The Tailgate: Louisville

The concepts surrounding the modern college football game underwent a transformation during the 1980s. Newer technologies became more readily available, and the advent of cable television made specialized programming easier to consume. The popularity of previously-untouched sectors of American life exploded, and the economic awakening in the country gave rise to a more open society where people spent their money on fast-developing goods and services.

College football was right in the middle of the revolution after selected schools successfully sued the NCAA over its broadcast plan for the sport. By the middle part of the decade, the forced decentralization allowed conferences and schools to sign their own media rights contracts, and the impact on every sector in the United States became obvious as the localized college teams gained more exposure and popularity.

In Massachusetts, Boston College wasn't the archetypal prototype for a Division I power program. The Eagles were well recognized, but New England revolved around the Ivy League and the persistent Harvard success stories that existed prior to the 1980s. Five separate teams won league championships during the previous two decades, and the Crimson's 1968 comeback to "defeat" Yale, 29-29, was front page material.

BC wasn't an afterthought, but the school was a more localized, Jesuit institution. Its rivalry against Holy Cross and triad matchup against UMass permeated through the local football scene, but the lack of available air time meant Joe Yukica's nine-win Eagles would only play the Crusaders in front of 22,000 fans at the newly-opened Schaefer Stadium in Foxboro while Harvard beat Yale before more than double that attendance in Connecticut.

All of that started to change in the 1980s as BC hit on the perfect set of circumstances. It had hired Maine's Jack Bicknell prior to the 1981 season, and the new head coach stumbled into a situation that year where he played freshman quarterback Doug Flutie after losing his first two quarterbacks during a 38-7 loss to second-ranked Penn State. Flutie, a Natick native, was pressed into starting duties the next week against Navy, and after losing to the Midshipmen, BC rattled off wins over Army, UMass, Rutgers and Holy Cross while throwing a scare into Pittsburgh, another second-ranked team, to finish 5-6.

It put BC on the map for the first time since it played for the national championship in 1940, and the next year threw the Eagles into the national conversation after they tied Clemson, 17-17. A 3-0-1 start pushed BC into the national polls, and behind Flutie, the Eagles lost only two regular season games, though both were to nationally-ranked powers.

At 8-2-1, BC earned an invitation to the Tangerine Bowl and played a postseason game for the first time in 40 years. It lost by a touchdown to Bo Jackson's Auburn Tigers, but the unmistakable legacy played out over the next two years as the Eagles came into a clearer national focus. With Flutie at the helm and in the midst of a growing media revolution, Boston College, in the span of two years, outgrew the vaunted Ivy League rivalry and never looked back.

BC will honor the 40th anniversary of the 1982 team on Saturday during its Family Weekend game against Louisville, while simultaneously honoring the 30th anniversary of the 1992 team that went 8-3-1 and was ranked as high as ninth under head coach Tom Coughlin. The game itself will be televised on a channel dedicated to the 24-hour coverage of the Atlantic Coast Conference, the national league that BC joined in 2005 after moving out of independence and into the Big East. Both are key reminders of the struggles that existed over the years, and each serve an important reminder that building a championship-caliber program is a piece of a road that's linked to different eras and a shared history of playing for Boston.

Here's what to watch for on Saturday against the Cardinals:

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Game Storylines (Jack Harlow Edition)

I can see the whole city from this balcony.
Back in 2019, I was outside freely,
But now they got it out for me.
-First Class

Last week's game against Florida State was anything but fun for all things Boston College, but the loss had an impact on the way experts recalibrated their look at the ACC Atlantic Division from earlier in the preseason. The polls and votes had initially placed the Eagles sixth, but the herky-jerky nature of voters gave BC a first place vote and enough points to challenge FSU and Louisville for fifth or fourth. After the loss to the Seminoles, the bandwagon seemingly imploded, and even the Football Power Index over at ESPN dropped expectations to the degree that it expects BC to miss a bowl game.

Blocking out that noise is part of the college football experience in an era that's connected to more advanced statistics and breakdowns. The season is legitimately only two furlongs over, and while there are plenty of things to fix, the prediction game is just as difficult now as it was two months ago when teams arrived on campuses for the first days of training camp.

"Everyone's going to have their opinion on what's going on," defensive lineman Marcus Valdez said. "At the end of the day, it's the people in the building that matter. We watch the tape. We know what we're supposed to do. You have to try to block it out. It's hard sometimes, but you have to block it out and focus on what the problem is and get it fixed."

