Boston College Athletics
November 10, 2023 | Football, #ForBoston Files
There's a real energy surrounding BC in these parts.
Boston College football is building momentum beyond campus and it is showing as the buzz has begun to extend beyond the Heights and social media into the public conscience throughout Boston, the North Shore, South Shore, Metrowest and points beyond.
Last weekend was a nightmarish time in the Rubin household.
Any alteration to our sleep routine in the house is cause for commotion and chaos, but pushing the hour back set a tone for the rest of the week for two children under three years old who legitimately don't understand how to stay in bed for a little extra time. Sunday was a complete mess because everyone was out of sorts, but that didn't stop the full family from venturing to the supermarket for our weekly food shop.
The trip itself descended into hell's inner sanctum as we dragged two kids around a store without buying every treat their hearts desired, but one thing that stuck with me beyond chasing a toddler around bananas and broccoli: the number of people who commented on my Boston College sweatshirt. On more than one occasion, a handful of people stopped me to mention the football team's recent success, and a couple of others asked me if I watched the men's hockey wins over UMass-Lowell.
My wife noted the energy and commented about the number of people, and it blew some wind in our sails as we recapped Friday night in the car ride home. It continued into a conversation about Monday's basketball matchup against Fairfield, but I wasn't prepared for what happened in Conte Forum when Thomas Castellanos' appearance on the video board touched off a raucous cheer from the fan base enjoying the Eagles' first hardwood win. Almost immediately, a couple of fans came over to ask him for a picture, and a few more snapped photos and asked him for autographs when he stood up to exit the building.
I honestly couldn't remember the last time that happened, but it was pretty infectious to experience. It probably didn't hurt that BC's win over Syracuse gave fans an extra day to revel in the team's success before the basketball team destroyed Fairfield, but the sheer magnitude surrounding the team was all-encompassing ahead of this Saturday's game against Virginia Tech.
"Our students have been great," said head coach Jeff Hafley. "I saw a bunch of them at the basketball game, and I stopped by on my way out of here the other night. They were all fired up. I'm excited to see what they can bring to this game. I know it's a noon game, but people have to get up early. This is a big game. We're 6-3 going into November, and this is a meaningful game for a lot of reasons, not just to continue the winning streak, but [because] there are other things at stake."
A rising tide lifts every ship, and the Hokies enter Alumni Stadium with a rabid fan base renewed in its dedication to a team that's earned their respect. The chance to play for a conference championship is still alive, but the magnetism of a winning football team is shifting towards Chestnut Hill. The people who stuck with the team are being rewarded, and as the ones who sold on the 1-3 start are finding redemption, their combined efforts are part of a very different Path that's turned Boston College, once again, into a big time college football market.
"I urge the students to get up early," Hafley said. "As soon as the lots open, [start] tailgating and when our team walks down those steps, be there and be loud and make this a real home field advantage. Let's see if we can fill this place up and make it hard for Virginia Tech to hear."
Here's what to watch for as we attempt to answer what exactly the Hokiebird is:
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Game Storylines (Dave Grohl Edition)
When there's so much left to do, why spend your time focusing on the things you've already done, counting trophies or telling stories about the good old days?
I grew up listening to the Foo Fighters as an irreverent alt-rock, grunge-style band that increasingly spoke to me with lighthearted music videos and an all-around goofy appearance. Grohl was excellent at establishing himself as the frontman who took life just seriously enough to know he was enjoying himself, and my entire generation essentially grew up with similar adversity to his whole career path. Listening to his music and the development of the band's depth really struck me as I got older, and seeing them live at Fenway Park lit a connection between the band and its fans that hooked and broadened both sides' understanding of the music. I have no problem admitting that Taylor Hawkins' death left an imprint on my music-listening soul, but watching Dave Grohl soldier forward with the rest of the band made me proud to call myself a fan of their music.
It's a really short line, then, to draw Boston College to Dave Grohl and Foo Fighters' music because the team's maturation continues to seek new ways to grow. Its sound is embedded in the fabric of the 2023 season, but the Eagles unveil new wrinkles on a weekly basis. New formations, new heroes, new starters…all of it seems planned, even if there are elements of improvisation behind it.
"The same thing that I kept hearing [about] was the consistency," said Jeff Hafley. "Whether it's for me, whether it's for the staff, I think it's the belief that I had in them and the belief they had in me and the belief they had in each other. We knew we were a good team, and we knew we kind of stumbled out [while] trying to find out identity. It took a little longer than we would have liked, but we knew we had a good team, we knew we had depth, we knew we had guys that liked each other, we knew we had a strong culture, and we were tested early."
