Maroon and Gold

Your guide to next years DTs

2010-03-10T12:03:00.000-08:00

The professional people who actually know what they are talking about have posted their guide to next years Defensive Tackles and now its my turn to disagree, except I don't really disagree.

Surefire starter:
Damike ScafeR-Senior
my expectations for Scafe last year were relatively high. He was a guy that played alongside both Raji and Brace when the other got tuckered out (when you weigh 350 lbs it happens) and not only that he held his own. Excitement gathered after a strong spring showing only to be hampered by a nagging neck injury that really kept him at less than 100%. I see Scafe as the DT equivalent of Albright, he was set for a big year and was held back by injury. This year, barring injury, should hopefully see Scafe bounce back and really elevate his play.

Likely to play:
Kaleb Ramsey R-Junior
apparently Ramsey was dominating before he got hurt towards the end of Summer practice last year. After he got hurt he was less than a stellar force but still saw some good playing time last year. He's a pretty good pass rusher with his athleticism but even at 280 he seems a little small for a big guy.

Conor O'Neal Soph
I expect O'Neal to be the next Scafe. While Ramsey and Scafe may not be Raji and Brace O'Neal will be the third man in the rotation. The philosophy on Redshirting under Spaz was that if you could help the team you would play. Thats why Finch and Kuechly saw playing time last year. What a lot of people didn't realize is that Wetzel and O'Neal were also true freshman in the two deep (or 3ish deep). This year with Giles gone O'Neal should step in to take a spot. He had some pretty good plays last year and it seems that the coaching staff likes this guy.

Battle for the last spot on the two deep:
Bryan Murray R-Soph
he saw some playing time last year and made some really nice moves when he was on the field but there is little else in way of information on him. He was hampered by turf toe for a lot of the spring and has the potential to really explode this year.

Dillon Quinn R-Fresh
He was redshirted last year so he was either something of a disappointment or O'Neal was a surprise. Either way it still doesn't sound like the coaching staff is as high on this guy as the recruiting gurus were. On the plus size his arms are about the size of my head and each of his legs is about the same size as my body so he has the physical tools to dominate. My expectation is that he will steadily improve leading up to the season and will at least be in the two deep and could be a run-stopping specialist.

Rivals things Brad Newman might move inside as well but I think theres a 10% chance of this happening. While Newman might not be a stunning DE the only way I see him moving inside is if one of the young guys really step up at DE and we have injuries at DT. Speaking of DE though we're getting one more addition in CJ Parsons, a Northeastern Husky who was disappointed when the program was cut. I know if FBS guys move to FCS they don't have to sit for a year so I presume it works the same way in reverse and who knows how good this guy might be. We're also getting another QB in the form of walk-on Shane Cranmore. Shane was getting some looks after his junior year before he snapped his ACL and saw his recruiting go down the drain. While I don't expect him to compete for a starting spot but it never hurts to have depth.

The Spring previews begin: DE

2010-03-03T06:27:00.000-08:00

Rivals has started their Spring position preview and I guess that mean's its about time I start mind and I might as well start where they did, defensive end. Definitely not our strongest position last year my personal football philosophy is that pressure comes number for any great defense. If you go back to our ridiculous defenses (namely 06, 07, 08) you'll notice something. Of the three 06 was only "pretty good" but we had Albright, Raji, Brace, Larkin. 07 had Albright beasting as a pass rusher and then 08 saw the rise of Raji. This does not take away from Silva, Dunbar, Tribble, Toal Herzlich or any of the other guys, its just my opinion that especially with our Big Ten style of recruitment we better be getting power out of our lines because its not likely we'll burn anyone with speed. So on to this year.

Your sure-fire starter: Alex Albright
I always thought he played strong side but apparently he always lines up wherever there appears to be the least protection (read, where the TE isn't). Rivals suggested that teams focused on blocking him but I feel like injuries played more of a role in his less than stellar season(1 sack?). He had been producing a lot of pressure early in the season even though he was still somewhat hobbled and we had Christian Ponder confused and afraid of Albright during the first half of the FSU game (the same FSU which is supposed to have the most ridiculous OL imaginable this year, something which I take offense to we all know BC always has the best line). Then Albright gets hurt, we lose pressure and we almost lose the game.

Your likely starters: Max Holloway and Brad Newman
Unless one of the younger guys has a great spring (always likely) I think these are the names you'll be seeing more of. The depth chart will read Newman first but the reality is that these two will be in and out of the game constantly. From scrimmages Holloway seems to be something of a phenom but there seems to be concern that his size might make him a liability in run coverage. Newman meanwhile is not exactly a flashy guy but the coaches love him because he knows his job and he does his job. Period.

The Best of the Rest:
Ifeanyi Momah
I've known about Momah's workout at the DE position for awhile now but the people I heard it from told me to keep it quiet so I didn't say much but now Rivals seems to be reporting it as well. I don't particularly like the idea of Momah as a DE, he had a TE body but ended up at receiver even though he really had TE speed as well. With Jarvis gone I really wanted to see the long-armed 6-6 Momah come back but this is meant more for WR not DE. The fact is that since Momah came back from the knee injury he's worked out @ DE and he is big and athletic, I just question his power. Maybe I'm being too negative though, so for a more exciting spin try this: Momah might be a receiver now but he was recruited by most teams as a TE so he must have some hidden power and Jagz/Logan must have felt he had some speed so maybe his blend of power and athleticism is just what we need @ DE.

Dan Williams
Rivals is reporting he moved to DE, I have it on good authority that hes been there for a while. To be honest I think this is more a move to develop depth since we haven't been all that successful at recruiting DE (come to think of it the Momah stunt might be along the same lines considering the wealth developing at receiver).

Kasim Edebali
A true dark horse, really nothing known about his playing ability but he's the only other guy who was actually recruited to play DE. Even though he was supposedly something of an athletic freak coming in he apparently spent the whole Redshirt year in the gym and is only familiarizing himself with the playbook now so there might be some work-ethic issues. He is however my choice as a dark horse candidate, especially since no one else seems to be giving him any love.

QBs? yeah we got some QBs

2010-01-24T12:28:00.000-08:00

Alright so here's my plan for the QBs, we start Rettig under center and put Shinskie @ TE with Bordner and Marscovetra @ wideout and just run trick plays every down... they'll never know who's really going to throw the ball.

But realistically the QB situation is as convoluted as it was at this time last year, a possible front runner with a few others gunning for his spot.

Assuming the role of DD this year is Uncle Dave Shinskie. Shinskie is the clear frontrunner as he showed flashes of ability last year. While I wouldn't say that the position is his to lose he is the only player with experience and I think there might be a good QB in there somewhere. Here's the issue, if he doesn't progress this year he might find himself quickly replaced. Shinskie spent most of last season locking on to receivers and throwing off his back foot. He didn't show a great ability to read coverages and it didn't seem to improve throughout the year. Maybe there's a lack of commitment, I don't know, but if Shinskie doesn't show some coachability I think you might see someone else starting very soon.

Assuming the role of Justin Tuggle this year will be Marscovetra. He's got the experience now and seems to have some physical tools as he actually beat Tuggle for the backup spot before Tuggle transferred. He wasn't a big name coming in but since then he seems to have developed quite a bit of respect in the program.

This year's Dave Shinskie is Chase Rettig. The big solution to our QB situation Rettig is the biggest name QB to come into BC since recruitment became an online industry. It will be interesting to see if the recruiters are on to something or if they're full of hot air. We know he has a live arm but it will be interesting to see what else he has. I can't wait to see if he lives up to the hype.

This years Marscovetra: Josh Bordner. I'll be honest I put more stock than I should in the recruiting sites so I had pretty much written Bordner off. However Bordner only started playing QB and he's played pretty well. The news out of most seem to suggest that he throws a pretty ball but he's just very raw. After the Crab Bowl (All-MD All-Star Game) Rivals bumped Bordner up to a 3* prospect which actually is the same as Rettig (they are 1* and 4* respectively on ESPN, which only goes to show how much of a crapshoot these things can be.) I feel like Bordner could be a complete wild card.

I'm not even going to try to predict what will happen. However the similarities to Davis' problems last year suggest that Shinskie might improve enough to lock down the starting position (only to decide he doesn't want to go to class and eventually transfer to ECU...) Rettig and Bordner both enrolled early and Marscovetra could bring something to the table so instead of predicting our QBs I'll predict the three early enrollees #s

Chase Rettig will wear #11, it was his number in HS its what he wore at the UA game and with Megwa leaving the number will be available.
I have nothing on Bordner he wore #12 in HS which I'm pretty sure won't be available. traditional QB #s that will be available next year(assuming the school doesn't start allowing offensive/defensive same #s) are 6 7 8 11 18. I'm feeling like Bordner might take 18 so long as Gunnell is cool with it.
KPL wore 24 in HS and that won't be available. LBs can wear pretty much every number so its even harder to predict but the guys a beast so I'll say he rocks #99 (or maybe he'll take over # 7 from the spirit of Akins)

The Big Mac Attack

2010-01-21T09:12:00.000-08:00

Mac is making something of a name for himself down at the East-West Shrine game. The immediate word out of the camp was that McLaughlin is a team leader but kept getting burnt on coverage because of his limited physical ability and I'd like to speak on that limit from two points. One is that I felt that Mac looked a step slow and not quite as beastly coming off his achilles injury but I think that time and training will bring it back. I don't think he really started at 100% and even a month off is just not enough to come back up to full speed after a full season where you didn't start at 100%. Secondly, everyone said the same thing about Dunbar and he's been a very reliable backup for the Saints since day 1.

But on to some more buzz about Mac from the Shrine game practices:

We'll take McLaughlin any time
Boston College LB Mike McLaughlin is a bad ass. He can play on our team any time, any day in whatever we're playing. It's been only a practice and a half, but he's clearly the emotional leader of the East defense.

That is from yesterday's practice blog by scouts inc who continued to talk about Mac's intensity today stating that he ran full speed into an O-lineman on purpose. Yeah, that's Mac.

I haven't seen Rettig or Bordner on campus (I don't really know if I'd recognize Bordner) but I've seen KPL a few times. Can't wait for the spring game

Really Billy?

2010-01-19T13:26:00.000-08:00

Apparently former BC rejected Billy Bennet has committed to kick for NC State as part of their 2010 class. I'm not going to even try to figure out what the eligibility situation might be with that. I'm cool with Mr. Freeze or even Quigley though.

Respect for GDF and LeGrande has a run in with the Law

2010-01-13T15:20:00.000-08:00

It's been confirmed that the Dominick LeGrande arrested for DUI is in fact the Dominick LeGrande who goes to BC. There hasn't been any news as to what BC will do. BC tends to be fairly strict (relative to say Tennessee or Florida State). While this is relatively minor compared to things like FSU I still think you'll see a strong stance from the school because they have a couple options. I personally feel like the best course of action would be to serve LeGrande with a full year suspension but let him practice. It'll be a good PR move, serves as a serious example to players, and ends any ideas LeGrande might have had about leaving after three years. Yet on the football side LeGrande could serve the suspension without losing any eligibility (he didn't redshirt) and probably wouldn't see much playing time anyways (Herzlich and Kuechly have the OLB spots locked up).

In other news the big story yesterday was Lane Kiffin peacing from Rocky Top after one year. This is exactly why I was completely behind DeFillipo when he canned Jags. The fact is that a culture has developed around college football where the coach has become more important than the program. This culture translates to coaches ducking contracts and ruining programs. because of GDF I don't think we'll ever have a Lane Kiffin situation at BC again. Now if we can just get more ADs to man up then CFB might be able to get its act together.

Shakim doesn't play and Marcoux shows experts why they are wrong

2010-01-09T19:44:00.000-08:00

I watched the US Army All-American Bowl this afternoon before the NFL games and was disappointed that there was zero mention, notice or recognition that Shakim was there. Obviously he didn't play but not only that there was no word on whether he was still hurt or if he just wasn't as good as the #1 receiver Kyle "Butterfingers" Prater.
To be fair if Shakim was hurt most of the week he probably did not get enough experience to learn the offense, but it still would have been nice to at least see a video with Shakim putting a BC hat on.

In other news the third QB for the East was an unheralded Dartmouth commit who earned his spot on the field by winning FSC's "the Ride," a reality TV show. This guy has had zero attention on the recruiting trail yet propelled the East to two scores and showed the best ability of any of the QBs to play the entire game, embarrassing HS recruiting experts everywhere.

