The Tailgate: Rutgers

One of the more unique aspects of my high school experience revolved around a schedule rotation that prevented days from repeating on a weekly basis. Seven different days ensured that no single schedule fell on the same day of the week, and our mornings revolved around taking two classes before reporting to home room for morning announcements. The loudspeaker was seldom used after our morning prayer - I went to a Catholic high school - so the crackling of our headmaster's voice during the ten minutes between second and third period was made all the more strange by the fact that it wasn't the principal or vice principal.

The deliberate request for attention shocked everyone in my classroom into silence, and every single one of us at an all-boys high school assumed that we'd done something, well, bad. Maybe someone got in trouble, or a part of the building needed renovation - it was near the start of the year, after all, - or, at worst, a very, very important member of our community passed away unexpectedly.

We never expected Brother Robert Green to announce that a terrorist attack against the country was underway, and the rest of the day in school was spent with prayer and conversation about what was happening. I don't even remember if we studied or learned anything, but I vividly recall getting dismissed at the end of the day with bright blue skies and no airplanes overhead. They'd been grounded when the aviation authorities closed the American airspace, and Malden being less than a half hour's drive from Logan Airport left an emptiness and eerie silence overhead.

The night at home was even stranger. Every television channel - sports stations, included - tuned to uninterrupted news coverage, and the only thing to watch was an X-Men movie on HBO that ended with Magneto attacking dignitaries from a position on the Statue of Liberty. My two older brothers had no cell phone reception, so the energy was even stranger when my middle brother at UMass-Dartmouth either couldn't or wouldn't answer his phone from the six-hour volleyball marathon occurring with his friends. My other brother was a new teacher in his first year in education, and I'm pretty sure he rented a movie from Blockbuster Video.

The next day gradually turned into the next week, which became the next month and the next year. American life never returned to its standard normalcy, but none of us forgot what happened on September 11, 2001. I met friends and fell out of contact with others, graduated college, started a life, turned my time into a future with my wife and, now, children. Her sister married a firefighter, the latest in a long line of firefighters of their hometown. Their cousin served in the Army.

We've all forgotten stories, but the memories that came and went were seared into a life that was impacted by 9/11. We all remember when we first heard about the attacks, and we remember how much the nation mourned and changed in the aftermath. We all knew someone who knew someone - who knew someone - who was directly impacted by the attacks, and it remained a part of our generation, even as time marched forward.

It's impossible to imagine that 25 years have since passed, and on Friday, we'll recall those moments and celebrate a time when everyday people selflessly gave themselves with heroism and courage. We'll keep telling the stories that everyone needs to hear, and at night, we'll honor one of those people - Welles Remy Crowther - by watching a football game between universities that will likewise continue to mourn what they lost.

But most importantly, we'll remember.

Here's what to watch when BC hosts Rutgers in its annual Red Bandanna Game:

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Weekly Storylines (Ted Lasso Edition)

Be curious, not judgmental.

BC and Rutgers each lost their first game of the 2026 season because issues inflicted on their individual game plans sunk their ability to put the ball in the end zone. They each struggled with consistency in their tackling and defensive schemes, and each surrendered far too many yards after contact against opponents that never required a second gear to produce positive plays.

Even in a season that's still in its infancy, Bill O'Brien and Greg Schiano were each challenged during the week to determine where the turnover woes and various miscues - the missed tackles, the blown coverages, the lack of consistency after consistently moving the football through individual offensive plays - stemmed from a lack of execution or a full blown schematic gap. On Friday night, the determination on whether or not to completely course correct while attempting to reinforce the positives will become more evidently clear when they each try to avoid an 0-2 record.

"We laid an egg," admitted Schiano during his weekly press conference. "We were the national punchline. It's embarrassing that we coached and played the way that we played, and it starts with me and ends with me. It's my job to get them ready to play, we didn't do that, but that's in the past. That was whatever many days ago, and I talked to the players very honestly. I told them that in life you're going to have things that don't make sense…if you don't own it, you're one of the excuse makers that points [fingers]."

Rutgers made the decision to change its starting quarterback for Friday night, but the individual move to AJ Surace doesn't readily indicate a full blown reinvention because Dylan Lonergan exited the UMass game with an undisclosed injury. He'd thrown three interceptions at that point, but the former BC starting quarterback's lack of regular practice made the decision relatively easy for a team that watched Surace throw for 77 yards in relief duty.

"Dylan was removed because of injury," explained Schiano, "He has not been able to practice. So AJ is going to be the starting quarterback. We don't know if Dylan will be available in an emergency role, and if you haven't practiced, it's awfully hard to be ready. He has cumulative repetitions, so it's our hope that he can feel well by game time, that we can have him dressed."

You know what the happiest animal on Earth is? A goldfish. You know why? It's got a 10-second memory.

