams.
"What's stood out to me with teams I've been around, from the time I was in college and those years at Penn State, is toughness of the program, the toughness of the individuals, the effort that was given and the attention to detail," Pasqualoni said. "Trying to do things right, and being not only physically tough, but also being extremely mentally tough, which is really what the definition of toughness is in this game.
"If there's something that has maybe been a common thread through all the places that I've been, it's the mental toughness of the program, and the mental toughness of the people, the organizations, the coaches, the players, the staff, the owners, the AD's, that toughness," he said.
With the formal start of the 2016 season right around the corner, the already stout BC defensive line is ready to get to work under Pasqualoni's direction.
