W2WF: Tennessee (1987)

Nearly 50 years ago, Boston College head coach Frank Leahy made a daring play call in the waning minutes of his team's Sugar Bowl game against Tennessee. He had installed a couple of new schemes into the playbook the day before, and he decided to send one of them to quarterback Charlie O'Rourke.

That BC even had the opportunity required a little bit of New Orleans voodoo. It tied the game at 7-7 behind Harry Connolly's touchdown scamper and had to knot it again behind a one-yard dive from Mike Holovak. The Eagles, for their part, never led the game when O'Rourke took over on his own 20-yard line following a shanked field goal by Bob Foxx.

O'Rourke, though, now could play the hero for the Eagles, who entered the game as the fifth-ranked team in the Associated Press national poll. He marched the offense to within striking distance after taking over with three minutes remaining, and Leahy, ever the keen offensive mind, decided to send a signal for a play less than 24 hours old.

The play was a fake pass, and after O'Rourke broke free to dash into the end zone, it became etched into college football lore. He scored, and Boston College staked a claim to the national championship with a 19-13 victory over the equally-undefeated, Southeastern Conference champion Volunteers.

"Many people feel that there are varied factors that influenced our win," Leahy told the Boston Daily Globe after the game, "but at the top of the list, we would place character and courage."

That game was the capstone for Leahy's 20-2 record in Chestnut Hill, and he left for Notre Dame after the season. He won another national championship in 1943 before claiming three banners in four seasons without a loss. They bookended two years in the Navy during World War II, and even though his legend reflected South Bend, it began in Boston.

For Boston College, nothing ever topped that national championship season. Tennessee earned a measure of revenge at Fenway Park in 1941, but BC, after going 15-5 with an Orange Bowl appearance, never regained its status after World War II. Head coach Dennis Myers was fired after going 0-9-1 in 1950, and the Eagles would fail to return to a bowl game until 1982.

All of that is ancient history. The 1941 Sugar Bowl remains the backdrop for an occasional North-South rivalry, but the BC-Tennessee matchup is one between teams with a success disparity. The Vols hold six straight victories over the Eagles, most recently in 1979 in Massachusetts, and enter this game as a front-end favorite for the Southeastern Conference championship.

Boston College, meanwhile, feels like a lifetime removed from the Doug Flutie era. Last year's Hall of Fame Bowl champions are 4-4 and entering a gauntlet finish to the season stamped by three consecutive nationally ranked teams. Even if this is the final home game, the Eagles are keenly aware of the challenges lying ahead.

"We've got to keep the faith," Dave Nugent said after last week's loss to West Virginia. "But right now, guys are trying so hard that they're tripping over themselves."

Here's what to watch for when the Eagles host the No. 13 Vols at Alumni Stadium on Halloween:

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Weekly Storylines

Crockett. James "Sonny Crockett"
Very good, Tubbs. Next week we'll work on your name.
-Sonny Crockett and Rico Tubbs, "Miami Vice"

There's no way around BC's issues at quarterback. Jack Bicknell yanked Mike Power last week against West Virginia after he went 5-of-9 for 49 yards, but he's the only healthy signal caller on the team's depth chart. Mark Kamphaus, who threw for 96 yards on 9-of-14 attempts against the Mountaineers, is out with a rib injury, and third string quarterback Greg Nardolillo went down in the second half on a kickoff return.

"It's unfortunate Mark is out," Power said, "but for the first time in a while, I can go out there knowing I can make as many mistakes as I want and be as aggressive as I want."

There is freshman Willie Hicks, but he's on a redshirt this year and likely won't play unless Power, who teetered on losing his job throughout the season, is completely injured.

