W2WF: No. 21 Wake Forest

Last year's Thanksgiving Day weekend was a weird time. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic laid waste to the annual traditions, and plans were either tempered or outright canceled as a result of rate spikes across the country. The sports landscape intricately intertwined to that holiday didn't feel like its usual self, and the normal hype and pageantry was absent as it had been over the summer as society adjusted to the new normal.

The Massachusetts sports scene was hit particularly hard after the pandemic forced the postponement or cancellation of most fall activities. Gridirons across the region were particularly silent through September and October, and the Thanksgiving Day staple of attending a local football game was impossible after the sport moved to its spring-based, "Fall II" schedule. As a result, long-standing, centuries-old rivalries went silent for the first time, and nobody filed through a turnstile for a 10 a.m. kickoff. There were no high school heroes specials on television, and there were no tailgates filling the municipal airs with the smell of grilled steak and eggs.

The circumstances made it understandable, but the disappointment remained openly obvious. Those games are deeply woven into the fabric of their communities and often serve as the symbolic start to the holiday throughout the cities and towns of the Commonwealth. They were noticeably absent, and the surrounding events - reunions and hall of fame inductions - vanished. For a place like Massachusetts, it was a painful reminder of all that was lost to the COVID-19 era.

After a year without the games, Thanksgiving week kicked off on Tuesday night with games at Fenway Park, after a number of games on Wednesday night, Thanksgiving Day football returns to Massachusetts on Thursday when traditional rivals meet at the 50-yard line for the first time in two years.

It's a date worth celebrating for a number of reasons, but it'll be worth the return of memories from bygone years and eras. Few things have a place at the Thanksgiving table like a win in the morning, and some of the greatest Massachusetts memories stem from the parochial struggles between long rivals.

It's something Boston College fans remember from the early 2000s when Brian St. Pierre and Derrick Knight teamed up as the backfield battery for the Eagles. Both were on opposite sidelines when they went to St. John's Prep and Xaverian Brothers, but both earned wins over the other's alma mater over a two-year span recognized as some of the best high school football in the state's history.

St. Pierre was part of the 1997 game between the two schools that was one of the most-hyped games in state history, and he helped an unbeaten Prep beat a fellow undefeated Xaverian with a 40-yard run in the fourth quarter of the Thanksgiving Day game. It lifted the Eagles to a state championship the next week and is still widely regarded as one of the greatest football games in Massachusetts history. The next year, though, Knight got revenge for Xaverian when he rushed for over 100 yards as part of the Hawks' run to a state championship.

Both played on teams teeming with Division I-A and Division I-AA talent, and the backfield combination that they formed in 2002 was the culmination of a journey that began inside the state's borders. They later earned a trip to the Motor City Bowl, where BC slaughtered Toledo to cap a season of signature moments for both players.

Those memories exist everywhere, and they aren't necessarily limited to just Massachusetts. As a senior for Pascack Hills High School in 1996, Jeff Hafley had an opportunity to finish off a playoff season with a win over Pascack Valley when his team suddenly found itself losing in the late stages to a team that had a significantly worse regular season.

He found himself with the ball in his hands with the game on the line, and he defined his whole season with one two-point conversion throw that batted around and was tipped before it landed in his receiver's hands. It gave Pascack Hills an 8-7 victory in a game featuring its lowest points total of the season.

"I wasn't a very good football player," Hafley joked last year, "but I could always hang my hat on that bad pass I threw that got tipped and was good for two."

Here's what to watch for when BC hosts Wake Forest in its season finale:

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Weekly Storylines (The Town Edition)

Doug MacRay: The FBI car antennas are half-inch, matte black, about three-quarters way down the rear windshield. Statie's a pigtail. BPD, half and half. Every peewee in town knows what an FBI antenna looks like. So in the future, if you guys need to be slick, be slicker than a six year old.

Trevor Lawrence's departure from Clemson left a void and vacuum atop the ACC's quarterback ranks this season, and while many believed the mantle would automatically default to either his heir, D.J. Uiagalelei, or North Carolina's Sam Howell, the race for the title of the conference's best quarterback was left wide open after both faltered early in the season. To nobody's surprise, Pittsburgh's Kenny Pickett inserted his name into the conversation for his last season, but an entirely new group of quarterbacks followed him through the first season of the post-Lawrence era.