It feels like BC internally challenges itself to continue flourishing without worrying about the opponent on the other side of the ball, but the ongoing growth is actually harnessing the game plan within a scheme designed to defeat whichever team is playing in whichever conditions. Simply put, the Eagles are built to win every type of game, and they're enjoying the ride without looking back at what happened at the start of the year.
I think people should feel encouraged to be themselves.
Virginia Tech went out and revamped its offense in the offseason by recruiting the transfer portal for quarterback Kyron Drones and running back Bhayshul Tuten, but like BC, the offense didn't start gelling until both started to find traction in the middle part of the season. Once they were installed in the backfield together, the tandem approach between the quarterback and his top running back created more production, and the modest growth moved the Hokies up to 85th in the nation with an average of 50 more yards per game.
"[Drones] is a dynamic player," said Jeff Hafley. "He's huge. He looks huge on tape. He's a bigger guy with good height, and he's got a really, really strong arm. They really try to stretch it vertically, and he loves to throw the ball down the field. Then whether it's on a scramble or on a design run, he loves to get vertical. He's fast, and he eats a lot of grass. He's given everybody trouble, whether it's through the air or running the ball."
Drones has gained at least 40 yards rushing in every start since the Rutgers game with the exception of last week's game against Louisville, but adding him to Tuten broke the running back for 100-yard games against both Pittsburgh and Syracuse. Like BC's running game, he might not touch the ball as often because of the quarterback run and the inherent clock-control offense, but Tuten's 4.4 yards per rush average is right in line with how his 1,363-yard season at North Carolina A&T is translating to the power conference football game.
All I really had was my suitcase and my drums. So I took them up to Seattle and hoped it would work.
Thomas Castellanos is, by now, an entrenched piece of the college football fabric. He leads the country in quarterback rushing yards and is tied with USC's Caleb Williams for most touchdowns by a quarterback, and he places near or inside the top-30 as a runner ranked among the remainder of tailbacks and backfield options. He's on pace to throw for 2,500 yards in a season in which he didn't start the first game and didn't throw more than nine passes in a separate monsoon game played at West Point, and his numbers are likely going to move into a line alongside Doug Flutie's 1982 and 1983 seasons and Paul Peterson's 2,500-yard year from the last year of Big East play in 2004.
BC is his team, but the Eagles morphed into their quarterback's entire mindset because they bought into his vision for how the offense could perform. Jeff Hafley had a vision for the team's overall performance, but the way Castellanos force-fed that vision into the huddle transformed a scheme that retooled and rebuilt itself on the fly. He believed in the team and what it sold when he transferred, but with the five-game winning streak on the line this week, he now undeniably has a team that believes in him every step of the way.
"We're never worried about whether we let up a touchdown," defensive lineman Neto Okpala said. "We know the offense is going to score because we have a lot of trust in them. We also want to back them up so if they keep on scoring, we want to stop the opposing offense from scoring so we can back them up."
Holding that trust on both sides of the ball has BC averaging a touchdown advantage over opponents in the fourth quarter, to which the cumulative totals have the Eagles outsourcing teams by a 79-34 margin. Going plus-45 in that last frame is nearly ten points more than the opponents' plus-margin in the first three quarters, which to a degree is an alarm bell for needing to play better earlier while simultaneously leading BC to understand how games are never, ever over.
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Question Box
How much stock does anyone put in last week's loss to Louisville?
The Cardinals torched Virginia Tech last week to snap the Hokies' 3-1 winning streak over their previous four games, and virtually nobody had a productive day beyond Bhayshul Tuten's 5.2 yards per carry average on 11 touches. Kyron Drones went 12-for-21 for 69 yards and an interception, and Jack Plummer barely broke a sweat while Isaac Guerendo ran for 136 yards and three scores.
I don't put a ton of stock into the loss because it's hard to understand why a team gets blown out. It could've been a bad day at the office where nobody executed, but it doesn't mean the game plan was shoddy or the team didn't practice hard. They could've just had everything wrong against an opponent who pressed every correct button. We'll never actually know.
What I do know is that Virginia Tech is the team that lost to the two highest-ranked opponents in the ACC and the team that beat three teams with a combined 2-14 conference record. To me, that indicates that the Hokies are probably somewhere in the middle of the league. At 3-2, a win over BC would put them upper-middle, but a loss drops them down into the lower-middle tier where a team like Clemson currently resides with four losses. They are, in a phrase, exactly what their record says they are, and this is a sneaky-big game for them to get back into the premium bowl race.
