W2WF: Syracuse

Boston College and Syracuse were anything but equals when they met for the first time as conference foes in 1991. They had effectively swapped spots from the middle of the 80s when Doug Flutie won the Heisman Trophy, and they ended the decade by moving in different directions. The Orangemen were on the rise and finished the 1987 season as the No. 4 team in the nation after tying Pat Dye's Auburn Tigers, and Dick MacPherson's team followed it up with another 10-win year and a Hall of Fame Bowl win in 1988 to jumpstart a three-game bowl winning streak through 1990.

The Eagles, meanwhile, were slipping after winning that same Hall of Fame Bowl in 1986. Jack Bicknell couldn't recapture the magic from the Flutie era, and the decade ended with four consecutive sub-.500 wins. BC only won nine games across Bicknell's final three seasons, the exact number of wins the Eagles had in 1986, and as the program entered its seventh year of the post-Flutie era, the balance of power decidedly shifted away from Chestnut Hill.

Both coaches departed after the 1990 season, and their replacements were tasked with very different roles. At Syracuse, Paul Pasqualoni was entering the Big East as one of the powerhouse teams, while Tom Coughlin was hoping to renovate and rebuild the Eagles in a similar mold to what his mentor, Bill Parcells, did with the New York Giants.

Coughlin had a Super Bowl ring, but he had to admit Pasqualoni had the better program when the teams joined the Big East for that first season. The conference didn't have a round robin format that year and wouldn't assume that role for another two seasons, but the Eagles, winners of four out of five games through October and November, still sought to ruin a nationally-ranked Syracuse bid for the unofficial conference championship in the penultimate game of that season.

"Our players know Syracuse," Coughlin said heading into that game. "They know the tradition, and they know that we've never won in the Dome. But to be honest, our players have never backed down from any challenge this season. We just see this as another challenge. Good teams play well in the stretch, and here it is - the stretch."

The game itself was more of a nightmare than a dream upset, but the 38-16 loss taught BC something about playing football under Coughlin. It was the fourth game and loss against a nationally-ranked opponent that season, a streak that stretched to five games when the Eagles lost their season finale to No. 1 Miami one week later, but it battle-hardened the young roster. After finishing the year 4-7, they opened the 1992 season undefeated with a 7-0-1 start.

Again they lost consecutive games at the end of the year, including one to Syracuse at a time when both teams were still nationally-ranked, but it set the table for the 1993 run to BC's first-ever win at the Carrier Dome after that team started 0-2. The Eagles simply looked different in that game after being reshaped in Coughlin's image, and their toughness stemmed from the scars absorbed from that 1991 game.

It's that story that serves as a reminder of what BC can accomplish on Saturday when it returns to the Carrier Dome for a third straight season. The Eagles have lost their last three games, but they're preparing to unseat Syracuse at home with a new, young head coach while they forge their new identity. It's not quite the same Orange team from the early 1990s, but it's a formidable team that knows how to command a presence at home.

In the long history of the rivalry, it's an opportunity to pick up a springboard win and put the bad karma of the losing streak long to bed. Even if there's a loss, it would be a necessary step toward a future quest to assume the mantle of best team in the conference, a step that now includes the rest of a national conference vying for championships at the highest level.

Here's what to watch for when BC and Syracuse meet in the Dome:

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Weekly Storylines (Unthemed Edition)

No Controversy

The recent losing streak caused an unavoidable and difficult conversation this week for head coach Jeff Hafley after his team scored 34 points over the last three games. Faced with questions about the overall play, the spotlight centered as it usually does on the quarterback position, which was evaluated throughout the week as any position on the roster.

"I feel good about the quarterback situation," Hafley said. "I made a decision, which I thought about really hard. I watched a lot of tape, obviously, with the staff, and we've made a decision [that] we feel really good about. The team knows about it."

The quarterback conversation is what it is, which is to say a necessary discussion for a team struggling to consistently score points, but simply pinning the struggles on Dennis Grosel alone overlooks one role within a greater offensive scheme. Whoever plays quarterback needs to have the right amount of time behind the offensive line, which means he needs to read his progressions and deliver a pass to the correct spot for a receiver to make a catch. It's further based on situational football opposite the running game and if the defense is accurately predicting the play on the right down and distance. Confidence in one position, after all, requires confidence in all 11 positions.

