Tasting The Future While Working For Today

Few events match the excitement and anticipation associated with live football. The run-up to the opening kickoff pumps adrenaline through a stadium built to evoke the old Roman Colosseum, and nothing compares to those opening moments when the sights, sounds and smells amplify the intensity of the frothing crowd and their hometown heroes.

Simulating those events is nearly impossible, but in the absence of an actual game day, Boston College will step into Alumni Stadium on Sunday morning for its second preseason scrimmage and attempt to recreate what it will feel like on a game day Saturday. The first dress rehearsal for its September 2 opener against Northern Illinois, the intrasquad game dually serves as a reminder of what's to come for a team starting its transition to that real-time force.

"We're going to put the team into the stadium at noon," said head coach Jeff Hafley. "The sun's going to be where the sun's going to be [against NIU], and the heat's going to be where the heat is going to be. We'll simulate what the morning is going to feel like for the game, and then we'll make it even more real. Each starter got about 35 snaps [in the first scrimmage], which is [equivalent] to a half of football, so we'll crank that up and make it even more real. By that point, we'll have done [drills] to where there won't be as many mental mistakes or false starts."

The scrimmages themselves are important building blocks for any team preparing for its first game, but the second formal session has a unique potency unto itself. Schematic installations are long complete, and teammates are usually tired of hitting one another by the time it appears on the schedule. There's usually been a dust-up or two in the team's overall plan for its camp, and everyone is either entering or is already in the dreaded dog days of training camp.

Few surprises are even possible, but adding the actual game day stadium into the mix injects a certain life that can't exist on the adjacent practice fields. The heat - both physical and mental - is real, and the pressure crystallizes the road to the first game for players still fighting for snaps within their respective units and position groups.

"Games aren't played on paper," said offensive coordinator Steve Shimko. "They're played on the football field, so when our guys say or feel something on the field, there's nothing talking them out of it because it's what happened on the field. They're the ones who have to play fast, pull the trigger, and make a decision, so if they're saying something, there's some validity to it. Whether or not it's actually showing up, we have to take it into account."

The entirety of camp dictates how a team approaches the second scrimmage, and BC's successes over the past month allowed the coaches to prepare for a more rigid schedule. The install finished earlier than usual, which in turn enabled a longer period of refining and corrective actions. Open competitions emerged at several different positions, and the lack of a need for walkthroughs and basic football education in turn created more opportunities for players to slide up and down the depth chart for snaps.

Melding those situational results together later forged the collective dynamic, and as a result, Sunday's scrimmage serves a very different purpose. The coaches that stood on the sideline for the first time last week were able to spend a couple of days readying themselves for their own fixes, and the spillover from bringing the team together allows BC to simply become more cohesive at understanding where to physically go when the time operates at a faster pace.

"You ned to get as many game reps as possible," said co-defensive coordinator Aazaar Abdul-Rahim. "There are substitution differences, and it's really about trying to decide about the depth chart. Different people have different roles and responsibilities during game-like situations as opposed to practice. Being able to do those certain things during sudden changes [like] third down situations, there's a lot that goes into it. So [scrimmages] are invaluable."

Drillis over the last three weeks laid the foundation leading up to those sudden situational changes, but those moments were often scripted into a practice plan. The second scrimmage, much like a game, augments those exercises with more elements of the unknown, and how individual players react in those situations has a downstream impact on the rest of the team.

The offense, for example, can push the defense with any one of an unlimited number of looks if it's pushed into a particular down and distance. The third-and-long or second-and-short playbook differs based on the quarterback or the blocking scheme or which running back is in the game, and how the defense reacts to getting off the field is an important piece of the Eagles' overall success in the upcoming season.

"What I've learned as a whole is that there isn't a single quarterback that is like another," Shimko noted. "They might have some similarities, but they all have their own unique thing. They all have their strengths and weaknesses. We're able to talk to each quarterback, whether it's Emmett [Morehead] or Thomas [Castellanos] or Jacobe [Robinson] or any of the other guys, and we're able to put them in the best situation to highlight their strengths while calling plays that we feel they're best at.

"But it's not just me putting those together," he added. "There's a group effort with the staff, and there's a little bit of give and take with quarterbacks where they need to tell us what they're comfortable or uncomfortable with, what they really love, what they feel confident with and what they're not comfortable with. If they're not confident, or the guys in the huddle aren't confident, with a play, then we're throwing that play out. It's that simple. We're going to play to the best of their attributes and make sure we're putting them in the best spot possible."

Every practice session is equally critical in its own way as BC continues its push to the season opener, but Sunday adds a little extra flair to a time when players are starting to grow weary of training camp's repetition. It's a reminder of the need to remain present without getting too far ahead, though when they run out onto the Alumni Stadium turf for the first time, it'll be hard to not imagine it filled with fans for a game against a different opponent.

"Some of our coaches have already started [on NIU]," Hafley said, "and the young guys are breaking down the film to make sure the work's done and ready to go. But we have to keep working on us, and every coach would say that right now."

Tasting The Future While Working For Today

Related Videos