Photo by: Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images
2025 ACC Kickoff: No Penalty For Watching BC
July 26, 2025 | Football, #ForBoston Files
The Eagles hit the media circuit by reinforcing fundamental football.
CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. -- Last Thursday's trip to the ACC Football Kickoff event brought programs a steady stream of questions about their upcoming season. As is usually the case, expectations ran high for teams with entrenched perceptions of historical success while others flew under the radar. Special attention went to teams capable of generating headlines and nearly every program carried the weight of its past and future.  For Boston College head coach Bill O'Brien, that meant answering the usual question about the team's overall status and how it intended to compete against the so-called power brokers within the league.
The answers from the second-year head coach reflected a palpable excitement about the Eagles. After a year one focused on building a foundation capable of breaking through, the message was clear - the 2025 campaign features a team loaded with potential.Â
"There's a small margin of error for all the teams," said O'Brien, "and I think we have to figure out how to be on the right side of that margin. Whether it's turnovers or missed opportunities on defense, maybe a lack of communication here and there, my point is that it comes down to seven or eight, maybe nine plays in a game that make a big difference."
The 2024 season featured six games for the Eagles that ended within a touchdown-or-less margin of victory. The Louisville loss stung particularly hard after the Eagles built a massive first half lead, but wins over Michigan State and Western Kentucky tempered the back-and-forth loss to Missouri. The win over Syracuse broke a three-game losing streak that featured the aforementioned pre-Halloween nightmare against the Cardinals, and even the loss to Nebraska in the Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl could have ended differently if the Eagles hadn't fallen behind by 18 points ahead of a fourth quarter rally.
"We did a great job last year in the discipline of our team," explained O'Brien. "That has to continue. Our penalties went down from the year before. We have to continue that because the difference between one game over .500 and 10 or 11 wins, it's a small margin."
It sounds simplistic, but the direct line between BC's success and its ability to limit mistakes became apparent after the 2023 season inflicted 200-plus yards in consecutive games at the start of the year. Most notably, the 38 penalties absorbed against Northern Illinois, Holy Cross and Florida State included a program record against the Seminoles and entrenched the team with an unavoidable conversation about its propensity for drawing flags. By contrast, the 2024 team didn't receive its 38th penalty until a mid-October loss against Virginia Tech - a game that fell on the back end of a 14-penalty, two-game stretch of losses unlike anything produced over the entirety of the season.
The Eagles drew just 25 penalties in their seven wins and performed well below their overall season average by posting an average of 37.4 yards per game. Compared to the number that hovered near 50 yards per game in their six losses, the corollary then exists to remove three or four fundamental penalties per game while continuing to avoid the undisciplined levies on personal fouls.
"The credit goes to the players for those numbers," said O'Brien. "We talk to these guys a lot about being disciplined and what that can do for [the team]. If you win the penalty battle, you win the turnover battle, you tackle well, you play just good, clean football and eliminate bad football, and then you take advantage of bad football when it happens, that can help you win."
Returning production in every phase of the game is an unquestionable asset to that endpoint. BC is, in essence, still the team from last year, though notable holes still exist after players like Donovan Ezeiruaku, Ozzy Trapilo and Drew Kendall finally departed for the professional ranks, and the continuity combines with continued transition through an entire offseason of conditioning and training under the watchful eyes of this particular coaching staff.
"We instilled discipline in the beginning when I got here with our staff," said O'Brien. "The players hold each other accountable on that now, relative to the discipline on each side of the ball and on special teams. So I give them a lot of credit, and that has to continue. That's going to be a big part of our winning formula."
Boston College opens the 2025 campaign when it hosts Fordham on Saturday, August 30, from Alumni Stadium in Chestnut Hill. Game time is scheduled for 2 p.m. and doubles as the university's Faculty and Staff Appreciation Day, along with Healthcare Heroes Day.
The answers from the second-year head coach reflected a palpable excitement about the Eagles. After a year one focused on building a foundation capable of breaking through, the message was clear - the 2025 campaign features a team loaded with potential.Â
"There's a small margin of error for all the teams," said O'Brien, "and I think we have to figure out how to be on the right side of that margin. Whether it's turnovers or missed opportunities on defense, maybe a lack of communication here and there, my point is that it comes down to seven or eight, maybe nine plays in a game that make a big difference."
The 2024 season featured six games for the Eagles that ended within a touchdown-or-less margin of victory. The Louisville loss stung particularly hard after the Eagles built a massive first half lead, but wins over Michigan State and Western Kentucky tempered the back-and-forth loss to Missouri. The win over Syracuse broke a three-game losing streak that featured the aforementioned pre-Halloween nightmare against the Cardinals, and even the loss to Nebraska in the Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl could have ended differently if the Eagles hadn't fallen behind by 18 points ahead of a fourth quarter rally.
"We did a great job last year in the discipline of our team," explained O'Brien. "That has to continue. Our penalties went down from the year before. We have to continue that because the difference between one game over .500 and 10 or 11 wins, it's a small margin."
It sounds simplistic, but the direct line between BC's success and its ability to limit mistakes became apparent after the 2023 season inflicted 200-plus yards in consecutive games at the start of the year. Most notably, the 38 penalties absorbed against Northern Illinois, Holy Cross and Florida State included a program record against the Seminoles and entrenched the team with an unavoidable conversation about its propensity for drawing flags. By contrast, the 2024 team didn't receive its 38th penalty until a mid-October loss against Virginia Tech - a game that fell on the back end of a 14-penalty, two-game stretch of losses unlike anything produced over the entirety of the season.
The Eagles drew just 25 penalties in their seven wins and performed well below their overall season average by posting an average of 37.4 yards per game. Compared to the number that hovered near 50 yards per game in their six losses, the corollary then exists to remove three or four fundamental penalties per game while continuing to avoid the undisciplined levies on personal fouls.
"The credit goes to the players for those numbers," said O'Brien. "We talk to these guys a lot about being disciplined and what that can do for [the team]. If you win the penalty battle, you win the turnover battle, you tackle well, you play just good, clean football and eliminate bad football, and then you take advantage of bad football when it happens, that can help you win."
Returning production in every phase of the game is an unquestionable asset to that endpoint. BC is, in essence, still the team from last year, though notable holes still exist after players like Donovan Ezeiruaku, Ozzy Trapilo and Drew Kendall finally departed for the professional ranks, and the continuity combines with continued transition through an entire offseason of conditioning and training under the watchful eyes of this particular coaching staff.
"We instilled discipline in the beginning when I got here with our staff," said O'Brien. "The players hold each other accountable on that now, relative to the discipline on each side of the ball and on special teams. So I give them a lot of credit, and that has to continue. That's going to be a big part of our winning formula."
Boston College opens the 2025 campaign when it hosts Fordham on Saturday, August 30, from Alumni Stadium in Chestnut Hill. Game time is scheduled for 2 p.m. and doubles as the university's Faculty and Staff Appreciation Day, along with Healthcare Heroes Day.
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