Boston College Athletics
2026 Boston College Football Preseason: Specialists Keep Pounding Towards Opener
August 14, 2026 | Football, #ForBoston Files
For a year defined by a clean break, BC's specialists are building on last year's success.
CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – The process of building Boston College towards the 2026 college football season continued this week with five training camp practices. The Eagles moved past last week's acclimation period by donning full pads for the first time on Wednesday, after which Tuesday's off day allowed them to reset their progress through the first body-on-body, full-speed hits and play calls.
From a practical standpoint, building on camp's start required the coaches to further analyze their units at a deeper level and move beyond status quo passing, rushing and defending by gelling the team through synergy within the units. From an application perspective, that meant finding ways to bridge the gaps by organically creating situational awareness within the greater scheme.
"With the roster rules, we have less guys," said special teams coordinator Matt Thurin. "We have seven specialists right now that are competing, so we try to set up their days like a pitcher in baseball. You can't kick every day, so we've been doing a good job of managing their legs to go through quite a few months of football…It's a very tight-knit group, and I think that everybody's excited to build on their past experiences. But every year is still a new year, so we have to go out and prove it."
Thurin's ability to construct success within the specialists generates one of the few areas where BC is rebuilding its team through continuity from last season. On pure numbers, kicker Luca Lombardo was the first specialist to convert all except one-or-less field goals on 10-or-more attempts since Connor Lytton went 11-for-12 in 2021, and his perfect extra point percentage contributed to the first cumulative year without a missed PAT since Aaron Boumerhi connected all of 2019's 45 attempts.
It seems basic and straightforward, but converting the totality of his field goals and extra points aided BC in a dramatic improvement in red zone scoring. Even in a year when the offense scored three less points per game than the 2024 season, scoring on red zone entries increased by 13 percentage points, and BC converted more than 90 percent of its zone entries during the final three games of the season. In a world where the past three teams averaged anywhere from 24 to 28 points per game, the bridge based from an extra field goal that didn't exist in Bill O'Brien's first two seasons therefore provides a difference between an offense averaging 30 points per game and a unit situated outside of the top-100 teams.
"Routines become habits," outlined Thurin, "and it's how they take care of their body. I think that having a lot of competition makes it easier to split up those reps more because guys have opportunities to go prove themselves. It's not just one group that's going out and working."
Beyond Lombardo, punter Shamus Florio stabilized a position that hadn't seen one player take the lion's share of kicks since 2022. His 49 kicks averaged to approximately four punts per game, and his 40-yard per-game average included a 63-yard punt against Fordham that was the longest such kick in four years. He later blasted a 56-yard punt against Pittsburgh and downed a punt on Connecticut's goal line, and coming from Yale for his graduate transfer season stabilized a position that otherwise included freshman Andy Quinn, who handled the bulk of kickoff duties while simultaneously landing a 68-yard punt against SMU.
A good punter has long been able to tilt field position. The 2025 Eagles admittedly held one of the most disparate starting drive positions in the entire bowl subdivision when compared to opposing offenses, but flipping that number requires more defensive stops and continued development from either Quinn or Towson transfer Bryce LaFollette, another player brought to Chestnut Hill to continue growing the leadership within the specialists room.Â
"They're both very professional with how they handle themselves," explained Thurin. "They do a good job competing together. Bryce brings a lot of experience, but Andy's a second-year player who played last year from a kickoff standpoint. He got a few reps in punt situations, and I think they both bring a professionalism to the position. They both have very talented legs that can do a lot of different things, and I think they have like-minded approaches to the game. They're friends off the field, and since everybody's a different person, they have different things [that they can do] - and I think they do a great job of working together to execute those things."
Thurin remains one of BC's greatest-kept secrets because he understands how to generate production from areas normally situated around the periphery. Having worked under multiple staffs, he's developed a controlled ability to continue staggering the special teams in a way that builds chemistry among a number of players. The internal linkage between the kicker, the holder, the snapper, the gunner, the kickoff coverage team, and the youth that's often taught the game through the special teams vision was a positive on last year's squad.Â
"It's sometimes location over velocity," said Thurin. If a guy can throw the ball really fast, the ball isn't where it is. So with special teams, you have to get the ball off very quickly. It's about the exact location that the holder catches the ball, where the laces are. If you get a wobbly ball, that's on the holder to do a great job catching the ball, spinning the laces and getting it down to the exact point. The exact location where the laces spin, you might be at seven yards, seven-and-a-half yards. So you see where variables are, and there is some nuance that's different about [the relationship between players]."
