Boston College Athletics
Photo by: Anthony Garro
November 24, 2023 | Football, #ForBoston Files
Friday's loss ended the regular season at 6-6, but Bowl Season remains with one more chance.
There were a few moments where Boston College looked like it was about to own Miami in the early minutes of Friday afternoon's season finale. Thomas Castellanos grooved the Eagles through one of the best rushing defenses in the country, and his 20 yards of designed runs on the opening drive lumped an outside pass to Lewis Bond and a 40-yard catch-and-run to Dino Tomlin on top of what became a meaningless intentional grounding call.
Running back Kye Robichaux was battling the flu, but he was barely needed on that first drive. His only run literally flipped BC into the lead by capping a drive that barely scratched five minutes of game clock, and the Alumni Stadium crowd that would number 30,000-strong for the picture perfect conditions, would barely have found its seats before truly appreciating what it had seen. Their Eagles were in front, and in the last game of the season, the options ran rampant for a new batch of memories written at the Hurricanes' expense.
Those moments felt like a dream sequence, but the unfortunate reality forced BC to wake up to the distinct pain wrought by a 45-20 loss. The third straight of its kind, the Eagles that once saw a path to the conference championship instead finished their season with a 6-6 overall record, which is still good enough for a bowl game but a disappointing end to a Senior Day that deserved better.
"We started the game off pretty well," said head coach Jeff Hafley, "but in the second quarter, we obviously didn't play well enough. We went three-and-out three times in a row and had a chance to make some plays on defense, but they made some plays."
Not finding consistency in the first half stood out as the difference maker for a team that initially opened November with a path towards eight or nine wins. Fast starts weren't readily available, but finding a second or third gear never scared a BC team that previously rallied to throw a scare into Florida State before winning cardiac close games in October. Even on Friday, the quick score never really impacted Miami's early ability to move the football, and the quick score that applied a certain pressure to the Hurricanes after quarterback Tyler Van Dyke's third down pass to Riley Williams drew an ill-timed late hit penalty out of bounds and extended a drive that should have ended. Instead, Mark Fletcher burst out of the backfield for 18 yards on four consecutive plays, and Miami tied the game with a response touchdown in a quick-played first quarter.
The Hurricanes would later add a 25-yard pass before scoring again on Henry Parrish's 15-yard kick-out run near the start of the second quarter, but a string of three-and-outs quickly dipped the energy on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball. Van Dyke eventually found himself able to operate, and a 19-yard catch-and-run to Jacolby George occurred a few plays before a fourth down blitz failed to get home on a 24-yard jump ball catch by Xavier Restrepo that saw defensive back CJ Clinkscales incidentally overrun the receiver. A 10-yard slant pass to Colbie Young later gave Miami the lead, and despite some late quarter shenanigans, another Parrish touchdown forced BC into the locker room with a 28-7 deficit.
"They didn't do anything that really stopped us," said Castellanos. "It was just execution. We just got off-track, and we just needed to stay together and be calm. We couldn't get too high or too low, but we just needed to stay where we were at and execute."
The impact of falling that far behind Miami wasn't lost on Hafley or his charges. BC previously failed to score a first half touchdown against Northern Illinois and Pittsburgh - games that both ended in losses - and likewise hadn't pushed anything into the end zone during the first quarters of the Louisville, Virginia, Georgia Tech and Syracuse games.Â
Miami felt different, though, and BC's propensity for second half heroics quickly advanced a track meet after Van Dyke fumbled the opening drive of the second half. A short field quickly developed, and Castellanos chugged through a 21-yard touchdown run to bring BC back within two touchdowns during the early third quarter. Another fourth quarter touchdown pass from Castellanos to Bond likewise pushed the Eagles to 20 points, but Miami had, by then, scored 10 additional points with another late score still to come.
"I'm proud of the way the guys fought in the second half," Hafley said. "We had a takeaway and got within 14, and we had 3rd-and-5, had [Miami] backed up. We were right there on that third down and slipped, but I liked the fight. That's what I told them. A couple of guys played their last game [at Alumni Stadium], and it was a pretty emotional locker room after [the game]."
