Four Downs: Virginia

The 1982 Boston College Eagles entered their game against No. 8 Penn State with free-flowing optimism. The Nittany Lions were a national championship contender, but Jack Bicknell's second season opened the door to endless possibilities. Sophomore sensation Doug Flutie pushed BC into the national rankings after a 3-0-1 start earlier in the season, and not even a rankings-dropping loss to No. 16 West Virginia could quell the enthusiasm of an upset-minded underdog.

That enthusiasm was ultimately unfounded, and the headlines the next day in the Boston Globe screamed about how Penn State "destroyed" BC, 52-17. More truthfully, the Eagles trailed by three scores in the fourth quarter, but shook head coach Joe Paterno's confidence because they never really went away, not even with a three-score lead.

"I never want to stand on the sidelines through something like that again," Paterno's lead quote read the next day. "I'm ahead, 38-17, in the fourth period and I don't know whether I can get the second team in there."

BC scared Paterno because Flutie never quit. His offense piled more than 650 yards against the eventual national champion, and he threw for 520 yards in particular. It was the first time any BC quarterback threw for 400 yards - let alone 500 - in a single game, and it shattered the previous record of 347 yards he set the year before in a loss against Pittsburgh.

The number felt mythical, but the loss diminished its immediate impact. Flutie himself called the record "irrelevant" at the time because he wanted the greater accomplishment of beating BC's longtime rival and a national championship contender. He wasn't focused on how three receivers went over 100 yards or how Scott Nizolek became the first BC wideout to ever catch 200 yards' worth of passes.

That number's value, though, built its legacy through the succeeding years. It shattered the barrier to the 400-yard club, and the quarterbacks after Flutie all broke through with signature performances. Shawn Halloran did it three times, and Glenn Foley did it twice. Matt Ryan threw for 400 yards four times in 2007 alone.

It opened a door, but it also created another glass ceiling because those players couldn't reach 500 yards. Its mysticism grew over four decades, and it loomed even larger after quarterbacks stopped throwing for 400 yards. Chase Rettig's 441 yards against Miami in 2012 was the last time a quarterback threw for 400 yards, an ode to the run-first mentality of the rest of the decade.

All of that changed on Saturday when Dennis Grosel tied Flutie with 520 yards against Virginia.

"I'm going to say this," head coach Jeff Hafley said, "and you probably won't believe me, but I'm just looking at his numbers. There were a lot more yards left out there. I thought our offensive staff did an incredible job. We had guys wide open all over the field. We probably had 200 more yards passing out there that we could have hit. Credit to Dennis, he was pressured and (Virginia) blitzed and blitzed and blitzed."

Like Flutie, Grosel tried to contextualize the numbers as a competitor, but he couldn't get over the stinging defeat to the Cavaliers. Virginia won, 43-32, and his three interceptions were all passes inside the 'Hoos' red zone. Those stuck out more than the four touchdowns or the 32 completions that tied that Rettig game, and it's what he focused on after the game.

"It doesn't feel great," Grosel said, "knowing how proud I am of these guys. It's not just me, it's the preparation all week. It's the receiving corps. They've come a long way. Obviously, I'm honored to be in some great company, but it hurts. We'll look back on it in the offseason and appreciate it, but right now, it's just a testament to all the hard work we put into the offense."

Still, Grosel achieved an accomplishment untouched by Matt Ryan, Glenn Foley, Shawn Halloran or any other former quarterback. He was a former walk-on, fourth string quarterback who needed breaks to even suit up, let alone as a backup quarterback. Yet two years in a row, he found himself starting in the ACC.

He went 20-of-29 last year for 227 yards and two touchdowns throwing with another one on the ground against Florida State. It came one week after he eviscerated Syracuse's defense for 195 yards and three touchdowns on 8-of-10 passing. He came off the bench cold this year and threw a four-yard first down conversion against No. 1 Clemson after starter Phil Jurkovec missed a play with a tweaked injury. He threw two touchdowns on four complete passes in a similar situation last week against Louisville.

On Saturday, he joined Doug Flutie as the only quarterback with 500 yards in a single game.

It's impossible to avoid romanticizing that story.

Here are the other takeaways from BC's loss in Charlottesville:

*****
First Down: Dennis Grosel

Hafley made the call to Grosel after Phil Jurkovec wasn't quite back to readiness after sustaining a lower leg injury last week. The imaging results all came back clear, but the head coach's risk assessment matched the performance of his junior backup in practice this week. After weighing his options, the coach ultimately opted for Grosel in an effort to protect his incumbent's future health.

"Phil just wasn't ready to go," Hafley said. "Phil's doing good. Everything looks great - X-rays, MRIs. It's just the risk of playing him today. It wasn't worth it. To play in this game and to hurt himself and possibly miss a lot of time versus being ready to go; if we do play in a bowl game, it just wasn't worth it."