How much stock does anyone put in BC's Path after the wins over UConn and Syracuse?
BC is a team with a direct path to the ACC Championship Game if it wins out and gets a little help from some friends across the conference scene, but the wins over UConn and Syracuse add a little spice for detractors who quickly point out how the five-game winning streak came with wins over two of the bottom three teams in the standings and two non-conference wins against independents with a combined four wins. UConn was blown out by Tennessee last week by a 59-3 margin, and Army's shutout loss to Troy preceded LSU's 62-0 win in Baton Rouge and a 21-14 loss to a two-win UMass team. The win over Air Force helped, but there's still room for BC's resume to improve with a win over Virginia Tech.
Context is crucial here because the Eagles openly discuss "The Path." Georgia Tech is a quality win, but BC needs to beat Virginia Tech to separate itself from the aforementioned lower-middle of the league. Going to 4-2 in league play matches with the third place Yellow Jackets and teams like North Carolina in the wake of Louisville's one-loss, top-10 start, where a loss drops the Eagles back into the peloton with Miami and NC State, just ahead of Clemson, and behind - yep, you guessed it - Virginia Tech.
Hit me with your turkey recipes.
It's November, so it's time to start firing up Thanksgiving talk. Dark meat turkey all the way. Stuffing. Mashed potatoes. Squash for some color on the plate. And gravy on everything. I'm talking about an absurd amount of gravy. It goes with everything.
This will be discussed later this month.
*****
Meteorology 101
Hitting November finally delivered the strange time of year when gusty winds and downpouring rains inundated yards and roads with stripped trees and falling leaves. Some nasty weather over the past week or so was enough to bring those pretty fall colors onto the grassy fields around the region, to which rakes and leaf blowers became the soundtrack of too many weekend afternoons.
That brand of weather continued in spurts this week, and Thursday afternoon in particular kept the roads slick and wet through Friday's breezy humidity. The nights were chillier than the daytime experience, but we're all going to awaken on Saturday to a seasonably cold day with temperatures in the high 30s. It will warm up enough to hit the high-40s by kickoff, but the earlier sunset unquestionably means dropping conditions as the game gets closer to its closing minutes.
Locals know how November isn't for the faint of heart in New England, but the penultimate home game at Alumni Stadium should allow for people to break out the blankets they've kept in storage for the past few months.
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BC-Virginia Tech X Factor
Boston College Secondary
I'd love to sit back and break down the analysis around the BC's secondary facing a dual-threat, big quarterback, but I don't need to go down that road when memories against the Virginia Tech offense, in particular, remain fresh. The Hokies always seem to have a big, powerful quarterback with a huge arm and the ability to crush opposing defenses. That quarterback always seemed to have a career day against Boston College.Â
It's up to BC to prevent the next Hendon Hooker, Ryan Willis, Josh Jackson, Jerod Evans, Michael Brewer, or anyone else from having that type of game against this defense.
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The Path, Explained
The ACC realigned its league into a single division this year with the conference championship moving to a format where the top two teams qualify for the December 2 trip to Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina. As of this week, No. 4 Florida State is 7-0 in league play and one game away from clinching its trip to the conference championship game, and while it mathematically could clinch a spot with a loss and head-to-head tiebreaker wins over Duke, BC and Virginia Tech, not playing North Carolina or Georgia Tech means the primary scenario requires them to beat Miami this week to clinch a spot.
Everything under the Seminoles is where things start to get dicey if Louisville loses a second game. The easiest scenario, of course, is where the Cardinals win two more games and get into the game against FSU as a one-loss opponent, but head-to-head tiebreakers against Georgia Tech, BC, NC State, Duke and Virginia Tech requires them to fall into a tie with the wrong teams in a two-loss or three-loss situation because the primary tiebreaker for three-or-more team-ties is the combined head-to-head winning percentage among the tied teams. Because Louisville beat everyone, the only team that can help the Eagles is then UNC, which plays Duke on Saturday.
The Tar Heels would be a certified bombshell for BC because they lost to Virginia and Georgia Tech but don't play the Eagles or the Cardinals. That means they would move to a secondary tiebreaker scenario where the tied team that defeated the other tied teams is used, after which the third tiebreaker is win percentage against all common opponents. In the event that BC winds up tied in any capacity with UNC, the undefeated record (assuming BC wins out) against Pitt, Syracuse, Miami, Virginia and Georgia Tech sends the Eagles to the ACC Championship.
