Hafley Hits First Benchmark With Unlimited Energy

The sun wasn't up over the Chestnut Hill Reservoir, but the Fish Field House buzzed with anticipation for Boston College football coach Jeff Hafley. He stood before a school circle of athletes, in an infancy of practice with his football team, but he needed to ask a question. He looked out at the Eagles and asked who would step forward to lead this program - into practice, into its new day, into its new era.

Everyone stood up.

The moment, captured on social media and contextualized by recruiting coordinator Joe Sullivan, enveloped everything fans and observers are coming to understand about the program's new direction. The well-publicized start of the Hafley era, known mostly for its splash and its recent stand-up of staff, finally got back to football.

"We have not seen many of these guys live yet," Hafley had told gathered media last week. "Certainly, there are guys that are four-year starters that are going to be ahead (on the depth chart). I would be lying if I said there weren't. But there's a lot of spots where we haven't seen them live, and we haven't seen them in our system."

It was the culmination of the first stage for the era, which began after the Eagles already inked 12 recruits to letters of intent. It created a delicate balance for the new head coach, who admitted the need to identify his old class as much as recruiting a number of recruits for the secondary, more traditional signing period.

"When I first got the job, these kids were still coming," Hafley said. "They didn't know me, they didn't know who the staff was going to be, which is why I went and saw all of them. (Signing with BC) showed they love the university. That, to me, was even more encouraging because they chose the school for the school, not just for the coach. A lot of times, people make the wrong mistake (by committing for a coach). So it was very powerful that they still wanted to come here."

The early signing period's recruits provided their own infrastructure for Hafley, who began his own recruitment of unsigned players while assembling his staff. He integrated himself into the existing silos and workflows at BC with an unlimited velocity, then hit the road to generate excitement for the new Eagle program while talent evaluation continued.

"(For the Class of 2020), I relied heavily on guys like Joe Sullivan, who's done a great job throughout his time here," Hafley said. "It started, at one point, with just him and I in the office, looking at lists of guys who hadn't signed yet. Then we're watching tape - a lot of tape. He watched tape while I had a million other things to do. I kind of looked at guys we liked, and once the staff came in, (the coaches) looked at them."

The pace, which remained unforgiving for its unstoppable for its race against time, is why National Signing Day's class - and the subsequent start to practice sessions with the existing Eagles - became so important to the coach. It represented a critical benchmark in his program, the first stage of converting Boston College into his desired image. Beyond that, though, it gave him an all-important footing for his new program, which is equally, if not more important than his reputation as an elite evaluator and recruiter of raw football talent.

"Once we identified those 2020s, we went after those guys," Hafley said. "From there, we kind of put those guys over to the side, and then we started the 2021s, and it's the same process, watching the tape for ourselves and not worrying about lists. As soon as we had the staff ready to go, we started on the 2021s every single day, which we will continue to do so.

"(Then) you start running into 2022s, 2023s and 2024s," he said. "It's so fast now, and everything's so sped up. We just need to slow down and do our homework and find the right fit for us. I've got to give our staff a ton of credit. They were very, very aggressive on the road. They were all over the place, and I can't tell you how many times, in the middle of the day, someone called and handed me a phone, saying a kid wanted to talk."

It's why National Signing Day, even with a smaller class of recruits, meant so much to the coaching staff. BC was always going to honor commitments, but Hafley also didn't need to re-recruit players already convinced to come to the university. He charged forward into his own strategy, nabbing three incoming freshmen, including two defensive backs, and his potential quarterback for the foreseeable future. He laid the groundwork for his next move, then sent his coaches out to plant the seeds.

As he stood before Boston College in the early morning hours in the Fish Field House, Hafley's first steps as head coach already embedded in the proverbial ground behind him. The players knew it, and the energy was real. They were getting in, knowing fully well that the work, the real work, was just starting.

"Right now we're getting ready for spring football," Hafley said. "I actually watched football for the first time in a long time, and it felt great. So now we're going to get ready for spring ball. We're going to get around our players, which is awesome, which is why we're here. I'm excited to get to know them more and start to be a part of their lives. I can't wait for that first practice to get coaching again. That's the next step."

Hafley Hits First Benchmark With Unlimited Energy

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