The Tailgate: North Carolina

Saturday, November 23

Chestnut Hill, MA

12:00 PM

Boston College

North Carolina

Buy Tickets

November 21, 2024 | Football, #ForBoston Files

Gameday Central Listen: WEEI Live Stats Tickets Game Notes

The 40th anniversary of Hail Flutie brings Mack Brown's crew to BC.

By: Dan Rubin, BCEagles.com contributor

The back half of the 2024 season seemed custom-fit for perfectly staged trips down memory lane. Nearly every game hearkened back to a subtle crevice within the story of Boston College's final Big East season, and the irony of reliving Syracuse horrors ahead of a bowl rematch against Southern Methodist teased North Carolina's trip to Massachusetts as a preview of the final stage of that season. In so many different ways, last year's Wasabi Fenway Bowl compared to BC's 2004 Continental Tire Bowl against the Tar Heels, and reliving the matchup in the Mustangs' first Atlantic Coast Conference season allowed minds to teleport to a time when the Eagles narrowly missed an opportunity at a Tostitos Fiesta Bowl berth.

The Syracuse game echoed Diamond Ferri's performance from that fateful November afternoon at Alumni Stadium, but the bowl game transformed neutral ground into a certified home game for the incumbent ACC team after BC drew UNC for a game at Charlotte's Bank of America Stadium. A matchup akin to playing against the Eagles at Fenway Park drew 73,258 fans in mostly-blue gear. BC won, but getting relegated to road status ahead of its transition into the ACC played close enough to the SMU vest at last year's Christmastime game.

"I'm trying to approach it just like another game," said tight end Kamari Morales. "We always say nameless [and] faceless opponents around here, [but] I know every face. I'm definitely excited to play this game, but I'm not trying to get too worked up over this one because it's just another team in our conference. We just have to go out and execute our jobs."

Morales is a UNC transfer and former member of the Tar Heels, but drawing UNC one week after SMU ends the comparison for programs that haven't played one another since 2020. Their alignment into different divisions kept them separated for virtually the entire era spanning one crossover ACC game against a non-protected opponent, and it's been seven years since they played one another with fans in a stadium. It's been 15 years since UNC last visited Alumni Stadium with a crowd, and only two other conference matchups ever took place during the regular season - all of which were won by UNC.

BC hasn't actually defeated UNC since that 2004 Continental Tire Bowl and lost five regular season games in a matchup dating back to Doug Flutie's record-setting, 52-20 win before 44,000-plus fans at Foxboro's Sullivan Stadium. Already 2-0 with a No. 10 national ranking in his back pocket, the future Heisman Trophy winner completed 28-of-38 passes for 354 yards and a school-record six touchdowns while avoiding an interception for the second straight game.

"This was probably Doug's best all-around game," noted head coach Jack Bicknell after the win.

That win over UNC elevated BC to No. 4 in the national polls before a one-point loss to West Virginia ultimately ended the team's national championship dreams. Later that year, the November 23 meeting against Miami more importantly created a dream sequence that lives under "Hail Flutie's" simple moniker - and on Saturday, the 40th anniversary of that pass against the Hurricanes reaches its zenith in the penultimate game with bowl eligibility at stake.

Here's what to watch when BC hosts UNC on Saturday afternoon:

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Game Storylines (The Sandlot Edition)

Squints: It's about time Benny. My clothes are going out of style.
Yeah Yeah: They already are, Squints.
Squints: Shut up.

For the second straight week, an opponent with a fearsome defense matches wits with a BC offense continuing its transition into a new quarterback and new era. Unlike SMU, UNC isn't the kind of impenetrable team capable of shutting any opponent down, but the three-game spark over the past month locked down opponents to the tune of 16.3 points per game and 281 yards of total offense per game.

"Geoff Collins, the defensive coordinator, does a really good job," said head coach Bill O'Brien. "We have to be on high alert for four-man rushes, a five-man rush, and a six-man rush. He mixes it up pretty well, so at the end of the day, we feel good about our protection system, but it has to hold up. That's going to be one of the biggest challenges of the game."

UNC's 3-4 defense utilizes a more traditional alignment than the 3-3-5 or nickel-based defenses of other teams, but the defensive front three doesn't typically align with the perfect, end-tackle-end formation. There is still a 310-pound nose tackle lining up over center Drew Kendall, but a second 300-pounder at defensive tackle means the interior guards won't be able to simply block to the inside while tackles take the outer edges. Nobody can let Desmond Evans run wild from the outside, but isolating the five-star prospect into one-on-one blocking coverage also unbalances the scheme from its multiple and stacked formation introduced last week.

"Grayson [James] has a great attitude," said receiver Reed Harris. "He's got great feel and awareness. He's like a general on the field, and everybody in the huddle respects him. Just like the relationship that we've built by knowing each other for half of the year, we've got a lot further that we can go and a lot more to improve upon."

