W2WF: Clemson (2010)

It's hard to forget what happened to Boston College during the 1998 college football season.

BC wasn't exactly a Big East powerhouse back then, having gone 4-7 the year before, and nobody expected them to rally back to anything in a top-heavy conference. Syracuse and Virginia Tech harbored championship aspirations, and West Virginia was the preeminent "next team." Miami always felt like a threat on name value, and Pitt was coming off of a strong season.

The Eagles were clearly defined in the next tier with Temple and Rutgers as a construction project. They weren't a contender and needed a visionary coach capable of building a bridge over a chasm and gorge that felt like it widened after a loss to those Owls started the '97 season.

So imagine how shocked college football was in 1998 when BC upset Georgia Tech on the road to start the season. The Yellow Jackets wound up that year as an ACC co-champion, but they lost the opening game in Atlanta to a visiting team from the north. Two weeks later, BC was 3-0 after steaming through Rutgers and Temple, a clear break from the weighted tier at the bottom of the league. A visit to Louisville awaited at the end of September, and reasonable expectations foreshadowed an undefeated month with enthusiasm flashing through the Heights at warp speed.

Instead, the season went sideways. Louisville pummeled BC, 52-28, in a game that exposed issues on both sides of the ball for the Eagles. A completely balanced team from the first three weeks never regained its mojo, and BC lost six straight. It finished the season with a 4-7 record, a replication of the year before when Tom O'Brien first arrived in Chestnut Hill.

There are those same familiar feelings of dread now shrouding Alumni Stadium after last week. The 2010 version of the Eagles fell short in a late-game rally against Maryland and dropped a 24-21 decision. The loss felled BC to 2-5 on the season with a full month-plus remaining, a perilously-close path to bowl ineligibility for the first time since that 1998 season.

"We just don't have the winning edge right now," head coach Frank Spaziani said. "Until we get it, we're going to be doing that horseshoe thing, getting close."

That's not to say bright spots are completely absent. Quarterback Chase Rettig looked like a legitimate starting quarterback last week when he threw for 189 yards and a touchdown. Wide receiver Bobby Swigert quickly became his security blanket and caught five passes for 77 yards, including the score, and tight Chris Pantale hauled in six passes to lead the team in receptions.

Luke Kuechly continued his development into the nation's best tackler, and Kevin Pierre-Louis is a breakout starter on the outside. Safety Jim Noel is already a team leader in interceptions, and kicker Nate Freese is slowly becoming an automatic option after he went 4-for-4 against Kent State in mid-September.

That just doesn't win football games in the present tense. BC is playing well, but wins are impossible to come by lately. That's a dire warning for the team's bowl prospects, unless something changes this week. It's an alarm, a sounding buzzer for the team with a full month remaining, to begin converting those positives into wins or risk the end of a well-publicizied postseason streak.

Here's what to watch for when the Eagles host Clemson this week at Alumni Stadium:

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Weekly Storylines

Dabo Swinney and the Sorcerer's Stone

The ACC Atlantic Division didn't exactly compete at an elite level last year. Clemson advanced to the ACC Championship Game, but the Tigers had an identical record to BC. BC finished one game worse in conference play thanks to a defeat at Death Valley in late September, but Clemson went into its bowl game unranked after losing to Georgia Tech in Tampa.

The division got marginally better this year with Florida State, but the Seminoles lost to NC State. Maryland is in the mix but lost to Clemson, and BC is looking up at all of those teams with the Tigers.

It presents an air of urgency entering this week's game. Clemson is a good program but hasn't won a conference championship since 1991. There is talent, but it's still unproven at the national level. A young head coach is an interesting candidate, but his wizardry only got the Tigers to a certain point.

Don't go Chase-in' waterfalls.

Watching Chase Rettig mature has been a quick case study for this season. His completion percentage is still down, but his performance last week showcased his ability to move the football when he's not thinking about what's happening. He's at his best when he's simply reacting, which highlights both his raw talent and his inexperience.

Unfortunately, there was no real way to stick with Rettig from the start of the season. BC brought in Dave Shinskie to hold the job, but his touchdown-to-interception ratio forced Frank Spaziani's hand. Mike Marscovetra intrigued everyone when he stepped in, but he's been turnover prone even as he's been the best at completing passes.

That turned the spotlight on Rettig. He burned his redshirt against Notre Dame but promptly got hurt after throwing for 72 yards and a touchdown. He struggled badly against Florida State, but the Seminoles are probably going to win the division. He looked very good at times against Maryland but still threw two picks.

Waiting for Rettig to fully mature could take the rest of the season, so it's imperative for the offense to close ranks around him. Montel Haris has more yards than Clemson's Andre Ellington at this point, but BC needs to find a way to punch him into the end zone more. Against FSU, he ran for 191 yards but didn't score. Getting him into the end zone even once changes the whole complexion of that game and flips the scoreboard to a Boston College victory.

Use the force, Luke.

There is one player who apparently didn't need a maturation process at all - Luke Kuechly. The Ohio native is the nation's leading tackler as a true sophomore, which means the NFL should come sniffing for him this offseason and into next year. That means the BC defense needs to continue building around his ability for at least one more season because a franchise is going to get dreamy eyes watching him play.

I'll never know how Kuechly slipped through the cracks of the recruiters. He was only listed as a three-star guy, but he had 158 tackles last year as a true freshman. He seamlessly papered over the hole left by Mark Herzlich's tragic absence, and this year's been a thrill watching the duo together for the first and only time.

Herzlich's return from Ewing's sarcoma will forever remain the highlight of this season, but his placement on the outside switched Kuechly to the middle linebacker position. Nobody probably noticed the switch on paper, but it's enabled the youngster to fly around the field like Superman. The middle position spies the ball way more frequently than the outside, and the results are in the enhanced tackle numbers.