All of this is written out of existence if the Cardinals don't lose enough games to send BC and UNC through to a tiebreaker scenario, but beyond the conference championship, remember that bowl positioning and a premier bowl is at stake for teams with better records and finishes. Beyond the typical Fenway Bowl or Pinstripe Bowl prediction, the Eagles have a chance to qualify for the Holiday Bowl or another top-echelon game in a nationally-desirable spot.
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Other College Football Newsy-Type Things
I'm going to start with Army's win over Air Force last week because it really threw a monkey wrench into the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy series. Air Force had already beaten Navy, 17-6, but the 23-3 loss to the Black Knights means the trophy gets decided in the annual Army-Navy Game on December 9. Army, of course, can win the trophy with a win, but a Navy win would send it back to Air Force since shared finishes allow the reigning champion to retain the trophy. Add that to the wrinkles of the walk-on ceremony happening at Gillette Stadium this year.
Elsewhere in college football, all four College Football Playoff teams defend their spots against conference opponents this week. No. 3 Michigan is first with a noon start at No. 10 Penn State, and No. 4 Florida State hosts Miami at 3:30 p.m. Later at night, No. 2 Georgia hosts No. 9 Ole Miss opposite No. 1 Ohio State's game against Michigan State.
Other rivalry-based games are on the docket as well, and it'll be interesting to see what happens when No. 7 Texas visits TCU for the final time as a Big 12 opponent. Florida is at No. 19 LSU in a game that still reminds me of those battles from the 2000s, and USC is at No. 6 Oregon in the late hour.
Those of us willing to stay up late can watch Air Force try to redeem its loss in Hawaii at 11 p.m.
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Dan's Non-Football Observation of the Week
I have a noticeable weakness in my diet when it comes to sweet things. I'm a sucker for a good, home-baked cookie or a big bowl of ice cream, and I am fully aware of how even typing that out makes me look like a glutton. Food in general is a fun topic on For The Podcast on a weekly basis, and I'll always engage anyone who wants to debate if canned soda is better than a traditional fountain soda (it's not).
I'm getting a little bit older these days, so I have to admit that I just can't sit down and eat everything in the freezer anymore. I can't pound back food like I was 22 years old anymore, and I'm asking for a world of heartburn and pain if I even attempt to eat salty foods or heavy dairy with any type of regularity.
Naturally, none of this stopped me from dominating two half gallons of ice cream over a two-hour span on Sunday that whole incident involving Daylight Savings Time. I was a fractured, broken human being, and the stress of dealing with the chaos and anarchy of two cranky children limped me across the finish line with the promise of eating a triple berry sundae. I ate the entire half gallon before dinner, only to open the brownie fudge swirl after the kids went to bed.
Needless to say, I paid dearly. I saw 3 a.m. with a bottle of antacid, and I essentially snacked on Tums while watching The Running Man with Arnold Schwarzenegger. I was a complete mess, and it didn't exactly help me when the kids woke up at 5 a.m. to their dad sitting in a pile of calcium carbonate dust.
I finally caught up on sleep by the middle of the week, but there's an important safety tip in there for anyone pushing 40 years old that I'm sure we'll all ignore one day.
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Pregame Quote and Prediction
It's not the plane. It's the pilot. -Maverick, "Top Gun: Maverick"
I remember when I first learned how to break a season down into weekly mini-seasons. I found myself analyzing a matchup through too many degrees of past and future contexts, and I began to wonder about how coaches and players design game plans for an opponent. I wound up asking a football coach about it, and the explanation was resoundingly simple as it attempted to describe the complexities of a given week.
Games require too much work to simply recycle something from the past, and no team is ever the same on a year-over-year basis. Game plans, therefore, are unique because they require coaches to erase the board and start over almost immediately after a game ends. They review what happened in the last game and digest it through an unlimited amount of prisms before designing a new plan for their teams. It's actually wild to think about how this happens on a weekly basis.
Getting ready for an opponent isn't about the skill or the past performances of a team. The past imbues teams with a sense of confidence - or the lack thereof - as if it carries some magical quality, but flying the plane into a new week is all about the pilot.
BC still has a shot to do something special this year, but the Eagles have to be willing to erase what they knew about last week's game against Syracuse to get ready for a new opponent. On Sunday, they'll erase this one and continue working. What happens on Saturday is the product of that preparation.
Boston College and Virginia Tech kick off on Saturday at noon from Alumni Stadium in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Television coverage is available on national television via ACC Network with online streaming available through ESPN's platform of online and mobile apps. Radio broadcast is also available through the BC Learfield IMG Sports Network with local coverage available on WEEI 93.7 FM and satellite options available on SiriusXM channel 160 and 194. Streaming audio is also available through the Varsity Network.