Update: Apparently Shakim did see some playing time at the end of the day but was still battling the shoulder injury, I still would have liked to see a little more attention paid to the guys who didn't see a whole lot of the field.

Rettig, the All-American QB

2010-01-02T10:44:00.000-08:00

I've spent the morning watching the UA All-American game purely because I wanted to see Rettig in action. It's hard to get much from the game because the offense seems pretty basic and they seem to really be relying on passing with little offensive balance. Of the three White team QBs I would say Rettig is probably having the best day. (as far as I've been able to figure out is that hes the only one not to throw a pick, although one was dropped) The fact is that it looks like the black team has a much better d-line and the white o-line isnt looking so hot. The black d-backs seem to be diesel too so small victories are the best you can get. Hopefully someone will publish stats for the game.

Montel Harris is only the 4th best RB in the ACC

2009-11-30T13:36:00.001-08:00

At least that is what the All-ACC selection committee says.

Luke Kuechly made First team All-ACC as a freshman with the second most votes overall, so put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Anthony Castonzo was also first team, second most votes by 4 (53 to Jason Fox' 57)

Matt Tenant joined Montel on the second team. I would love to say that Montel got snubbed but the ACC is just loaded with RBs this year. The reality is that he was behind Dwyer, Williams and Spiller. Williams is a beast and I've never been a fan of QBs being a product of their system so I don't think Dwyer should be susceptible to the same argument. Most of Spiller's merit comes from his explosiveness in the all-purpose yard category but hes still pretty brilliant and it would still place Montel on the second team if he move ahead of Spiller. Then again it also speaks a lot that a top-5 Heisman contender is only the 3rd best RB in the ACC.

The good news is that next year Montel will be running behind a (hopefully) vastly improved passing game, a line that should be just as much of a beast as it was this year (only potential issue could be Spinney and protection calls) and he can be spelled by a budding star in Finch and a capable back in Phifer instead of running 41 times.

In other news we also got two commits from a local big-body and an athletic Safety. Sylvia gives us some more depth at Safety (if he ends up playing there). While I'll never complain about getting more talent I am getting slightly wary of the legitimate lack of prospects along the d-line, especially DE as I've noted before.

The Walking Wounded

2009-11-20T08:26:00.000-08:00

So I just got a look @ the injury list for the game tomorrow, 6 starters and 8 players (total) from the two deep are on it, most of them from defense. Most are probable (including Montel Harris who apparently screwed up his back) but having that many players at less than 100% is just not good news. Even more concerning is the lack of healthy players on the D-line. Scafe is finally off the injury list which should help a little bit but I'm still super discouraged by Alex Albright's lingering injury. Maybe it's time to sell this kid but I still think theres a superstar in there waiting to have a 16 sack game. One thing for sure is that we haven't gotten any real pressure on QBs with a 4-man rush since he went down against FSU.

UNC

2009-11-18T11:14:00.001-08:00

HD is claiming this weekend to be the hardest game to pick this weekend, and to be honest I have to agree with her. UNC was projected to be great this year, then they sucked. Then UNC beat FSU and they have gotten increasingly better since then. Granted both the FSU and Miami games were at home (where Harris threw 4 picks) but you have to admit that UNC has looked pretty impressive in the past few weeks.
Enter BC who looked pretty weak against a poor UVA team last weekend but has been stellar at home. In the end I think that home edge gives us the win. We have a good team, the UVA game featured some weird play calling and missed opportunities that shouldnt be repeated. For some reason we suck on the road but we should be pretty good at home. Add in the fact that its Senior Day and you get a little extra motivation @ home. Theres been some question as to who wears # 31 this weekend, I always thought it went to the guy who got the scholarship (Wes Davis) but I would hedge my bets on Marty "Boomcat" Bowman to be rocking the Jersey come Saturday.

In other news Recruiting has picked up.
The big news seems to be Swigert, a slot receiver with tons of upside. He was actually playing QB before he got hurt this year so maybe we'll see some more wildcat option throws like we got in the Steve Logan days.
We also picked up a new face at TE in Jarrett Darmstratter, and I'll be honest I just like saying his name...Darmstratter. Apparently we want two TEs in this class but I wouldn't be surprised to see more TEs come in and see some shifts to DE.
Speaking of DE the news this weekend is of a visit from Josh Watson (along with 6'7" teammate and 0-lineman Laurence Gibson). To be honest we really need to land this kid. We missed out on all our big targets and this guy looks to be a solid DE prospect with plenty of upside. Next years Depth Chart really includes 4 DEs, injury prone (though if hes healthy I predict 29 sacks and 86 TFLs) Alex Albright and Max Holloway on the rush side and by-the-book Brad Newman on the strong side backed up by the relatively unknown German Kasim Edebali on the strong side (apparently Momah has been practicing with the DEs as well just because of the lack of Depth). If any of these guys go down next year we're going to be up shits creek without a paddle unless we bring in some impact guys with this years class.

Good News

2009-11-02T08:26:00.000-08:00

I picked up the student newspaper "The Heights" this morning and it turns out that Montel did make it out for the Alma Mater Sunday, he was probably just on the far side of the field and in a crowd so I didn't see him.

Another couple notes;
Some people are a little concerned about the way Morrisey played on Saturday but if you look at most of the snaps he was playing in the middle, not his usual position so I think you can chalk it up to a little discomfort with unfamiliarity.

Albright didn't see the field much, I'm still waiting on him. I feel like if he and Scafe get healthy and Mac starts to click this defense could be really good. I swear I feel like Albright's going to have a 4-sack game one of these days...

We get a chance to see Will Thompson!

2009-10-30T09:07:00.001-07:00

...because Mac is doubtful.

Injury report came out this morning and it's kind of depressing to be honest. AA (Alex Albright, not alcoholics anonymous) is questionable with an ankle injury. To be honest I would say this is the same recurring injury that hes had since the second half of the FSU game that has limited his playing time.

Lapham and Mac are listed as doubtful. Lapham with the shoulder that took him down in the Notre Dame game (couple beers makes an interesting point of noting the shoulder injuries we've had an relating it to Loco's conditioning, anyone out there with a lot of free time should take a peak at our # of shoulder injuries over say 3 years as compared to a another ACC or Big 10 team). Mac I haven't heard much about though I have to be honest that I've been underwhelmed with his return. He looks a little bulky, and really doesn't have the same burst he used to have. Combine the fact that he seems a step slow with the fact that he has an apparent need to hit people and you see why he's had two or three late hits already. On the bright side we should get a chance to see Will Thompson who looked solid in the spring, only issue is that I'm afraid he might be suffering from the same rust that Mac has.

On top of all that word seems to have gotten out that Finch has mono. Mono takes about a week to get over but you can't participate in contact sports for about three weeks after that because of an enlarged spleen so you should be able to see Finch again say around a bowl game.

Another little side note is that Scafe is listed at number 2 on the Depth chart. From what I saw in the spring and summer I can only imagine that this is because he's still battling the injury in his neck that has limited his playing time, which is a major league bummer because he looked solid at the beginning of the year.

Which brings me to a new point. I expected our linebackers to be weak this year but the addition of Kuechly has just been all kinds of ridiculous and DiSanzo, Legrande, Morrissey have all been reliable as well. One area where the experts said we would suck is the D-line and I felt like we would be awesome. Looks like the experts were right. Since Scafe has gone down we've been soft in the middle and the only person able to generate much pressure (aside from that Safety with Ramella) has been Albright who still hasn't quite shown up. Now I don't know what the deal is exactly with Albright but the guy was a sackmaster in limited time two years ago before missing the end of the season and most of the 08 season with injuries. It might just have something to do with the increased skill of QBs today or the fact that he doesn't Larkin on the opposite end or it might be the injuries but I really expected Albright to have 12 sacks by now. Maybe next year.

Tuggle and Haden to Transfer

2009-10-27T09:21:00.001-07:00

Big news out of the Yawkey Center this morning as Tuggle and Haden have announced that they are transferring and have already left the team. I'm not overly surprised about Tuggle, I think the guy has quite a bit of skill but with the overturning of the offensive scheme he just wasn't much of a fit for the program anymore, especially with Shinskie playing passably well and Rettig set to join the team next year.

The Haden transfer didn't surprise me either, if you look back to my NCAAF 10 season review Haden transferred after Harris played all kind of ridiculousness. With Deuce Finch behind Harris I don't know how much this will hurt us except in terms of depth (with Smith currently out that leaves us with currently Redshirting freshman Phifer). I will miss Haden though, I think he had quite a bit of ability and was hampered by a lot of injuries. I wished that he stuck around because I still think he can be great but I understand the desire to be a feature back.

bceagles.com already has both removed from the player roster...damn their speedy.

Straight Class

2009-10-16T11:12:00.001-07:00

The Butkus Award Committee has elected to make Mark Herzlich one of the 16 semi-finalists.
Now that is just straight class.

NCState Game

2009-10-14T13:37:00.000-07:00

I don't like to look back, lets look forward.

I just checked out the depth chart for this weekends game and it looks like we'll have all hands on deck for the 3rd Annual TOB bowl. Only interesting thing to note is that apparently Rich Gunnell is the 2nd String Holder...

Assuming everyone's as healthy as planned this weekend should be a good game. The fact of the matter is that while NCState doesn't make mistakes they don't blow you out of the water and they certainly arent the No. 3 team in the country. Wilsons a solid QB who's throwing to average receivers. In fact it looks a lot like TOBs last BC team in 06, except without the incredible 0-line.

Depth Chart Update

2009-10-08T09:18:00.000-07:00

I should have done this ahead of time but I just checked the depth chart

Albright is listed behind Newman at DE which suggests he might play but hes not healthy

Scafe is out altogether.

That right there ladies and Gentleman is some serious bad news bears.

How to win in Blacksburg

2009-10-08T08:59:00.000-07:00

Be the Boston College Eagles, seriously take a look.

1. VaTech has only had 8 losses to ACC opponents since joining the conference, 3 have been to BC including the last time any team beat VT in Blacksburg.

2. Our strengths offset their strengths and some of our strengths exploit their weaknesses (running game anybody?) Throughout the first couple games of the season VT relied on the excellent running of their backs to offset Taylor's slow start. Most of their running game developed out of Williams and Oglesby's ability not necessarily the awesomeness of their line. While our d-line isn't going to crush their o-line I would be willing to say that Linebackers Mac, Luke and Dom can limit the YPC.

In all honesty I would say this game depends on the QBs, but wait, doesn't every game rely on QBs? Well yes and no, but the fact is that this one relies even more. Everyones been talking about how Tyrod Taylor has only had 2 decent games so far this season. True, I'll give you that but of the last three one has been his best game this season(in fact the most recent). One was in a monsoon and the other was against one of the best pass-rushing teams in the country (Nebraska).

Meanwhile Shinskie has been only getting better since taking over the reigns and continues to show improvement. He has shown some mistakes the VaTech might be able to capitalize on but the reality is that VaTech takes advantage of everyone's mistakes and as long as the offense has spent some practice time working on tackling I'm ok with our defense watching Uncle Dave's back.

So here's where the rubber really hits the road: Alex Albright.
If he's healthy, we win. Everyone has been talking about how the secondary played too conservatively in the second half, but the difference is really somewhat negligible when you actually compare to the second half. The difference was that Albright spent most of the first half terrorizing Ponder who I would consider to be very similar in style and ability to Taylor. Albright when down and didn't play in the second half... and the secondary got roasted. Combine that with that fact that VaTech's line isn't as good and you got yourself a recipe for a win.

Now we wait for the injury report...

Guess who's back?

2009-09-30T11:15:00.000-07:00

ME!

and Mike McLaughlin, who you guys are probably more interested in.

However before we dive into this week lets do a quick recap of everything that I wasn't able to cover.

Defense:
The Good: How we can lose 3 NFL top 2 round picks (Herzlich included), miss McLaughlin and have injuries on nearly every front and still be this good? It's absolutely ridiculous, kudos to Spaz and McGovern as well as Jagz for some of the recruits(Luuuke)

The Bad: Wheres the pressure? There has been like two sacks total. I guess we are missing Brace and Raji cause it seems like O-lines have been able to handle Scafe and Giles/Ramsey pretty handily allowing a lot of double teams on Albright. Also of concern is the boundary corner, particularly exposed during WF game where Rollins and Fletcher were both beat an uncomfortable number of times for big plays. (though they are now on opposite sides of the field)

Offense:
The o-line stepped it up against a pretty good WF front 7 after a disaster against Clemson. I was a Tuggle supporter because Shinskie doesn't seem to be able to audible and shift protections or even recognize plays (which trickled down into the run game) but he definitely has the better arm. From what I see right now Shinskie is the better player (did a great job against WF, not so much with his arm because they were feeding him plays and he still made some iffy throws) but with recognizing what the defense was showing him. I really feel like hes Chris Crane 2.0 minus the mobility. He bullets every pass with barely any touch, but considering hes only a freshman we could have a distinct QB controversey when Chase shows up. The TEs look good the WRs seem versatile though Gunnells been a little bit too quiet for my liking. I think Larmond's success might be limiting his looks. Jarvis has been looking better after I heard he had been dropping a lot of balls in practice. Haden is starting to really show his ability as a change of pace when defenses stop Harris, they should be a great combo in the future though I don't think either will stick out too much in the future.