Among that group was Wake Forest wunderkind Sam Hartman, a sophomore from Charlotte who stayed home on Tobacco Road to play for the Demon Deacons. He was already an entrenched name who enjoyed multiple breakout seasons, but the free year of eligibility from the 2020 season meant he could remain a sophomore even with four years' experience in the Wake Forest season.

"I have a lot of respect for [Wake Forest head coach] Dave Clawson in a lot of ways," Jeff Hafley said. "The way he develops guys and the way he's stayed there and built it, they coach the scheme. He's got a lot of guys who have been around for a long time, and they developed players. They're really good players, and that's a really good staff for developing football players, so I have a lot of respect for how they play on offense, defense, and special teams. I'm just a big fan; he treated me really well when I came into the conference, and I can't say enough enough about him or his staff."

Clawson's ability to remain flexible to his players is why the players, in turn, adapted so well to his scheme. Hartman was the first-ever Demon Deacon to start the first game of his true freshman season, and after throwing for 378 yards against Tulane, he passed for just under 2,000 yards and 16 touchdowns before an injury cut his first year in the system short. He returned in 2019, but an open competition loss against Jamie Newman resulted in Hartman's redshirt season in his second year.

Hartman still played in four games as allowed under redshirt rules, and his 658 yards against both Florida State and Syracuse were a large chunk of his 830 yards on the season. And while it saved a year of eligibility, the quarterback gained a second free season last year after the NCAA waived the season because of COVID-19.

As a result, Wake Forest has a fourth-year starting quarterback who still has two years' worth of eligibility available. That means Hartman, who is draft eligible, can stay in Winston-Salem through the 2023 season, a certified disaster of a possibility for defenses since he threw for 300 yards on nine different occasions this year with 31 touchdowns.

"This is a very explosive offense," Hafley said, "and it starts, in my opinion, at quarterback. He runs the offense really well. It's a little bit different of an offense with their [run-pass option] and how guys really ride the back and sit in there until late. You have to be really disciplined, and [Hartman] is really well-trained. He sees it really well, which is good coaching, and the good play is a credit to him [personally]."

"He's a good passer," linebacker Isaiah Graham-Mobley said. "He's also a short guy, so we're going to try and get a lot of pressure in his face, get a lot of hands up to make his vision a little blurrier than usual. He also has a really small step back in the pocket, so he's a lot closer to the line of scrimmage than other quarterbacks. That hopefully means we can get a good rush."

Doug MacRay: I'm thinking about making a change.
Stephen MacRay: "Making a change." Either you got heat or you don't.

The RPO mentioned by Hafley is particularly dangerous because Wake Forest runs it with impeccable patience, and two years ago, Newman ran it to the tune of 243 yards passing and another 102 yards on the ground over a combined 56 different plays. He scored twice, and the interception he threw didn't hurt the Deacs' opportunity to finish the final piece of their 5-0 start to the season.

Newman exhibited supreme patience in that game that stemmed from his vision behind the line. When he ran RPO, he almost stepped into the line of scrimmage before pulling the ball back, and BC couldn't resist attacking the central point before Newman either ran outside or pulled back. It was the ultimate case of an eye violator's overpursuit, but with Hartman, it's even more difficult because he can subsequently use that vision to check down across his receiving options.

"He can throw the ball down the field, and he's got those big wideouts," Hafley said. "They have really explosive playmakers, and they're scoring more points in a game. What's interesting about them is their plus-9 in the turnover battle, which equates to winning. They have nine wins, and they're plus-9. They get more possessions that way, and you don't want to give this offense that many possessions by turning the ball over."

"[The RPO] is definitely a challenge," Graham-Mobley agreed, "especially for linebackers who have to fill gaps and get downhill to make plays in the backfield. He stands close to the line, so if we do happen to bite up, that's what we have to overemphasize - getting our hands up in the air and making sure we bat the ball down."

Hartman is effective at utilizing his offensive weapons, and they exist at every position. Running backs Christian Beal-Smith, Justice Ellison and Christian Turner are either at or near 100 carries for the season, and both Beal-Smith and Ellison average more than five yards per carry to Turner's four yards per carry. The former duo also has seven and six touchdowns, respectively, with Turner scoring four. Hartman, meanwhile, has nine scoring touchdowns on the ground to give him 40 overall scores on the season.

