W2WF: It All Comes Down To Saturday

Twenty years ago college football was extremely different.

Conference realignment was well underway. The Big 8 accepted Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech and Baylor from the Southwest Conference to form a "superleague" in the Big 12. The Metro Conference and the Great Midwest Conference merged to form Conference USA, helping five independents - Cincinnati, Louisville and Memphis among them - find a new league. Houston, a cast-off from the SWC, also joined up the new league. The WAC's ranks swelled to 16 teams with the remaining SWC teams - TCU, SMU and Rice - along with the inclusion of UNLV and San Jose State. The Bowl Alliance attempted to determine a national champion but its bowl rotation failed to include the Rose Bowl (and, in turn, the Pac-10 and Big Ten, who sent their champions to that game).

In those days, the concept of making a bowl was very different. There were only 18 bowl games. That meant a team like East Carolina, who won eight games and received votes in the final Associated Press Top 25, didn't play in a postseason game. Neither did San Diego State. Less than 10 states actually hosted bowl games, and only two - Texas and Florida - hosted more than two games.

Twenty years later the concept of making a bowl game might be different (that tends to happen when there's 40 games), but one thing doesn't change: making a bowl, no matter where or against who, is a goal for every team.

"For us, (Saturday) is an opportunity to become bowl eligible," head coach Steve Addazio said. "Once that happens, it gives you the opportunity for more practices and gives you the opportunity to continue to develop your football program. It's a critical deal and it's a chance to win another big time football game."

This season's been a fascinating time to watch the Eagles. An up-and-down season, filled with some extremely high highs and extremely low lows, boils down to one game in its simplest form. The exulting feeling of beating NC State matched itself with the feeling of losing big to the ACC's elite-ranking teams. The Eagles dominated UMass and UConn, flexing power conference muscle for all of New England, but there's plenty of road left to reach the national showcase. They're not what perception said they used to be, but they're also not where they want to be.

Part of filling that gap comes with getting into a bowl, something on the line Wake Forest on Saturday. Like every other game, history tries to dictate how a team will perform against one another, but in the end, it's one game, unique to itself and unlike any other. For Boston College, that's the focus.

Every player harbors the dream of playing in one last game, on neutral territory, against an unfamiliar opponent. One game will determine that chance.

"We are just real focused on trying to get win number six," Addazio said. "That's what we're focused with right now. That's a goal we set out at the beginning of the year, and it's still attainable in the last game of the year. So there's a lot on the line here and that's a good thing."

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Weekly Storylines (Tom Brady Edition)

All season long, I've looked to music or movies for the right quote to describe something about football. It's the last regular season game, one with so much riding on the line. In that situation, I figure there's only one person who can probably find the words to describe it. To me, Brady is the greatest quarterback of all-time. To draw inspiration, I looked to him because, well, I've watched him for the better part of the last 15 years.

We all have experiences in our lives that change us, and we all learn from people, but at the end of the day, it's only us. We're only responsible to make ourselves happy.

The Demon Deacons present BC with an opponent with the same positives and negatives as their own. The offense is a pro style that's struggled to get surges, but it's scored around 30 points per game in every game won. The defense has let up big plays and chunks of points, but it's a unit capable of capitalizing on opportunities.

Statistically, Wake Forest overall won't jump off the board. It ranks 124th in total offense and 51st in total defense. But within those numbers is a team that's able to overcompensate in a couple of different ways. The Deacons are second in the nation in fumbles recovered, 14th in the nation in red zone defense, 38th in interceptions and 31st in scoring defense. That indicates a team that's very good in situational football, a team that can give up plays but is capable of recovering.

"They are ball hawks," Addazio said. "They work at getting the ball out. You look at them on defense, and they are very well-coached. (When) you watch them schematically, they have a great scheme, they play to their scheme, they are good fundamentally, and they go after balls.

"Interceptions come from great coverage," he continued. "Pulling balls out come from going after those balls. This is all coached. They are really sound, really hard playing, really good defense. Those turnovers are a byproduct of a lot of hard work on the part of their players and their coaches."

You have to believe in your process. You have to believe in the things that you are doing to help the team win. I think you have to take the good with the bad.

I look at each game in a season as an individual case study of the larger body of work. There were times this year that the Eagles responded to their challenges. There were times they were simply overmatched. The statistics don't lie and neither does the scoreboard.

There's no hiding from the conversation of what happened a year ago. Last October, an underdeveloped BC team lost to Wake Forest, 3-0. It stands as a singular moment that everyone on every side would like to forget.

Last year, Boston College was an underdeveloped football team, one three weeks removed from losing its starting quarterback for the season. That starting quarterback had the most experience on the roster - and it was all of three quarters against an FBS team. There was no database, the season derailed and everyone lost.

BC is more developed this year, even though it's not quite where it wants to be. The Eagles are a little older and a little wiser. This year's team knows what it can do well and it knows what it doesn't do well. It's continuing to develop and that's something that doesn't stop, even though the season is coming to a close.

That's why there's such a premium on a bowl game and why Saturday won't reflect anything from last year.

"It's critical, and our players know it," Addazio said. "(The players) are fighting for that win, fighting for that opportunity to move on. We don't talk about the possibilities of the other stuff, but this ability to get your extended amount of practice means the world to anybody."

You wanna know which one is my favorite? The next one.

In 1999, Boston College played Colorado State in the Insight.com Bowl. It was the first of 12 straight bowl appearances. The streak included two trips to Nashville, two trips to Charlotte and three trips, including back-to-back years, to San Francisco. The Eagles faced teams like Colorado, Georgia, Michigan State and USC. They faced players like Colin Kaepernick and Brian Hoyer.

A bowl berth this year marks the third in four years under Steve Addazio. It achieves a preseason goal and a benchmark in the construction of the Boston College football program.

Making a bowl game is still an accomplishment. History might be great but my favorite bowl game is always going to be the next one. The next one could be found on Saturday.

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Meteorology 101

Blue skies are gonna clear ouuuuuuut. Put on a happy face.

Saturday weather in Winston-Salem calls for temperatures in the high 50s and a 0 percent chance of rain. It's going to be clear, sunny and gorgeous. There won't be a cloud in the sky from what I'm reading.

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Scoreboard Watching

There is no scheduled opponent for the coming weeks but that doesn't mean there isn't something to watch. Even if BC loses, there's a chance the Eagles could find themselves bowling. If there aren't enough 6-6 teams, the NCAA will dip into its pool of 5-7 programs for teams with high academic progress rates.

The Eagles have one of the higher APRs in the nation, meaning they could find themselves in a bowl game even if they don't get to six wins.

There are a number of teams currently at 5-6 entering the weekend. NC State, for example, is at North Carolina for its annual meeting. A Tar Heel win could send them into the ACC Championship Game.

SMU is 5-6, hosting 8-2 Navy, who needs a win to make the AAC Championship. Texas (also 5-6) hosts TCU, who is 5-5 with two games remaining (at Kansas State next week). Indiana, Maryland, Northwestern are all power conference teams in the situation, and San Antonio, North Texas and Southern Miss are among the mid-majors.

In a twist of irony, everyone should probably root for UMass this week. The Minutemen are in Hawaii to face the Rainbow Warriors, who are 5-7. Teams are allowed a 13th game if they play at Hawaii and the 'Bows would be bowl eligible if they finish 6-7 with a win.

So there's a lot of football left to decide if BC could make a bowl even if they lose. That said, a win on Saturday renders this whole section completely useless.

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Bottom Line

There's criticism regarding the number of bowl games. Arguments state how it waters down the achievement when there are 40 games as opposed to 18 (see above's 20 years ago statistics). But the level of competition is substantially tougher and six wins in a power conference, for an emerging, growing program, is far from a guarantee.

This year, BC lost to Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, Clemson, Louisville, Syracuse and Florida State. Georgia Tech was lost on a fluke play late in the game of an evenly-matched game. Virginia Tech has a chance to win the Coastal Division. Clemson already won the Atlantic and it could make the College Football Playoff for a second straight year. Louisville has the front-runner for the Heisman Trophy. FSU is still FSU and that's a national powerhouse. The Syracuse loss - a close game - came in a rivalry game, which is always a 50-50 atmosphere.

Win on Saturday, and progress is tangibly charted into a postseason game. That in and of itself is progress, the final stamp on one heck of a season that started in the summer's heat in August.

Boston College Athletics

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