Benny: Man, you think too much. I bet you get straight A's.
Scotty: No, I got a B once. Well actually it was an A-minus, but it should have been a B.
Benny: Man, this is baseball, you gotta stop thinking! Just have fun. If you were having fun, you would've caught that ball.

Harris and James are lynchpin players to slicing through the UNC defense because of their previous chemistry. As a sophomore and the first Montana-based player to enter into the ACC, Harris didn't quite carry the same prolific skill box that drew defenders towards other, more highly-touted receivers, but his four catches for 78 yards against the Mustangs illustrated his ability in clicking with a quarterback. More than that, finding Harris became key to James' integration into the offense against a tough defense, and from those aforementioned multiple formations, a quick-strike offense went over the top to break out of the front seven.

"I feel like last game against SMU was basically what we've been doing all summer together," said Harris of James. "We were running together in seven-on-seven and had a great connection going against the defense [in practice]. That showed all the way through spring ball and fall camp, and now we're able to play on the field together."

It's important to fully understand how BC used different looks to negate SMU's multiple-rush defense. The Mustangs weren't able to send different players from different angles when BC kept extra blockers near the line, but spreading the defense back into the second level allowed the inner receivers to spider out towards the sidelines and over the top. James illustrated his execution by checking into a second or third look whenever the blitz came from a different side, and a similar setup would well serve an offense against a defense that held Virginia to seven yards on the ground before restricting Florida State to eight total completions.

Scotty: Even though Bill loved the Murderers' Row ball, he was still plenty mad about me having swiped his Babe Ruth autographed baseball and ruining it. So, I didn't feel too bad when he grounded me for a week instead of the rest of my life.

On November 23, 1984, Heisman Trophy frontrunner Doug Flutie went to Miami to play the defending national champions with an opportunity to secure Boston College's first New Year's Day bowl game since the World War II-era national championship. Led by Flutie, the Eagles faced one of the most fearsome teams in a legendary game still known for its final play - a "55 Flood Tip" where the quarterback scrambled and ran backwards before firing a pass that sailed through the air and into the deep, humid Miami night. As mud and grass enveloped players in the end zone, the ball found its way to Gerard Phelan for a 47-45 victory at the famed Orange Bowl.

"It was after Thanksgiving," said BC head coach Bill O'Brien, "and we were eating Thanksgiving leftovers in my family room. My mom was saying a rosary in the kitchen because she didn't like Miami, so she really wanted BC to win. My dad and I - and my brother - were watching the game, and it was unbelievable. Everybody remembers where they were for the Hail Mary Flutie pass, and that's going to be awesome to welcome a lot of awesome guys from that team. There was a reason why they won, and it wasn't just the pass. Having met a lot of those guys over the years, they had great chemistry and great guys on that team."

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Question Box

Why haven't I mentioned Omarion Hampton?

To be honest, Hampton flat out scares the daylights out of me. He's 78 yards short of becoming the fourth ACC player to post 1,500 yards rushing in back-to-back seasons, and he became the first Tar Heel with consecutive 150-yard games since Gio Bernard demolished Virginia Tech and Miami for 439 yards across a two-game stretch in 2012.

I often view Hampton under the same microscope as AJ Dillon because the six-foot, 220-pound power back shares several key characteristics as BC's all-time leading rusher. The former four-star prospect is on the verge of becoming the third Tar Heel with 40 career rushing touchdowns, and he's likely to finish his career in the same sentence as Mike Voight and Amos Lawrence. Last week's 244-yard game against Wake Forest was downright scary, but he added five catches for 16 yards in what amounted to seventh straight game with at least three receptions.

Did Jacolby Criswell remember his locker combination when he returned to Chapel Hill?

It's hard to blame Criswell for transferring home to play for Arkansas after he failed to win the starting job in his first stint with North Carolina. He'd been forced to arrive in Chapel Hill for a freshman season marred by the COVID-19 pandemic, and Drake Maye's arrival and breakout made it impossible for him to remain as a backup once Sam Howell departed for NFL waters. He'd been once again forced into backup duties for the Razorbacks despite a 4-8 record for quarterback KJ Jefferson, and his reentry into the portal sent him back to Chapel Hill for an open competition that he finally won for this year.

Criswell never received a fair shot to start at any program until this season, but becoming a 2,000-yard passer as the offense transitioned out of Maye's era is pretty impressive considering he's only tossed three interceptions. He's not particularly accurate as a passer, but protecting the football and punching the ball into the end zone is more than enough to make him a lethal threat for an offense that usually revolves around Hampton.

Can I find an appropriate red slaw recipe?

Not in Massachusetts, I won't.

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Meteorology 101

As much as I enjoyed bright sunshine and crisp skies for the past month, I'm looking forward to a little bit of rain. I just wasn't looking forward to scattered rain during the middle of a football game in mid-November when 50 degrees chills down to the core of a person's bones.