The offense has never used the same starting lineup in any of its seven games, but it relates back to which player performs the best in a particular scheme more than it speaks to the talent of any one player. That said, the decision was absolutely necessary to resolve early in the week in order to prepare for Syracuse, and Hafley was devoid of indecisiveness when talking about his quarterbacks this week.

"Dennis gets most of the reps in practice," Hafley said last weekend. "Daelen [Menard] is a guy who knows the scheme really well [and] moves well in the pocket. I think he has a really great grasp on the system. Matthew Rueve is another guy [who] processes really quickly. He's good on the run and good outside the pocket. And Emmett Morehead is a big, true freshman with a phenomenal arm, and I think he has a really bright future."

Orange Crush

The offensive conversation's required nuance and context also needs to look at an opponent's defense, the likes of which will be incredibly unique when the Orange take the field. They run a 3-3-5 starting lineup but have a few wrinkles that BC didn't see last week against Louisville. The central defensive lineman, for example, is a more traditional defensive tackle that doesn't line up as a nose guard, and the defensive backfield utilizes a roverback, which is a position built more like a linebacker than a traditional safety or cornerback.

"They're very aggressive," Jeff Hafley said. "Those backers are pressuring constantly, which gets around the ball, which gets a lot of tackles, which creates a lot of sacks. They really play three down guys, so you can call [their outside linebackers] either linebackers or defensive ends, but they're aggressive and I think the scheme helps them because they're good players."

Past seasons forced the defense to play too many drives on short rest when the Orange offense was running fast, but it seems like Syracuse has finally found its groove with respect to getting on and off the field. The rushing defense is 43rd in the nation, and that aggressiveness has the unit averaging over three sacks per game.

Their total defense ranks at a top-30 unit and is 25th-best in passing yards allowed, a huge jump over previous years, and a big reason for that is the emergence of the three-man front. Most teams are playing that style now, but Syracuse was uncomfortable in its style last year and finished the season ranked 90th in total defense. That they've had a jump is due to a settlement on personnel who can run a scheme with brutal efficiency within the larger perspective of Dino Babers' game plan.

"I think with how spread out teams are nowadays, [teams] are trying to get more people on their feet," Hafley said. "With how you have to play the game in space, they're trying to get more athletes on their feet. When you play three-down, you either have two big outside backers or you can play more fast guys. If you notice on third down, we get into a lot of three-down stuff and bring in more athletes, but on first and second down, we've gotten in some three-down fronts with another linebacker. It all depends on who you are defending and what you have [for personnel]."

Tucker-ed Out

The defense is vastly improved, but Dino Babers is always recognizable for his ability to scheme an offense capable of pressuring an opponent for a full 60 minutes. The "Orange is the New Fast' offense under Eric Dungey hit the gas pedal as fast as humanly possible, and while the team still hits the speed button, Syracuse is more run-based than ever following the emergence of Sean Tucker.

Tucker ran for 150 yards in three of his last four games and averaged more than seven yards per carry in the Clemson game. He went for 112 yards and a touchdown last week against Virginia Tech, and he became Syracuse's first 1,000-yard back since Jerome Smith ran for 1,171 yards over 13 games in the Orange's last year in the Big East. Smith ran for 900 yards the next year in the team's first year in the ACC, but Tucker accomplished the feat with four games still remaining on his schedule.

"[Syracuse] is playing with a lot of confidence," Jeff Hafley said. "Their O-line is probably playing harder, tougher, and more physical than all that I've seen as a whole this year. I think they're playing with that tenacity and that toughness, and [Tucker] is a really good football player. He's strong, he sees that he has good vision and patience. He's tough, he can run, he can catch, and he's hard to tackle. They do a really good job on the football."