BC hasn't been successful against FBS opponents this year, but sometimes it just takes a break somewhere along the line to click a team into high gear. Given the near misses and sudden false starts in some of these games, it stands to reason that the players, not the computers, can grab control of their fate.

And this one is for the champions,
I ain't lost since I began, yeah.
Funny how you said it was the end, yeah.
Then I went did it again, yeah
-Industry Baby (with Lil Nas X)

The Louisville defense is one of the more aggressive units in college football, but its game against Florida State exposed a potential weak spot against big, fast receivers after Johnny Wilson went for over 100 yards and a touchdown. Facing a BC offense that will require more than just its receivers on the outside, there exists a strong possibility that a tight end is in the central focus point, but it's more likely that a third receiver with size steps up for a big game.

Enter Joe Griffin, a true freshman out of Massachusetts who scored his first career touchdown in mop-up duty against the Seminoles. People at BC have been waiting for his breakout game, and after getting comfortable in the offense over the first few games, the Louisville game seems primed for someone like him to take over.

"He's a big man," said BC head coach Jeff Hafley. "He's going to get more confident as he really gets a good feel for everything. I think you're going to see more and more of him this year, both play-wise and him making plays down the field."

Massachusetts lacks the clout of other nationally-recognized states, but its best athletes are increasingly leaking into the landscapes of big time Division I college football, as well as the National Football League. Griffin was one of the highest-touted recruits in the state last year, and his size makes him an intriguing option opposite smaller, more agile receivers like Zay Flowers and Jaden Williams. He's more powerful based solely on his power, and as he gets more comfortable in the offense, he'll likely give BC an option to bully safeties over the top.

Sometimes when I sit back and really let it register,
I did everything I said I would, and said it first.
I mean the world's in denial, but they all know what I'm headed for.
-Churchill Downs (with Drake)

BC hasn't beaten Louisville on the road since 2017, but there are plenty of lessons learned from the Eagles' offensive breakout in that matchup. Just one week earlier, their 23-10 loss at home to a nationally-ranked Virginia Tech team dropped BC to 2-4 overall, and it was the nadir point for an offense that struggled to consistently score points in September before the 45-42 breakout at Cardinal Stadium.

In the weeks after that breakout, the Eagles played with a defiant burn to their game, and they won five of their next six games by essentially averaging 40 points per game. They beat Virginia, 41-10, before destroying Florida state with a 35-3 win, and the wins over UConn and Syracuse ended the season with 81 more points rolled into the season's cumulative total. Three of the six games prior to Louisville included single touchdowns and a 23-plus point average margin in four losses. The lone wins were over teams from the Mid-American Conference. By the end of the season, BC was in the Pinstripe Bowl and a touchdown away from beating Iowa at Yankee Stadium.

The point is simple: there's no reason to count BC out of anything yet. There's tons of football remaining, and to quote the great Happy Gilmore, "It ain't over yet, McGavin. The way I see it, we're just gettin' started."

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Question Box

Who spies on Malik Cunningham?

Cunningham's athleticism is part of a redefined quarterback position that didn't exist 20 years ago. More running is now a required piece of the equation, and traditional pocket passers don't exist to the extent that Peyton Manning, Ryan Leaf, Eli Manning, Tom Brady, and others perfected in the college game 20 years ago (and for those laughing at Leaf, he was the No. 2 overall pick in that 1998 draft for some really athletic reasons).

How Jeff Hafley and Tem Lukabu disguise their coverages against the Cardinals is going to be fun to watch. The defensive line has to force him into a phone booth by protecting the edge, but the linebackers have to hold the second level to avoid the explosive runs through the line. The secondary has to hold its coverages, and the safeties have to do virtually everything.

How does a dual-threat quarterback change a defense's approach?

Building off of that notion is where BC's defense struggled last year against dual threat quarterbacks, and it's safe to say the Eagles haven't totally faced a quarterback this year who can both run and throw. Rutgers was run-first and limited its throw game while Virginia Tech buried BC with stifling defense and an offense built around running backs and a more traditional passer. The lone win against Maine featured a dual threat quarterback who didn't quite have the toolbox of the FBS-level players, and FSU's Jordan Travis didn't run as much after suffering an injury against Louisville.

Cunningham historically eviscerated defenses with rugged, physical front fours, and BC enters Saturday with a litany of season-ending injuries on both sides of the ball. Defensive end Shitta Sillah was the latest, and while the Eagles have depth up front, this is the first time this combination of players will game plan and scheme to stop the best player for a profile that's given it fits in the past.

Can the gold shirts offer an Alumni Stadium throwback?