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Last weekend was a nightmarish time in the Rubin household.
Any alteration to our sleep routine in the house is cause for commotion and chaos, but pushing the hour back set a tone for the rest of the week for two children under three years old who legitimately don't understand how to stay in bed for a little extra time. Sunday was a complete mess because everyone was out of sorts, but that didn't stop the full family from venturing to the supermarket for our weekly food shop.
The trip itself descended into hell's inner sanctum as we dragged two kids around a store without buying every treat their hearts desired, but one thing that stuck with me beyond chasing a toddler around bananas and broccoli: the number of people who commented on my Boston College sweatshirt. On more than one occasion, a handful of people stopped me to mention the football team's recent success, and a couple of others asked me if I watched the men's hockey wins over UMass-Lowell.
My wife noted the energy and commented about the number of people, and it blew some wind in our sails as we recapped Friday night in the car ride home. It continued into a conversation about Monday's basketball matchup against Fairfield, but I wasn't prepared for what happened in Conte Forum when Thomas Castellanos' appearance on the video board touched off a raucous cheer from the fan base enjoying the Eagles' first hardwood win. Almost immediately, a couple of fans came over to ask him for a picture, and a few more snapped photos and asked him for autographs when he stood up to exit the building.
I honestly couldn't remember the last time that happened, but it was pretty infectious to experience. It probably didn't hurt that BC's win over Syracuse gave fans an extra day to revel in the team's success before the basketball team destroyed Fairfield, but the sheer magnitude surrounding the team was all-encompassing ahead of this Saturday's game against Virginia Tech.
"Our students have been great," said head coach Jeff Hafley. "I saw a bunch of them at the basketball game, and I stopped by on my way out of here the other night. They were all fired up. I'm excited to see what they can bring to this game. I know it's a noon game, but people have to get up early. This is a big game. We're 6-3 going into November, and this is a meaningful game for a lot of reasons, not just to continue the winning streak, but [because] there are other things at stake."
A rising tide lifts every ship, and the Hokies enter Alumni Stadium with a rabid fan base renewed in its dedication to a team that's earned their respect. The chance to play for a conference championship is still alive, but the magnetism of a winning football team is shifting towards Chestnut Hill. The people who stuck with the team are being rewarded, and as the ones who sold on the 1-3 start are finding redemption, their combined efforts are part of a very different Path that's turned Boston College, once again, into a big time college football market.
"I urge the students to get up early," Hafley said. "As soon as the lots open, [start] tailgating and when our team walks down those steps, be there and be loud and make this a real home field advantage. Let's see if we can fill this place up and make it hard for Virginia Tech to hear."
Here's what to watch for as we attempt to answer what exactly the Hokiebird is:
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Game Storylines (Dave Grohl Edition)
When there's so much left to do, why spend your time focusing on the things you've already done, counting trophies or telling stories about the good old days?
I grew up listening to the Foo Fighters as an irreverent alt-rock, grunge-style band that increasingly spoke to me with lighthearted music videos and an all-around goofy appearance. Grohl was excellent at establishing himself as the frontman who took life just seriously enough to know he was enjoying himself, and my entire generation essentially grew up with similar adversity to his whole career path. Listening to his music and the development of the band's depth really struck me as I got older, and seeing them live at Fenway Park lit a connection between the band and its fans that hooked and broadened both sides' understanding of the music. I have no problem admitting that Taylor Hawkins' death left an imprint on my music-listening soul, but watching Dave Grohl soldier forward with the rest of the band made me proud to call myself a fan of their music.
It's a really short line, then, to draw Boston College to Dave Grohl and Foo Fighters' music because the team's maturation continues to seek new ways to grow. Its sound is embedded in the fabric of the 2023 season, but the Eagles unveil new wrinkles on a weekly basis. New formations, new heroes, new starters…all of it seems planned, even if there are elements of improvisation behind it.
"The same thing that I kept hearing [about] was the consistency," said Jeff Hafley. "Whether it's for me, whether it's for the staff, I think it's the belief that I had in them and the belief they had in me and the belief they had in each other. We knew we were a good team, and we knew we kind of stumbled out [while] trying to find out identity. It took a little longer than we would have liked, but we knew we had a good team, we knew we had depth, we knew we had guys that liked each other, we knew we had a strong culture, and we were tested early."