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Countdown to Kickoff

10...Jaelen Gill's six-yard touchdown reception last week made him the 10th different Eagle to score a touchdown this season.
9…BC has led nine times at halftime under Hafley with an 8-1 overall record. BC is 3-0 this season when leading at the break.
8…Garrett Shrader's 12 rushing touchdowns tied him for eighth all-time for single season rushing scores with four other players, including two seasons by both Ernie Davis and Floyd Little.
7…Seven BC players have earned ACC Player of the Week honors this season.
6…Jeff Hafley is undefeated with a perfect 6-0 record in August and September, but October has been less kind. The three losses this year doubled his losses from last year to also total six games.
5…BC has rushed for 100 yards on five separate occasions this year, with a 4-1 overall record. During the Hafley era, BC teams are 7-1 when breaking the century mark.
4…Both BC and Syracuse have four wins against one another since Syracuse joined the ACC.
3…A win on Saturday would match BC's longest winning streak in the series with its third consecutive win, which was achieved between 1969-1972.
2…Tucker's touchdown made him the second Syracuse player with 10 rushing touchdowns this season.
1...Ben Petrula is one start behind Syracuse's Airon Servais on the national active starting streak list.

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BC-Syracuse X Factor

Carrier Dome

Jeff Hafley's trip to the Carrier Dome last year occurred, like everything else during his first year as a head coach, under the strangest circumstances. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic forced Syracuse University to close its doors for all sporting events, so there weren't any fans in a building affectionately nicknamed the "Loud House."

The crowd widely recognized for its ability to sound louder than its capacity vanished for the season, and the building became a cavern of silence. Running out onto the field was a reminder of the locked-down, empty streets from the height of the spring, and the game played out with the only noise coming from field level.

That absence is now long gone, but how BC manages its return to the Carrier Dome is dependent on how it handles the different kinds of noise produced under the Syracuse roof. Unlike other stadiums, this one doesn't have an escape hatch in the outdoors, and it subsequently echoes off the concrete walls and acoustics provided by the cramped, indoor space.

"We practice inside, but that's as close as we can do with blaring music," Jeff Hafley said. "We can't simulate [the Dome] because it kind of echoes even when it's not packed. It's loud."

The Orange are a very different team at home than on the road and enter Saturday with a 2-3 overall record on the Carrier Dome turf. They are averaging just under 29 points per game while allowing about a field goal less, but two games were decided outliers where they only scored seven against Rutgers and allowed 40 to Wake Forest. Removing those two games from the respective totals increases the points per game by almost a full touchdown while allowing about a touchdown less per game.

The median performance therefore adds a definitive home field advantage to the Orange and the 30,000-plus fans who turned out for each of their games. The last two games against Wake Forest and Clemson each pushed over 36,000 attendees into a building built for just over 49,000, though the layout adds an immeasurable challenge for coaches and players who aren't used to competing in that atmosphere.

"We are expecting a really good crowd," Hafley said. "I've been there in the past, when I was in the old Big East, and I was there for some pretty loud games. As a young coach, you have to walk up the stairs [to reach the coaches box], and the fans are yelling at you. Then you'd be sitting in a booth that the fans almost had access to because there's no press box [at the top of the stadium].

"I was there with Pitt," he continued, "and a guy just kept holding a pizza box in front of us so we couldn't see. He was writing messages on it and holding it up, and we couldn't see because they were holding pizza boxes in front of us. So I anticipate it to be very loud [on Saturday], and I wouldn't be shocked if it was a packed house."

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Dan's Non-Sports Observation of the Week

My wife and I have notoriously different tastes in television shows. I joke about how she only watches a show if it takes place in Chicago or involves true crime, and I'm more of an HBO Max, Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime guy who loves watching stuff that's either original or completely sophomoric in its humor - stuff like "Curb Your Enthusiasm," "It's Always Sunny," and either "Archer" or "The Office."

It's a rarity when we sit down and watch something together ("Law and Order" is probably the only thing we've ever really enjoyed at the same time), but I convinced her to watch "Squid Game" with me this week on Netflix. Two episodes later, we were completely hooked and finished the rest of the series before the week ended.

I'm a fan of spacing out shows in order to enjoy them over a longer time, and I rarely binge watch anything, even on Netflix. Yet we flew through this one in about three days and watched six of the first nine episodes over two nights. We nearly finished the series, but I reminded her that staying up late is a bad idea with a baby who wakes up anywhere around 5:30 a.m.

