BC Goes Bowling: One More For The Team

With 20 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Wake Forest lined up in their shotgun spread formation. Quarterback John Wolford took the snap, looked left and locked onto his receiver. He uncorked a throw with just enough air and lacking just the right amount of zip. Sophomore defensive back Lukas Denis read the play, leapt from his spot and stuck his hands up in the air.

By the time Denis landed on the BB&T Stadium turf, three seconds expired off the clock but a lifetime's worth of memories were safely secure in his hands. He had the ball and his first career interception. As bedlam exploded on the Boston College sideline and carried into the locker room, the Eagles found their offense trotting into victory formation for the sixth time this season, bowl eligible for the first time in two years.

"He's only a sophomore and he's making plays," senior defensive John Johnson said. "I didn't get an interception until late in my junior year. So it means a lot and I was happy for him. There's no rule that says, 'I have to wait until my senior year to start making plays and be good.'"

There's no rule as to who makes the play. All that matters is that enough plays are made. For the Boston College Eagles, that's a mantra that carried them through trying times, battle testing them and hardening them for the ultimate joy - a bowl berth and the promise of one more football game.

"It's incredible (to go to another bowl game)," senior Tyler Rouse said. "We have worked so hard this entire season just to get back to where we were and being with these teammates is unbelievable to me. We really want to get this win to just help the young guys and to help the program. Our mentality is that it is just another game, and we have to go win it. We are going to soak up the experience and enjoy the fact that we got to another bowl game, but we are there to win another game."

The bowl season is very different than it was years ago. There are 40 bowl games, a quarter of which have tie-ins to the Atlantic Coast Conference. Conference schools just have to go .500 overall with the promise that doing so carries a postseason game. It seems simple enough.

The road, though, is tough thanks to conference alignment. Boston College needed to win its last two games in order to reach that 6-6 record. Four games against UMass, Wagner, Buffalo and UConn helped, but a gauntlet conference record made getting to six wins substantially tougher. Seven of the Eagles' conference opponents finished .500, including five of their six Atlantic Division opponents.

Four of their opponents are currently ranked, including three from the Atlantic Division. All of those four ranked teams are on the schedule annually, with BC's permanent ACC crossover opponent (Virginia Tech) winning the Coastal Division this year. With that in mind, the achievement reflects just how hard it is to win in the ACC, especially if a program is in a rebuilding process.

"I've never been to a bowl game," graduate quarterback Patrick Towles said. "I was four years at (Kentucky) and we never went to one so this is really, really special to me. I think that I shared that with the rest of my team. A bowl game is special no matter where it is or when it is."

The bowl berth shows that Boston College is on the path to turning around a history built on some tougher recent times. After last year's 3-9 record, the goal this year was always to get back into a postseason game. It stressed the concept of staying the course, trusting the ship when it's easy to feel like the ship is sinking. It's true that making a bowl game doesn't change what happened last year and it doesn't change the blowout losses in those four games or the close, tough losses to Syracuse and Georgia Tech. It shows, however, that a team can rebound simply by believing in itself.

"Going through what I went through at Kentucky, it really puts things in perspective," Towles said. "Coach Addazio preached the entire season that it is about us, and it's about the people in this building. Everybody always has an opinion. Just because you have an opinion doesn't mean that people should listen to it, as unpopular as it might seem. We are so happy for our fans and our families that we were able to (get bowl-eligible). There are a lot of people who didn't think we could, especially after dropping the game to Syracuse. There are a lot of people who counted us out. We are totally okay with that. That is the mentality that we have: it's an uphill battle and we like that. We are comfortable there."

"We've started planning our little trips," Johnson said, "preparing things for after the game. The teams that we're playing are quality teams, so we're ready for them. We're just happy to be back and spending time with the rest of the guys. You get a couple more weeks with the best friends we're going to have for the rest of our lives."

The chip on the Eagles' shoulder stsys for another month, especially since they'll have key practices to get their team ready for the postseason. By accepting a bowl bid, BC is rewarded with extra time to work and develop the roster. It's extra time to work with the younger players who will ultimately assume roles in the future, and it's more time for the older players to play before their college career come to a close.

"It's a lot of developmental work," senior defensive lineman Truman Gutapfel said. "You get all these extra practices with the younger guys. The older guys will get this time to use as a break to get our bodies back, but it's good for the younger guys to get this time to work on fundamentals, especially the D-line. Those guys are going to be really good. There is incredible talent there, and (they) just need to keep working."

Boston College Athletics

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Lukas Denis

Truman Gutapfel

John Johnson

Tyler Rouse

Patrick Towles

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