And now to Mac
He's back and looking solid and this weekend expect to see him a lot more as Luke shifts to WLB. I think this speaks as much about Luke, Mac and Will Thompson in the fact that McGovern wants to see all three get time in the future (assuming Thompson comes back). Luke's going to be something great in the future. Although on another note I'm wondering where Darius Bagan has disappeared to again...

Thoughts on the Clemson Game/Rivalry:

2009-09-16T12:02:00.000-07:00

The first post from my Ghost writer:

Since joining the ACC, Boston College has had one definitive rival, Virginia Tech. It is a general consensus among students and fans, and the VaTech game is certainly one of the most anticipated games of the year. But, the ACC move has also kindled another, although quieter, rival in Clemson.

Some of the more recent memorable Boston College games have come from sparring with Clemson. In 2006, the over-time win (BC 34, Clemson 33); 2007 saw Matt Ryan engineer yet another season saving comeback drive to put the Eagles ahead in the Atlantic Division standings and secured a spot for our team in the ACCCG (BC 20, Clemson 17); last year’s 2008 heart breaker (BC 21, Clemson 27) where Crane and company could not finish the job. Every time we play Clemson, the game seems to summarize/suggest what our season has been/will be.

Perhaps this is why I am highly anticipating this week’s game. Clemson will be our first competition of note, and begins our road to the ACC Championship. How we match up against this Clemson team may not be indicative of how we stack up against teams like VaTech, Notre Dame, and FSU (though after this past, I am skeptical of stating that FSU is a dominant team), but it will be a good gauge for the ACC in general. Like BC, Clemson entered this season with a first year head coach (though Swinney has the advantage over Spaz, coming in with a half season of experience) and a freshman quarterback. There were not as many questions surrounding the state of their program as ours, but the transitions still threw the program into a state of flux. But Clemson, especially after the Georgia Tech, is certainly not looking like the bottom of the ACC barrel. I think that how BC approaches this game and handles themselves on the field will be a strong indicator as to what we can expect from our guys for the rest of the season.

I am not going to break down Clemson’s team (I suggest looking at CBNB for that), but BC matches up well this year against the Tigers; both teams share similar talent and skill on both sides of the ball. It is going to be a good game for the rivalry, and quite possibly could determine the Atlantic winner.

Notes on the BC/Clemson Rivalry
- The Eagles lead the Tigers 4-1 all time. The most recent match up saw the Tigers taking home the O’Rourke/McFadden Trophy. It was Dabo Swinney’s first win as a head coach.
- Clemson University is public university with an approx. undergraduate population of about 18,500. In contrast, Boston College is a private Catholic university with a population of about 8,500.
- Death Valley is considered one of the most intimidating venues (and largest) in college football, yet Clemson fans are considered the class of the ACC, and for good reason. They host highly hospitable tailgates, inviting even opposing fans by for food and beverage, and as Herzlich has undergone his treatments, they have offered remarkable and touching support. On the other hand, while Alumni Stadium is fierce in its own right, BC fans are known to be the most hostile in the ACC (I blame the frigid cold as opposed to the Southern gentle winters).

Apologies

2009-09-15T16:48:00.000-07:00

I'm currently in the midst of bombing the LSATs, applying to Law School, managing two jobs, taking care of some personal matters and writing a thesis on top of the normal senior course load so my ability to post has been cut in half. A friend of mine has offered to fill in on some of the missed time so keep an eye out for period updates but they probably won't be from me for quite some time. I'll make sure there's some way of telling the difference. Until then here's my short take on the season so far.

Northeastern game: good
Kent State game: better

My opinion of the team: better than my pessimistic little brain thought but I still have questions about our pass rush, our secondary, and surprisingly a new question about our o-line

Good question to have: If Mac comes back were does Kuechly go? the kids a beast.

Jags fired

2009-09-03T14:33:00.000-07:00

On a day where head coaches are working on paring their rosters the Tampa Bay organization decided to pare their coaching staff, namely Jeff Jagodzinski, no word on Steve Logan. Check your major news outlets for more coverage

Tuggle Starts and Students Move-in

2009-09-02T05:24:00.000-07:00

Today is move-in day on Chestnut Hill which means footballs right on it's heels. I would love to steal atleagle's season prediction plan and call it my own, but credit is due that this was all his work. Before we start though Tuggle has been tabbed for the starting role Saturday, though expect to see a fair amount of Shinskie and maybe Marscovetra as long as Spaz and co. don't mind burning a redshirt year.

and on to my take on the Season

Atl's Worst: 5-7 W/ wins against Northeastern, Kent State, NCState, CMU and UVA
I don't like to be negative but this is a little positive (pun intended) for a worst case scenario. I'll give us the nod against the 2-win FCS program as well as UMD but the Kent State game isn't as much of a lock as I'd like (nor is the UVA game). I think NCState will have a better year than expected and CMU has a sweet dual threat QB that could give us some fits.

My worst: 2-10

My best is 13-0 w/ an ACCCG win over Ga Tech to be honest, we could be great, no one really knows at this point. On a more realistic note my best case scenario calls for a loss to FSU, as much as I hate them their defense is designed to stop a pro-style offense and the away team always wins this series. The ND and Va Tech games will be tough but rivalry games like those always seem to bring out the best in BC.

My best: 11-1 w/ an At-Large BCS bid

What I really think will happen:
Northeastern: Basically a 5th scrimmage 1-0

Kent State: Better than expected but still a blowout 2-0

Clemson:A very tough game but Clemson has a weak o-line and our D-line could really harass them and prevent them from getting the ball to their stud skill position players. On defense their strength is mostly along the line which matches up well with our phenom o-line. It could go either way but I think this is the 1st loss of the season. 2-1

Wake Forest: Wake is really strong at some positions, and just as weak as we are at others. Look to these matchups to be the key difference as BC takes a tough home loss during parents weekend. 2-2

FSU: We don't match up well and the away team always wins. 2-3

VaTech: Young team against a top 10 team in Blacksburg. 2-4

NCState: Tough tough tough game. It will be a nail biter even if Russel Wilson is hurt look to Harris and Haden, if they play well we get another win but I predict a win @ home to prevent a probable 6-game skid. 3-4

Notre Dame: Unless they come out really flat after their first loss of the season against a very good USC I don't see us continuing our dominance. 3-5

CMU: Spaz preps for Lefevour (or however you spell it) and BC handily winds. 4-5

UVA: BC gets on a roll and takes our next win 5-5

UNC: A very talented team this year, they take it 5-6

UMD: A battle of the dregs of the ACC where the Atlantic proves itself superior 6-6

B-Rob, Francois and Purvis on Cut day

2009-08-31T17:28:00.000-07:00

So August 31 is 75-man roster day in the NFL. I'm keeping an eye out for any surprising moves but I think most of the guys 1 year removed aren't in any danger (aside from Tribble, who is in the UFL now). This years hopefuls seem to be struggling though.

For those not following Chris Crane, Francois, Robinson and Purvis all got UFA contracts. By August 12 Crane, Francois and Robinson had been released. Crane was resigned when Sorgi got hurt but was then released again on the 22. Francois was released by the Vikings but picked up pretty quickly by the Lions who released him today. B-Rob hasn't seen any action since he was released by the Eagles earlier this month. That leaves Purvis as the lone member of the 08 hopefuls.

I watched the Buc game the other day and he looked pretty good, especially going against 3rd and 4th team guys. The only TE with more receptions is 2nd stringer Stevens and the other 2 guys have pretty much nothing. Things working against him however are at least one drop I've seen as well as the fact that Kellen Winslow is not getting cut anytime soon. He does have a pair of aces up his sleeve though, aces named Jagodzinski (the offensive coordinator) and Steve Logan (HB coach)

chances of making the 53-man roster: 10 : 1
practice squad: 3:1

Depth Chart is out

2009-08-30T14:03:00.001-07:00

So the depth chart's out and its got a few surprises, check out bceagles.com to take a peek at it.

Theres not a whole lot of surprises on offense, Cleary got the LG spot, and the Fullback position is more like a TE/FB hybrid. Pantale seems to have gotten the starting "TE" position which I love. Only other surprise is that the "or" was slid in between Tuggle and Marscovetra meaning Marscovetra might get his shot to start. I'm also still presuming Shinskie will be out for the game though that is indefinite at this point.

On defense we were given some real surprises, first up was Dillon Quinn redshirting, which didn't particularly surprise me, nor did the move to put Giles inside surprise me. I like it personally, I swore that I said to look out for that but I couldn't find it anywhere in the archives so you'll just have to take my word that I was thinking it. Giles was a bull-rush type DE so it makes sense to put him in at tackle, at worst he will be a poor-mans Ron Brace.

LB is where you see a real mess. The only not-entirely-surprising move was LeGrande at SLB, though I thought he was going to be Weak side but DiSanzo seems to have played his way into that role. The big surprise is Kuechly at MLB, while I fully expected Kuechly to be great I did not really expect him to play this year because McLaughlin is a beast. The news on Mac is that he won't be back for some time and may try for a medical 6th year but what surprises me was Thompson missing from the depth. I had heard that someone busted a knee at practice this week but I thought that was Momah and not Thompson, time will tell.

'09 Poster

2009-08-28T07:33:00.000-07:00

So the 09 Football poster was just delivered to my room and.... Steve Aponavicious is the man at the top/front/center whatever you want to call it. I had mixed feelings about last years "grab them from the locker room and make them look intimidating poster" and I generally like the posters with the players in action better. However this years is just kind of meh. It still has me amped though.

Herzlich looking to be back in '10

2009-08-26T20:57:00.000-07:00

Herz has been on campus for a while now and has even tweeted that he was working out again. The best news however is that he is even more optimistic that he will pick up where he left off this time next year. It's unfortunate I'll miss out (I graduate this year and don't know if non-student season tickets will fit in my post-college budget) I am absolutely ecstatic that this still looks like an increasing reality for Herzlich.

I'll have a guest writer try to fill in as I'm still going to be busy right up until kick off.

Scafe's got some hitstick

2009-08-24T20:13:00.000-07:00

Scafe steamrolled Shinskie after Shinskie caught his own pass, resulting in a broken rib. The QB race has gotten more mired. Oddly enough I was very pessimistic at the beginning of the month and my inside info is that things look worse, yet I find myself feeling more optimistic, also couplebeers has heard rumors of a big-name transfer somewhere in our future...they'll have to sit out though so it doesnt effect this year.

Checking in

2009-08-20T18:39:00.001-07:00

Check Couplebeers for his position by position breakdown. I did this earlier but as news is trickling in his are becoming much better than mine were. I'm only catching pieces of information but it seems like the True Freshman are getting a lot of looks.

Awesome . . . right? Wrong I have not personally gone but the media had painted it to be that the offense was struggling against the beastly defense. It seems that neither side is particularly impressive from the few people I spoke with who made it to the game.

On a positive note, we are getting positive press. Maybe it's the fact that we've been so underrated for the last couple years but people are saying that Spaz could be coach of the year and that BC is set up for success even on a very down year.

Busy, Busy, Busy

2009-08-18T20:13:00.001-07:00

I'm super busy and will be pretty much right up until the end of the season so this will be quick hits for the next few weeks.

First up is the QB situation. Not looking great though Mascovetra is a bit of a surprise. I read something along the lines that he might be good but didn't buy much into it in the spring. right now Shinskie's # 1 on the chart.

Other than that Herzy's showing up @ Brace's New England debut (in Philly) and apparently Shinskie rocks a Cherry Red Caddy purchased with his '03 300k signing bonus.

Raji, Brace and B-Rob

2009-08-14T06:26:00.000-07:00

Raji signed a deal with the Packers finally and he should be headed into camp soon. He got a bit more than I think a 9th round pick should get (40% more than Keith Rivers did last year) but ultimately he was the highest DT taken in a very long time and that is the position du jour right now.