I'll be honest that I think Power is getting the tough end of the deal here. It's nearly impossible to play free football as the No. 1 quarterback when job security whispers turn into shouts. It creates a difficult scenario for both players, and it's a shame because the team itself is always going to support whoever plays the position. Kamphaus played well against West Virginia, but that doesn't automatically anoint him as the better player than Power. Likewise, Power, when he has struggled, is still a young player developing, even though he replaced Shawn Halloran last year before suffering a foot injury. There's just the hope that he can somehow grab the position for himself, especially with Hicks waiting in the wings. Since he can play this game freely - I don't think Bicknell is going to burn a redshirt during a season where bowl possibilities are starting to evaporate - I'm hoping he can break out and show everyone that he deserves a serious, long look at the starting role with a reminder of why he replaced Halloran last year.

I'll be here tomorrow. -Rick Latimer, "The Principal"

Don't act like you didn't see this movie, and don't act like you didn't love it. I loved Louis Gossett, and Michael Wright haunted my dreams more than he probably should. So, I'll stand on that hill and defend this movie because it was awesome.

Anyways, I think the quarterback story overshadows the BC defense just a little bit too much in this game. I didn't hate the way it looked against West Virginia, even though the busted plays and big chunks didn't help, and I think Tennessee matches up cleanly into the linebacker corps led by Bill Romanowski.

The Volunteers, for example, are committed to using two quarterbacks. I'm an avowed enemy of a multi-quarterback system because I don't feel like alternating allows one quarterback the right amount of adjustment time on the field. Flip-flopping the position prevents rhythm, which is very different from pulling an ineffective player in favor of a backup - or a matchup play where one player is better suited to compete against a particular system.

Throwing Bill Romanowski into that mix enables the four-year starter to move freely about the gridiron. He'll be able to prevent a rhythm pretty naturally by himself, and his status as a disrupter plays clear into what Tennessee is trying to do. That's a bad sign for the Vols, who need to settle the position before going into a particularly-tough end of the year.

I've had the time of my life…

It's a really awkward transition to segue from The Principal into Dirty Dancing, especially since there isn't a prayer of a chance of me doing any of Patrick Swayze's dance moves. It's physically impossible, and if I tried to jump off the stage or hoist my wife like Baby, I'd probably send one of us straight to the emergency room.

But it goes without saying that this game is the end of an era for the Boston College football program. It's the last home game for this year's graduating class, and it's the official, final stamp on the Doug Flutie era. The Class of '87 played with Flutie during the magical 1984 year, and it transitioned the program into its next phase.

It's difficult to measure what that means because Flutie casts such a large shadow. He stepped into a starting role for the New England Patriots this year during the NFL's strike, and he might just be the heir apparent to Steve Grogan since Tony Eason really isn't working out all that well right now. That legacy will live forever, and it's intact in Chestnut Hill.

This class had to carry the torch after Flutie's departure. It succeeded in the immediate aftermath, but what happens in the coming years will be largely built on their foundation. The forecast for the next couple of seasons is a little bit tougher, but the blank slate of the 1990s is something I'm really looking forward to. The recruits who enter the program now will pick up that flame off the foundation of these players and build into the next decade. There's something to be said for that, and it excites me to think of the future possibilities that reside in Chestnut Hill.

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Scoreboard Watching

This is kind of a dead week for college football before a number of huge matchups roll into the schedule. Oklahoma and Nebraska are the two top-ranked teams in the nation but don't play each other until Thanksgiving. With the exception of the Sooners' game next week against Oklahoma State, I don't think there's any challenge to either's crown.

This week, Oklahoma is at Kansas while Nebraska plays Missouri. I'm just going to pencil the Sooners for a win now with a minimum of 50 points against a team that lose, 54-2, to Nebraska.

No. 3 Miami is in the same boat against East Carolina this year, and No. 4 Florida State plays Tulane. There isn't really anything until we get back to No. 6 Auburn, which hosts No. 10 Florida. Tennessee actually needs the Gators to win that game in order to open up a run at the Sugar Bowl after the loss to Alabama and the tie against the Tigers. Earlier this season.