It feels like BC internally challenges itself to continue flourishing without worrying about the opponent on the other side of the ball, but the ongoing growth is actually harnessing the game plan within a scheme designed to defeat whichever team is playing in whichever conditions. Simply put, the Eagles are built to win every type of game, and they're enjoying the ride without looking back at what happened at the start of the year.
I think people should feel encouraged to be themselves.
Virginia Tech went out and revamped its offense in the offseason by recruiting the transfer portal for quarterback Kyron Drones and running back Bhayshul Tuten, but like BC, the offense didn't start gelling until both started to find traction in the middle part of the season. Once they were installed in the backfield together, the tandem approach between the quarterback and his top running back created more production, and the modest growth moved the Hokies up to 85th in the nation with an average of 50 more yards per game.
"[Drones] is a dynamic player," said Jeff Hafley. "He's huge. He looks huge on tape. He's a bigger guy with good height, and he's got a really, really strong arm. They really try to stretch it vertically, and he loves to throw the ball down the field. Then whether it's on a scramble or on a design run, he loves to get vertical. He's fast, and he eats a lot of grass. He's given everybody trouble, whether it's through the air or running the ball."
Drones has gained at least 40 yards rushing in every start since the Rutgers game with the exception of last week's game against Louisville, but adding him to Tuten broke the running back for 100-yard games against both Pittsburgh and Syracuse. Like BC's running game, he might not touch the ball as often because of the quarterback run and the inherent clock-control offense, but Tuten's 4.4 yards per rush average is right in line with how his 1,363-yard season at North Carolina A&T is translating to the power conference football game.
All I really had was my suitcase and my drums. So I took them up to Seattle and hoped it would work.
Thomas Castellanos is, by now, an entrenched piece of the college football fabric. He leads the country in quarterback rushing yards and is tied with USC's Caleb Williams for most touchdowns by a quarterback, and he places near or inside the top-30 as a runner ranked among the remainder of tailbacks and backfield options. He's on pace to throw for 2,500 yards in a season in which he didn't start the first game and didn't throw more than nine passes in a separate monsoon game played at West Point, and his numbers are likely going to move into a line alongside Doug Flutie's 1982 and 1983 seasons and Paul Peterson's 2,500-yard year from the last year of Big East play in 2004.
BC is his team, but the Eagles morphed into their quarterback's entire mindset because they bought into his vision for how the offense could perform. Jeff Hafley had a vision for the team's overall performance, but the way Castellanos force-fed that vision into the huddle transformed a scheme that retooled and rebuilt itself on the fly. He believed in the team and what it sold when he transferred, but with the five-game winning streak on the line this week, he now undeniably has a team that believes in him every step of the way.
"We're never worried about whether we let up a touchdown," defensive lineman Neto Okpala said. "We know the offense is going to score because we have a lot of trust in them. We also want to back them up so if they keep on scoring, we want to stop the opposing offense from scoring so we can back them up."
Holding that trust on both sides of the ball has BC averaging a touchdown advantage over opponents in the fourth quarter, to which the cumulative totals have the Eagles outsourcing teams by a 79-34 margin. Going plus-45 in that last frame is nearly ten points more than the opponents' plus-margin in the first three quarters, which to a degree is an alarm bell for needing to play better earlier while simultaneously leading BC to understand how games are never, ever over.
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Question Box
How much stock does anyone put in last week's loss to Louisville?
The Cardinals torched Virginia Tech last week to snap the Hokies' 3-1 winning streak over their previous four games, and virtually nobody had a productive day beyond Bhayshul Tuten's 5.2 yards per carry average on 11 touches. Kyron Drones went 12-for-21 for 69 yards and an interception, and Jack Plummer barely broke a sweat while Isaac Guerendo ran for 136 yards and three scores.
I don't put a ton of stock into the loss because it's hard to understand why a team gets blown out. It could've been a bad day at the office where nobody executed, but it doesn't mean the game plan was shoddy or the team didn't practice hard. They could've just had everything wrong against an opponent who pressed every correct button. We'll never actually know.
What I do know is that Virginia Tech is the team that lost to the two highest-ranked opponents in the ACC and the team that beat three teams with a combined 2-14 conference record. To me, that indicates that the Hokies are probably somewhere in the middle of the league. At 3-2, a win over BC would put them upper-middle, but a loss drops them down into the lower-middle tier where a team like Clemson currently resides with four losses. They are, in a phrase, exactly what their record says they are, and this is a sneaky-big game for them to get back into the premium bowl race.
How much stock does anyone put in BC's Path after the wins over UConn and Syracuse?
