Boston College has been solid for most of this century. This year, the Eagles will play in their 16th bowl in the last 20 years. They’ve finished five of those years ranked, and they even got all the way up to No. 2 at one point during the Matt Ryan era. In general, they’ve been one of the country’s most reliable bets to win seven or so games.
6 keys to Boston College going from laughingstock to ‘College GameDay’ host
The Eagles have fielded plenty of solid teams, but they were a joke earlier this decade. Here’s what changed.
But when BC was down earlier this decade, it was a laughingstock.
A lot of us talked about the Eagles the same way we know talk about Rutgers and Kansas. BC was only bad for three years between 2011 and 2015, and it was only 2-10 bad in one of those. But the team became a punchline anyway because of how bad its offense was. Years of scoring fewer than 20 points per game made it funny when BC couldn’t even score a touchdown in its 2016 spring game.
Now, though, BC’s just plain solid.
It’s gotten back into the AP Poll for the first time since 2008. It was 22nd in the first Playoff committee ranking of the year. It’s 38th in S&P+, after finishing 66th last year and well below that in some lean years prior.
The program’s getting more validation this weekend, as it hosts both College GameDay and ABC’s primetime telecast for a game against No. 2 Clemson.
What’s happened? Sorting out exactly when BC fixed things is hard, because Steve Addazio’s sandwiched four 7-6 seasons around a 3-9 mark in 2015. But here are some keys:
1. They hired an offensive-minded head coach.
Former coach Frank Spaziani had a defensive coaching background. True to that form, Spaziani’s teams were regularly good at defense. But they were often terrible on offense. After years of mediocrity, the offense fell into a ditch in 2010, when it dropped from 90th to 105th in yards per play. It stayed terrible for years. BC’s offense has improved after Addazio’s hiring for 2013, with one notable hiccup in 2015, when the unit was horrific.
Meanwhile, the defense has maintained a solid level of play. More on that shortly.
2. They found a quarterback who could chuck the rock in a spread scheme.
Sophomore QB Anthony Brown is not going to win the Heisman. But his 141 passer rating is the best of any BC starting QB since Glenn Foley in 1993. Brown’s been more efficient than either of the two famous Matts who played QB in Chestnut Hill since then: Hasslebeck and Ryan. Top receivers Kobay White and Jeff Smith — yeah, a converted QB — are both really explosive when they get the ball. Brown’s one of the three or four best QBs in the ACC, especially when you factor in his running ability at 6 yards per non-sack carry.
Brown’s a field-stretcher in a way previous BC QBs have not been. As Eagles blog BC Interruption put it after a win over Wake Forest in September:
I think the thing that stood out the most was how Anthony Brown made Wake pay the price for stacking eight in the box to stop AJ Dillon. In years past we’ve seen opponents stack the box to stop the BC running game and for whatever reason the offense couldn’t make them pay for it. It was impressive watching Brown connect on explosive passing plays at will.
BC’s widely thought of as a grunting MANBALL team that lines up in power formations and pounds the ball into the line. That’s not right, though. The Eagles use the same spread concepts that are en vogue all over the country, and they’re fourth in FBS in Adjusted Pace.
3. They got way more talented at running back, too.
Not surprisingly, the run game was egregious when BC’s offense was at its worst. The 2012 team ran for 3.2 yards per carry. The 2015 team ran for 3.9, which was 96th in FBS. That year, QB Jeff Smith was the leading rusher. The featured back was a former two-star recruit, Tyler Rouse, who had no other listed Division I offers.
Now, they have more talent. 130-yard-a-game back AJ Dillon was a high-three-star recruit, but a lot of evaluators thought the former Michigan commit deserved a fourth star in the class of 2017. Dillon’s not the type of player who usually signs with BC, which is regularly one of the Power 5’s lowest teams in recruiting rankings.
If there was one turning point where the whole offense clicked, it was Dillon’s elevation midway through 2017. The Eagles were sitting 125th in Offensive S&P+.
Addazio and coordinator Scot Loeffler had already handed the offense over to a freshman quarterback in Anthony Brown. But midway through 2017, they officially moved another freshman to the top of the RB depth chart. And Andre Williams-sized AJ Dillon, a high-three-star 245-pounder, erupted. He carried 39 times for 272 yards in a 45-42 road upset win over Louisville. Virginia sold out to stop the run the next week, and Brown completed 19 of 24 passes in a 41-10 win. They welcomed Florida State to Alumni Stadium, forced three turnovers, and rode Dillon again (33 carries for 149 yards) to a 35-3 win.
Dillon’s been injured. Hopefully he’ll be able to go against the Tigers.
4. Staffing’s been key. Addazio’s hired good defensive coordinators to run the side of the ball that isn’t his strength. He’s also replaced them.
The flip side of hiring an offensive head coach? You need a great defensive coordinator. Brown is one of the two or three best DCs anywhere. He left Boston College for Michigan after 2015, as anyone in his position would have.
Losing a coordinator like Brown could tank a lot of defenses. But successor Jim Reid, who’d been working as linebackers coach at Iowa, has maintained a top-30 S&P+ unit. The 2018 defense’s strength is a ball-hawking, pass-breaking-up secondary.
5. The Eagles won one game they could’ve easily lost and have avoided dropping any games they should’ve won.
BC could easily be 6-3 instead of 7-2, and there’d be a little less fuss around the team. But they beat Temple by 10 in Week 5 despite the Owls gashing them on the ground and out-gaining them by 1.4 yards per play. BC’s postgame win expectancy that day was 23 percent, per S&P+, but winning the turnover margin helped flip the result.
6. BC’s improved while the rest of the ACC’s stood still or gone backward.
The Eagles are definitely better, but think about their league. Clemson’s great, and the rest of the conference is loaded with disappointments and mediocrities, save for upstart Syracuse and arguably NC State. BC’s league wins have included:
- Louisville, which is just an epic disaster and should fire its coach
- Miami, which is 5-7 in its last 12 games
- Virginia Tech, which lost to Old Dominion and might not even win a limp ACC Coastal
Most years, those teams beat Boston College. They’re varying degrees of bad right now, and that’s helped. It’s not a knock on BC as much as it’s a key component of any dream season for a program that’s not used to contending for New Year’s bowls.
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