Training Camp Opens With Ready-Made Storylines

There's nothing quite like the start of a football training camp. Months after the last competitive tackle, the long wait for the next one begins to end. It starts with a flourish as players explode out of the gate. It's fresh and now, representing the hope of the coming months. For a brief moment, talk about the future concludes and transitions into a more present tense.

But while the players long for the chance to hit someone in a different uniform, it's not quite close enough to prevent the occasional dog day. Training camp is about focusing on how to have a good day today, readying for when that becomes a grind. It teaches the players how to push to the next day, then the next day after that. Tomorrow becomes the goal and enough today will eventually draw game day nearer.

The Boston College football team represents the promise of all of those todays winding up on, literally, today. After two years of building a roster from the ground up, Steve Addazio's team is seemingly poised for a breakout 2017. The players are under the radar and hungry, having been developed within the Eagles system.

Brought to Chestnut Hill, the team is already shining. Two seasons ago, in the midst of a 3-9 record beset by injuries and every bad break possible, it learned about competition. The student-athletes learned about their opponents' physical stature and they saw what they needed to become. It humbled them even as they confidently accepted the challenge.

Then came spring practice and physical growth. It bridged into the 2016 team's lessons about the next level. Humbled by losses to national powerhouses within their division and conference, the Eagles learned the next step, turning the corner in late in the season before winning an exhilarating Quick Lane Bowl.

Now 2017 begins. Having completed the offseason grind when the team physically developed, the Eagles are ready to begin learning again. They're ready to learn what they have to do in order to win tomorrow. There will be prognostication about how and where the team finishes. That's a natural excitement. But that's a tomorrow well into the future. Nobody can get there without first getting through today.

So before expectations are built for Northern Illinois, here's what to watch as the Eagles kick off the 2017 training camp. In honor a return to the gridiron, here's a little help with quotes attributed to Bill Belichick:

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On a football team, it's not the strength of the individual players, but it is the strength of the unit and how they all function together.

During the ACC Media Kickoff, Steve Addazio reiterated something seen throughout the offseason that began during the Quick Lane Bowl. "We're going to utilize tempo," he said. "What I know we have to do better is create more balance and get the ball down the field vertically more, which I believe now with the skill players we have and the quarterback development that we have, we'll be able to do that. We want to get more whacks at it with the amount of plays we're going to run."

For the past two years, Addazio focused game management on leveraging time of possession and limit an opponent. Now he's talking about running more plays. At first glance, that would indicate that the Eagles, historically known for working play clocks, will speed things up.

Within the lines, though, I'm very interested to see what exactly "tempo" means. In their second year under offensive coordinator Scot Loeffler, BC's players have the continuity to understand the playbook better. Because of that, the coaching staff can work in more complex solutions and can change formations. Instead of running a straightforward pro style offense, they'll be able to work in different looks, maybe switching into a spread every now and then. It's all dependent on the matchup with a particular opponent in a particular situation, and it really dives into the complexities and nuances of the game.

This really draws from all three phases is clutch because BC is a very synergetic football team. The offense will need to succeed in order for the defense to excel and vice-versa with special teams factoring into field position and execution. Having "tempo" doesn't mean BC is all of a sudden turning into a "go fast" offense. It does, however, focus on how the Eagles can work together as a full team to dictate all-around game flow and pace through ever-changing, in-game conditions.

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For a team to accomplish its goal, everybody's got to give up a little bit of their individuality.

Though he's a redshirt junior, Darius Wade only started three games during the ill-fated 2015 season. After games against two FCS programs, he saw that season unexpectedly end with a broken ankle. Anthony Brown is a redshirt freshman, having spent last year off of the depth chart while learning his first steps as a Division I athlete.

Despite a lack of in-game experience, however, the developmental process brought them both along last year. While Patrick Towles served as the first-string quarterback taking the publicized snaps, Steve Addazio and the coaching staff worked with both Wade and Brown with 2017 in mind. So they've had a full year, essentially, already learning how to run Scot Loeffler's cadence.

"Darius has really grown up," Addazio said. "Quite frankly, when you really look back on it, that injury was pretty big physically and emotionally. I see in Darius this spring and this summer what I thought we would see, (and) he's really emerged physically and mentally. He's prepared to compete as an elite quarterback in this conference.

"Anthony Brown had a great spring along with Darius Wade," he said. "Darius went in taking the starting reps in the spring and will do the same going into fall camp. If we were playing tomorrow, believe Darius would be the starter. They'll have a great, healthy competition as will everybody else on our football team throughout preseason camp."

The competition aspect is what makes this position so great. Within the prevalent team element, it means both Wade and Brown will work together to advance the position. They'll push each other, starting with training camp practices. The product on the field will ultimately be the work put in by both athletes as opposed to assuming one beat out the other in a quarterback controversy.

The two of them can approach the game from their individual perspectives, then work together within the quarterbacks room to help each other work kinks out in their games. Brown can help drive Wade and vice-versa. This is something that's done in practice, which leads back to training camp, paving further back to last year's practices and developmental process.

The regular season is still a month away. With that in mind, there can be an honest concentration on how they can help each other improve for the betterment of the team within the concepts presented by the coaching staff.

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Talent sets the floor, character sets the ceiling.

After two straight seasons of having a defensive unit in the nation's top 10, the Eagles enter 2017 with high expectations. Experts predict Harold Landry as a potential first-round draft pick and he headlines a unit brimming with committed, cohesive talent capable of hanging with the nation's best offenses.

But that's just in talent. Gridiron battles aren't won on talent alone. The defense has to play together to pressure opposing offenses. They have to know how to identify certain plays to pressure a quarterback or stop a running game to force into long situations. That comes from character and cohesion and it comes from the tempo and balance Addazio is trying to accomplish.

During the ACC Kickoff, Landry talked about the defense's role in that whole balanced tempo concept. "We have so much chemistry," he said. "We all have one common goal, which is 'go out and dominate.' We want to go three-and-out as much as we can to give the offense as many chances as they can - as they want so they can get the rhythm going so they can start clicking in every game."

Throughout training camp, it'll be really interesting to see how the defense gels from the start. They know their skill, with a nasty front seven and a defensive backfield filled with speed and physicality, still needs to prove it to everyone.

"You do everything you can to make yourself play great defense," Addazio said at that event. "That means your offense has to be able to help your defense play great defense. If you ultimately want to be competing for a championship, if you can't play great defense, it's hard to do that."

Training Camp Opens With Ready-Made Storylines

Players Mentioned

Anthony Brown

Harold Landry

Patrick Towles

Darius Wade

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