Boston College has a new coaching staff but a lot of the same issues that plagued Frank Spaziani’s unsuccessful tenure. Wake Forest hasn’t had a winning season since 2008. No big turnaround appears to be on the immediate horizon for either program, but one of them will be 2-0 after Saturday.
How to watch Wake Forest vs. Boston College 2013: Preview, TV schedule, odds and more
The Eagles and Demon Deacons meet for an early-season conference game.
Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports
The Eagles’ defense looked alarmingly vulnerable against FCS Villanova in Week 1, allowing the Wildcats to gain 5.7 yards per play. Defense once was a strength at BC, but it’s been a trouble spot -- one of many -- in recent seasons. Wake Forest has an experienced quarterback and some decent skill position talent, and if the Eagles don’t tighten the screws, they may be in for a rough day.
Wake Forest had no such defensive issues, limiting poor Presbyterian to just two first downs and 151 total yards, 66 of which came on one play. Whether any of that is a true indicator of improvement on that side of the ball remains to be seen. We’ll have a slightly better idea about that after this weekend.
The numbers
Rankings and records: Boston College is 10-8 all-time against Wake Forest, though the Eagles have lost two in a row in the series, including a 28-14 defeat in Winston-Salem last season. Neither team is ranked, and neither one will be ranked following a victory.
Vegas: Boston College opened as a five-point favorite, and the over/under was set at 47 points.
Weather: A high of around 80 is expected, with little chance of rain.
Three names to know
Tanner Price -- Price brings loads of experience to the table for the Deacs, and he can be really good. He's coming off a down junior season, however, and that was one reason why Wake Forest fell short of a bowl game in 2012. Without question, though, Price is talented enough to carry his team to a win in a game like this one.
Alex Amidon -- Amidon is easy to miss, tucked away as he is on a bad team. He was one of the ACC's best wideouts in 2012, finishing second in the league with 1,210 receiving yards. Chase Rettig hit him 13 times in BC's first game, and there's plenty more where that came from.
Kevin Pierre-Louis -- The Boston College linebacker was a preseason All-ACC selection and he did not disappoint against Villanova, racking up 12 tackles. He finished last season 12th in the league with 85 stops, and he’ll be a leader of the BC defense again this year.
Two things at stake
Boston College and Wake Forest will not factor into the ACC title race, barring a bizarre and unforeseeable series of developments, but for one week at least, the winner of this game can stand tall at the top of the Atlantic Division standings. Hey, you gotta take what you can get.
A more realistic focus for both teams is getting back to bowl eligibility, and a victory gets one of them a third of the way there. They both have winnable conference games down the line, but there is no better opportunity to grab one for either team than this game.
How to witness
TV: ESPN2 (8 p.m. ET)
Radio: Here are Wake’s radio affiliates, and here are BC’s.
Online streaming: ESPN3
Further reading
Our outstanding team blogs, BC Interruption and Blogger So Dear, have deemed this matchup “The Rivalry,” which is a bit of an inside joke -- neither school really has a big rival within the conference, and a BC-Wake rivalry makes absolutely no sense, which is all part of the fun.
The two sites conducted a Q&A this week: BSD talks Wake here, and BCI talks BC here. BC Interruption has plenty more on this contest, as well.
Also on: Central Florida at FIU, CBS Sports Network, 8 p.m. ET
These two Floridian teams face off for just the third time, in a rubber match -- after an FIU win in 2011, Central Florida responded with a win in 2012. UCF is a heavy favorite to win this one as well, after an opening-week drubbing of Akron and Maryland's opening-week blowout of FIU.
More from SB Nation:
See More:
