Boston College Athletics
2026 Boston College Football Preseason: One Step Closer To Real Game Action
August 19, 2026 | Football, #ForBoston Files
Saturday's scrimmage continued the groundwork emerging during this week's practice.
The first two-plus weeks of Boston College's preseason training camp allowed gathered media and guests to dream about the team's first football game in Alumni Stadium. On a daily basis, music tended to blare a little bit louder, hits rumbled a little bit fiercer, and everything geared towards the first time under the cramped confines of a loud and echoing atmosphere. Walking from the Yawkey Athletics Center to Fish Field House, the stadium loomed large in the backdrop, the gates inviting the players nearer - but not quite onto - the field.
Saturday morning's scrimmage on the Alumni Stadium turf finally checked off the first key milestone from the players who spent their first preseason practices on the outskirts of those locked iron gates. For the first time in 2026, they were able to step onto the turf and look at the seats and sidelines with the dream of the first home game against Rutgers while thinking about the first run-out one week earlier against Cincinnati. In the early stages of their scrimmage, a 65-yard run by running back Nolan Ray enabled a celebration that would trigger fireworks and delirium on any other weekend.
Yet beyond the music, the video boards and the mimicked presentation, the first scrimmage paved the miles between the new BC roster and the future. For the first time, the chemistry between offensive and defensive units played out in front of officials and coaches in a game-like simulation, which offered a path forward for a team that understands how the delicate balance between its units is the key to its future.
"I think our schedule has been good," said head coach Bill O'Brien on Saturday. "The players have been able to get some sleep, and we've had enough time to meet and walk through and learn. I've seen improvement, and we have about two weeks before we start ramping up for Cincinnati. We have to be careful with how many that we go in a row…I definitely see a good chemistry and good communication. Guys are learning each other's communication skills and moves. That has a ways to go, but it's really improved."
Chemistry construction is far from a hidden secret within BC's preseason vault, but the criticality around a team's ability to feed itself on all sides of the ball still managed to grab an underrated and understated piece of Saturday's preparation. While impossible to project a style from one intrasquad scrimmage, quarterback Mason McKenzie's individual passes to players like Jaedn Skeete weren't consistent enough for a standard seasonal Saturday, and the new week began with additional analysis on where and how those protections would improve.
"I thought the protection was not great," O'Brien admitted. "Our o-line's done a good job, but I thought Coach Roof threw some stuff at us that was tough to pick up. We have to go back and watch it and get better at it to walk through it, and then we'll do it again. Protection is going to be key in that deal."
 The job and role of these preseason scrimmages is to help a team ready itself for the first game of the season, and the personnel in Chestnut Hill needs adversity to continue gelling. Some good and some bad needed to exist on both sides of the ball, and the subsequent fixing in every phase of the game is part of the improvement needed to generate a required synergy within the roster.
Ah, yes - there's that word again: synergy. For what it's worth, every post-COVID BC team with a .500-or-better record - or, more simply, bowl eligible - held longer times of possession than its opponent, the apex of which occurred when the 2023 and 2024 teams eclipsed 32 minutes of game possession. Unsurprisingly, both of those teams occupied advantageous positioning in their respective hunts for the Atlantic Coast Conference's championship game race, with 2023's infamous "path" producing a five-game winning streak and undefeated October before the the 2024 team reclaimed a slot in the national polls after winning four of its first five games.
Creating balance between each side of the football allows a team to dictate the tempo and control the game flow, and the more recent BC teams played their best football when they were able to thread the tightrope between stalwart defenses and transitionary or fluid offenses. The 2018 team created havoc for opponents by simply refusing to surrender points. A year that averaged 400 yards per game neatly balanced its 215 yards per-game passing attack output against a run-heavy scheme that charged defenses for 190 yards per game, but the defense surrendered more first downs and comparable yards. The main difference emerged from the number of touchdowns and the number of takeaways, which included double the number of interceptions.
To that end, "dictating the pace and tempo" didn't translate directly into time of possession or even total offense or total defense, but the Eagles still started the year 7-2 because their most important wins - Wake Forest, Temple, Louisville, Miami and Virginia Tech - struck the right balance between offense and defense. In each case, outscoring opponents by multiple possessions became the trademark staple, and the lone one-possession win against Wake Forest was a game ultimately rescheduled by two hours because of an impending hurricane warning.
Figuring out how an August scrimmage impacts those numbers and approach for this year's BC team is accordingly impossible. It's well established that last year's numbers can't project the performance of personnel who weren't playing for the 2025 Eagles, and the positives and negatives from Saturday won't bear much public fruit for the September 5 game against the Bearcats. Instead, it's more for the coaches and players to continue building with the hope that the production - both positive and negative - yields an outcome when a road trip to the Big 12 starts the 2026 regular season for real.
