Boston College Athletics
W2WF: The Show's In Town
November 03, 2016 | Football, #ForBoston Files
Louisville brings its white-hot spotlight to Chestnut Hill on Saturday.
What a difference a week makes.
At this time last week, Boston College remained off the Atlantic Coast Conference postseason map. Most major publications had the Eagles off the board in their bowl projections and the popular assumption theorized that a loss to Syracuse took realistic chances for eligibility with it. In reality, BC still had five games remaining, but everyone searched for a deeper meaning.
One week later, Boston College is back in postseason projections. With four games remaining, the football team has to go just 2-2 to clinch bowl eligibility. People are now projecting how the road could wind and turn, as well as where it could end.
I've been prone to projection and conjecture in the past, but I realize now that it's just not worth it. The only thing that matters is the immediate "next game," which this week is one of the nation's best teams: Louisville.
"We're heading into a big week playing Louisville," head coach Steve Addazio said. "They're loaded with great players. Coach Petrino does a great job with the schemes at Louisville, both on offense and on defense. I think they're really sophisticated. They've got really good players."
The Cardinals shouldn't need much of an introduction. They have the best statistical offense in the nation. They're ranked atop the NCAA in total offense and scoring offense, averaging over 600 yards and over 50 points per game. They opened up the season scoring no less than 59 points in their first four games, including a 63-20 thrashing of Florida State. They lost to Clemson, but they still dropped 36 points. Though everyone points to the Duke and Virginia games as close games, they still scored 54 against NC State.
"This is a monumental task to play a great football team here in our home stadium," Addazio said. "We're working really hard this week to put together a great plan and to get back on the field and have another chance to get another opportunity to win."
Nobody can really doubt what that one win last week meant. Last Friday, popular opinion talked about how the Eagles would be nothing more than a speed bump on everyone else's route. One week later, everything's different.
***
Weekly Storylines (A Few Good Men Edition)
After doing the majority of these with a soundtrack from a musical artist, I'm going to use the most quotable movie of all time to describe this week. I have a long-held theory that there's a quote from this movie fitting every situation in life.
"I run my unit how I run my unit. You want to investigate me, roll the dice and take your chances. I eat breakfast 300 yards from 4,000 Cubans who are trained to kill me, so don't think for one second that you can come down here, flash a badge, and make me nervous." -Col. Jessup
Louisville has plenty of intimidating pieces. Quarterback Lamar Jackson is a favorite to win the Heisman Trophy and with good reason. In eight games, he's accounted for 3,500 yards and 38 touchdowns on his own. His 22 touchdowns passing and 16 touchdowns rushing are on pace to join the 20-20 standard first set by Tim Tebow in 2007. He's threatening the 4,000/1,000-yard club (4,000 yards passing/1,000 yards rushing) set last year by Clemson's Deshaun Watson.
"He's elevated his game," Addazio said. "He was a young guy last year, and he's just taken his game to another level...Lamar is just taking his game to a whole 'nother level from a year ago to this year, and he's really just a dynamic guy, both with his legs and his arm and his ability to read coverages and things like that."
Yet he's not the only weapon. Brandon Radcliff and Jeremy Smith average over seven yards per carry, with Radcliff amassing 605 yards and Smith scoring seven touchdowns. Three receivers - Jamari Staples, James Quick and Cole Hikutini - have 30 catches on the year. Reggie Bonnafon, who played quarterback before Jackson, is the team's seventh-best receiver with 10 catches but even he has four touchdowns.
But the key is to not be intimidated by the numbers. BC ranks seventh in the nation in total defense and the Eagles have the fourth-best rushing defense. Last season, given all the problems BC faced, the team only lost by three to the Cardinals on the road. Though it's a new season and Jackson is obviously much more dynamic this year than last, it's not out of the argument that there is a way to defeat this team.
"We did play well defensively (last year)," Addazio said. "And that's without us really doing anything on offense. We blocked the punt and got a couple of turnovers which gave us an opportunity to really be right in the middle of the game, which we were until the last drive because it was a 17-14 game."
Why does a Lieutenant Junior Grade with nine months' experience and a track record for plea bargaining get assigned to a murder case? Would it be so it never sees the inside of a courtroom? -Lt. Kaffee
One of the great subplots of the movie is Lt. Kaffee's growth as an attorney. He enters the movie as someone capable of negotiating a trial before it ever begins, someone incapable of going to trial. He has to go to trial against immeasurable odds and he effectively wins the case (and the respect of his client, who initially said he had "no honor") because he develops his skill.
BC's offense is still developing. Addazio himself said that, in no uncertain terms, is this a finished product. The Eagles are starting to hit their stride and show signs of success but there's still steps they have to take along the way.