I have really gotten into shows from other parts of the world lately, largely due to their availability and closed captioning, but "Squid Game" easily ranked alongside Israel's "Fauda" as my favorite and unquestionably the best show where I didn't go into it with a basic understanding of the language (I speak very remedial Hebrew and understand enough Arabic to order dinner). I would strongly recommend it to anyone as long as you're willing to avoid making plans over three or four days' time.

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Scoreboard Watching

Last year was supposed to be the first season of the ACC's new bowl structure, but COVID-19 undermined the entire Bowl Season by both cancelling games and removing the requirements surrounding games. A number of sub-.500 teams attended games while others, like Boston College, opted out of a postseason game after completing a grueling, emotionally-draining season.

The structure instead defaulted to this year as Bowl Season - the formal name for all games, including the New Year's Six and the College Football Playoff - looked to return to normalcy. Even then, the requirements facing the ACC teams is a little bit different than most years due to the Orange Bowl's placement in the national semifinal.

The ACC champion still automatically qualifies for the New Year's Six, but the Orange Bowl's rotation into the College Football Playoff means the team is handled as an at-large team for the CFP committee. If that team is subsequently chosen for one of the semifinals, the next-highest ACC team in the CFP rankings is also not guaranteed the ACC's autobid, as is the case when the Orange Bowl is a standard NY6 game.

The conference's overall struggles in its non-conference schedule made a second bid to the New Year's Six games unlikely anyways, but that means the CFP bid likely rests on Wake Forest as long as complete anarchy breaks out ahead of the Deacs, who are ranked 13th in both the Associated press and AFCA Coaches Poll.

Unlike previous years, though, the rest of the ACC games are considered equal value and will determine berths based upon a discussion of geographical proximity, an avoidance of repeat appearances, and matchups with leagues based on win-loss records. Nine games are in that conversation, including the Pinstripe Bowl in New York City, the newly-acquired Holiday Bowl in San Diego, the Cheez-It Bowl in Orlando and the Duke's Mayo Bowl in Charlotte, the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas and the Taxslayer Bowl in Jacksonville. The Fenway Bowl, which was canceled in its debut season last year, will instead make its first appearance at Fenway Park in December.

Only three ACC teams - Wake Forest, Pittsburgh and Virginia - are currently bowl eligible, but NC State will clinch six wins with its next victory, which can come as recent as Saturday if the Wolfpack beat Louisville. Five others are looking for two wins, including BC, which is 4-3 after last week's loss to the Cardinals. Notre Dame, at 6-1 and ranked 11th in the nation, is also a factor since the Fighting Irish default to the ACC's bowl selection if they don't qualify for either the CFP or a New Year's Six game.

Nine teams are either 4-3 or 3-4 with only Syracuse holding a different, 4-4 overall record, meaning the next couple weeks will likely thin the herd of teams looking for bowl eligibility. The conference records are equally wonky, with an 0-3 BC team technically holding a shorter path to a bowl game than a 2-2 Florida State squad, so it's hard to judge exactly how those teams will shake down.

The schedule itself is unforgiving to that discussion. Only UNC and Virginia are playing non-conference games, but the Tar Heels and Cavaliers are traveling to both Notre Dame and Brigham Young. Duke is at Wake Forest in the only crossover game between league opponents, while the rest are divisional games.

It starts early with Miami's game at Pittsburgh and Virginia Tech's game at Georgia Tech, and it continues through the mid-afternoon with Florida State's game at Clemson and BC's game at Syracuse. Each of those matchups are critical for someone's bowl eligibility, and the thought that the loser of an FSU-Clemson game would fall to four losses with just about a quarter of the season left to play is one of those previously-unfathomable thoughts.

UNC's game at Notre Dame is later at 7:30 p.m. alongside the Louisville-NC State game, and Virginia's game against head coach Bronco Mendenhall's former team kicks off at 10:15.

Nationally, a number of games could induce chaos in the national rankings right off the bat when No. 2 Cincinnati's bid for the first Group of Five playoff berth heads to Tulane. It kicks off opposite the annual Michigan-Michigan State game that adds a wrinkle of two undefeated teams this year. No. 16 Baylor is still a one-loss team, as is No. 9 Iowa, but both face potential roadblocks against Texas and Wisconsin, respectively.