Outside in the receiving unit, Both A.T. Perry and Jaquarii Robinson will have 1,000-yard seasons when the year is over, and both have caught at least 50 passes over the first 11 games. They have a combined 19 touchdowns with Perry holding the lion's share at 11, but Robinson holds more receptions with a season-best 57 catches. The remaining three receivers are sprinkled among them with at least 20 catches, and Taylor Morin is a dangerous threat with 33 receptions for 953 yards.

Doug MacRay: In the cash room. Arnold Washton! You live at 311 Hazer Street in Quincy with a wife named Linda and three small dogs. Do not make a distress call. Also in the cash room, Morton Previt. You live at 27 Counting Lane, Randolph. Wife also Linda! Morton, the Lindas want you to open this door.

There's no secret to how Wake Forest wound up in a position to win the Atlantic Division. The Demon Deacons have one of the best offenses in the country and combined it, at least early in the season, with a smothering defense that held four straight opponents, including Florida State and Virginia, to less than 20 points. They opened the year with eight straight wins, but after Louisville broke the dam with 34 points in a 37-34 loss in Winston-Salem, teams have been scoring - frequently - on the Wake defense.

Syracuse scored 37 points in an overtime loss, and Army only lost by two touchdowns to a Wake Forest team that scored 70 points in the week before Halloween. Duke was summarily pummeled, 45-7, but over the last three weeks, opposing teams are averaging 49 points against a team that only allowed 57 points in its first four games. After last week's loss to Clemson, Wake finally started averaging 30 points allowed per game, a number that was unthinkable in September.

None of the recent numbers are an accurate illustration of the defense, but it does offer a window into how BC can compete with a team with an electric offense. The Eagles' defense, after all, is averaging a full 10 points less per game than the Demon Deacons, and both Traveon Redd and Brandon Sebastian represent their respective teams near the top of the conference with three interceptions apiece.

"They play four-down [linemen]," Jeff Hafley said. "They play a lot of middle-close, three-deep man, and they'll mix in some cover-2 and man pressures. I usually watch the defensive backs, and they go after the ball like we do, which I respect as good coaching and good playing."

"We have to be ready for anything," quarterback Phil Jurkovec said. "Offensively, our job is to score every time we touch the ball."

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Countdown to Kickoff

10...BC is an even 5-5 in its last 10 season finales. Conversely, Wake Forest is 1-9 with its lone win coming from 2018's bowl-clinching win over Duke.
9…When he threw his 30th touchdown, Sam Hartman made Wake Forest the ninth ACC school to have a quarterback throw that many in a single season. He also stepped one touchdown ahead of John Wolford's 2017 campaign in Winston-Salem.
8…Sam Hartman needs just under 470 yards over the remainder of the season to become either the ninth or tenth quarterback in ACC history with a 4,000-yard season. Virginia's Brennan became the eighth earlier this season, and Kenny Pickett entered this week with 3,857 yards for Pitt. Hartman is approximately 300 yards ahead of NC State's Devin Leary. The record for ACC single season passing yards is 4,593, set by Clemson's Deshaun Watson.
7…Seven different Demon Deacons have at least one interception this year with only two (Traveon Redd and Caelen Carson) recording multiple picks of opposing quarterbacks
6…Five ACC teams enter this week with six wins, including BC, while three additional teams enter this weekend with five wins.
5…Sam Hartman enters this week five touchdowns behind Kenny Pickett for the league lead this year, though the duo are among the four quarterbacks with 30 touchdowns this season, which is an ACC record. Joining them are NC State's Devin Leary and Virginia's Brennan Armstrong.
4…Wake Forest is one of four ACC teams that BC has a winning overall record against, with the Eagles leading the all-time series, 14-11-2. Since joining the ACC, BC is 9-6 against the Deacs.
3…While 17 of the 27 all-time matchups between Wake and BC have been decided by one score or less, an astounding NINE games have been determined by three points or less, including three of the last five games dating back to 2015.
2…Wake has only had two consecutive winning streaks against the Eagles all-time, having beaten them in back-to-back years in 1946 and 1947; and in 2011 and 2012. The teams didn't play last year, but the Deacs won their 2019 meeting, 27-24.
1…Wake Forest is the last remaining ACC team that Jeff Hafley has never coached against, including the one-off year where Notre Dame was a member of the conference.