In other pro news I watched the Patriots-Eagles game last night. Brace saw a fair amount of playing time and to be honest he looked alright but that's about it. I think he was used to being able to overpower everyone where now hes got some beasts to play against. One odd thing was that the Pats played a lot of 4-3 instead of their usual 3-4 which could be because of their weak backup LBs (who were awful in my opinion) Brace played mostly over the center. He was credited with two tackles, the second was a red zone stop, unfortunately he was falling backwards but he still bearhugged the RB and took him down with him. On a bright note... anyone remember that scene in the Two Towers where Aragorn opens to massive doors with one push, there was one play where Ron took the RG in his left hand and the C in his right and made like Aragorn with the O-lineman.

Did not see any signs of B-Rob unfortunately, which was kind of disappointing. News out of camp was that he was doing well. Most of the receivers got a chance last night though and B-Rob wasn't out there.

There's not much new news out of camp, just some pictures of the team stretching and doing drills and that's about it.

I love Spaz

2009-08-13T07:45:00.000-07:00

Raycom's piece on Spaz, you'll need to scroll over a bit

Football in Chestnut Hill

2009-08-11T07:38:00.001-07:00

Ooo it's exciting isn't it. Practice started up yesterday and you can almost taste the season. Notes from practice are encouraging with Shinskie seemingly stepping up @ QB and everyone else doing their thing. On the defensive side things are looking a little more confusing. Mac figures to be out for a while so there seems to be some need for Thompson to step up inside @ MLB, DiSanzo seems to be standing out at OLB and figures to either displace Clancy or back up either Outside spot. Along the line Deska has been moved to TE/FB leaving room for Giles, Ramella and Albright at the ends. Scafe is looking solid and should have a good year and Ramsey is starting next to hime, for now.

Apparently Shinksie's encouragement has provided a little bit of hope outside of Chestnut Hill as HD actually has us 10th on the power rankings. Rivals unfortunately has us as the dregs of the Atlantic. Speaking of Rivals though the folks over their just finished a solid unit ranking as well as a position by position evaluation of recruiting needs and prospects, if you have an account take a peak at it.

ESPN 150 and some quick hits.

2009-08-06T06:39:00.001-07:00

The ESPN 150 came out today giving us the long awaited scouting reports for all the top recruits. Unfortunately no commits cracked the 150. I didn't really expect any to but there is always hope. Betancourt, KPL and Rettig had been on the watchlist at one point. Betancourt came down last week and KPL and Rettig didn't scratch the 150 when it was announced though both were given 4 stars (something I believe to be new for ESPN this year.) Rivals has more news on the players and breaks more stories but I personally like ESPN for their scouting reports and evaluations. Also, not that I'm bitter or anything but Boisture did not crack the 150 either, in fact he was given 3* and a 77 rating where Rettig got 4* and an 80. Rettig (12) is also rated above Austin Hinder(13) and and Nick Montana(15), but ironically below Zach Lee(10) and fellow ACC commit Tyler Smith(9), two QBs I hadn't heard that much about.

There is really very little other news.

Herzlich's treatment is going very well and his chances of playing again got a real boost because the required surgery is going to be less weakening to his femur than originally predicted.

McLaughlin will likely be ready to go sometime in the first week. I don't know if he will be able to practice before that though, which could give him some trouble.

The globe failed to provide any coverage on the ACC media days but did make it to the Big East media day (where BC is supposed to return to any minute now, yeah don't hold your breath). A lot of people are really pissed but my take is that the cash-strapped globe probably felt like sending Blaudy down South wasn't worth the travel cost, whereas Newport is an hour away and he can just sleep in his car.

Raycom is running a sweet six part summer program featuring a segment on Matt Ryan (which has already aired but you can see it here, a segment with Spaz and a segment with Haden. Not that it airs anywhere north of the Mason Dixon but hey, it looks sweet. Check the same link for the TV listings to see if you can catch it, and then post it on youtube so I can watch.

Also I finished my season in NCAAF2010. I went 13-1 winning the Orange Bowl. The defense led the way, ironically enough still stout against the run (#1 Rushing, # 3 overall defense) but the biggest problem I had all season was getting to the QB. Offense relied on Harris and Haden who both did not disappoint and Shinskie wasn't half bad when defenses loaded up on the run. Harris and Mary Bowman were All-Americans, ironic because Bowman was actually one of the weaker DBs, DeLeon Gause made the 2nd-team All-American and Jeff Smith was returner of the year. What was really surprising though was the ensuing offseason. Gause left for the draft, Wes Davis took some convincing to stay and Josh Haden transferred out. The team however will still be beastly in 2010 with Herzlich back. Castonzo trained up to a 99 as well.

My take on ACC fans

2009-07-30T06:59:00.000-07:00

So the news is kind of slow, not a whole lot left from the Media Days, camp won't start for another two weeks and the summer recruiting push is pretty over as well. Again i encourage people to read the Herzlich article, but if you've already done that than you can stick around for my team by team take on fans. This is only football though

I'll go North to South so that means I start off up here in Chestnut Hill and as far as fans go there's probably no worse place to start. I've mentioned this before but the first telling sign is that TV segment that ESPN ran when BC was #2 in the country after the VT game and people in Boston still had no clue. The fact of the matter is that Boston is a pro sports town and BC gets very lost in the shuffle. Local alumni are probably our best representation as they make up the bulk of the crowd at Alumni Stadium (Irony?) they shell out ridiculous coinage for good seats and even more for parking that is in the same county as the stadium. The students are a mixed bag, you have people like myself (headed into my Senior year) and then you have people like my freshman roommate who don't even know the most basic rules of the game, yet go to the game because everyone goes. I'd say thats about 20% of the student section, then theres another 50% casual fans who know next to nothing about the team, show up 5 minutes into the first quarter, drunk, with the occasional group of drunk bros who dumped a can of paint on their head then spray painted a witty saying across their chest to show how crazy they were. The other 30% are fans who show up early for games, know the majority of the starting players and might paint their chest during home games to show support for the team. Of that 30% of students and among the alumni you have the crazy nutters like myself who follow the team 365 days a year and write a blog that next to no one reads. We travel very poorly (geographic distance doesn't help), particularly the student section and I've heard negative things about the people who do travel.

Maryland: I have not made it to Maryland but they seem right on par with BC, the average populace is more concerned with the Orioles offseason and the Ravens. The alumni seem to rep well and the student section seems about the same as BC as well. I can't speak to their hospitality but they travel pretty well (we tend to travel to MD fairly well also due to proximity) and they are among the most polite while they are here.

Virginia: I really can't speak at all here, BC has not played them while I have closely followed the team.

Virginia Tech: By and large one of the most educated (football wise anyways, don't wanna ruffle any Duke feathers) fan bases. Lane Stadium is generally packed and the fans in the Blacksburg area are fairly courteous. I think a lot of this does stem from the interest they place in the team and the amount of knowledge the general fan has. They travel very well although I do have to admit that I have had a number of negative encounters with VTech fans who travel.

Duke: To be fair they had a run when they were so awful only the really true fans were sticking around and my experience with Duke was during that run. Until recently they repped poorly at home and from what I've heard tend to be apathetic and aren't overly hospitable. They didn't travel well when they came here in 06 and those that did come seemed to just soak in the atmosphere.

Wake Forest: There's not a whole lot to say here. The run to the ACC title in 06 seemed to stir the pot a bit and the fans seemed a little more into it. The relatively small capacity of BB&T (or Groves) means you never see an empty seat and the team travels well to boot. Both home and travel fans are polite and BB&T is one of the best places to watch a game in the ACC.

UNC: As they become relevant again after a weak stretch the fans are starting to get a little noisier. Last year they were close to capacity on average attendance and their proximity to other teams allows for a pretty solid travel squad. I can't say much on how they are when they travel but the home fans seem to be a mixed bag.

Clemson: In terms of devotion and sheer noise Clemson is probably the class of the ACC. I've been to Clemson a number of times and the even the dirt out there is orange. Everyone in the area is devoted to that team and the Death Valley is always packed. The devotion is borderline nauseating and there is a sense of fan ego (in 06 they stamped money with tiger paws and paid for most everything in cash) but the fact of the matter is that they travel well and are devoted. My opinion is that the average fan knows the team and is reasonably familiar with the opponents but doesn't do quite the research your VT fan does. I've heard many negative things about Clemson fans but my own experience has been nothing but great.

Georgia Tech: Perhaps a slightly inflated opinion of their team is really the worst you can level against the Tech fans, although Paul Johnson could quickly make that opinion valid. They are probably the Maryland/BC of the coastal. In fact the similarity with BC is right on par as they don't travel particularly well (at least not here) and they don't seem to have fans who are particularly familiar with the ins and outs.

FSU: Probably the worst fans of the ACC. I haven't made it to Tallahassee and I don't want to. Everyone who's come back has said that they were afraid to even mention they were from Boston. While the devotion to FSU is right along the lines with Clemson my experience with Clemson fans has been classy while FSU fans seem to be classless. When in FL my understanding is that they only want to start fights and when they are here that is certainly the case. They seem stuck in 1999 and have absolutely zero ability to be impartial when evaluating teams.

Miami: They used to have a rabid fan base but now it seems to have softened a bit. When some of my friends went down in 06 most of my friends just wanted to party in the warm weather and there weren't many issues. When they came up here in 07 there was no one traveling (although it was the Saturday after Thanksgiving and it was bloody freezing even for me)

Herzlich Article

2009-07-30T06:35:00.000-07:00

This SI article on Herzlich has been making the blog rounds, and for good reason. If you haven't read it yet, find some time. It's four well written and inspiring pages.

ACC Preseason Team Announced

2009-07-29T10:50:00.000-07:00

The Preseason All-ACC team was announced today and Tennant and Castonzo both made it. I was bothered by HD's choice @ Center but its good to see that most other reporters disagreed with her (and to her credit she admitted to difficulty and oddly enough had Wes Davis as one of the Safeties)

As far as snubs go I think there's a small case to be made for Claiborne, Albright and Wes Davis, but Albright was hurt last year and the Safety position was stacked with Burnett and Chancellor winning roundly. The one snub that bothers me is McLaughlin here's a comparison of credentials:
Name Position Tackles/Solo /TFL/Sack/FF/Int/Misc
Mac: MLB 89 /53 / 14 / 4 / 2 / 1 /Captain, calls signals, vaults linemen
DeKoda Watson OLB 46 /28/ 8 / 0 /0 / 1 / missed 4 games, 28 tackles in last 4
Quan Sturdivan MLB 122 /87/ 5.5/ 2 / 2/ 1 /moving to MLB this year, calls signals
Alex Wujciak MLB 133 /56/ 8.5/ 1.5/ 0 / 0 / 2nd team All-ACC

One other thing to note is that Mac was also playing alongside Herzlich (110 tackles) and Francois/Toal (124 combined) and behind Brace and Raji so he has arguably less opportunity to make tackles (#5 total Defense) Watson and FSU are arguably as close (#15) but after that Sturdivan and Wujciak were standouts on relatively unheralded defenses (# 64 and #63 respectively). This shows particularly with Wujciak as he only has 56 solo stops(which is a lot, but less than half of his 133 total), meaning he had to help bring someone down more often than make a play.

When you look at it Mac has less tackles because he had less opportunity yet still had great numbers has always been a MLB, has leadership ability, calls signals and jumps over linemen to make sacks.

My only conclusion was that Mac was passed over because of the question on whether he will play and whether he will be 100% with his hobbled ankle.

ACC Media Days

2009-07-29T06:27:00.000-07:00

The season is about a month away and the ACC media days provide yet another glimpse into the season. Most of it covered stuff that we have already seen ad nauseum here so I won't go much into depth. The media also picked us to finish last (with Maryland) in the Atlantic. Other than that most of the news revolved around QBs and Herzy's unfortunate circumstances.

The one new thing to come out of the media day was Spaz's news on Marty Bowman, who has really stepped up in the offseason. Good news to here as Marty will be the SS moving into the year, perhaps making the secondary better than I believed it to be.

ATLEagle had this VTech preview of BC which I have to say is pretty fair. The only thing that bothered me is the claim that we're not blue-collar. If there's on thing that TOB, Jagz and Spaz have all marveled at its the players "Blue-collar, working day in and out to get better" attitude.

More news to come later.