Some of my earliest memories at BC football games involved the sight of gold stretching from the north end zone, around the corner of the lower bowl, and straight over to the 50-yard line. From my youngest days at games, I saw what happened when students decided to take over an atmosphere with cheers and chants, and I was the 10-year old kid who wanted to join them in creating those waves and ripples of crazy fandom.

There were years when I doubted if the students could ever match those years, but this year's reinvigorated my spirit with the breath of a Boston College community that hasn't quit on this team. Cloaking them in gold for Family Weekend seems almost poetic in a sense, and joining them into the legacy created by the original Superfan shirts will unquestionably enhance the feeling at Alumni Stadium, where this team and its supporters remain in defiance of the early prognostications of doom.

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Meteorology 101

Hurricane Ian made landfall on Wednesday as a Category 4 storm, and it continued to churn through Central Florida as a Category 2 hurricane hours after it blasted through the areas south of Tampa Bay. By Friday morning, it was expected to blow back out to sea off the coast of Georgia before proceeding into the Carolinas on Saturday afternoon.

The remnants of the storm aren't expected to impact New England, but it's entirely possible that some of the leftover rain and gusty winds hit the Boston area on Saturday. I actually did a fair amount of reading on the topic this weekend, and while the South Coast of Massachusetts might get the rain, it looks like the high pressure swooping down from Canada is going to protect the Boston area from a direct washout. For those headed to Alumni Stadium, it looks like it wouldn't hurt to prepare for some rain, though the forecast likely will be clearer by the time kickoff rolls around.

Talking about football in the rain is absolutely nothing compared to what folks in Florida are going through, so I hope everyone can join me in sending well wishes to everyone impacted by Hurricane Ian. May your lives have made it through the storm with good health and with as much of your infrastructure as intact as possible.

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BC-Louisville X Factor

Sgt. Jurkovec's Lonely Tight Ends Hearts Band…or something like that.

Louisville likes to bring pressure into an opponent's backfield by playing cover-zero with its safeties and linebackers, but shooting the gaps leaves open space over the middle of the field for a quarterback willing to take some shots. Even given the issues BC faced with its offensive line in the early season, it feels like it could be a monster day for Jurkovec if he can get rid of the football quickly and succinctly to whichever receiver can get open to make plays against either man or zone coverages.

"I just want him to be himself," said Jeff Hafley, "and be confident and get [the ball] out quick when it's there. And if not, then do what you do. That's something that I think he has done in the past, and even this year better than any quarterback in the country, he keeps plays alive and keeps his eyes downfield. He's got the ability to run, too, so I think it's a combination. I just want him to be himself, be confident, and go play football."

Beating the Cardinals over the middle isn't always as simple as throwing slant routes to Zay Flowers, Jaelen Gill, or Jaden Williams, and Jurkovec might not have the time to wait for one of those receivers to get open downfield because a seven-man rush is going to create gaps beyond the simple holes between blockers along an offensive line. For that reason, finding a tight end that can release either out of the backfield or from the line of scrimmage can create six-yard or seven-yard receptions while getting those players out into open space for bigger gains.

South Florida didn't necessarily have success doing that, but Florida State's quarterbacks completed seven of their 19 completed passes to Johnny Wilson, a six-foot, seven-inch wide receiver who caught 22 balls in the two-plus years prior to playing against the Cardinals. Three of those receptions were explosive plays with a fourth catch representing a 10-yard touchdown that gave FSU a 28-24 lead in the fourth quarter.

Jurkovec has options at his disposal to make similar plays, including the six feet, four inches available on freshman Joe Griffin, and Spencer Witter's return to the lineup means the Eagles have at least two tight ends with Wilson-type size to fill out their 12 personnel groupings. If they get going, look out below.

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Around College Football

I like to joke that every team I ever say is "back" or "frisky" or "good" immediately loses, but I'm putting the Rubin Curse to a full test on Saturday when No. 23 Florida State plays No. 22 Wake Forest. The game is still on as scheduled following Hurricane Ian's arrival in Florida, and the Seminoles are favored over the defending Atlantic Division champions after returning to the national polls and despite Sam Hartman's Heisman-like performance in last week's loss to Clemson. All of those signs, I'm reasoning, point to an FSU victory, which is exactly why the Deacs probably roll out a 35-0 victory this week.

Elsewhere, Virginia Tech is at North Carolina in a Coastal Division battle that rarely disappoints, and Virginia is under the lights at Duke directly opposite Georgia Tech's visit to No. 24 Pittsburgh.

All eyes in the ACC, though, are on Clemson, where the No. 5 Tigers are hosting No. 10 NC State on national television at 7:30 p.m.