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Boston College-Wake Forest X Factor

Senior Day

The confluence of events on Saturday underscore the importance of the game, as well the impact of a win for either team in the context of the national college football picture, but it's also Senior Day and the last time many of the Boston College seniors will ever run out of the tunnel at Alumni Stadium.

Senior Day is emotional through the lens of the players and coaches, but it's even more of a moment for the parents and families who spent years piling into cars and trucks to drive all over the country for their sons and brothers. All of those weekend mornings spent on the gridirons in the middle of nowhere all brought them to this moment on Saturday, and as I get older, I'm starting to really appreciate the sacrifices that bring them to that moment. It's not easy, and the recognition is as much about them as it is about the players and coaches who ushered the program through its most unique two-season stretch in BC history.

There will be hugs and tears, and there's no reason to hold them back. The morning coffees bought with donuts both before and after the Pop Warner games, and the youth football practices that cost vacation time and getaways were worth it. The high school games on Friday night and Saturday morning, and the family dinners and holidays that didn't happen because of games in some other town or stadium were equally valuable. The college games on national television and the moments where the parents couldn't hug their kids because of COVID protocols make Saturday even more valuable.

A football game on national television with national implications will kick off, but for a few moments, savor the minutes on the field. The vast majority of college football players go pro in something other than football, but for those final seconds, the journey and everything that went with it is yours to enjoy.

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ACC Postseason Picture, Boston College Edition

After losing four straight games, the two game winning streak over Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech qualified Boston College for a bowl game, and it further opened a host of possibilities entering the Florida State game. The most optimistic scenario saw eight wins overall, a four-game winning streak to end the season and four wins in the conference, including one over the potential division champion. Under those circumstances and given where Louisville and the Coastal Division teams were placed, the Eagles would essentially become the fourth-best team in the selection process.

The loss to FSU changed the dynamics around that by dropping the Eagles into last place among ACC bowl eligible teams. That hypothetically would send them to either the Gasparilla Bowl, the First Responder Bowl, or the Birmingham Bowl, all three of which are considered the league's "Secondary Bowls." Given that BC was at the Birmingham Bowl in 2019 and the ~~First Responder Bowl in 2018,~~ the Eagles hypothetically project to the Gasparilla Bowl in Tampa, Florida based solely on overall standings.

The ACC bowl structure, though, offers flexibility based upon matchup and geographical proximity, and sending Miami (or Florida State, if the Seminoles win this week) to Boston while sending Boston College to Florida wouldn't make much sense. So there's a discussion piece that would send BC to a place like the Fenway Bowl to play the AAC, a league with a strong presence throughout the East Coast.

The thing to remember is that nobody really knows where the Eagles will wind up. Those of us who remember the 2018 season can easily recall how BC was projected to the Sun Bowl because it couldn't repeat its appearance at the Pinstripe Bowl or the Quick Lane Bowl. The Eagles were too good of a team to send to a bowl from the secondary tier, and they didn't make sense for any of the other games. As a result, ESPN and the conference worked with the Mountain West Conference to send both BC and Boise State to the First Responder Bowl, a game with contractual tie-ins to the Big Ten and Conference-USA.

All of this is dependent on what happens with BC's game on Saturday as well as the other conference games on the slate. The Eagles can still finish 7-5, and that conceivably could rank better than as many as seven other potential bowl eligible teams' overall records. They could also finish 6-6 and place lower than as many as a dozen bowl teams. This puts everything on the table, the results of which will send BC anywhere from San Diego to El Paso to Tampa Bay to its own backyard in Boston.

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ACC Postseason Picture, Wake Forest Edition

Figuring out bowl positioning is a confusing process, but at least BC knows it will land in a postseason game based on the ACC selection. The all-important extra practices aren't dependent on anything else, and the weekend, at its heart, is one last round for the Eagles to play a football game against a league opponent.

It's much more stressful for Wake Forest, which can clinch the Atlantic Division if it beats BC. It's that simple for the Demon Deacons, who were predicted to finish fifth in the division in the preseason ratings, but it's also their last shot at a New Year's Six game for this year after Clemson beat them, 48-27, to draw even with them in the win column heading into this week.

Wake Forest clinches with the win, but the Deacs no longer own the tiebreaker scenario over either Clemson or NC State. That means that if they lose on Saturday, their chance at the ACC Championship is over. They would fall into a two-way tie with Clemson, which own the head-to-head tiebreaker, or would lose out in a secondary tiebreaker scenario to both Clemson and NC State if the Wolfpack beat North Carolina in their season and conference finale.

This is where things get even more dicey. If Wake loses and NC State wins, the Deacons are eliminated based on their division record, which would have two losses in the Atlantic to the one suffered by Clemson (to NC State) and NC State (to Wake Forest). That means that despite owning a head-to-head tiebreaker over the Wolfpack, the Deacons would still fail to advance to next week's game against Pittsburgh, and NC State, by virtue of its head-to-head win over Clemson, would advance via the primary, two-way tiebreaker following Wake's elimination.

There is still the option that NC State loses to UNC, but in that scenario, the two-way tie between Wake Forest and Clemson would go to the Tigers. So to easily summarize, if Wake wins, it advances to the ACC Championship. If it loses and NC State loses, Clemson advances. If Wake loses and NC State wins, NC State advances.

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Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone

Thanksgiving is easily my favorite holiday. I love the food and warmth at the house during the day, and everyone in my family tends to show up for dinner in a good, relaxed mood. Last year's dinner will always give me pause because it was my first celebration without my parents present, but even seeing them through Zoom was a good way to compensate for the world we were living in, especially since my wife was pregnant at the time.

We're getting the family back together for dinner this year, and I'm especially grateful that our table has an extra place setting for our seven-month daughter. She's old enough to recognize friendly faces while maintaining that cute baby phase, and sitting around the table while feeding her and listening to her babble is something I honestly didn't think was possible at times during the last 18 months.

It's a special, raw moment I'm going to relish as a new #girldad, and I encourage everyone to take a few minutes to allow a similar perspective to settle in. With everything we've been through over the last year, sitting down to dinner with the ones you love is one of the most underrated things we can do. If you're alone for the holiday, I hope you enjoy some relaxation. If you have to work, I hope you find time either before or after the weekend to reward yourself.

I wish you all the happiest and healthiest Thanksgiving. May your table and lives welcome the warmest cheer and biggest smiles as you celebrate your moments.

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Pregame Quote and Prediction

I used to pray for times like this, to rhyme like this, so I had to grind like that to shine like this. -Meek Mill, "Dreams and Nightmares"

I thought long and hard about the potential to play spoiler for Wake Forest this week, and I came to a couple of different conclusions. On one hand, I wish BC was on the other end, and I know the coaches and players feel even more strongly about that sentiment. Anyone who gets into the game wants to be the team playing for a championship, and any comment to the contrary is simply untrue. Jeff Hafley reiterated again this week how players and coaches don't need more motivation to prepare for a game day, and I believe that's the right attitude.

On the other hand, the off-field perspective outside of the Fish Field House feels, well, different to anyone who remembers the feeling of watching Syracuse beat Boston College in 2004. There's a healthy respect for Wake Forest, but those of us who watched BC lose to Florida State in 2007 know all too well how others feel when they knock a top team from the pedestal.

BC could have its turn to knock a team out of a championship race on Saturday. Clemson postponed the party in Winston-Salem last week when it beat Wake Forest, and there are unquestionably folks rooting for the Eagles to give their team a chance to get past the Demon Deacons. There's simply no way to deny that as a contextual fact for this game.

But it's still Senior Day and Thanksgiving, and either way, the 2021 season will end on Saturday. At the end of the day, that's the most important fact. Let's kick it off one more time, and thank you to everyone for both tuning in this year and for following what's been an incredible journey and ride.

Boston College and No. 21 Wake Forest will kick off on Saturday at 12 p.m. from Alumni Stadium in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. The game can be seen on national television via ESPN2 with online streaming available on the ESPN platforms for cable subscribers with access to the channel. The game can also be heard via the Boston College Sports Network from Learfield, locally in Boston on WEEI 93.7 FM with satellite broadcast on Sirius channel 119, XM channel 202 and Online channel 965.

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Players Mentioned

Isaiah Graham-Mobley

Phil Jurkovec

Brandon Sebastian