Unit rankings and ACC Media Day

2009-07-24T06:11:00.000-07:00

HD just finished up her unit by unit ranking of the ACC and as usual there is quite a bit to be disgruntled about. I really don't know about this whole blogger thing, or maybe they need to start adding two reporters for each conference because you can tell that shes personally familiar with a number of teams while she gets other information from reports. Her rankings aren't wildly off the mark they just sometimes seem to be a superficial analysis of certain situations. Now that shes all done I can give you my take.

First up are QBs where HD has us down @ 12 and I think thats right on the mark, I think her 2-11 are questionable but her analysis of BC is solid.

Next up are the RBs where Heather has us @ 5. As a pessimist I have to feel like there might be a chance that last year was a bit of a fluke with Harris, but at the same time you have to go with what you saw. Statistically 1(Haden) and 2(Harris) are definitely better than WF and Miami. I personally feel that VT should probably be #1 while we should be ahead of GT. I realize that Dwyer is the reigning player of the year and he will without a doubt be the best runner statistically, but you always see QBs from the spread get knocked why shouldn't tailbacks from the Spread Option get knocked. (that being aside I am legitimately afraid of what Paul Johnson can do when he gets his recruits into position, scary). While VT's stable is starting to look similar to USC's I feel that Harris and a healthy Haden are two great backs and that is what this is about, the units themselves, not the units in regard to their supporting cast.

WRs come in third and HD had us @ 4, to be honest to me that sounded high at first but looking at the returning players from other teams it is certainly understandable. I also like the decision to recruit big tall guys especially with our inexperienced QBs. I remember a couple teams over the years just lofting passes to receivers in the end zone and our CBs could do nothing about it (there was a really tall guy @ VT wore #2 I think, don't know if hes still there but he did it like 4 times)

O-Line where Dinich gave us some props @ #2 and maybe this is bias but we have to be #1 here. Castonzo and Tennant anchor a line with Lapham and Claiborne, two absolute forces. The LG spot is open still sure, but any number of the possibilities there could probably better than most other teams OLineman. We might be weak in blocking TEs but I still feel like they are capable and talented pass catchers in the group and McCluskey is one of the best FBs in the country.

D-Line is another area where I have a beef with HD. Yes, we have to replace BJ and Brace, but we also get Albright back. Albright, Ramella and Giles create one hell of a rotation of starting caliber ends. A lot of people also don't realize that BJ and Brace were big guys and needed a fair amount of breathers and Scafe in particular proved to be an effective backup. With Quinn coming in and Ramsey, Murray and Deska available there's still quite a lot of veterans along that line, even if it's not game experience. I wouldn't be surprised to see Giles get worked into the DT position either. This unit should be sixth above NC State at the very least.

Linebackers are up next and HD has us @ 10. My immediate reaction was that this was a fair enough assessment but looking at the situation of NC State, Duke and Maryland and factoring in McLaughlin's likely return and Spaz and McGovern's ability to really coach up LBs I think you could slot the unit in @ 7.

Dinich gave the secondary a 3rd place and I think she might have overestimated a bit here. We are returning 3 of 4 starters and plenty of experience but I think this year we're going to find that without a mind blowing front 7 the secondary will not quite live up to the hype. Looking at the other units we should probably be down in the 5-7 range.

Special Teams I think an off-season will give Quigley some good consistency and he's still got a boot for KO duty Aponavicious is pretty much money for PATs and he has great accuracy, just don't expect much out of him past the 15 yrds out. Nate Freese apparently hit a 52 yarder in HS but Ryan Ohliger hit a 58 yarder in HS and that didn't work out (granted that was because he was a head case).

Good to see Someone (else) Upholding the ACC

2009-07-23T05:40:00.000-07:00

News just broke of another Duke player dismissed from the team for "failing to uphold the conduct expected of a Blue Devil student athlete." After all the crap with FSU this year and historically Miami and even UNC at times it's good to see that other teams actually do uphold the integrity of the ACC. As much as I dislike the guy TOB doesn't put up with much so NC State is pretty reliable and I have to feel the same way about Grobe. Coming from Navy I'd have to say Johnson is a pretty reliable disciplinarian as well and I haven't heard of any problems in Blacksburg. So that leaves FSU, Maryland, UNC and Miami, 1/3 of the conference. Aside from Maryland if you look at the teams that are always projected to do well in the ACC you'll see a correlation. Maybe Swofford should take notice or something because it seems to me that teams willing to turn a blind eye on character issues are getting an advantage.

Edit: The second half of the argument
After a little research I'm going to pull Maryland off my conduct watch list. The only thing I could find was Rich Costa who was suspended through the end of his senior season, skirting the issue. I know there were some issues with Da'rell Scott last year but I couldn't find anything, so without substantiation I'll move to the other schools.

First up is UNC, Butch Davis is a win at all costs type guy, a somewhat ruthless recruiter who doesn't take much into consideration other than ability. A substantial amount of last years recruiting class won't make it on campus this year because of arrests or academic problems.

Next we have Miami, and I must say that I think Randy Shannon has really shut down the culture of problems that was sprouting there. He did give Marve a bit of a leash but eventually cut ties. This is nothing compared to the issues of violence, arrests and general character issues (google Miami-FIU brawl) that plagued the team in the past. Randy Shannon has already thrown a number players off the team but he has come under fire for it and many of the players, have spoken out against him which suggests to me that Shannon may be the only one making a true effort to change the culture.

Then finally we have FSU. I'm not here to say that Bobby Bowden is not one of the greatest, if not the greatest coaches of all time (for some reason I like Bear Bryant for that nod) but the fact is that he is so out of touch that the teams lost control. Maybe it was the great success in the late 90s but the culture @ FSU is all about winning and not student athletes. I for one agree with the NCAA ruling, FSU should vacate the wins. Half of the starting lineup was nailed for cheating, every syllabus @ BC contains a paragraph stating that crap like that gets you expelled. Aside from that the team has been nailed with a number of arrests in the past few years. My impression was that the ACC was supposed to be a premier Academic-Athletic conference. Maybe some rules should be shifted so that Swofford can start policing the ACC like Roger Goodell polices the NFL (though in my opinion Goodell seems to have gotten a little powerhappy).

BC is not without it's share of problems. Most recently the Brady Smith situation came to light, ultimately the justice system found that Smith was not responsible for a felony. I can't find details but ultimately he was found guilty of a misdemeanor. Still he was kicked off the team as (at the time) Jagz became judge, jury and executioner of Smiths career. (if Smith had been here no one would be doubting our d-line this year). Next up was the Cherilus/Tribble bar fight. If you read the full story Cherilus and Tribble were only helping the owner, who also works as a Massachusetts State Trooper, throw out a drunk troublemaker. The guy ended up getting severely hurt in the process because he caused trouble on his way out. You go quietly, minimum force is used, you try to be a tough guy and a state trooper, a brawler of an o-lineman and a hard hitting defenseback have to use more force, and in this case the guy got hurt in the process. Sometimes AJ Brooks is involved in this story as well but Brooks was actually suspended for the ACC title game because he got in a fight ON Campus and kicked the crap out of a student (sometimes described as a visitor other times described as an RA, who knows). What a lot of people don't know is that Brooks was actually released in the end, all the stories call Brooks a Junior, but he was a RS Junior. BC effectively dismissed Brooks but it never became a story because they simply refused to grant him his fifth year of eligibility. Most recently Dominique Davis was suspended because he didn't meet the universities academic requirements and before that BJ Raji was given the same treatment, both players were important parts of that years team.

Ultimately the point is that the playing field should be level. If you want to play amateur football, play in the Arena League. If you want to play College ball, go to class and don't spend your weekends getting arrested.

I forgot about Week 12 on the Schedule
We play Maryland and it should stay that way. Its an Atlantic matchup and theres a recruiting overlap. Geographically these teams are closest in conference anyways and makes for a fairly easy and cheap road trip for either team. I like having the game late in the season as well because it generally has implications for the division title as well.

Depth Chart Issues

2009-07-16T06:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I spent a lot of time talking about my NCAA depth chart. Granted, most readers probably care less about who I have where but the reality is that with the unveiling of the preseason depth chart we really need to wonder whats going on because there are some very weird things going on in there. So here's my position by position take, I'll spend a lot of time referencing my NCAA depth chart because I spent a lot of time updating it from things I've seen in games (Billy Flutie is a great runblocker, showed good catching ability and better route running than the EA programmers would tell you) heard from rumors or have found in scouting reports (mostly for freshman). While my research is far from complete and I will probably continually update it for the time being I will use it as my database, coupling it with other rumors I've heard. So here we go, another long post for your enjoyment.

QB: The fact that the 3 players are separated by "or" was lost on no one. I do however think that Boek only has about 20% chance of starting. He made some improvements over the summer he took that least number of snaps with the 1st team in spring, he didn't look as lost as Tuggle at times but overall I just don't know if he has the stuff. To be honest I think Tuggle actually has the best chance and it really comes down to just having something "click" for him. Shinskie, as I've said before, is the wild card. He's supposed to have a real cannon, and was a 3* player who's been training with professional outfits for 6 years, granted its baseball but they still have some fairly good conditioning. The issue comes down to just how quickly he can redevelop his football IQ.

RB: The only surprise you might get here is finding that Haden leap frogs Harris. I am actually a Haden doubter, one of the people who was not impressed with Haden last year and found Harris to be a revelation. The fact that he was injured almost all season is not lost on me though and the things I hear is that he can still be great. I think Harris has the advantage in the Tranquill offense though. Both should get a fair amount of playing time especially if its no huddle.

FB: Haven't heard much about McCluskey but I honestly feel that he might be one of the best FBs in the country, hopefully hes healed up or you'll probably see either Jarick Walker or some of the TE's in there. If Boek doesn't make it as QB he might be listed next on the depth chart but I didn't see him on the field much last year.

O-Line: Now this is really screwy and an area where EA epically failed. I think they just play the trend because they gave us good o-linemen but none of them were really right. we know 4 of the 5 so long as Tennant's healthy. Castonzo @ LT, Tennant @ C, Claiborne @ RG, Lapham @ RT. The preseason depth chart has Emmet Cleary @ LG but the rangy athletic Cleary has always looked like more of a tackle to me, especially in a run up the middle offense. The only info I could find on Richman was that he didn't receive much recruiting interest (Buffalo and Deleware). As far as backups go Spinney is definitely 2nd string @ Center, though I suspect you will see Claiborne there if Tennant goes down. I think Goodman is also a lock @ RT. I have a feeling Cleary was moved inside because incoming, unheralded freshman John Wetzel really impressed, although I wouldn't be surprised to see Goodman and Wetzel switch. I also feel like the 2nd string guards are a crapshoot. Halloran's another guy who seems more like a tackle to me but I might just be showing my ignorance.

TE: I was blown away by Pantale at the spring game. Maybe this is a lesson in hype or flukes or whatever but I have him as 4-year starter. Those with actual knowledge of what's going on have Lars Anderson and McMichael ahead of him. Anderson seemed to do alright as Purvis' understudy and also seems very reliable in the blocking game. McMichael has been a bit of a bust, the only 4* recruit in the 06 class McMichael was supposed to play like Pantale did @ the spring game, showing athleticism that the Basketball team would be jealous of. Maybe this is McMichaels breakout year as he finally gets over injury. I get the feeling that I'm wrong but I'm still rooting for Pantale.

WR:Gunnells are starter and Jarvis is our #2, no surprises. I think you'll see Megwa in the slot on 3 receiver sets. Clyde Lee and Momah are listed as the #3 and #4 receivers and Lee might be in the slot if Megwa's still hurt. To be honest I think you'll see a lot of situational sets. Sometimes you'll have Gunnell, Lee and Megwa, other times you'll have Momah, Jarvis and Flutie. Larmond is also another speedy guy who can be quite useful as well. Don't be surprised if Tranquil spreads the love. I do think you'll see a lot of Jarvis and Momah though, as it's hard to match up with their height and I have the feeling that a lot of our passing is going to come off of play action. Nothing says run like a former TE(Momah) mauling CBs.

LE: Giles played well when Albright went down but I fully expect Albright to have a breakout year this year (he was granted a medical redshirt last year because he only played in one game so he has 2 years of eligibility) he's also probably one of the most athletic players on the field.
RE: Ramella has the starter spot for a second year but don't be surprised to see Giles lining up on the right side and you should see a fair amount of Newman on longer drives.