If Kuechly is flying around, it doesn't matter how fast DeAndre Hopkins can run since quarterback Kyle Parker probably won't be able to get him the ball.

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Scoreboard Watching

Things need to start shaking down atop the national polls. No. 2 Boise State destroyed Louisiana Tech on Tuesday night in a midweek showing and are one of two undefeated, top-ranked teams out of mid-major conferences. The other, No. 4 Texas Christian, plays UNLV in a late game tonight, and the BCS computer programmers have to be sweating at the prospect of a WAC team and a Mountain West Conference team potentially crashing the national championship party.

A third team, Utah, is floating around at No. 8 and plays Air Force this week before it hosts TCU in a season-altering game next week. The other mid-major to watch, Nevada, fell out of the rankings after losing to Hawaii in its last game and likely could derail Boise State's bid later this season. The Wolfpack's quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, is an especially exceptional talent worth watching in the WAC.

Elsewhere, everyone is still chasing Oregon, which plays Southern California in a marginally-important meeting between the No. 1 and No. 24 teams in the nation. No. 3 Auburn, meanwhile, is playing Ole Miss, a team that has been struggling ever since it lost to FCS-level Jacksonville State to start the season.

The rest all already have one or two losses, which hypothetically should make the hunt for the national championship a little bit clearer if the top teams keep winning. That said, the prospect of one-loss Michigan State, Alabama, Missouri, Wisconsin, Ohio State, Oklahoma, LSU, Stanford, Nebraska, Arizona, or even Oklahoma State offers juicy, scintillating possibilities.

Of those teams listed, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Baylor are all still vying for the Big 12 South championship, while Nebraska and Missouri are hunting for the Big 12 North. Mizzou beat Oklahoma last week to knock the Sooners out of the undefeated club.

On the local radar, Penn will play Brown in a game that could determine the Ivy League's champion this year. Both teams are still undefeated in conference play and would have an inside track on both Harvard and Yale.

Also in the FCS, it'll be really interesting to see how UMass bounces back from last week's game at Gillette Stadium. The Minutemen dropped the Colonial Clash to longtime rival New Hampshire, 39-13, and simply can't overlook a road game at James Madison. It's a carefully-loaded trap game, one week after the emotion of playing a one-off, once-in-a-lifetime chance to step on the gridiron at Foxboro.

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Around the Sports World

Two years ago, the sports world was robbed of a Tom Brady-Brett Favre showdown when Bernard Pollard dove into Brady's knees on a sack attempt in Week One. A torn knee sidelined the reigning NFL MVP for the season, and the two games between Brady and Favre, who had been moved to the New York Jets, never materialized.

That all changes this week when Favre arrives at Gillette Stadium with the Minnesota Vikings.

The semi-retired, almost-retired, not-retired gunslinger isn't the same cagey veteran as last season, and his interceptions are rapidly piling up compared to years past. He threw three picks in a loss to the Dolphins earlier this year, and even though he eviscerated the Jets for three scores, including his 500th score, he was downright awful against Dallas. Now he arrives to face a New England team readying for another run at the Super Bowl.

I don't know how to feel about watching Favre, and there's a part of me that worries he's taking too many hits this year. He's been sacked more than twice per game, and his body isn't young enough to absorb that punishment. He's also coming into a hostile environment against a team frothing for a signature statement win, especially with a new-look, younger roster that jettisoned Randy Moss earlier this season to the very same Vikings on the other sideline this week.

All of this overshadows the World Series for me this weekend. San Francisco won the first two games this week, and quite honestly, I don't know if Texas can pull this off. The Rangers absolutely have to win the third game, but I'm uncertain what happens even over the rest of this series.

As for the rest of the Boston sports scene? I'm not quite ready to talk about the Bruins yet after the debacle against Philadelphia last season. I don't see a Stanley Cup playoff run this year, and I certainly don't want to run into the Flyers at any point this season or postseason.

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Pregame Quote and Prediction

I think, sometimes in life, the biggest challenges end up being the best things that happen in your life. -Tom Brady

I preface everything I'm about to say with an asterisk because I genuinely love Clemson. The people are welcoming and great, and the area epitomizes southern hospitality. The stadium is a thunderous home field advantage full of history and knowledge. The team itself is a tradition, and it's the one program I believe defines the ACC.

So I apologize profusely for what I'm about to say: this is a game Clemson is supposed to win.

Everyone at Clemson knows what that means. Last year's Tigers shook off a 2-3 start to win the ACC Atlantic Division before losing to Georgia Tech in the conference championship game, but they (of course) won their bowl game against Kentucky.

Two years ago, Clemson entered the season as the No. 9 team in the nation and promptly lost its opening game to an unranked Alabama team. By November, its record stood at 4-5 before a three-game winning streak to end the season.

The 2007 Tigers were 8-2 and ahead of Boston College in the national polls when the Eagles waltzed into Memorial Stadium for an Atlantic Division-defining victory. They eventually lost the Chick-fil-a Bowl.

The year before that, Clemson ranked No. 18 to start the season and lost to BC in the second week in double-overtime. It promptly rattled off six straight wins, though, to regain control of the division by late October - when it lost three of its last four games, tumbled into the Music City Bowl, and lost that.

Every year seemingly throws a monkey wrench into the Clemson machine. This year, it stands to reason that it could be the BC game. The Tigers opened the season 2-3 after losing consecutive games to Auburn, Miami, and North Carolina, but the wins over Maryland and Georgia Tech placed them squarely back into the division's race. They need help, but they also need to help themselves.

A game against a struggling Boston College team is not a game that Clemson can lose. If history's proven anything, that's exactly why the Eagles have a shot at winning the O'Rourke-McFadden Trophy on home soil.

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