BC is a team with a direct path to the ACC Championship Game if it wins out and gets a little help from some friends across the conference scene, but the wins over UConn and Syracuse add a little spice for detractors who quickly point out how the five-game winning streak came with wins over two of the bottom three teams in the standings and two non-conference wins against independents with a combined four wins. UConn was blown out by Tennessee last week by a 59-3 margin, and Army's shutout loss to Troy preceded LSU's 62-0 win in Baton Rouge and a 21-14 loss to a two-win UMass team. The win over Air Force helped, but there's still room for BC's resume to improve with a win over Virginia Tech.
Context is crucial here because the Eagles openly discuss "The Path." Georgia Tech is a quality win, but BC needs to beat Virginia Tech to separate itself from the aforementioned lower-middle of the league. Going to 4-2 in league play matches with the third place Yellow Jackets and teams like North Carolina in the wake of Louisville's one-loss, top-10 start, where a loss drops the Eagles back into the peloton with Miami and NC State, just ahead of Clemson, and behind - yep, you guessed it - Virginia Tech.
Hit me with your turkey recipes.
It's November, so it's time to start firing up Thanksgiving talk. Dark meat turkey all the way. Stuffing. Mashed potatoes. Squash for some color on the plate. And gravy on everything. I'm talking about an absurd amount of gravy. It goes with everything.
This will be discussed later this month.
*****
Meteorology 101
Hitting November finally delivered the strange time of year when gusty winds and downpouring rains inundated yards and roads with stripped trees and falling leaves. Some nasty weather over the past week or so was enough to bring those pretty fall colors onto the grassy fields around the region, to which rakes and leaf blowers became the soundtrack of too many weekend afternoons.
That brand of weather continued in spurts this week, and Thursday afternoon in particular kept the roads slick and wet through Friday's breezy humidity. The nights were chillier than the daytime experience, but we're all going to awaken on Saturday to a seasonably cold day with temperatures in the high 30s. It will warm up enough to hit the high-40s by kickoff, but the earlier sunset unquestionably means dropping conditions as the game gets closer to its closing minutes.
Locals know how November isn't for the faint of heart in New England, but the penultimate home game at Alumni Stadium should allow for people to break out the blankets they've kept in storage for the past few months.
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BC-Virginia Tech X Factor
Boston College Secondary
I'd love to sit back and break down the analysis around the BC's secondary facing a dual-threat, big quarterback, but I don't need to go down that road when memories against the Virginia Tech offense, in particular, remain fresh. The Hokies always seem to have a big, powerful quarterback with a huge arm and the ability to crush opposing defenses. That quarterback always seemed to have a career day against Boston College.Â
It's up to BC to prevent the next Hendon Hooker, Ryan Willis, Josh Jackson, Jerod Evans, Michael Brewer, or anyone else from having that type of game against this defense.
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The Path, Explained
The ACC realigned its league into a single division this year with the conference championship moving to a format where the top two teams qualify for the December 2 trip to Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina. As of this week, No. 4 Florida State is 7-0 in league play and one game away from clinching its trip to the conference championship game, and while it mathematically could clinch a spot with a loss and head-to-head tiebreaker wins over Duke, BC and Virginia Tech, not playing North Carolina or Georgia Tech means the primary scenario requires them to beat Miami this week to clinch a spot.
Everything under the Seminoles is where things start to get dicey if Louisville loses a second game. The easiest scenario, of course, is where the Cardinals win two more games and get into the game against FSU as a one-loss opponent, but head-to-head tiebreakers against Georgia Tech, BC, NC State, Duke and Virginia Tech requires them to fall into a tie with the wrong teams in a two-loss or three-loss situation because the primary tiebreaker for three-or-more team-ties is the combined head-to-head winning percentage among the tied teams. Because Louisville beat everyone, the only team that can help the Eagles is then UNC, which plays Duke on Saturday.
The Tar Heels would be a certified bombshell for BC because they lost to Virginia and Georgia Tech but don't play the Eagles or the Cardinals. That means they would move to a secondary tiebreaker scenario where the tied team that defeated the other tied teams is used, after which the third tiebreaker is win percentage against all common opponents. In the event that BC winds up tied in any capacity with UNC, the undefeated record (assuming BC wins out) against Pitt, Syracuse, Miami, Virginia and Georgia Tech sends the Eagles to the ACC Championship.
All of this is written out of existence if the Cardinals don't lose enough games to send BC and UNC through to a tiebreaker scenario, but beyond the conference championship, remember that bowl positioning and a premier bowl is at stake for teams with better records and finishes. Beyond the typical Fenway Bowl or Pinstripe Bowl prediction, the Eagles have a chance to qualify for the Holiday Bowl or another top-echelon game in a nationally-desirable spot.