Grosel's performance proved Hafley and offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti correct. He eclipsed his single game personal record with 251 yards in the first half and set a career high with 32 completions. He threw three touchdowns for the fourth time in his career and broke the single game record for yards allowed by a Virginia defense.

The three interceptions still stuck out, especially in light of a nine-point defeat, but it's all part of the nuanced look at his desire to push his performance to the edge on every play.

"Dennis is a great backup and a great leader in what he did," Jeff Hafley said. "He came in against Clemson and made that throw, and he came in last week and won us the game. 520 yards is a lot of yards. It's a credit to everything he's all about. Like I said week after week, hopefully everybody notices that on the team. He's a special kid."

Knowing that potential existed made the decision easier for Hafley and Cignetti to sit Jurkovec. Grosel joked last week that he didn't take first team practice snaps, nor did he require any therapy from the strength team before stepping on the field for Louisville. This week, he shifted his mindset into the starter's role and assumed the position by playing for the position.

"(Cignetti) prepared everyone," Grosel said. "He prepared the entire room. It's not just the quarterback room. It's all of us. It's firing questions out. It's all competitive nature. It's all to get the team better, and that's really what we're shooting for here, especially with a new group coming in (and) a new staff coming in.

"I remember sitting down with the older guys and asking what we wanted as returning guys," he continued. "We (decided) to take a step back and be a little selfless to make the sacrifices we might not want to make but in the end make the team better and better, to leave this place better than a lot of guys found it."

*****
Second Down: Boston College Offense

Grosel's numbers produced eye-popping statistics for his teammates and especially for his primary receiving targets. Zay Flowers caught eight passes for 180 yards and two touchdowns, the second most yards since 1996 and sixth-most all-time. His day fell one yard better than Rich Gunnell's 179 yards against Notre Dame and three yards less than Dedrick Dewalt's 183 yards against Pittsburgh, but he fell just short of the 200-yard club occupied by the aforementioned Nizolak and Gerard Phelan.

"(The numbers) are fun," Flowers said, "but the guys around me - CJ (Lewis), Jaelen (Gill), Jehlani (Galloway) - that helped me be more effective because defenses have to worry about them now. The quarterback does his job to get the ball out there. It wasn't just me the whole year. It was everybody, the receiving corp working as one."

Flowers' eight receptions matched tight end Hunter Long for the game high and established a new high-water mark for the BC offense. The duo finished the season within a catch of one another with 57 and 56 catches, respectively, and became the first set of teammates to catch at least 50 passes in a season since Andre Callendar, Rich Gunnell, Brandon Robinson and Ryan Purvis all caught 50 passes from Matt Ryan in 2007.

They also became the first BC teammates with 100 yards in the same game since Clarence Cannon and Pete Mitchell torched Pittsburgh in 1993. Mitchell finished that season with 66 catches, but Long's 57 is second all-time by a tight end and two better than Mitchell's total in 1994.

"Every day in practice, we never forget that people say that BC doesn't have receivers," Flowers said. "We've worked very hard to prove that. I think this year, we proved that. There's no doubt in my mind that (position coach) Joe Dailey did a great job with us and proved us and our skills will be more effective with what we get better at."

*****
HAF-time Hits

-I love looking up old newspaper headlines because single day headlines and stories offer a granular view of the world on any given day. Flutie's performance against Penn State came two days before the midterm elections in Ronald Reagan's first presidential term. Massachusetts re-elected Ted Kennedy to his fourth full senatorial term with a landslide win over Ray Shamie, and Michael Dukakis won his first gubernatorial term after unseating incumbent Ed King (a Boston College graduate) in the Democratic primary. His lieutenant governor? Future Secretary of State and Boston College School of Law graduate John Kerry.

-Dukakis would later earn the Democrats' presidential nomination in 1988, but he lost to Vice President George H.W. Bush.

-Other Boston College election notes from that year included Republican Silvio Conte's unopposed reelection to the House of Representatives in the Massachusetts 1st District and massive landslide victories for both Ed Markey and Tip O'Neill. Tip O'Neill remained Speaker of the House and appeared in an episode of Cheers the next year.

-That Flutie game also occurred opposite a Boston Bruins game my grandfather probably erased from his memory. He was a huge hockey guy, and he hated the Montreal Canadiens with an utter passion. The Bruins almost never won at the Montreal Forum, and the Flutie game occurred opposite a painful 4-4 tie after Pierre Mandou scored with one second left on the clock. Goalie Pete Peeters was especially angry after the game, as were coach Gerry Cheevers and general manager Harry Sinden. I'm sure my grandfather used some spicy language to describe his feelings as well.