Later in the afternoon, No. 1 Georgia plays Florida in their annual game in Jacksonville while No. 4 Oklahoma hosts Texas Tech and No. 7 Oregon hosts Colorado. Later, No. 19 SMU is at Houston while other games like Ole Miss-Auburn hold national implications.

For those of us who don't want to sleep, that Virginia game is one of four games starting in the late slot. UCLA is at Utah while San Diego State hosts Fresno State and Stanford hosts Washington.

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Around the Sports World

In 2006, I was fortunate enough to serve as the play-by-play radio broadcaster for the Cape Cod Baseball League All Star Game when it visited Yarmouth-Dennis' Red Wilson Field. It was part of my second season with the club, and serving as the voice on terrestrial radio for the first time still ranks as a solid memory in my professional life.

Working that game opened doors for me, and the next year, I returned to the Cape on a part time basis but still received an opportunity to work on the production for the 2007 All Star Game in Wareham. I wouldn't broadcast, but the league and the production team asked me to volunteer as the liaison between the folks in the truck and the broadcast team situated in the booth above home plate.

The game was broadcast on NESN, my first experience with the network, and the CCBL had hired two bigger names to call the game. It had Jim Beattie, a World Series champion with the 1978 Yankees, doing color analysis, but I was admittedly more excited to work with Bob Neumeier, the guy hired to handle play-by-play.

Neumie was a part of my childhood news coverage and always seemed to pop up at pivotal moments in my formative years. He was part of a Murderer's Row of sports anchors with Bob Lobel and Steve Burton, and by the time I graduated high school, he was a lead analyst for national horse racing while simultaneously hosting shows on WEEI sports radio's golden era.

Working with a guy like that was a dream come true for a kid who used to broadcast baseball in his back driveway while pitching a tennis ball off the neighbor's house, and like those games on television, it served as a formative event for a young journalist and aspiring broadcaster. Once the game ended, he thanked me for my work but stuck around for a few minutes just to chat with me. By the time the conversation ended, we took a picture, and I still remember how he slung an arm around me like I worked with him for years.

That was 14 years ago, and this past week, we lost Bob Neumeier. I always consider myself lucky to meet my idols through the sports grapevine, but walking away from that day with a story made me, in my opinion, better at what I do. Whether he knew it or not, he impacted a kid who wanted to make it and who now tries to pay it forward the way he taught me on that day in 2007. I just wanted to sit in on the action, but he treated me like a colleague and a friend. Yes, it was only one day, and others worked with him longer and on more games, but I know it hurt all the same to hear of his passing.

Godspeed, Neumie. I hope every horse in heaven is a winner.

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Pregame Quote and Prediction

Great rivalries don't have to be built on hatred. They're built on respect, on a respect for excellence. -Coach K

Boston College and Syracuse often find themselves intersecting at various stages of their own program histories. Any time the Orange ascended to the top of the eastern rankings or the Big East or even the ACC Atlantic Division, they crossed a descending Eagles team. The inverse was true for BC, and it's almost as if the cosmos found a way to meet them in the middle with instant classic football games.

Both programs enter this game staring up at the rest of the conference standings, but a victory over one another would dramatically change each other's perspective. It would bring both teams within a game of bowl eligibility with just over a quarter of the season remaining, and it would position either program for a potential run at the elite tier located just below Wake Forest and NC State.

The losing team likely faces the inverse, but the long history of these two teams wouldn't have it any other way. This is a huge game for both teams, and that it comes against one another is a trip in the time machine to an earlier era of football. In a league defined by its southern roots, this is the old Big East and an old smash mouth football matchup.

Boston College and Syracuse kick off at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday from the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, N.Y. The game can be seen on the ACC's Regional Sports Network affiliates, locally in Boston on NESN with a full list of affiliates available on TheACC.com. Radio broadcast is also available from the Boston College Sports Network from Learfield heard locally in Boston on WEEI 93.7 FM with Satellite broadcast available on Sirius channel 137, XM channel 384 and Online channel 974.

Players Mentioned

Jaelen Gill

Dennis Grosel

Emmett Morehead

Ben Petrula

Matthew Rueve

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