The circumstances surrounding the team's recent backslide clearly stung, but the ongoing process of building the Eagles back into a conference championship contender didn't take a hit even after the losing streak eliminated BC from playing in this year's final game. The three-win team from a year ago grew to qualify for a bowl game, and like the 2017 team that preceded 2018's run at the Atlantic Division championship, an opportunity for an additional win remains because of a breakout late-October performance.
The destination or opponent for that game, though, won't be known until after next week's ACC Championship between Florida State and Louisville determines the conference's representative for the College Football Playoff. Nine ACC teams, including the Eagles, currently eligible for postseason bowl games, and the number itself might balloon to double digits this weekend if either Syracuse or Virginia Tech - or both - win their respective season finales in games where each team offers a different wrinkle to the league's finishing order.
Virginia Tech stands chief among that list because it needs a fifth league win to become bowl eligible at 6-6 overall. That five-win season is exactly where Georgia Tech finished its conference schedule, and it's also where both NC State and North Carolina could finish if the Tar Heels defeat the Wolfpack on Saturday. Where UNC already has eight wins, that scenario could potentially create a four-way tie for third place with two six-win teams, a nine-win team and an eight-win team where the nine-win team lost to one of the six-win teams.
BC, meanwhile, finished 6-6, but the Eagles move onto Saturday with their own multi-way tie potentially sitting on the table. Duke, at 6-5, still has one game remaining against a three-win Pittsburgh team, but a win by the Panthers would lock up an identical three-win conference record and both BC, Duke and a seven-win Miami team with head-to-head wins over the Eagles Blue Devils. Virginia, meanwhile, could also factor into the equation if it beats Virginia Tech for a third league win despite, like Pitt, being bowl ineligible with eight overall losses.
And then there's Syracuse, which is lurking behind everyone with six league losses but with an opportunity to clinch a sixth win on Saturday when it hosts Wake Forest.
All of those permutations impact the bowl selection process and how the ACC slots its teams, and while the greater umbrellas makes it unlikely for the Eagles to earn an invitation to the Pop Tarts Bowl or the Holiday Bowl, several other games, including a couple of coveted bowl berths, are very much in play once Notre Dame joins the league's bowl selection process at the end of the year.
"Our players have school," Hafley said, "and they're about to start finals. School's hard here [at BC] with all the work they have to do, so they need to focus on that and make sure they're in good shape academically. For the coaches, we'll clean it up [before] recruiting starts. It's a combination of recruiting and getting ready to coach our players. For the players, it's getting healthy, school, and getting ready.Â
"Six wins got us into a bowl game," he said. "We're going to go get seven."
Running back Kye Robichaux was battling the flu, but he was barely needed on that first drive. His only run literally flipped BC into the lead by capping a drive that barely scratched five minutes of game clock, and the Alumni Stadium crowd that would number 30,000-strong for the picture perfect conditions, would barely have found its seats before truly appreciating what it had seen. Their Eagles were in front, and in the last game of the season, the options ran rampant for a new batch of memories written at the Hurricanes' expense.
Those moments felt like a dream sequence, but the unfortunate reality forced BC to wake up to the distinct pain wrought by a 45-20 loss. The third straight of its kind, the Eagles that once saw a path to the conference championship instead finished their season with a 6-6 overall record, which is still good enough for a bowl game but a disappointing end to a Senior Day that deserved better.
"We started the game off pretty well," said head coach Jeff Hafley, "but in the second quarter, we obviously didn't play well enough. We went three-and-out three times in a row and had a chance to make some plays on defense, but they made some plays."
Not finding consistency in the first half stood out as the difference maker for a team that initially opened November with a path towards eight or nine wins. Fast starts weren't readily available, but finding a second or third gear never scared a BC team that previously rallied to throw a scare into Florida State before winning cardiac close games in October. Even on Friday, the quick score never really impacted Miami's early ability to move the football, and the quick score that applied a certain pressure to the Hurricanes after quarterback Tyler Van Dyke's third down pass to Riley Williams drew an ill-timed late hit penalty out of bounds and extended a drive that should have ended. Instead, Mark Fletcher burst out of the backfield for 18 yards on four consecutive plays, and Miami tied the game with a response touchdown in a quick-played first quarter.
