College Football

Boston College football schedule 2013: Dates, toughest opponents and more

New Boston College head coach Steve Addazio hasn’t been done any favors by the schedule makers.

Aug 27, 2013, 12:00 PM UTC

USA TODAY Sports

Boston College has a new coaching staff and a new long-term outlook to go with it, but the Eagles are still likely to endure their share of struggles in 2013. The schedule not only features a road game at USC, it also puts BC through a brutal stretch of league games beginning in late September. The Eagles will improve on 2012’s 2-10 record despite those challenges, though.

2013 Boston College schedule


Date	Opponent	Conf.	Projected ranking
8/31/13	Villanova	FCS
9/6/13	Wake Forest (Friday)	ACC	80
9/14/13	at USC	Pac-12	17
9/21/13	Open date
9/28/13	Florida State	ACC	19
10/5/13	Army	Indep.	106
10/12/13	at Clemson	ACC	21
10/19/13	Open date
10/26/13	at North Carolina	ACC	29
11/2/13	Virginia Tech	ACC	24
11/9/13	at New Mexico State	Indep.	123
11/16/13	N.C. State	ACC	61
11/23/13	at Maryland	ACC	82
11/30/13	at Syracuse	ACC	55
12/7/13	ACC Championship (Charlotte)
Date	Opponent	Conf.	Projected ranking

Projections from Football Outsiders’ 2013 college football almanac.

More: Can BC follow the Stanford model to success in football? Complete BC football coverage

Following their trip to play the Trojans in Week 3, the Eagles get a week to collect themselves before embarking on a run of games that includes road trips to Clemson and North Carolina and home contests against Florida State and Virginia Tech. Those could prove to be the best four teams in the ACC, and at minimum they will all be bowl-caliber.

That’s a tough break for first-year head coach Steve Addazio, who has a veteran quarterback in Chase Rettig but a lot of foundational work to do across the board. He does have a relatively easy non-conference slate ahead of him, the USC game aside, and the degree of difficulty declines considerably in November. Still, BC will have to finish the year with a pair of road trips.

With games against Villanova and Wake Forest to begin the season, the Eagles do have a chance to start strong. Any upsets they’re able to find in the rough stretch outlined earlier will be gravy. The team can work around that portion of the schedule and get bowl eligible, though, and that would be a nice first step for Addazio. It would be meaningful simply for what it would signify to fans and recruits -- the end of the program’s multi-year slide.