DT: Only Scafe is definite, and he should be pretty good, he played a fair amount last year when Raji or Brace needed breathers. As to who's lining up next to him it could be anyone's position. My early favorite is Ramsey although Dillon Quinn could be as good as advertised and take his place as Raji's heir apparent (although my understanding is that he played more like Brace). Don't be overly surprised to see RFr Bryan Murray make a play for the position as well after battling turf toe last year.

LB: No area is more confusing. We know that Herzlich won't be on the field this year, but there's till no word on Captain McLaughlin. Honestly his health could be the single biggest factor to this years outcome. If Mac is back expect to see Will Thompson on the strong side and either Clancy or DiSanzo on the Weak. If Mac is still hobbling you get the depth chart the media guide gave you with Bagan behind Thompson. I have DiSanzo ahead of Clancy on my depth chart but again, those in the know have Clancy ahead.

CB: Media Guide is confusing but EA tells a different story. Gause is currently listed as second string field (I think). Don't be surprised if he reclaims first string boundary (I think) but I've also heard rumblings that his hip injury freshman year has hobbled him a bit and he doesn't have the speed he showed when he was backing up Tribble. If Donnie Fletcher has improved I wouldn't be surprised to see him and Roddy though he has moved to boundary (I think) don't be surprised to see a lot of Johnson and Okpara either.

S: We know who the starters are and Okoroha is the heir apparent @ SS. Wes Davis has another year of eligibility because of his back injury. Unless there's an entire unit substitution I think you might see Okoroha backing up Davis when he needs a break and you might see some of the bigger corners rotate in as well as Elliot and Atkinson.

K: Aponavicious has a nice straight kick, but you can't teach power, expect to see Sid Vicious on most PATs and the closer FGs but don't be surprised if Freese starts picking up some FG duty. Quigley will take care of the punts and probably the Kick off duties as well.

Joe Who? and The Start of Predictions

2009-07-15T06:38:00.000-07:00

My posting schedule makes it nearly impossible to break news but the big one broke over the weekend, we got ourself a new QB and he's not too shabby. Chase Rettig who has been marked as one of the fastest risers in the 2010 class committed to BC over Lane Kiffin and the Vols as well as marked interest from USC. I have 2 feelings on this. First, for no good reason, I feel more confident that Rettig will actually come to BC. If you look way back in my old posts you'll see that I was uneasy on Boisture's commitment until he had his little "my word is oak" moment and even the Globe ran an article on him. This time however, I don't feel as uneasy, maybe its because this guy already had other big time offers I don't know. Those big time offers also lead me to my second point on Rettig, when we recruited Boisture he was only getting interest from fringe great team, Those teams that crack the top 25 occasionally but never really show up to the big bowl games. True, Tennessee has been the dregs of the SEC, but they have been great within recent memory (National Championship 1o years ago, competing for SEC title pretty much every year and generally show up in the preseason top 25). Rettig was also getting attention from USC, who like them or hate them have a very good program. As far as evaluating QB talent goes you can't knock Pete Carroll's staff. So if they were looking at a relatively unheralded guy (if you don't have at least 4*s don't even bother going to a USC camp) you have to get the feeling hes a little under the radar.

Alright enough gushing, back to reality. First up Heather Dinich actually saying something positive about BC, granted it's probably off the mark but whatever. Dinich seems to feel that Shinskie will be better than expected, she then continues to say that BC has the worst QB situation in the ACC. Here's my take, Shinskie is a wild card he could be pretty good, honestly I think Spaz and Co. took a flyer looking to get help wherever they could. This isn't a knock on Tuggle, he struggled in the spring and Shinskie has a real boom or bust potential. My feeling with Dinich is that she writes for the semi-casual fan. The guy that knew we signed a 25 yr old but then shrugged it off as a Depth Chart booster. I think the competition really comes down to Shinskie or Tuggle, which is why I'm surprised he seems to be at the top of a lot of depth charts.

In other news I picked up NCAAF 2010 yesterday and spent 2 hours copying my evaluation of players over from the custom teambuilder (I could have just downloaded it if the internet connection worked at my apartment). I then went about setting up the depth chart and I found myself with some interesting situations.
#1 QB battle: My evaluation had Tuggle and Shinskie both as a 79 overall, but very different styles. Tuggle is a quick scrambler with poor accuracy and awareness while Shinskie moves slower than Tennant but has a rocket arm with decent accuracy but also poor awareness.(for Tuggle I worked off what I saw at the spring game and practice notes and for Shinskie I worked off 7 year old scouting reports and the fact that he hasn't played in 7 years). To be honest I may have been optimistic with both 79 overall? but whatever. Shinskie got the nod in my book even though I prefer to play the game itself with mobile QBs. I gave Shinskie the nod because the RB situation is great and I wanted to have a solid arm when I actually throw.
#2 RB battle: the out of the box ratings for Harris and Haden are 89 and 88 respectively and the only thing I changed were Hadens speed and injury resist (up and down respectively) and Harris Break tackle (he just keeps going). Harris got the nod from the game to be the starter and I did the same. The only thing you have to be conscious of is to rotate even when Harris isn't tired. I got in the habit of pounding with Harris and flying outside with Haden.
#3 LB: To be honest not a great situation. I keep hearing mixed things about McLaughlin being back or not but I left him in. According to EA Wil Thompson can't play MLB leaving so hes out at ROLB, DiSanzo got the starting nod though 77 overall (I might have been generous there but he played well in the spring) and Luke Kuechly heads up the LOLB spot in Herzlich's absence (I bumped Mark to a 99 overall, though not intentionally, I intended to have him around 96, I then redshirted him to keep him available for next year) I gave Kuechly a 79 because he came in as a 4* (Quinn got the same treatment)and thats how the game generally evaluates 4* players (77-80). Dominick LeGrande got the nod as a backup, though it will be interesting to see if he stays @ LB or switches back to Safety.

The outcome: granted it is against FCS East (aka Northeastern) but playing with 5min quarters on the regular difficulty the score was 76-0. Offensively Haden had 238 yards and 3 TDs off of 7 runs (2 were long runs from garbage time options with Tuggle though) Harris had about 150 on 13 attempts with 2 touchdowns Shinskie had a 613.8 passer rating because he went 5 for 5 for something like 240 yards and 3 touchdowns. Tuggle had an interception (because I accidentally left him in after I ran a couple options in the first half then made a very bad bootleg throw) but added on a rushing touchdown in garbage time. Defensively DeLeon Gause had 2 int, one returned for a TD, there were 4 forced fumbles. McLaughlin was an absolute beast and Jeff Smith ran a punt return back for a TD. There was a missed 2 point in garbage time because of a clipping call after the Smith return.

and Fantasy Scheduler's Week 11
Who we play: North Carolina
Who we should play: Miami
I like the UNC game but the Miami matchup is a bit of a rivalry because of the Flutie game. Miami also used to be the toast of the Coastal and I believe is the only ACC team with a National Championship in the past decade (well FSU in 99 but Miami was 01)

Media Guide and Week 10

2009-07-09T08:37:00.000-07:00

So the Media Guide is now available on bceagles.com. Now I'm an incredibly critical person, it's hard to impress me, I had only just bought into the Boisture hype when he decommitted, but this years Media Guide looks great. True some of the things are laughable for example they dedicate quite a few pages to Boston as a "media market" and claim BC is "Boston's College." Anybody familiar with Boston sports as well as BC can tell you that BC gets less media attention than off season Sawx moves and even the Celtics (back when the Celtics and Bruins were basement dwellers). It is also true that BC is the only FBS college in Boston which means that it should be "Boston's College" but I can't help but remember in 07 when BC was #2 in the country, Matt Ryan was leading the heisman predictions and ESPN ran a segment interviewing Bostonians (they could not name Jagz, Ryan, the nickname and most of them didn't even know where BC was). Still the media guide is nice and glossy, impressive to visitors, and especially to recruits.

Week 10:
Who we play: Virginia
Who we should play: Virginia
Again I'm tempted to replace UVA with Duke or Ga Tech especially because I would like to give Spaz another crack @ stopping that Option Attack (granted his lone coaching win already came against Paul Johnson). However looking at prestige in the programs, the athletes and even the academic requirements I feel like the UVA game is right up there. I value recruiting overlap and there's a fair amount here. One other thing that I haven't brought up before is the friend factor. Because UVA (or Wake) are so similar to BC in academics and whatnot there are a lot of regular student application overlaps as well which oftentimes leads to having friends @ UVA, WF or ND creating a little extra rivalry in the matchup. Overall the UVA game is not too shabby.

This weeks WTF moment and Week 9

2009-07-08T07:39:00.000-07:00

There are actually two wtf moments for your disenjoyment this week. Rising QB prospect Chase Rettig stood out this weekend as a likely blue chip passer coming into his senior season, good news. He loved BC, better news, and he was also on the verge of committing, best news. Well that was until Lane Kiffin got on the phone and offered from Tennnessee. My guess would be that USC will get a committ from Scroggins (#2 QB prospect) and Kiffin wants Rettig (who could turn out to be better, seems the kid has all the skills, but is slacking in production. So we're still in the running but not really.

The second moment is really barely news but it wasn't too long ago that BC fans were dreaming of watching Boisture and and Shakim Phillips in the coming years. The #4 QB and #5 WR would create one hell of an offense, and it looks like they might still. . . and before you get to excited that would be because that potent offense will probably be at MSU, good for them. Phillips likes the WR tradition @ MSU and that is one thing we really just do not have @ BC. (only on WR played more than 2 seasons within the last 30 years of the NFL, Brian Brennan from 84-93)

Week 9
Who we play: Central Michigan
Who we should play:Penn State
Week 9 of the 09 season has us up against Central Michigan. This will actually be a pretty good game this year because the Chippewas QB LeFevour is this years Nate Davis, putting up 2800y in 10 games last season and rushing for another 500. Still Central Michigan isn't much of a prestigious program. As the last non conference game I had difficulty choosing this one. UConn and Syracuse came into mind but I dismissed them because the Pitt game is already against the Big East. I then decided it would be good to have a game either against a Big 10 team and or an SEC team and figured Big 10 made more sense because of the recruiting overlap. The choice even that choice comes down to Michigan, MSU or Penn State. MSU is really just there because I don't like them much right now. Michigan has that big time prestige (despite rebuilding) and also has a similar academic level. In the end though BC and Penn State have an old rivalry, have similar programs academically and skill wise. Playing Pitt and Penn State would also give a real boost to PA recruiting.

09 outcome: We probably couldn't match up this year. PSU won't be as good as last years Rose Bowl team but they have a pretty solid team.
07 Outcome: The 07 team could handily take care of this years Lions but the real question would be how the 07 team could handle the 08 Lion team. The average on Whatifsports was a PSU victory (all 10 sims) by less than a touchdown (ranging from 1pt to 10 pts).

Blake Barker Goes West

2009-07-02T06:39:00.000-07:00

More bad news for the now rain-soaked Chestnut Hill faithful (seriously I felt like Charlton Heston parting the red sea with my car this morning) as Blake Barker has decided to play ball at Stanford. BC actually does fairly well in the "keeping talent in the area" research that ESPN Rise turns out every year. However the perennial powerhouses don't let the elite talent go, so I've scoured Rivals database for every New England 4* and 5*(not including 2010) to see how many play football for BC. (Tip: If you want to play D1 ball and you live in Vermont, move)

Here's the Breakdown:
ME: 0 for 0
VT: 0 for 0
NH:1 for 1 (Lapham)
MA: 2 for 6 (Unis in 02 Eason in 07)
RI: 1 for 1 (Blackmon in 02)
CT:1 for 11 (Jones in 05)

Now an argument could be made that because UConn and Rutgers are about as close as BC its not "our backyard" but what I found in Connecticut was that none of the 4* went to UConn and in fact quite a few went to Maryland, UNC and UVA. The media market for Boston teams has always been New England (with some fudging in Western CT) thats where I recruiting grounds should be. Spaz and Co. need to get a hold of that local elite talent (there was a 4* QB that Jagz flopped on from CT last year). If we keep going 5 for 19 its going to be tough.

Week 8:
Who are we kidding, Notre Dame is Notre Dame. Big game, big plays. BJ Raji throwing offensive tackles into Jimmy Clausen, no reason to change it. The Notre Dame game is that one that everyone know about. As a diehard fan it actually gets a little frustrating because of the way casual fans, particularly students, handle this game. They show up shouting how we're going to crush them while half of them don't know that name of the starting Quarterback and the other half don't understand the rules. Meanwhile the guys that stood through the entire Rhode Island game (that rain was miserable) are crushed against the railing because Lawrence and his fratboy wannabe friends decided that it would be easier to just jam 100 people into the front corner than show up early for the game.

