Dillon Ready to Go Bowling

NEW YORK - A season replete with accolades and accomplishments for AJ Dillion will fittingly conclude with his first-ever bowl appearance on Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium.

After firmly planting himself and the Eagles' running game on the map, the freshman's fantastic season will conclude when Boston College plays Iowa in the New Era Pinstripe Bowl on Wednesday evening and the one thing that the phenom knows as he enters the fray is that this game will be unlike any of the first 12 of his career.

"I'm excited," the New London, Conn., native said. "I don't really know what to expect. It's not like you're going to play Louisville or Clemson or one of those big schools or what have you. It's a completely different feel. I've tried to understand."

After gradually acclimating himself to football at the college level through the first four games of the season, the freshman running back burst through door with a 120-yard performance versus Central Michigan and hasn't looked back since.

Over the Eagles final eight games he cracked 100 yards on the ground six times, including an eye-opening, 272-yard day at Louisville on Oct. 14, the second-most rushing yards in a single game by a freshman in ACC history.

Over the final three games, Dillon rambled for 589 yards, finished 12^th in the nation, and second among freshmen, with 1,432 yards on the season. He became the first Eagle to be named ACC Rookie of the Year and ACC Offensive Rookie of the Year after becoming the program's all-time leading freshman rusher.

There is no denying the achievements of Dillon, much of which came against some of the top teams in the nation, but now entering his first postseason game, the Lawrence Academy product has had to put in a little extra preparation to get ready.

"I watched the last Pinstripe Bowl on TV. I re-watched all the tape and tried to get a sense of how the atmosphere is going to be," the All-ACC First-Team selection explained. "I feel like it's just one of those where you have to be there."

Dillon has also turned to the veterans on the roster, some of who have made two bowl appearances over the last three seasons, including a trip to the Bronx in 2014.

"When you're there, you're getting treated like royalty," senior linebacker Ty Schwab said. "You're getting everything you need. They're showing you all the great spots. We're going to be in New York which has so many great things going on around Christmas time. It's awesome. [The first-time players are] definitely going to be on a high."

From the ever-growing buzz around campus, to all he has watched and heard from his teammate, the Eagles' running back is savoring the all that a first bowl experience has to offer and looking forward to the opportunity to cap a special rookie campaign with the Eagles second-straight bowl victory.

"You start to get that positive vibe not only from our team, from our coaches, from our fans, you see on social media that they're all excited for the Pinstripe Bowl and you hear it around campus. Everybody is buzzing about it. That's exactly what you want," Dillon said. "The older guys have been telling me that it's going to be something that I'm really going to remember, something different than I've ever experienced before. So, I'm excited."

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