*****
Third Down: Brennan Armstrong

Dual threat quarterbacks experienced a particular success against Boston College this year, and Virginia's Brennan Armstrong finished Saturday with another 400-yard day against the Eagles after going 19-for-27 for 287 yards and a touchdown passing and rushed 17 times for 147 yards and a touchdown on the ground.

"They plays are out there to make," Hafley said. "We had some guys in different positions when Deon (Jones) got hurt, and then Kam (Arnold) got the targeting call. Those guys practice, they know what they're doing, and they just made some plays on us."

BC finished the first half with a threatening exchange after a 10-point swing around Armstrong's interception, but Armstrong's 60-yard touchdown run in the third quarter and Brian Delaney's 28-yard field goal negated Hunter Long's 36-yard touchdown and Aaron Boumerhi's 35-yard kick. Later, BC pulled within 11 before Keytaon Thompson broke off a 43-yard run from the quarterback's spot before responding again with Jehlani Galloway's touchdown catch.

"We couldn't come down with the interception when I thought we could have had two of them," Hafley said. "It looks like we slipped and fell on those two big touchdowns runs. But those guys gave everything they had. I'm not going to make any excuses."

*****
Fourth Down: The Final Whistle

The 2020 football season will forever mark a historical moment in sports. It occurred under the shadow of a global pandemic and ran both longer and shorter than any other modern era season. Players returned to campus in June but didn't start the regular season until mid-September, and Saturday's game was the latest Boston College regular season game since a December 1, 1979 win over Holy Cross. The loss to Virginia closed that regular season with a 6-5 overall record, an ironic number given the team's propensity for finishing with six and seven wins over the past decade.

"I told our team not to lose sight of what they've done for 11 straight weeks," Jeff Hafley said. "All the hard work, all the emotion, all the sacrifice, all the dedication to really do what most around the country have not been able to do. I told them this one game doesn't change anything. Don't point fingers (and) don't feel like you're a bad player or a bad team. We didn't play well enough to win today. We made some plays. I'm proud of them, and I'm proud of everything they've accomplished this year."

Everything requires context, though, and this year stands alone and apart for a number of reasons. Pandemic aside, BC played 10 games against conference opponents and dropped three of its five games to teams ranked around or inside the top ten at the time of kickoff. Two of those teams will meet in the ACC Championship after Clemson clubbed Virginia Tech on Saturday night.

The other team, Notre Dame, joined the ACC for a one-off season and finished an undefeated season with a win over Syracuse. Only three teams played both the Irish and the Tigers this year after a fourth - Wake Forest - had its game against Notre Dame canceled after a previous postponement. Only BC, though, played them both within a five-week span; the Eagles memorably played both within three weeks.

The third ranked loss to North Carolina came in September, and the Tar Heels have an opportunity next week to establish a clear-cut hold on the fourth place mantle if they can beat Miami.

BC finishes its season as the fifth or sixth place team on winning percentage, and that's a fair assessment of the team's success this year. It played 10 games against ACC competition and went 5-5 with wins over teams finishing below and losses, for the most part, to teams under it. It played good teams, beat other teams and didn't dip to the bottom of the standings like every preseason prediction proclaimed before the season.

"In our first year, the foundation is set (and) the culture is strong," Hafley said. "Hopefully we'll get to play another football game if everything goes well. I just really love that football team, and it's one game. They've accomplished way too much this year, and I'm proud of them."

*****
Point After: #BowlSZN

That leads to the inevitable question of what happens next, and truthfully, nobody really knows. Multiple bowl games are already canceled, and nobody knows how many postseason games - if any - will be played this year.

"We talk about the process all the time and just doing everything we can," Jeff Hafley said. "Our guys did that this week, and we had a great week of practice. Sometimes the results don't show, but the process is right. We did the best that we could, and we came up short. Now we have to figure out the schedule, and we will. We'll adapt and adjust and we'll stick together. We'll just see what happens this week and then next week and then see when we get to play another game if the bowl games go on."

There are no minimum requirements for bowl eligibility this year, which I hammer constantly as the hardest nail in figuring out projections. There also are four less games after the Fenway Bowl, Holiday Bowl, Pinstripe Bowl and Sun Bowl opted to cancel their 2020 iterations. I actually mentioned that as a disappointment to some friends of mine on Saturday because the last game of the season is always a mad dash to bowl eligibility or positioning.

I read projections sending the Eagles anywhere from the Military Bowl to the Gasparilla Bowl, but I think it's too difficult to project or predict. In an unorthodox year, I'll stand pat that I don't know where BC will go bowling even though I think it will be playing in a game. It won't look like a standard bowl game, and the bowl experience won't be anything like previous years. There won't be activities or dinners or anything like that, but I think there will be a game. It's just too early to tell.

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Aaron Boumerhi

Zay Flowers

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Dennis Grosel

Phil Jurkovec

Hunter Long

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