"I thought we saw the promise of that (offense) in the Georgia Tech game," Addazio said. "We have an older quarterback, but (we have) inexperience within the scheme. But we've got some fine skill players that we were dropping too many balls early on, but we're developing. Our line is starting to come together. We got healthy again. It's not consistent enough yet, and the lack of consistency has been a problem for us."
Addazio mentions the "herky-jerky" nature of the schedule. BC's schedule never allowed it to hit its stride. Georgia Tech was a great starting point but then it bottomed down to UMass, elevated up to Virginia Tech, bottomed back down to Wagner and Buffalo, elevated to Clemson - and then finally returned to somewhere in the middle with Syracuse and NC State.
Over the past two weeks, BC's started to really make progress because it's been challenged in a way that allows for development. Last week produced a measurable victory. The Eagles are elevating again this week, which presents an opportunity, but this time, BC has the experience of having tasted some success against a challenging front.
"We're heading in a good place, and I think we've just got to keep continuing to grind," Addazio said. "I think North Carolina State was a great defense, but we're facing an elite defense in Louisville (ranked 10th in total defense nationally) and an elite offense. Sometimes, Â you sit there and you say, I wish we could get a little bit more consistency going here, and all of a sudden we're going to play one of the very finest teams in America. But hopefully we can carry some of that with us, continue to make some plays, and be able to get a positive outcome here on Saturday."
BC is up to 68th nationally in rushing offense. While it's not a top, elite offense, it's good enough to put them in the top half of the nation.
The Eagles moved up almost 10 spots last week in passing offense. It's not statistically elite, but it doesn't have to be. The investment in the throw game, as Addaizo puts it, has allowed graduate quarterback Patrick Towles to work on just moving the chains, first down by first down. If you get enough first downs, you get in the end zone, with or without the explosive plays that are also, at some point, needed.
BC's offense isn't going to jump off the page like Louisville. But that doesn't mean it's not slouchy by any stretch.
I felt his life might be in danger. -Col. Jessup
Grave danger? -Lt. Kaffee
Is there any other kind? -Col. Jessup
There is one thing that scares me about this game. The College Football Playoff initial rankings came out this week with Louisville sitting seventh. The Cardinals rank in the top five of both the Associated Press Top 25 and Coaches' Poll, but the CFP committee dropped them behind highly-regarded Texas A&M and Washington teams.
That perceived lack of respect puts a premium on the Louisville's need to win. The Cardinals are no pushover, but putting them that low in the CFP rankings, when they are a close loss to Clemson from having a perfect record, means every win is a statement. It doesn't matter who the opponent is; Louisville needs to be flawless in every game to wow the committee.
That means BC is going to face Louisville's very best on Saturday.
***
Meteorology 101
It's going to be absolutely gorgeous on Saturday. Temperatures are going to reach into the 50s with partly cloudy skies. It'll be breezy, but those leaves should crunch nicely under everyone's feet as they walk towards the stadium. Given the whacky weather pattern - where we've been into the 20s overnight and up into the 70s at times during the day - it's the perfect autumn day finally settling into Chestnut Hill.
***
Scoreboard Watching
Florida State is up next for BC. A preseason No. 4 team, the Seminoles have since dropped well out of the top echelon of the polls. They remain, however, a major factor. After winning two straight games, they have drifted as high as 12th in the polls, but a loss to Clemson by three last week means they're in danger of falling out of the top 20 for a second time this year.
They'll head to Raleigh this week to take on an NC State team that's picking up the pieces after last week's loss to BC. That's tough luck for the Wolfpack since the Seminoles need a win to keep pace in the Atlantic Division.
Because Florida State is currently 2-3 in the ACC, the Noles are actually in fifth place in the Atlantic Division. A loss likely takes them out of the top 25 altogether and puts them in a position where they could conceivably be the last-place team in the division.
That should explain just how tight everything is in the ACC. A win gives FSU a shot to vault over Wake Forest and Syracuse into third place right back in the elite. A loss and all of a sudden the Seminoles are in danger of being in last place in the division.
***
Bottom Line
There is absolutely nothing about this game that's easy. On paper, Louisville has an equal defense, a better offense and a team that's put up more points than it knows what to do with. Jackson is the favorite to win the Heisman and he's as close to a traveling road show as there is. He's a once-in-a-lifetime player playing on a once-in-a-lifetime type of team. And he's coming to BC on national television on Saturday.
Can BC win that game in that situation? Sure it can. The fact remains that last week no longer matters. It was great to win at NC State but that win will have no bearing on kickoff. Next week's Friday night game in Tallahassee has no bearing on kickoff.