This game is a storied rivalry and deservedely so, but the casual fan needs to pull their head out of their own ***** long enough to realize that there are 11 or more other games in the season.

But really, will someone get Charlie a donut I think he might be hungry

Recruiting and Dream Schedule 7

2009-07-01T06:15:00.000-07:00

We picked up two new recruit over the weekend, neither of which were any real showstoppers. Alex Amidon gives us some more depth at WR but I haven't found any real info on him. Andre Williams a 5'11" 202 lb "Bowling Ball"(ESPN) seems to be something of a mystery. ESPN has him tagged as a slow but powerful runner with good blocking but little upside @ halfback, projecting a possible switch to fullback. Meanwhile examiner.com has Williams as a 4.3 40 runner. One thing to keep in mind is that many of our great players were guys who developed.(See A. Castonzo)

and now week 7
Who we play: NC State
Who we should play: NC State
Ok so if I had looked at the schedule and planned this out ahead of time I might have seen that most of our schedule isn't half bad. Regardless I still like this project so I'll move forward. This is the start of our next Notre Dame Rivalry. I'm not saying Tom O'Brien was the best coach BC ever had, I'm not even saying he was as liked as Frank Leahy, but he was good, he abandoned ship and it's a divisional matchup. Theres no reason not to like this game.
This year: Tom O'Brien finally makes his triumphant return to Chestnut Hill*
'07: Decent win for Matt and Co.

*I'd like to share a realization I've made when making my projections on win/loss. Due to the fact that a number of these matchups have been the same I've taken a look at them and we are outgunned and overmatched a lot of the time. I do not however feel like we could not win these games. I truly get the feeling that if we play right, even with our loss of players this year, that we could win pretty much every game so far.

Time to move on and Week 6 of the fantasy schedule

2009-06-26T06:30:00.000-07:00

The Boisture's things locked up, I've gotten over it time to move on. BC has already sent out an offer to rising player Chase Rettig. Looks like we were the first to offer.

Before I start with Week 6 of the Schedule I want to do a short recap because these get lost at the end of my page long posts. (if you click the "schedule" label you can see the full six stories

Week 2009 Schedule Dream Team Why
1 Northeastern Holy Cross Revive biggest rivalry in school history
2 Kent State Pittsburgh Old Big East match up and a recruit war now
3 Clemson Clemson An Atlantic Match-up with storied program
4 Wake Forest Wake Forest A battle of two very like schools
5 FSU FSU The road to the Tampa goes through FSU

Week 6
Who we Play:@ Va Tech
Who we should play: @ Va Tech
Perhaps THE biggest budding rivalry since the flip to the ACC. BC has not played a single team more since joining the ACC. Part of me wants to change this to Duke (coastal version of Wake Forest)because we see Va Tech twice every year and they know what we're doing by the second game. Still the Champ game isn't guaranteed (especially this year) so the Va Tech match up needs to stay. Maybe we can spoil they're title run (though I'd like to see the ACC get some more respect). This one continues the trend of keeping the schedule the same.

'09: This one would probably be a loss as well. Va Tech is just looking like a very gifted team this year.
'07: I think this team is better than the '07 team that Matty struggled with but the defense won't be as strong, especially the pass rush. This game would come down to who got more momentum

And There He Goes

2009-06-25T09:54:00.000-07:00

Shortly after impressing @ the Nike Camp and rumors of a visit to MSU superprep.com is reporting that Boisture has flipped. I rely on ESPN because I find it to be the most reliable but they also tend to be a day or two behind Rivals or Scout but it sounds like the love affairs over here. I understand why he flipped so I don't have hard feelings but this seems to be just another in a long string of bad luck.

Resume the Griffin Murphy campaign.

*Update: Rivals is backing up the Scout story

Are you Feeling Lucky?

2009-06-25T07:17:00.000-07:00

A. Simmz over @ Couplebeers caught whiffs of Boisture visiting with Michigan State. Now, for me, two reactions come to mind. First, there is that gnawing, uncomfortable feeling I've had since he comitted and the gutcheck pityparty "I told you so" moment. Then theres the logical calculated reaction. The bad: he's visiting a school closer to home, that gets much more respect nationally (see HD, EA, Steele, etc) and certainly more attention locally (darkhorse for Heisman? pfft the Sawx might sign a Japanese phenom pitcher who will throw out his arm pitching in the World Baseball Classic next year) and Mich State has a family connection with his grandfather or uncle or something coaching there for a number of years. The Good: he committed with us from the get-go, He has reiterated his committment to BC. He says thats its a Solid Verbal and that he will enroll early @ BC, even the Globe has run a story on the kid. So my feeling is the same as it was back when he committed, I'll believe it when I see it, or when he tattoos an Eagle on his Chest. Either way we just have to sit, wait and hopefully get a little much-deserved luck. (God knows we need it)

And now for Week 5 of the dream schedule:
Who we play:FSU
Who we should play: FSU
For BC the road to Tampa goes through Tallahasee (it might literally go through as well). This year their coming here and the powerhouse that is Bobby Bowden and his band of class-skipping, test-cheating felons aren't the favorites to win the Atlantic, which means they probably will, and since the FSU-BC game has always been won by the away team hopefully the odd both teams aren't really that good, you-should-beat-us-but-maybe-you-won't-but-we're-rebuilding-so-maybe-you-will-but-the-team-that's-supposed-to-win-never-wins-so-maybe-we'll-win reverse reverse logic will come into effect.

Kudos to anyone that just read that, but really whether they've been replaced by Va Tech and Clemson (and maybe now Ga Tech) Miami and FSU have always been though of as the class of the ACC because of their titles and their powerhouse recruiting. Since we rock the Atlantic an FSU game is a must. Perhaps even a rivalry trophy should be made, my suggestion: a guilded luggage bag since the away team always wins.

'09: Unless the rest of the team gets arrested (a possibility) I would have to say this ones gonna be a loss for our boys. It's not a lost cause, just a difficult game against a good team that has history on it's side (0-5 for the home team)

Where to Start...

2009-06-24T08:07:00.001-07:00

A lot of news since I last had a decent internet connection so here we go:

The first summer football camp was last week and besides making it impossible to find parking little news came out of it. In the end it looks like QB Josh Bordner impressed the coaching staff, which is good because he hasn't impressed anyone else. We also picked up a local OL Robert Vardaro, not real info on him yet. The QB pickup probably ends my bring Griffin Murphy to BC campaign as I don't really see the value in bringing a 7th QB into the fold and atleast the guy is tall. Couplebeers has more of an inside track on the camp situation so head over there for some more info.

The writer over at Couplebeers also shares a similar hatred for EA that I share. With NCAA 2010 a little over 2 weeks away they have released the Team ratings for next year. Couplebeers went into the historical snubbing but I've been wasting my time doing some in depth research. For a couple of weeks now EA has been promoting a "Team Builder" for NCAA 2010 (which I hope will feature a download function where you can download the team you built). As part of this you can also get access to the team rosters, and their attribute by attribute evaluation. You have to keep in mind that EA includes about 121 teams (120 FBS schools and one FCS Compass Point team) but it really shows. My conclusion has been that the research comes primarily from the recruiting outlets and then points get bumped up semi-randomly every year with standout players getting a little extra attention. You can see where this is going. My biggest problem this year is with LE # 98 (known to none EA programmers as Alex Albright) is rated as a 73 overall. My conclusion how they came to this ranking, Albright came in as a 3* recruit, which means you fall in the 70-75 range as a freshman (at least according to their system) Albright has then started only a few games since then and has had little production (they look at previous year stats) so he hasn't progressed far. What they didn't look at was the fact that the guy was injured for most of the years. This system is however still better than previously because atleast McLaughlin and Harris were bumped up thanks to there good production (I still remember when Dunbar was barely scratching 80). Their evaluation of Herzlich however was pathetic, my only conclusion is that they relied on stats because he ended up with a 93. He was quite possibly one of the best OLB next year and he got the same treatment as every starting LB for FSU. This also raises another issue as to why Herzlich is even available. I'll give EA a break for this one because they announcement was made late and theres still some ambiguity to the situation but honestly they still have Albright as a Senior and last year Toal and Raji were nowhere to be found while they were in 07. Anyways I went player by player through all of the players and adjusted names, numbers and ratings. If you want to try it out for yourself head over to easportsworld.com click on football and go to teambuilder. If you want to see my evaluation search Boston College and look at the team by "BCEagles2010," and yes I realize theres a duplicate of Lapham, I don't know why.

In other snub news HD is cruising through her top 30 ACC players and the only BC player to hit the list so far is Castonzo at number 23. Shes down to 7 and no other BC player has shown up. I really don't think any of our players (besides Herzlich who HD herself said would be number 1 AND 2) would be in the top 7. The only one who has a chance is Matt Tennant. Still I feel like we should have had a few people in the high teens and twenties. Harris ran truck all over FSU last year, Wes Davis is a pretty good FS and McLaughlin (assuming he's back) was a rock in the middle. Albright, when healthy is great coming off the corner. Tennant and Claiborne are solid O-Lineman. While I don't expect all of them should have been on the list I think it would be fair to say that @least one (including Tennant and McLaughlin) should have been somewhere on that list.

And finally that leads us to Fantasy Scheduler week #4
Who we play:Wake Forest
Who we should play: Wake Forest
Never a problem with this matchup, always some of the finest games, the schools are remarkably similar and produces a fine matchup every year, oftentimes with Atlantic Division standing on the line.

'09: close game but WF's lack of a consistent ground attack means that our experience secondary can load up against the pass.
'07: Defense would just chew up Skinner (they did) and Matt would throw for atleast 300 yards (again)

Toal back in the Pros and Round 3 of Fantasy scheduler

2009-06-19T06:30:00.000-07:00

Good news on the Toal watch, he's been picked up by another team! The bad news is that just like I predicted its in the UFL. Brian Toal will be joining the UFL Las Vegas team which has me slightly confused. My impression was that there would be a geographical base to the draft where teams get first crack at local players, either from their home town/college or from what NFL team they were released from. Toal is from NJ and tried out with the Jets and theres a UFL NY team... yet he's in Vegas. This either means the local team didn't want him or I don't understand the draft philosophy. Joining Toal in the UFL is 2007 standout CB Dejuan Tribble who was selected by San Diego in last years 6th round but spent the year on the practice squad before being released this year. I think Tribbble would honestly be a very exciting player in the AFL (where his risk-reward rout jumping would be more exciting) but I hope he does well regardless. You can check out the UFL draft here. There will be two more stages to the draft to fill out the roster and I have a strong feeling that you are going to see Akins, Robinson, and perhaps even Crane make some teams later. I'm up in the air on Purvis, I still find it weird that he's wearing a FB number but with Smith in New England there should be an extra spot for a TE. In FB news former TE/FB Jon Loyte is cracking into the lower level of the AFL.

And now for week 3
Who we play: @ Clemson
Who we should play: @ Clemson
A budding rivalry that actually has a name and trophy (not that I know it) there's no reason this game shouldn't be played. Sure, it will likely be one of the tougher games this year but these are two pretty storied teams and its an ACC Atlantic matchup to be proud of. This one stays on the books.

I'm also going to start adding what I think this years squad would do in the dream schedule as well as the 2007 squad (the best team I know of in recent memory)
Holy Cross: win in 09 and 07
Pitt: Close win in 09, blowout in 07
Clemson: While there always seems to be the potential for an upset in this game I'm going to give the 09 team a loss here. If there is any "good" ACC team we have a chance against this year its going to be Clemson though. The 07 team would stomp.

Recruiting News and installment Two of the Dream Schedule

2009-06-17T08:37:00.000-07:00

There is some new info on Boisture thanks to an article by the Boston Globe. The globe actually covering news on BC is something of a miracle in itself and the fact that they are covering Boisture either indicates just how exciting this guy could be or... just how bad our QB situation is right now. In other news BC is still in the running for Shakim Phillips one of the best WR in the 2010 recruiting class. Finally I just found out that Ryan Cobb, the Don Bosco prospect that wanted to hear from BC has committed elsewhere. I can't help but feel that we might have missed out on this one. The guy wasn't an elite talent but he had that Blue-Collar feel that BC generally goes for. Maybe recruiting under Spaz is going to include only Blue-Chips, time will tell.