In the SEC, No. 14 Ole Miss is hosting No. 7 Kentucky in a noon game between two unbeaten teams, and No. 2 Alabama is at No. 20 Arkansas in a matchup that doesn't feel as certain as everyone usually believes about the Crimson Tide. Later on, No. 1 Georgia heads to Missouri while LS plays at Auburn, and in the Big Ten, a few sneaky big games exist between No. 3 Ohio State and a 3-1 Rutgers team that lost at home to Iowa, and the Hawkeyes host No. 4 Michigan to kick things off at noon.

Anyone willing to stay up late with me on Saturday gets a real treat in the Pac-12 when No. 13 Oregon hosts Stanford, and No. 6 USC - the best team we're probably not watching on the east coast - is at home against Arizona State.

Outside the power conferences, Navy is at Air Force in the first leg of the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy. Navy lost, 40-7, in its last trip to Falcon Stadium, which is situated at an elevation of more than 6,600 feet, and the winner of this game essentially has a chance to clinch the CIC Trophy in its respective game against Army. For Air Force, that's November 5 in a game being held at AT&T Stadium in Texas, while the 123rd Army-Navy Game is an annual tradition in December in Philadelphia.

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Dan's Non-Sports Observation of the Week

I am admittedly a huge fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Our first daughter was born last April, and my wife and I made the conscious decision to sleep the baby in the living room with one of us on the couch while the other slept in bed for 5 or 6 hours. We changed shifts around 4 a.m., which ensured one of us did an overnight bottle when we were doing a bottle every three hours, and I got in the habit of watching one movie per day in the hours between the feeding and whatever time my wife woke up.

I started with the first Iron Man movie in Phase I and worked my way through the entire Infinity War saga by watching each of the 21 movies available to me, and I fell in love with the storyline from start to finish. I was never a huge comic book guy outside of the X-Men, but there was something ritualistic about watching another movie every morning. By the time I finished, we were past the stage where the baby wouldn't sleep through the night, and it coincided with my paternity leave's last couple of weeks.

Our second child has been a running storyline throughout this year for me, but I started anticipating late nights and early mornings this fall by stowing MCU shows and movies back after Hawkeye and Eternals ended. It won't work out as cleanly as last year because we know the first child will wake up every day around sunrise, but I'm personally looking forward to some overnight hours with the Marvels, Dr. Strange, Thor, and anyone else who wants to join me…when I'm not getting caught up on some of my Boston College football items, of course.

One last thing. You're really missing out if you haven't watched those movies because they're really well-done. The callbacks and links between the different movies make you feel like you're a part of an inside story or joke, and the characters are really well done. At the end of the day, given everything that exists in the world, it's good, old-fashioned fun, and it's a great way to kill a couple of hours. 10/10. Strongly recommend it.

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Pregame Quote and Prediction

Football is two things. It's blocking and tackling. I don't care about formations or new offenses or tricks on defense. You block and tackle better than the team you're playing, you win. -Vince Lombardi

Quoting Tom Landry didn't work last week, so I guess I'm calling on a higher power this week.

Look, I don't think Boston College is as bad as its 1-3 record would indicate. I think there was genuine progress made against Maine, but I think the start against Florida State knocked the Eagles enough off-kilter to send the game into a tailspin. It shocked them into playing with poor fundamentals, and they simply couldn't recover from the kickoff return or the early interception that turned the opening coin flip into a 14-0 deficit before anyone bought their first pretzel or Diet Coke.

Watching BC play with confidence would be a huge indicator of this team's potential moving forward, and I think it can occur against Louisville. Malik Cunningham is a dynamic player, but BC's defense is very well-suited to contain him. The Louisville defense is nasty, but it leaves holes for smart teams to attack. Both of those are contingent on good blocking and sound fundamentals in tackling.

It sounds simple enough, but after falling out of sync against Virginia Tech and FSU, it sure would be nice to kick off Clemson week with BC restoring the basic mojo of a hard-nosed team feared by the rest of the ACC for its ability to not beat itself.

Boston College and Louisville kick off on Saturday at 12 p.m. from Alumni Stadium in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. The game can be seen on national television via the ACC Network with streaming available through ESPN's online platform. Radio broadcast is also available through the Boston College Sports Network from Learfield, which is on local radio in Boston via WEEI 850 AM with satellite options on SiriusXM channel 113 and SiriusXM App channel 955 .

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Players Mentioned

Zay Flowers

Jaelen Gill

Shitta Sillah

Marcus Valdez

Jaden Williams

Spencer Witter