Let's put it this way: we need the rain in New England. We're in a severe drought and anything is better than what we've received, but Thursday's heavier rains won't clear the dry conditions through the more scattered storms on Friday and Saturday without turning the conditions into those raw November days that find their way through your clothes.

I lived in New England my entire life and still can't recall a good way to stay warm when it rains in those conditions. Scattered showers remain in the forecast for Saturday, so pack a blanket, a hat, gloves, winter coat and anything else that makes December weather more palatable because it's not fun cold when wind burn eclipses the rosy-cheeked look.

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BC-UNC X Factor

I wish I could say something classy and inspirational, but that just wouldn't be our style. Pain heals, chicks dig scars. Glory…lasts forever. -Shane Falco

There's this single feeling surrounding Saturday that Boston College needs this win to achieve bowl eligibility. I don't know where it's coming from, and I certainly don't understand how it's any different from last week or next week in the sense that one win - over SMU, over Pitt, over any of the games that were lost this season - puts the Eagles into a postseason game. But it's there for a bulk of folks who are arriving on Saturday for a date with a North Carolina team that's felt vulnerable at times.

UNC isn't a conference championship megalith. The Tar Heels were once 3-4 after losing to Georgia Tech and looked lost when a four-game losing streak kicked off with a 70-50 loss to James Madison. The losses to Duke and Pittsburgh accounted for less than two touchdowns, and the followup loss to the Yellow Jackets stretched four losses by a combined 38 points, which in turn highlighted the razor thin margin between winning and losing.

The Tar Heels represent the type of team, though, that littered BC's schedule with brutal and tough opponents. Florida State hadn't quite cratered to the degree of its current 1-9 record when it played BC, and Michigan State is a borderline bowl team. Western Kentucky is challenging for the Conference USA championship, and Syracuse is still the best unranked team within the ACC power structure. Battling SMU, Louisville, Virginia and Virginia Tech could mean that four losses stem from potential bowl teams if Virginia and Virginia Tech win one more game. Pittsburgh was 7-0 and faces Louisville this week ahead of next week's finale at BC.

UNC faced down a similar structure to BC. The Tar Heels beat Minnesota, which is comparable to Michigan State, and beat Virginia, Florida State and Wake Forest after losing its ground. James Madison and former Holy Cross head coach Bob Chesney is an eight-win team bidding for a Sun Belt Conference crown.

One can't help but feel that this game holds determining factors for two teams searching for a particular bowl bid, and the head-to-head result, especially this late in the season, adds to the pecking order that doesn't formally exist within the ACC selection criteria.

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Dan's Non-Football Observation of the Week

This is my annual complaint about running around with my hair on fire in the days ahead of Thanksgiving. I despise going to the supermarket on the weekend before the holiday because I know lines get longer and wait times are capable of ruining an entire morning. I made the added mistake of taking children on last year's trip because I needed to add a bit of nuclear waste to the breakdown of societal order taking place between two car seats in the Market Basket parking lot.

I historically plan on buying groceries during a midday-midweek situation, but this year's inevitable derailment occurred when my wife and I engaged in a weekly tete-a-tete over the non-Thanksgiving grocery list. I didn't want to buy food, but her erstwhile stubbornness (her admission, not mine) kept pushing me to pick up things we'd need for the kids on Monday and Tuesday. She didn't agree with my assessment of "figuring it out" when we didn't have macaroni and cheese packs OR chicken nuggets in the house.

So here I am. I'm writing this up on a Friday afternoon with the knowledge that I'll spend my Sunday at Market Basket with two toddlers who won't want to sit in the shopping cart. I'll chase them, I'll buy green beans, potatoes, milk, cheese, and anything else we need. I'll buy lunch meat for those two days ahead of preschool and daycare dismissals. I'll slam into line with everyone else and die a little bit inside.

And on Monday, when I'm heating up those chicken nuggets and packing that macaroni and cheese cup for lunch on Tuesday - and because she'll never read this - she'll be right.

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Pregame Quote and Prediction

Here's your ballgame, folks, as Flutie takes the snap. He drops straight back, has some time, now scrambles away from one hit…looks…uncorks a deep one to the end zone. Phelan is down there (Gino Cappelletti: HE GOT IT). TOUCHDOWN! TOUCHDOWN! TOUCHDOWN! TOUCHDOWN BOSTON COLLEGE! HE DID IT! HE DID IT! FLUTIE DID IT! HE GOT PHELAN IN THE END ZONE, TOUCHDOWN! -- Dan Davis

Welcome home to the 1984 Eagles. Every era and generation has its own heroes, but the Flutie era is still a high water mark that many hope BC can one day replicate. It's always there, and reaching the 40-year mark did little to diminish its importance or its impact.

Boston College and North Carolina kick off on Saturday at noon from Alumni Stadium in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Television coverage is set for The CW with Evan Lepler and Steve Smith, Sr. handling broadcast duties from the booth and Carla Gebhart on the sidelines.