"What I've seen so far, the chemistry is great," said wide receiver Johnathan Montague. "Everybody's getting along and having fun playing football, doing what we love. That's all we're going to ask for…I think we have a lot to prove, and we want to show everyone that we can take a stride and not just be that same old BC team, that we can set a new standard for us and the guys that are coming forward."
Saturday morning's scrimmage on the Alumni Stadium turf finally checked off the first key milestone from the players who spent their first preseason practices on the outskirts of those locked iron gates. For the first time in 2026, they were able to step onto the turf and look at the seats and sidelines with the dream of the first home game against Rutgers while thinking about the first run-out one week earlier against Cincinnati. In the early stages of their scrimmage, a 65-yard run by running back Nolan Ray enabled a celebration that would trigger fireworks and delirium on any other weekend.
Yet beyond the music, the video boards and the mimicked presentation, the first scrimmage paved the miles between the new BC roster and the future. For the first time, the chemistry between offensive and defensive units played out in front of officials and coaches in a game-like simulation, which offered a path forward for a team that understands how the delicate balance between its units is the key to its future.
"I think our schedule has been good," said head coach Bill O'Brien on Saturday. "The players have been able to get some sleep, and we've had enough time to meet and walk through and learn. I've seen improvement, and we have about two weeks before we start ramping up for Cincinnati. We have to be careful with how many that we go in a row…I definitely see a good chemistry and good communication. Guys are learning each other's communication skills and moves. That has a ways to go, but it's really improved."
Chemistry construction is far from a hidden secret within BC's preseason vault, but the criticality around a team's ability to feed itself on all sides of the ball still managed to grab an underrated and understated piece of Saturday's preparation. While impossible to project a style from one intrasquad scrimmage, quarterback Mason McKenzie's individual passes to players like Jaedn Skeete weren't consistent enough for a standard seasonal Saturday, and the new week began with additional analysis on where and how those protections would improve.
"I thought the protection was not great," O'Brien admitted. "Our o-line's done a good job, but I thought Coach Roof threw some stuff at us that was tough to pick up. We have to go back and watch it and get better at it to walk through it, and then we'll do it again. Protection is going to be key in that deal."
 The job and role of these preseason scrimmages is to help a team ready itself for the first game of the season, and the personnel in Chestnut Hill needs adversity to continue gelling. Some good and some bad needed to exist on both sides of the ball, and the subsequent fixing in every phase of the game is part of the improvement needed to generate a required synergy within the roster.
Ah, yes - there's that word again: synergy. For what it's worth, every post-COVID BC team with a .500-or-better record - or, more simply, bowl eligible - held longer times of possession than its opponent, the apex of which occurred when the 2023 and 2024 teams eclipsed 32 minutes of game possession. Unsurprisingly, both of those teams occupied advantageous positioning in their respective hunts for the Atlantic Coast Conference's championship game race, with 2023's infamous "path" producing a five-game winning streak and undefeated October before the the 2024 team reclaimed a slot in the national polls after winning four of its first five games.
Creating balance between each side of the football allows a team to dictate the tempo and control the game flow, and the more recent BC teams played their best football when they were able to thread the tightrope between stalwart defenses and transitionary or fluid offenses. The 2018 team created havoc for opponents by simply refusing to surrender points. A year that averaged 400 yards per game neatly balanced its 215 yards per-game passing attack output against a run-heavy scheme that charged defenses for 190 yards per game, but the defense surrendered more first downs and comparable yards. The main difference emerged from the number of touchdowns and the number of takeaways, which included double the number of interceptions.
To that end, "dictating the pace and tempo" didn't translate directly into time of possession or even total offense or total defense, but the Eagles still started the year 7-2 because their most important wins - Wake Forest, Temple, Louisville, Miami and Virginia Tech - struck the right balance between offense and defense. In each case, outscoring opponents by multiple possessions became the trademark staple, and the lone one-possession win against Wake Forest was a game ultimately rescheduled by two hours because of an impending hurricane warning.
Figuring out how an August scrimmage impacts those numbers and approach for this year's BC team is accordingly impossible. It's well established that last year's numbers can't project the performance of personnel who weren't playing for the 2025 Eagles, and the positives and negatives from Saturday won't bear much public fruit for the September 5 game against the Bearcats. Instead, it's more for the coaches and players to continue building with the hope that the production - both positive and negative - yields an outcome when a road trip to the Big 12 starts the 2026 regular season for real.
"What I've seen so far, the chemistry is great," said wide receiver Johnathan Montague. "Everybody's getting along and having fun playing football, doing what we love. That's all we're going to ask for…I think we have a lot to prove, and we want to show everyone that we can take a stride and not just be that same old BC team, that we can set a new standard for us and the guys that are coming forward."
Players Mentioned
Wednesday, August 19
Wednesday, August 19
Wednesday, August 19
Wednesday, August 19
