Photo by: John Quackenbos
One More Round For Vinny DePalma
August 24, 2023 | Football, #ForBoston Files
The sixth-year veteran is a lynchpin for BC's hopeful turnaround.
Vinny DePalma wasn't ready to take off the jersey.Â
The No. 42 hung on his uniform for just a little bit longer than he anticipated, but it was long enough for him to want to leave it over his pads. A long fifth year at Boston College was over after the Eagles lost to Syracuse in their season finale, and with it went the graduate student's college football career. The jersey reminded him that he would soon face the same decision as the countless student-athletes preceding him both in Chestnut Hill and in that number, and when he took off the uniform, he stared at a decision between graduating into the working world or making a run at professional football.
The moment lasted just a little bit longer than he ever thought possible, but as DePalma removed his maroon jersey and hung his gold helmet for the final time, he realized that he still had something to give Boston College. He wasn't ready to leave this program, he didn't want his final memory to be the darkness on the edge of the season. He wanted something more, and, as luck would have it, that quickly became apparent thanks to the pandemic that sent his redshirt season into a tailspin.
He had missed that year due to an Achilles injury, though it was a moot point to the fact that every student-athlete from the 2020 season was granted a free year of eligibility after COVID-19 wrecked the world entire. A few conversations later, DePalma realized that a third option presented itself, an easy choice given what happened and what he wanted.
Vinny DePalma was coming back for one last go-round as a sixth-year graduate student. No decision ever felt so right.
"I still loved football," DePalma said. "I was still passionate about playing football, and I still loved Boston College. I loved my teammates. Coach Hafley had been great to me. The whole staff had been great to me, so to me, I wasn't ready to walk away yet. Last year didn't go the way we wanted it to go, but after it ended, I had to ask questions about the future. It was hard at first, but I knew that I had a year left because of COVID - and I'd been hurt that year anyways. I didn't want it to end that way. I wanted to keep playing [for BC]."
Arguably no player could ever fathom what it meant to want one more shot at the BC wheel. Elijah Jones was the only other player who was on the roster when the Eagles came within a game of winning the ACC's old Atlantic Division in 2018, but both saw limited action before redshirting the season during the first season when redshirted players could play in up to four games. Both played during the early-season wins over UMass and Holy Cross that year, but DePalma recorded a tackle during BC's Red Bandanna Game win over Miami where Jones made two tackles and broke up a pass during an early October loss at NC State.
The Miami game thrust BC back into the national rankings after a fourth-game blowout loss at Purdue torpedoed the Eagles' undefeated record and No. 23 national ranking and later established the team's foundational threat to Clemson after a win over Virginia Tech one week later. BC would later lose to the Tigers before a national television audience that included a visit from ESPN's College Gameday, but that year transformed the program after Fish Field House opened in the previous summer offseason.
"I got here in January [of that year] because I was a mid-year enrollee," DePalma said, "and Fish wasn't a thing. The weight room was on the second floor of the Yawkey Center, and we were practicing in the Bubble [over Alumni Stadium]. The Connell Rec Center was being built, and the Plex [across from Alumni Stadium] was still there. The Science Center [at 245 Beacon Street] wasn't there.
"That's been the craziest thing because when I got here and thought about how beautiful the campus was," he explained. "I came up here and did a team camp when we were practicing on the baseball field at Shea Field, but even now, I remember walking around with my family thinking about how beautiful this place was. It's still beautiful, but I've been here to see all of the upgrades."
That perspective is impossible to manufacture when college students leave campuses after four or five years. Even most redshirted athletes depart after five years, and the transfer portal era made it more commonplace for fifth-year players to have two or even three different schools.Â
That perspective is hard to find when the majority of college students leave their campuses after four years. Even redshirted athletes typically leave after four or five years, and the links to BC's past were relegated to tongue-in-cheek jokes last season when Marcus Valdez walked into the media room for his sixth year. Further back, Ben Petrula broke BC's all-time games played record after using his COVID year of eligibility in 2021, but that was his fifth full-time year.
In some ways, their teams possessed veteran leadership, but there's a case that DePalma's return bridges the gap more than most people when it comes to the cultural shift within the program. He played on a team that was good enough to compete for a conference championship, and he later navigated the waters between a coaching change, a pandemic, an injury, transitional seasons, and, finally a downturn to a three-win season.
"When I first got here, we were doing some different stuff," DePalma said, "and Coach Hafley came in and made it more streamlined. Coach Tem [Lukabu] added a lot of different variables, and now Coach Duggan and the current coaches are running [their styles]. We're still streamlined, but you're always reacting to what the offensive guys are giving you. As a defensive player, you need to figure out a way to attack those guys, not just react.
"It's not just like pro football where the rules are more limiting on what you can do with unbalanced formations, especially since there isn't as much quarterback run as in college football," he added. "But it's changed a ton [since I got to BC], and it's going to continue to change. Football is cyclical. It's a giant chess match, and that's what makes it fun."