BC's next opponent, Notre Dame, hosts Navy in a game that should be handled pretty easily by the Fighting Irish. The No. 9 team in the nation lost to Pittsburgh but should be in position to play for a national championship as long as it doesn't slip against the Eagles next week. That said, the end-of-year gauntlet includes Alabama, Penn State, and Miami - all ranked entering this week.

As for BC's only other remaining opponent, No. 8 Syracuse is at Pittsburgh this week a week after dominating Colgate in the Carrier Dome. The Orangemen are a dark-horse national championship contender with head coach Dick MacPherson's fully-built offense around his quarterback, Don McPherson.

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Around the Sports World

Shoutout to the Minnesota Twins for their World Series victory last week. I didn't think much of the AL West champions this year with their 85-win season, but they sure proved me wrong by wiping out a powerhouse Detroit Tiger team in the American League Championship Series before beating the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games.

For what it's worth, the Twins' record was one of only two teams in the West that finished over .500. Minnesota would've finished in fifth in the East, ahead of the Boston Red Sox (speaking of Halloween horror shows) but well off the pace set by three 90-win clubs. In fact, the only division Minnesota would've finished as much as second place in was the NL West, where it still would've been behind San Francisco.

But the Twin Cities now hoist a pennant in the Metrodome by beating a 98-win team and a 95-win team. That's really impressive, and nobody can take that away from those players or those fans.

Baseball's end can only mean that I can shift fully into autumn mode. The NFL is cruising along after a strike canceled the third week of the season, and this week marks the second consecutive week of regular players after replacement players picked up the slack. I don't know if crossing a picket line is a good or bad thing, but I know getting the chance to watch Doug Flutie play for New England sure made me happy.

As for the NBA and NHL, well - let's see what happens there. The Adams Division is going to be particularly loaded this year, especially with Montreal, and Quebec appears like a strong team early in the year. Hartford won the division regular season last year, but I still can't get behind the Whalers.

And then there's the Celtics. I still haven't gotten over watching the Lakers win the NBA championship, and I refuse to acknowledge the basketball gods' hand in moving Larry Bird's three-pointer off the rim in Game 4. Kevin McHale's foot is going to be a lingering issue, and there's a feeling that the window is starting to close if he can't bounce back.

I fear Detroit after last year's postseason, especially if the refs allow that brazen, awful behavior to continue, and the Hawks are a very good team. Chicago has Michael Jordan, but he's a scorer, not an overall player capable of winning a championship.

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Pregame Quote and Prediction

Double, double, toil and trouble. Fire burn and cauldron bubble. -The Witches, "Macbeth"

I readily admit that I'm not a Halloween guy. The concept of dressing up never really appealed to me, and I don't like horror movies. The only thing I've ever really enjoyed is the quantity of candy sales, but my waistline tells me it's a bad idea to flow from Halloween to Thanksgiving and the holidays with massive quantities of junk food in my diet. I don't actually believe in goblins, ghouls, or ghosts.

I might change that attitude, though, if the spirits can wake up their 1941 Sugar Bowl memories in time for this week's game against Tennessee. BC got clobbered last week by West Virginia after losing to a Rutgers team with exactly one bowl berth in program history. Quarterback Mike Power is under the microscope, and Mark Kamphaus is likely out with an injury. The days of Doug Flutie spilled over to Shawn Halloran, but now it feels like the electric play at quarterback is just a distant memory.

That said, there's something I really like about this matchup between Boston College's defense and Tennessee' offense. The Vols possess a balanced offense but really feel like something missed against Alabama a couple of weeks ago. Head coach Johnny Majors already indicated he would use both Randy Sanders and Sterling Henton at quarterback, and I hate quarterback carousels. Reggie Cobb is a beast in the backfield, but he's not Bo Jackson.

BC won't go to a bowl game, and the injury bug's bitten more than a few times. But there's just something about this Tennessee team I don't like right now, and it could spell the recipe for a major upset if Bicknell can conjure a spell with some old offensive wizardry.

All quotes obtained from The Boston Globe.

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