Of course, the notes surrounding Surace all required a grain of salt because of the nuance facing the overall Rutgers performance. The three Lonergan picks, for example, made it significantly easier to overlook the first drive and a 12-play, 75-yard march to a 7-0 lead over the Minutemen, and his interception and fumble on consecutive plays handed UMass a two-score advantage at a time when the game teetered on swinging back to the Scarlet Knights. A later interception stopped the offense short of the red area, and an earlier turnover on downs ended a 12-play, 63-yard drive without points.

All of that indicates an ability to move the football, but the deficit, like BC, pushed Rutgers away from its full style of play at a time when the running game needed more snaps to get moving. By the end of the game, the blowout score robbed the offense of anything more than one yard per rush, and the leading rusher on the roster - Antwan Raymond - finished with 42 yards on 14 carries because the offense fell completely out of sync.

"We didn't run the ball effectively," said Schiano. "The offensive line didn't play well, period. We didn't coach them well, and they didn't play well. So we have to run the ball. That's who we are, and we have to run the ball better. It all fit together. There was no part of our program that was exempt from a lack of focus."

Taking on a challenge is a lot like riding a horse. If you're comfortable while you're doing it, you're probably doing it wrong.

Perhaps it's all too easy, then to point at an improvement in the lack of tackling that sprung Cincinnati for too many yards after initial contact. Even with a switch to Surace at quarterback, the secondary and second-level tacklers enter this week under their own microscope against a unit that broke through 300 yards passing against UMass.

"[KJ Duff] is a problem," said defensive coordinator Ted Roof during Wednesday's media availability. "Number one, he's super competitive. That's what jumps out of watching him on tape. He's got great length, a great catch radius, he can run, and he's a problem. He's a problem for everybody. He's going to be an NFL receiver, so it's something that we have to be aware of him, wherever he is."

Duff's nine catches for 196 yards and three touchdowns are hardly an aberration, and his breakaway speed presents a whole host of issues. Even last year, his 1,000-yard season and three scores were a security blanket for Athan Kaliakmanis, and the only way to truly stop him is to keep him off of the field. For BC, that means getting off of the field on third down by stopping the run before handing the ball to an offense that needs to disrupt Rutgers with long drives built around protection and minimized mistakes.

"We have to eliminate bad football," said O'Brien. "There was too much bad football, too many false starts. We had a delay of game, and then there were the turnovers, the missed tackles, and a missed field goal. There are just too many, too many errors."

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Question Box

Can Mason McKenzie continue to bring the offense to a next level?

McKenzie exuded confidence and a willingness to lead the offense whenever he scrambled for yardage against Cincinnati, so the offense's creativity is a key component in turning more drives into touchdowns. Knowing that he can make plays with his legs, expect the blocking scheme to step forward by using its intelligence and vision to understand where the quarterback can move when plays break down - either by design or by happenstance.

"We just have to get better," said McKenzie. "That was what we took away from the game. A lot of things that happened in that game were on us. It wasn't because they outplayed us…we messed up on many levels. It's frustrating to have to look at the film and see that, but we know that there are always things to correct, and that's what we have to do on the field this week."

Who plays better situational football?

Rutgers gained fewer than 20 first downs while going 3-for-11 on third down conversions against UMass. BC went 4-for-13 on third downs while gaining 24 first downs. The barely-marginal numbers mean both teams have to get better at creating short yardage situations, at which point their respective offenses should create more firsts if they improve according to their practice plans.

"There are better decisions that we have to make," said O'Brien. "Charlie [Comella] had a chance to have a big return, but we didn't block it very well. Three guys completely whiffed on their guys, so we have to block that better. We have to know who we have [for assignments] on punt returns and kick returns…those are things to correct, but there are also things to [continue] building up."

Does my wife eat the brisket on Friday night, or does she avoid dinner altogether?

Friday night kicks off our household's celebration of Rosh Hashanah, and it's always an interesting time in my interfaith relationship with my Italian wife. She's not used to the ethnic foods from Jewish holiday, not even after 15 years of a relationship and 11-plus years of marriage, and she's notoriously averse to eating red meat. I'm interested to see what happens when I make the traditional brisket dinner on Friday before I head to services, and I'm even more interested to see if she keeps a turkey breast in the reserve tank.

One thing's for sure, we'll meet in the middle on potato kugel and wine.

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Meteorology 101

An AI machine once told me that Rockwellian weather is "an idealized, picture-perfect meteorological setting that evokes nostalgia, warmth, and traditional small-town charm." I once heard the term "chamber of commerce-type day" used in the same breath, and while neither is a formal meteorological term, both are perfect descriptions for a Friday night forecast encompassing clear skies and temperatures in the 60s.

In the old days, my dad and I would absolutely plow through multiple parm subs while having an ice cold soda or two. Since it's a Jewish holiday after sundown, I'm thinking an Italian cold cut sub for lunch is a great start to a Friday-based game day.

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X Factor of the Week

I have become cuuuuuumbersoooooome. -Seven Mary Three

First off: phenomenal track for those of us who remember the glory days of grunge rock. Call me old, but the mid-1990s are the golden age for my contemporaries.

Beyond that, the obvious statement about scoring points to win football games was driven home by the 18 teams that didn't post 20 points during their Week One matchups. Michigan was the only one of those teams to win its game, but even the one-point win over Western Michigan required drama and controversy that extended into the days beyond the 13-12 final score. Even with the FBS-FCS blowouts that occurred, it's not difficult to hypothesize that scoring touchdowns is the best way to balance scales against an opponent.

"You have got to learn from what we did wrong," said Roof, "and as coaches, that's the number one thing to learn. And that motivates the staff. You have got to turn the page. It stings and it hurts because we're never going to get that opportunity back, but we've got to be onto the next opportunity because we can't look in the rearview mirror while driving the car."

Finally, you're all welcome for the fact that I included a band with a name basically telling us all to score touchdowns over field goals.

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Around College Football

Week One finished with a decided lack of drama outside of the last-second Hail Mary at Michigan and the thrillers involving SMU's power-shortened win over Florida State and Louisville's loss to Ole Miss, so the hope is that the second week of football kicks into a higher gear with matchups that include a heavyweight bout between No. 1 Ohio State and No. 4 Texas.

Looking specifically at the Top 25, an early afternoon start between No. 6 Oregon and unranked Oklahoma State offers a sneaky tough road trip for a Ducks team that was largely immune to issues with crossing into the central time zones, and an Arizona State road trip to No. 10 Texas A&M lines up a heavyweight Saturday slate featuring No. 11 Oklahoma's trip to Michigan. Later on, No. 12 Alabama opens its SEC play with a game at Kentucky while Arizona heads to No. 15 BYU for a Big 12 opener in Nevada while No. 18 Tennessee leaves Rocky Top to play Georgia Tech. Later in the night, No. 20 Utah hosts Arkansas.

In the ACC, a slew of Friday night games brings Villanova's newly-joined Patriot League squad to No. 24 Louisville and Norfolk State to No. 25 Virginia, while NC State hosts a Richmond squad likewise joined the Patriot League before scooting by both Bucknell and Howard in its first two games. On Saturday, a Virginia-based matchup between Old Dominion and Virginia Tech lines up opposite Wake Forest's trip to Purdue, and the mid afternoon features Central Florida's game at Pittsburgh, Cal's conference opener at Syracuse and Duke's non-conference game against Illinois.

Outside of the ACC, a few notable games pits No. 16 Penn State against in-state rival Temple while Washington State heads to Kansas State. Later on, Mississippi State is at Minnesota with Memphis visiting Boise State. At night, the CyHawk Trophy is up for grabs when Iowa State heads to Iowa, and the late night hour opens Mountain West play for North Dakota State with a trip to Air Force. Those of us looking for an imsomnia special have a midnight start at Hawaii with the Rainbow Warriors hosting New Mexico State.

And on the local radar, Maine's game against Merrimack is the final tune-up before the Black Bears arrive in Chestnut Hill for the FCS team's game against an FBS opponent. UMass, meanwhile, draws Sacred Heart after its win over Rutgers, and Holy Cross heads to Miami (Ohio).

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Dan's Non-Sports Observation of the Week

My wife and I joined one of those boot camp gyms in our hometown in an effort to get healthier and live a bit of a better lifestyle. We love the community, the trainers and virtually everything about the place, but dropping approximately 30 pounds over the past few months left us each with a conundrum about our respective wardrobes. Basically, nothing fits anymore because it's all wicked big.

It's a good problem to have, but a recent trip to a Dairy Queen for a soft serve ice cream nearly backfired when I almost lost my shorts in the parking lot. I knew they didn't fit to begin with, and I should have changed, but I decided instead to ride the lightning and put my wallet in the pocket of shorts that were too big. I got to the car, drove home, and learned a valuable lesson to always wear something that fits. Or a belt. Wear a belt. Even if it's gym shorts.

Also, my wife is going shopping with me next week.

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Pregame Quote and Prediction

Left the house this morning.
Bells were ringing and filled the air.
I was wearing the cross of my calling.
On wheels of fire, I keep rolling downhill.
-Bruce Springsteen, "The Rising"

The mission is always bigger than the game. This is our chance to remember, to honor, and to unite for respect, for one another, for a responsibility.

For Welles.

Boston College and Rutgers kick off BC's annual Red Bandanna Game at 7:30 p.m., on Friday, September 11, 2026, from Alumni Stadium in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Television coverage is available on ESPN2 with Mike Monaco on the play-by-play, Jordan Rodgers providing color analysis, and Dana Boyle on the sidelines.

Boston College Athletics

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Dylan Lonergan

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