The 2026 Boston College football season kicks off on Saturday, September 5, at 3:30 p.m. with a trip to Cincinnati to play the Big 12's Bearcats on Fox. BC's first home game is a week later when the Eagles host Rutgers for its annual Red Bandanna Game on September 11, with kickoff slotted for 7:30 p.m. For available tickets to all BC games, contact 617-552-GoBC or visit BCEagles.com.
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From a practical standpoint, building on camp's start required the coaches to further analyze their units at a deeper level and move beyond status quo passing, rushing and defending by gelling the team through synergy within the units. From an application perspective, that meant finding ways to bridge the gaps by organically creating situational awareness within the greater scheme.
"With the roster rules, we have less guys," said special teams coordinator Matt Thurin. "We have seven specialists right now that are competing, so we try to set up their days like a pitcher in baseball. You can't kick every day, so we've been doing a good job of managing their legs to go through quite a few months of football…It's a very tight-knit group, and I think that everybody's excited to build on their past experiences. But every year is still a new year, so we have to go out and prove it."
Thurin's ability to construct success within the specialists generates one of the few areas where BC is rebuilding its team through continuity from last season. On pure numbers, kicker Luca Lombardo was the first specialist to convert all except one-or-less field goals on 10-or-more attempts since Connor Lytton went 11-for-12 in 2021, and his perfect extra point percentage contributed to the first cumulative year without a missed PAT since Aaron Boumerhi connected all of 2019's 45 attempts.
It seems basic and straightforward, but converting the totality of his field goals and extra points aided BC in a dramatic improvement in red zone scoring. Even in a year when the offense scored three less points per game than the 2024 season, scoring on red zone entries increased by 13 percentage points, and BC converted more than 90 percent of its zone entries during the final three games of the season. In a world where the past three teams averaged anywhere from 24 to 28 points per game, the bridge based from an extra field goal that didn't exist in Bill O'Brien's first two seasons therefore provides a difference between an offense averaging 30 points per game and a unit situated outside of the top-100 teams.
"Routines become habits," outlined Thurin, "and it's how they take care of their body. I think that having a lot of competition makes it easier to split up those reps more because guys have opportunities to go prove themselves. It's not just one group that's going out and working."
Beyond Lombardo, punter Shamus Florio stabilized a position that hadn't seen one player take the lion's share of kicks since 2022. His 49 kicks averaged to approximately four punts per game, and his 40-yard per-game average included a 63-yard punt against Fordham that was the longest such kick in four years. He later blasted a 56-yard punt against Pittsburgh and downed a punt on Connecticut's goal line, and coming from Yale for his graduate transfer season stabilized a position that otherwise included freshman Andy Quinn, who handled the bulk of kickoff duties while simultaneously landing a 68-yard punt against SMU.
A good punter has long been able to tilt field position. The 2025 Eagles admittedly held one of the most disparate starting drive positions in the entire bowl subdivision when compared to opposing offenses, but flipping that number requires more defensive stops and continued development from either Quinn or Towson transfer Bryce LaFollette, another player brought to Chestnut Hill to continue growing the leadership within the specialists room.Â
"They're both very professional with how they handle themselves," explained Thurin. "They do a good job competing together. Bryce brings a lot of experience, but Andy's a second-year player who played last year from a kickoff standpoint. He got a few reps in punt situations, and I think they both bring a professionalism to the position. They both have very talented legs that can do a lot of different things, and I think they have like-minded approaches to the game. They're friends off the field, and since everybody's a different person, they have different things [that they can do] - and I think they do a great job of working together to execute those things."
Thurin remains one of BC's greatest-kept secrets because he understands how to generate production from areas normally situated around the periphery. Having worked under multiple staffs, he's developed a controlled ability to continue staggering the special teams in a way that builds chemistry among a number of players. The internal linkage between the kicker, the holder, the snapper, the gunner, the kickoff coverage team, and the youth that's often taught the game through the special teams vision was a positive on last year's squad.Â
"It's sometimes location over velocity," said Thurin. If a guy can throw the ball really fast, the ball isn't where it is. So with special teams, you have to get the ball off very quickly. It's about the exact location that the holder catches the ball, where the laces are. If you get a wobbly ball, that's on the holder to do a great job catching the ball, spinning the laces and getting it down to the exact point. The exact location where the laces spin, you might be at seven yards, seven-and-a-half yards. So you see where variables are, and there is some nuance that's different about [the relationship between players]."
The 2026 Boston College football season kicks off on Saturday, September 5, at 3:30 p.m. with a trip to Cincinnati to play the Big 12's Bearcats on Fox. BC's first home game is a week later when the Eagles host Rutgers for its annual Red Bandanna Game on September 11, with kickoff slotted for 7:30 p.m. For available tickets to all BC games, contact 617-552-GoBC or visit BCEagles.com.
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