Â
The No. 42 hung on his uniform for just a little bit longer than he anticipated, but it was long enough for him to want to leave it over his pads. A long fifth year at Boston College was over after the Eagles lost to Syracuse in their season finale, and with it went the graduate student's college football career. The jersey reminded him that he would soon face the same decision as the countless student-athletes preceding him both in Chestnut Hill and in that number, and when he took off the uniform, he stared at a decision between graduating into the working world or making a run at professional football.
The moment lasted just a little bit longer than he ever thought possible, but as DePalma removed his maroon jersey and hung his gold helmet for the final time, he realized that he still had something to give Boston College. He wasn't ready to leave this program, he didn't want his final memory to be the darkness on the edge of the season. He wanted something more, and, as luck would have it, that quickly became apparent thanks to the pandemic that sent his redshirt season into a tailspin.
He had missed that year due to an Achilles injury, though it was a moot point to the fact that every student-athlete from the 2020 season was granted a free year of eligibility after COVID-19 wrecked the world entire. A few conversations later, DePalma realized that a third option presented itself, an easy choice given what happened and what he wanted.
Vinny DePalma was coming back for one last go-round as a sixth-year graduate student. No decision ever felt so right.
"I still loved football," DePalma said. "I was still passionate about playing football, and I still loved Boston College. I loved my teammates. Coach Hafley had been great to me. The whole staff had been great to me, so to me, I wasn't ready to walk away yet. Last year didn't go the way we wanted it to go, but after it ended, I had to ask questions about the future. It was hard at first, but I knew that I had a year left because of COVID - and I'd been hurt that year anyways. I didn't want it to end that way. I wanted to keep playing [for BC]."
Arguably no player could ever fathom what it meant to want one more shot at the BC wheel. Elijah Jones was the only other player who was on the roster when the Eagles came within a game of winning the ACC's old Atlantic Division in 2018, but both saw limited action before redshirting the season during the first season when redshirted players could play in up to four games. Both played during the early-season wins over UMass and Holy Cross that year, but DePalma recorded a tackle during BC's Red Bandanna Game win over Miami where Jones made two tackles and broke up a pass during an early October loss at NC State.
The Miami game thrust BC back into the national rankings after a fourth-game blowout loss at Purdue torpedoed the Eagles' undefeated record and No. 23 national ranking and later established the team's foundational threat to Clemson after a win over Virginia Tech one week later. BC would later lose to the Tigers before a national television audience that included a visit from ESPN's College Gameday, but that year transformed the program after Fish Field House opened in the previous summer offseason.
"I got here in January [of that year] because I was a mid-year enrollee," DePalma said, "and Fish wasn't a thing. The weight room was on the second floor of the Yawkey Center, and we were practicing in the Bubble [over Alumni Stadium]. The Connell Rec Center was being built, and the Plex [across from Alumni Stadium] was still there. The Science Center [at 245 Beacon Street] wasn't there.
"That's been the craziest thing because when I got here and thought about how beautiful the campus was," he explained. "I came up here and did a team camp when we were practicing on the baseball field at Shea Field, but even now, I remember walking around with my family thinking about how beautiful this place was. It's still beautiful, but I've been here to see all of the upgrades."
That perspective is impossible to manufacture when college students leave campuses after four or five years. Even most redshirted athletes depart after five years, and the transfer portal era made it more commonplace for fifth-year players to have two or even three different schools.Â
That perspective is hard to find when the majority of college students leave their campuses after four years. Even redshirted athletes typically leave after four or five years, and the links to BC's past were relegated to tongue-in-cheek jokes last season when Marcus Valdez walked into the media room for his sixth year. Further back, Ben Petrula broke BC's all-time games played record after using his COVID year of eligibility in 2021, but that was his fifth full-time year.
In some ways, their teams possessed veteran leadership, but there's a case that DePalma's return bridges the gap more than most people when it comes to the cultural shift within the program. He played on a team that was good enough to compete for a conference championship, and he later navigated the waters between a coaching change, a pandemic, an injury, transitional seasons, and, finally a downturn to a three-win season.
"When I first got here, we were doing some different stuff," DePalma said, "and Coach Hafley came in and made it more streamlined. Coach Tem [Lukabu] added a lot of different variables, and now Coach Duggan and the current coaches are running [their styles]. We're still streamlined, but you're always reacting to what the offensive guys are giving you. As a defensive player, you need to figure out a way to attack those guys, not just react.
"It's not just like pro football where the rules are more limiting on what you can do with unbalanced formations, especially since there isn't as much quarterback run as in college football," he added. "But it's changed a ton [since I got to BC], and it's going to continue to change. Football is cyclical. It's a giant chess match, and that's what makes it fun."
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