Likewise, Louisville's stats, its record and its prodigious reputation doesn't dictate how this game has to go. All that matters is 60 minutes, starting at noon, in Chestnut Hill.
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At this time last week, Boston College remained off the Atlantic Coast Conference postseason map. Most major publications had the Eagles off the board in their bowl projections and the popular assumption theorized that a loss to Syracuse took realistic chances for eligibility with it. In reality, BC still had five games remaining, but everyone searched for a deeper meaning.
One week later, Boston College is back in postseason projections. With four games remaining, the football team has to go just 2-2 to clinch bowl eligibility. People are now projecting how the road could wind and turn, as well as where it could end.
I've been prone to projection and conjecture in the past, but I realize now that it's just not worth it. The only thing that matters is the immediate "next game," which this week is one of the nation's best teams: Louisville.
"We're heading into a big week playing Louisville," head coach Steve Addazio said. "They're loaded with great players. Coach Petrino does a great job with the schemes at Louisville, both on offense and on defense. I think they're really sophisticated. They've got really good players."
The Cardinals shouldn't need much of an introduction. They have the best statistical offense in the nation. They're ranked atop the NCAA in total offense and scoring offense, averaging over 600 yards and over 50 points per game. They opened up the season scoring no less than 59 points in their first four games, including a 63-20 thrashing of Florida State. They lost to Clemson, but they still dropped 36 points. Though everyone points to the Duke and Virginia games as close games, they still scored 54 against NC State.
"This is a monumental task to play a great football team here in our home stadium," Addazio said. "We're working really hard this week to put together a great plan and to get back on the field and have another chance to get another opportunity to win."
Nobody can really doubt what that one win last week meant. Last Friday, popular opinion talked about how the Eagles would be nothing more than a speed bump on everyone else's route. One week later, everything's different.
***
Weekly Storylines (A Few Good Men Edition)
After doing the majority of these with a soundtrack from a musical artist, I'm going to use the most quotable movie of all time to describe this week. I have a long-held theory that there's a quote from this movie fitting every situation in life.
"I run my unit how I run my unit. You want to investigate me, roll the dice and take your chances. I eat breakfast 300 yards from 4,000 Cubans who are trained to kill me, so don't think for one second that you can come down here, flash a badge, and make me nervous." -Col. Jessup
Louisville has plenty of intimidating pieces. Quarterback Lamar Jackson is a favorite to win the Heisman Trophy and with good reason. In eight games, he's accounted for 3,500 yards and 38 touchdowns on his own. His 22 touchdowns passing and 16 touchdowns rushing are on pace to join the 20-20 standard first set by Tim Tebow in 2007. He's threatening the 4,000/1,000-yard club (4,000 yards passing/1,000 yards rushing) set last year by Clemson's Deshaun Watson.
"He's elevated his game," Addazio said. "He was a young guy last year, and he's just taken his game to another level...Lamar is just taking his game to a whole 'nother level from a year ago to this year, and he's really just a dynamic guy, both with his legs and his arm and his ability to read coverages and things like that."
Yet he's not the only weapon. Brandon Radcliff and Jeremy Smith average over seven yards per carry, with Radcliff amassing 605 yards and Smith scoring seven touchdowns. Three receivers - Jamari Staples, James Quick and Cole Hikutini - have 30 catches on the year. Reggie Bonnafon, who played quarterback before Jackson, is the team's seventh-best receiver with 10 catches but even he has four touchdowns.
But the key is to not be intimidated by the numbers. BC ranks seventh in the nation in total defense and the Eagles have the fourth-best rushing defense. Last season, given all the problems BC faced, the team only lost by three to the Cardinals on the road. Though it's a new season and Jackson is obviously much more dynamic this year than last, it's not out of the argument that there is a way to defeat this team.
"We did play well defensively (last year)," Addazio said. "And that's without us really doing anything on offense. We blocked the punt and got a couple of turnovers which gave us an opportunity to really be right in the middle of the game, which we were until the last drive because it was a 17-14 game."
Why does a Lieutenant Junior Grade with nine months' experience and a track record for plea bargaining get assigned to a murder case? Would it be so it never sees the inside of a courtroom? -Lt. Kaffee
One of the great subplots of the movie is Lt. Kaffee's growth as an attorney. He enters the movie as someone capable of negotiating a trial before it ever begins, someone incapable of going to trial. He has to go to trial against immeasurable odds and he effectively wins the case (and the respect of his client, who initially said he had "no honor") because he develops his skill.
BC's offense is still developing. Addazio himself said that, in no uncertain terms, is this a finished product. The Eagles are starting to hit their stride and show signs of success but there's still steps they have to take along the way.
"I thought we saw the promise of that (offense) in the Georgia Tech game," Addazio said. "We have an older quarterback, but (we have) inexperience within the scheme. But we've got some fine skill players that we were dropping too many balls early on, but we're developing. Our line is starting to come together. We got healthy again. It's not consistent enough yet, and the lack of consistency has been a problem for us."
Addazio mentions the "herky-jerky" nature of the schedule. BC's schedule never allowed it to hit its stride. Georgia Tech was a great starting point but then it bottomed down to UMass, elevated up to Virginia Tech, bottomed back down to Wagner and Buffalo, elevated to Clemson - and then finally returned to somewhere in the middle with Syracuse and NC State.
Over the past two weeks, BC's started to really make progress because it's been challenged in a way that allows for development. Last week produced a measurable victory. The Eagles are elevating again this week, which presents an opportunity, but this time, BC has the experience of having tasted some success against a challenging front.
"We're heading in a good place, and I think we've just got to keep continuing to grind," Addazio said. "I think North Carolina State was a great defense, but we're facing an elite defense in Louisville (ranked 10th in total defense nationally) and an elite offense. Sometimes, Â you sit there and you say, I wish we could get a little bit more consistency going here, and all of a sudden we're going to play one of the very finest teams in America. But hopefully we can carry some of that with us, continue to make some plays, and be able to get a positive outcome here on Saturday."
BC is up to 68th nationally in rushing offense. While it's not a top, elite offense, it's good enough to put them in the top half of the nation.
The Eagles moved up almost 10 spots last week in passing offense. It's not statistically elite, but it doesn't have to be. The investment in the throw game, as Addaizo puts it, has allowed graduate quarterback Patrick Towles to work on just moving the chains, first down by first down. If you get enough first downs, you get in the end zone, with or without the explosive plays that are also, at some point, needed.
BC's offense isn't going to jump off the page like Louisville. But that doesn't mean it's not slouchy by any stretch.
I felt his life might be in danger. -Col. Jessup
Grave danger? -Lt. Kaffee
Is there any other kind? -Col. Jessup
There is one thing that scares me about this game. The College Football Playoff initial rankings came out this week with Louisville sitting seventh. The Cardinals rank in the top five of both the Associated Press Top 25 and Coaches' Poll, but the CFP committee dropped them behind highly-regarded Texas A&M and Washington teams.
That perceived lack of respect puts a premium on the Louisville's need to win. The Cardinals are no pushover, but putting them that low in the CFP rankings, when they are a close loss to Clemson from having a perfect record, means every win is a statement. It doesn't matter who the opponent is; Louisville needs to be flawless in every game to wow the committee.
That means BC is going to face Louisville's very best on Saturday.
***
Meteorology 101
It's going to be absolutely gorgeous on Saturday. Temperatures are going to reach into the 50s with partly cloudy skies. It'll be breezy, but those leaves should crunch nicely under everyone's feet as they walk towards the stadium. Given the whacky weather pattern - where we've been into the 20s overnight and up into the 70s at times during the day - it's the perfect autumn day finally settling into Chestnut Hill.
***
Scoreboard Watching
Florida State is up next for BC. A preseason No. 4 team, the Seminoles have since dropped well out of the top echelon of the polls. They remain, however, a major factor. After winning two straight games, they have drifted as high as 12th in the polls, but a loss to Clemson by three last week means they're in danger of falling out of the top 20 for a second time this year.
They'll head to Raleigh this week to take on an NC State team that's picking up the pieces after last week's loss to BC. That's tough luck for the Wolfpack since the Seminoles need a win to keep pace in the Atlantic Division.
Because Florida State is currently 2-3 in the ACC, the Noles are actually in fifth place in the Atlantic Division. A loss likely takes them out of the top 25 altogether and puts them in a position where they could conceivably be the last-place team in the division.
That should explain just how tight everything is in the ACC. A win gives FSU a shot to vault over Wake Forest and Syracuse into third place right back in the elite. A loss and all of a sudden the Seminoles are in danger of being in last place in the division.
***
Bottom Line
There is absolutely nothing about this game that's easy. On paper, Louisville has an equal defense, a better offense and a team that's put up more points than it knows what to do with. Jackson is the favorite to win the Heisman and he's as close to a traveling road show as there is. He's a once-in-a-lifetime player playing on a once-in-a-lifetime type of team. And he's coming to BC on national television on Saturday.
Can BC win that game in that situation? Sure it can. The fact remains that last week no longer matters. It was great to win at NC State but that win will have no bearing on kickoff. Next week's Friday night game in Tallahassee has no bearing on kickoff.
Likewise, Louisville's stats, its record and its prodigious reputation doesn't dictate how this game has to go. All that matters is 60 minutes, starting at noon, in Chestnut Hill.
Â
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