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Other College Football Newsy-Type Things
I'm going to start with Army's win over Air Force last week because it really threw a monkey wrench into the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy series. Air Force had already beaten Navy, 17-6, but the 23-3 loss to the Black Knights means the trophy gets decided in the annual Army-Navy Game on December 9. Army, of course, can win the trophy with a win, but a Navy win would send it back to Air Force since shared finishes allow the reigning champion to retain the trophy. Add that to the wrinkles of the walk-on ceremony happening at Gillette Stadium this year.
Elsewhere in college football, all four College Football Playoff teams defend their spots against conference opponents this week. No. 3 Michigan is first with a noon start at No. 10 Penn State, and No. 4 Florida State hosts Miami at 3:30 p.m. Later at night, No. 2 Georgia hosts No. 9 Ole Miss opposite No. 1 Ohio State's game against Michigan State.
Other rivalry-based games are on the docket as well, and it'll be interesting to see what happens when No. 7 Texas visits TCU for the final time as a Big 12 opponent. Florida is at No. 19 LSU in a game that still reminds me of those battles from the 2000s, and USC is at No. 6 Oregon in the late hour.
Those of us willing to stay up late can watch Air Force try to redeem its loss in Hawaii at 11 p.m.
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Dan's Non-Football Observation of the Week
I have a noticeable weakness in my diet when it comes to sweet things. I'm a sucker for a good, home-baked cookie or a big bowl of ice cream, and I am fully aware of how even typing that out makes me look like a glutton. Food in general is a fun topic on For The Podcast on a weekly basis, and I'll always engage anyone who wants to debate if canned soda is better than a traditional fountain soda (it's not).
I'm getting a little bit older these days, so I have to admit that I just can't sit down and eat everything in the freezer anymore. I can't pound back food like I was 22 years old anymore, and I'm asking for a world of heartburn and pain if I even attempt to eat salty foods or heavy dairy with any type of regularity.
Naturally, none of this stopped me from dominating two half gallons of ice cream over a two-hour span on Sunday that whole incident involving Daylight Savings Time. I was a fractured, broken human being, and the stress of dealing with the chaos and anarchy of two cranky children limped me across the finish line with the promise of eating a triple berry sundae. I ate the entire half gallon before dinner, only to open the brownie fudge swirl after the kids went to bed.
Needless to say, I paid dearly. I saw 3 a.m. with a bottle of antacid, and I essentially snacked on Tums while watching The Running Man with Arnold Schwarzenegger. I was a complete mess, and it didn't exactly help me when the kids woke up at 5 a.m. to their dad sitting in a pile of calcium carbonate dust.
I finally caught up on sleep by the middle of the week, but there's an important safety tip in there for anyone pushing 40 years old that I'm sure we'll all ignore one day.
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Pregame Quote and Prediction
It's not the plane. It's the pilot. -Maverick, "Top Gun: Maverick"
I remember when I first learned how to break a season down into weekly mini-seasons. I found myself analyzing a matchup through too many degrees of past and future contexts, and I began to wonder about how coaches and players design game plans for an opponent. I wound up asking a football coach about it, and the explanation was resoundingly simple as it attempted to describe the complexities of a given week.
Games require too much work to simply recycle something from the past, and no team is ever the same on a year-over-year basis. Game plans, therefore, are unique because they require coaches to erase the board and start over almost immediately after a game ends. They review what happened in the last game and digest it through an unlimited amount of prisms before designing a new plan for their teams. It's actually wild to think about how this happens on a weekly basis.
Getting ready for an opponent isn't about the skill or the past performances of a team. The past imbues teams with a sense of confidence - or the lack thereof - as if it carries some magical quality, but flying the plane into a new week is all about the pilot.
BC still has a shot to do something special this year, but the Eagles have to be willing to erase what they knew about last week's game against Syracuse to get ready for a new opponent. On Sunday, they'll erase this one and continue working. What happens on Saturday is the product of that preparation.
Boston College and Virginia Tech kick off on Saturday at noon from Alumni Stadium in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Television coverage is available on national television via ACC Network with online streaming available through ESPN's platform of online and mobile apps. Radio broadcast is also available through the BC Learfield IMG Sports Network with local coverage available on WEEI 93.7 FM and satellite options available on SiriusXM channel 160 and 194. Streaming audio is also available through the Varsity Network.
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Tuesday, October 27
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