The Hurricanes would later add a 25-yard pass before scoring again on Henry Parrish's 15-yard kick-out run near the start of the second quarter, but a string of three-and-outs quickly dipped the energy on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball. Van Dyke eventually found himself able to operate, and a 19-yard catch-and-run to Jacolby George occurred a few plays before a fourth down blitz failed to get home on a 24-yard jump ball catch by Xavier Restrepo that saw defensive back CJ Clinkscales incidentally overrun the receiver. A 10-yard slant pass to Colbie Young later gave Miami the lead, and despite some late quarter shenanigans, another Parrish touchdown forced BC into the locker room with a 28-7 deficit.
"They didn't do anything that really stopped us," said Castellanos. "It was just execution. We just got off-track, and we just needed to stay together and be calm. We couldn't get too high or too low, but we just needed to stay where we were at and execute."
The impact of falling that far behind Miami wasn't lost on Hafley or his charges. BC previously failed to score a first half touchdown against Northern Illinois and Pittsburgh - games that both ended in losses - and likewise hadn't pushed anything into the end zone during the first quarters of the Louisville, Virginia, Georgia Tech and Syracuse games.Â
Miami felt different, though, and BC's propensity for second half heroics quickly advanced a track meet after Van Dyke fumbled the opening drive of the second half. A short field quickly developed, and Castellanos chugged through a 21-yard touchdown run to bring BC back within two touchdowns during the early third quarter. Another fourth quarter touchdown pass from Castellanos to Bond likewise pushed the Eagles to 20 points, but Miami had, by then, scored 10 additional points with another late score still to come.
"I'm proud of the way the guys fought in the second half," Hafley said. "We had a takeaway and got within 14, and we had 3rd-and-5, had [Miami] backed up. We were right there on that third down and slipped, but I liked the fight. That's what I told them. A couple of guys played their last game [at Alumni Stadium], and it was a pretty emotional locker room after [the game]."
The circumstances surrounding the team's recent backslide clearly stung, but the ongoing process of building the Eagles back into a conference championship contender didn't take a hit even after the losing streak eliminated BC from playing in this year's final game. The three-win team from a year ago grew to qualify for a bowl game, and like the 2017 team that preceded 2018's run at the Atlantic Division championship, an opportunity for an additional win remains because of a breakout late-October performance.
The destination or opponent for that game, though, won't be known until after next week's ACC Championship between Florida State and Louisville determines the conference's representative for the College Football Playoff. Nine ACC teams, including the Eagles, currently eligible for postseason bowl games, and the number itself might balloon to double digits this weekend if either Syracuse or Virginia Tech - or both - win their respective season finales in games where each team offers a different wrinkle to the league's finishing order.
Virginia Tech stands chief among that list because it needs a fifth league win to become bowl eligible at 6-6 overall. That five-win season is exactly where Georgia Tech finished its conference schedule, and it's also where both NC State and North Carolina could finish if the Tar Heels defeat the Wolfpack on Saturday. Where UNC already has eight wins, that scenario could potentially create a four-way tie for third place with two six-win teams, a nine-win team and an eight-win team where the nine-win team lost to one of the six-win teams.
BC, meanwhile, finished 6-6, but the Eagles move onto Saturday with their own multi-way tie potentially sitting on the table. Duke, at 6-5, still has one game remaining against a three-win Pittsburgh team, but a win by the Panthers would lock up an identical three-win conference record and both BC, Duke and a seven-win Miami team with head-to-head wins over the Eagles Blue Devils. Virginia, meanwhile, could also factor into the equation if it beats Virginia Tech for a third league win despite, like Pitt, being bowl ineligible with eight overall losses.
And then there's Syracuse, which is lurking behind everyone with six league losses but with an opportunity to clinch a sixth win on Saturday when it hosts Wake Forest.
All of those permutations impact the bowl selection process and how the ACC slots its teams, and while the greater umbrellas makes it unlikely for the Eagles to earn an invitation to the Pop Tarts Bowl or the Holiday Bowl, several other games, including a couple of coveted bowl berths, are very much in play once Notre Dame joins the league's bowl selection process at the end of the year.
"Our players have school," Hafley said, "and they're about to start finals. School's hard here [at BC] with all the work they have to do, so they need to focus on that and make sure they're in good shape academically. For the coaches, we'll clean it up [before] recruiting starts. It's a combination of recruiting and getting ready to coach our players. For the players, it's getting healthy, school, and getting ready.Â
"Six wins got us into a bowl game," he said. "We're going to go get seven."
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