And for part two of the dream schedule we look at Week 2 in the season.
Who we play: Kent State
Who we should play: Pitt
I followed the ever unpopular Heather Dinich on this one because theres a lot to like about this match up. Theres an old rivalry from the Big East days but more importantly there is a huge recruiting territory overlap. The amount of players that sign with us over Pitt or Pitt over BC is fairly substantial so such a game could serve as a chance to prove which team deserves that 4* reciever.

A little News and Some fun

2009-06-11T06:45:00.000-07:00

Sounds like I'm not the only one less than convinced that Shinskie will be the solution as ATLEagle, Eagle Access and Couplebeers all seem less optimistic following that new hope high. My optimist side has me saying that Shinskie probably has the best skill set and only needs to catch up with reading coverage, something Tuggle struggled with anyways. My realist side tells me that a guy that hasn't seen a cover 2 in 6 years is not going to be able to pick it up over the summer. So heres my way too early, way too uneducated projection. Justin Tuggle will be our starter but Shinskie will have a couple of snaps per game where he could really fire off some bombs just like Vandy and GT did against us last year.

In other news couplebeers posted that Boisture is currently taking summer classes so taht he can graduate in the winter and enroll @ BC in January. I don't know where he got his info, he's as bad at posting links as I am but this could be a sign for Boisture as starting QB in the fall of 2010. Then again we could have a Haden/Harris situation where Haden was anointed as the savior of BC's running game and then Harris ran truck all over the ACC last year. But thats other news.

HD over @ ESPN just did a little exercise called fantasy scheduling and she picked one game that she would love to see. I decided I would take this and carry it out over our entire schedule. Feel free to fire back your own feelings the rules are any ACC team has to be a team from the same division (no nonconfrence or non-division opponents) so here we go (I'll release one every few days
Week 1:

Who we play: Northeastern
Who we should play: Holy Cross
Back before the Holy War with Notre Dame there was the Holy War with Holy Cross. This was literally THE game of the year back in the day. The old Alumni field was too small to hold the crowds for this game so a number of games had to be held at Braves field or the barely 5 year old Fenway park back in 1916. Holy Cross was also the only team to beat the 1940 BC "Team of Destiny" which went undefeated into their last game against a relatively weak Holy Cross team. Unfortunately the rivalry was retired in 1986 after Holy Cross went the 1AA route (now FCS) and BC won the last 17 of 20 games. We play an FCS school every year, why not make it one people can really get into. I live near Holy Cross and have a number of friends there and I know a number of the guys on the football team everyone at Holy Cross still sees BC as a rival and recounts the days when they used to paint the Eagle on Linden Lane purple. Sure we'll have to shell out some bucks to play them but really wouldn't you rather it went back into the Jesuit pot and not to Northeastern?

A QB contender and our Future @ QB

2009-06-10T07:41:00.000-07:00

As most have realized already BC received another 2009 commit in David Shinksie, the 25 yr old former pro baseball player hung up the baseball cleats for some football cleats. In terms of experience within the last 6 years Shinskie is at the back of the class but in terms of potential Shinskie is at the front. He should be in shape from playing baseball and even if he hasn't been lifting like a football player he is still supposed to have a real cannon of an arm. We'll see what happens with this experiment but if Shinskie were to get a redshirt (and I understand his eligibility) he would be 30 when hes a redshirt senior. The man is actually a year older than Matt Ryan.(but for camparison's sake BYU standout and current NFL backup John Beck was 27 when he graduated).
Future of the program Joe Boisture was in the news this weekend as he went to the Nike Football Combine in Illinois. He stood out and warmed up throughout the day and there were no negative knocks on him. QB MVP went to some 6-1 Whitmer character. I really want to embrace Boisture as the next Matt Ryan but I keep getting the feeling that Boisture is going to prove to be an average prospect as the year goes on. I'll wait until the Elite 11 camp to really delve into this though because that has a tendency to deliver more info on QBs.
Although it is important to keep in mind that BC seems to have some of the best player development in the history of football. (Silva was a 2* prospect, Dunbar a 3* Running back prospect, Raji a 2*, Ryan doesn't count because he was hurt his Junior year) and we also seem to fail with some of the "elite prospects" (Toal 5* was always hurt, Callendar 4* never really took off, McMichael 4* was always hurt, Robinson 4* never proved to be an elite player)

DD Departs and we pick up another recruit

2009-06-03T07:01:00.000-07:00

I don't have reliable internet at my apartment right now so I post on a varied basis making me a day late with this story but Dominique Davis is transferring after being suspended by the team. I was never high on DD but I talked football with a lot of other guys on-campus and some of them really liked the way DD looked during the spring. Judging from the spring game alone DD was the clear QB front runner but my take at this point is good riddance to this guy.

When BJ was suspended in 07 for academic reason I can tell you that I rolled my eyes at the stupidity of players who fail their classes. Almost all the starting player take summer classes so that they only have to take 4 classes during the regular semesters and they also have a famous habit of enrolling in the easier classes. I was able to maintain a very good GPA while taking 5 classes working 15 hours a week and practicing twice a day 6 days a week. Still I respected Raji for taking a redshirt year, working hard and getting back out on the field last year, becoming a force for us and Green Bay next year. If Davis can't do that, and gets upset because they student part in Student Athlete came first then I suggest he transfer to FSU, or perhaps go to the arena league. I've said this before, I like good character guys.

Now as far as our hopes of winning next year are concerned I have to say I don't think they really got that much worse. The reality is that we know Herzlich will not be back so we aren't going to be making the ACCCG, I don't think McLaughlin will be back on the field and if he is I don't feel like he will be as good as he could be so that takes us down to 8 wins and with DD leaving those games we were waffling before we'll probably lose so at this point our goal should be a bowl game. Unless Mascovetra turns out to be a beast we weren't expecting I think you'll probably see Tuggle win the battle but Boek will probably get some playing time and Tranquill might have to break out the option play even if it doesn't fit his style. Still if Josh Haden and Montel Harris keep up their numbers we should do alright if not phenomonal and hopefully Boisture will be as good as he seems.

BC also picked up BB&N WR Jim Mcaffrey a weekend after offering him a position with BC. Mcaffrey is hardly a covetted prospected but he has great 4.4 speed and as I've mentioned before I love any player that really wants to be here (and dislike people who leave because they can't get to class on time). Mcaffrey is a tough BC style player and despite being a 2* prospect right now I think he could contribute in a number of ways. Firstly you never know whats going to happen with these guys, sure Mcaffrey is a 2* guy now but he has raw athleticism with 4.42 40 and he might have a breakout season. Even if he doesn't that toughness and willingness to be here will make Mcaffrey a staple on the scout team which can do wonders for a Defense (try catching a guy with 4.4 speed on Saturday if you were chasing a guy with 4.8 speed during the week. The fact that coveted TE prospect Blake Barker has said he wanted to go to school with Mcaffrey is only icing on the cake (especially considering how Pantale played during the spring game).

A little recruiting and news from the NFL

2009-05-29T07:18:00.000-07:00

After those first three recruits things have quieted down a bit, but in regards to those three Rivals has released its next set of rankings. Boisture slid a little bit but still has 4 stars and cracks the Rival 100 @ 90. He's the fourth rated pro-style and since many of the Dual threat QBs are listed as Athletes right now that actually makes him the 4th QB overall, not too shabby. KPL slid in as the # 32 OLB but thats such a popular position I think thats pretty darn good. It also looks like we might be in the running for his cross-town rival Khairi Fortt a strong candidate for a 5th start @ OLB. Betancourt was only given 3* and slid in as the # 30 OT, but I would like to remind everyone that Castonzo was an unheralded recruit when he came in and look where he is now. I think Betancourt could be something great on this O-line.

I spent that day looking around team websites to see how our boys are doing @ mini-camps. Ron and BJ are doing great and Ron could be starting next year since the Pats seem to be at a stalemate with Wilfork. I couldn't find much news on Robinson but the Eagles website is well run and theres a number of pictures of him during drills. The fans don't seem to have much hope of him catching on though. Down in Tampa Ryan Purvis is listed as a TE but was given the number 46 which is a runningback (FB) jersey. Theres already two very good FBs there so I don't think you'll see Purvis blocking for Dunn or Graham but its not exactly good news for Purvis right now. I couldn't find much news on Francois and Toal seems to have disappeared since not getting an offer after a strong Jets camp. Theres not much news for Crane either but there are some pictures of him slinging the ball around. Only other Eagle Alum in the news is Josh Beekman who started 16 games for the Bears last year but apparently is losing his position as starting LG because of the shuffling on the O-Line following the O. Pace signing.

Transfer Rumor

2009-05-27T08:27:00.000-07:00

Missed this before the last post but there have been reports that Pitt is getting two transfers, one from BC, supposedly a WR from PA. Eagle Access already has this covered noting that the only WR from PA is an incoming freshman. It seems that Chris Hayden-Martin is the player departing, Eagle Access cited a facebook report.

If this is the case I think H-M will be missed. He was a decent recruit and had the athletic skills that BC players generally lack. He hurt his knee again (tore his ACL in 07, I think he had a similar injury) so theres some question about his future. I did however see Chris around campus a fair amount and he was a very charismatic guy.

Not much News

2009-05-27T07:49:00.001-07:00

There has not been a whole lot going on, just some more articles on Herzlich and the generic filler that you find in this limbo period between practices.

I walked by the practice field on campus the other day and saw what looked to be a player-run scrimmage. It was interesting because it looked to be about 30 of the major players just running plays without pads. Every play I saw was a running play with Josh Haden as the halfback and I'm fairly sure it was DD handing off the ball.

Heather Dinich has made remarks about needed McLaughlin back and has projected a 5-7 finish for Spaz's first year coaching. The one good comment she seemed to make was the recognition of Bowman and Davis in the defensive backfield as they project to be the starting safeties in a talented secondary.

I can't figure out where I found the info but I'm fairly sure that Joe Boisture will be going to the Elite 11 camp @ the University of Oregon on June 13 so stay tuned for that.

Herzlich and the need for Leadership

2009-05-17T17:45:00.000-07:00

I have to admit that I expected a bit of a media blackout on the Herzlich situation after the family publicly asked for privacy, but leave it to Herzlich to give Cancer the middle finger.

He spoke with ESPN's College Football Live on the way back from the treatment center to let everyone know what was going on. I heard the one thing that I really wanted to when he said that it definitely had yet to metastasesed (or however you spell the past tense of metastases) which dramatically raises the survivability. When asked about his playing future Mark spoke in depth about life after football though so instead of guessing I'll just leave it at that.

Heather Dinich, the ESPN ACC blogger, wrote a short article babout BC's need for leadership now without Herzlich. She pointed to Ramella, McLaughlin and Tennant. On offense I wouldn't be surprised to see Anthony Castonzo step up as a leader from the Left Tackle position. I also like the call of McLaughlin as a leader but I really feel like you won't see him on the field in the fall. That likely leaves Ramella but I also think that you could see a lot of leadership out of Wes Davis from the Free Safety position.

Stunned

2009-05-14T17:12:00.001-07:00

I stayed late on Campus for my own reasons but was off-campus with some friends for most of the day. One of them got the news from ESPN's text service and I just kind of stopped. Ferocious athletes like Herzlich don't get sick, they don't go to the hospital, they send people to the hospital. Then you realize that Cancer doesn't care if your young old, a beast or a mouse. One thing I am sure about is that Herzlich's attitude won't prevent him beating this. I have a lot of theories about his football future and how it might play out, but since he's not commenting on it I won't either. At this point everyone should be getting behind Mark and showing support. Head over to BCEagles.com and leave him a get-well message on the board there. Showing how many people he has in his corner can only help him.

Disrespect and Character Issues in the ACC

2009-05-13T09:41:00.000-07:00

Atleagle, BCInterruption and Couplebeers have all touched on JP Giglio's preview of the Atlantic Division and how he loves NC State. In all honesty I can't say I disagree with his logic or at least how I percieved it, here's my take on what he's saying.
Anyone can win the Atlantic, go down the list and honestly tell me why one team is better as a whole than the next. So next you go to the gamechangers, players who can make the difference. Clemson and FSU could have some (particularly the skill players @ Clemson) but I would still consider them impact players and not true gamechangers. That leaves Russel Wilson and Mark Herzlich and while these two are like the unstoppable force and the immovable object coming together I have to give the nod to Wilson. True, defense wins championships but last year when we played NC State we needed to drop a whole lot of points on them, the fact of the matter is that I don't think we can count on that again this year. So NCState gets my nod as the team that will get trounced by VTech in the ACC Championship game. Remember that this is subject to change if our offense starts clicking in the summer.

Couplebeers just posted about character issues down @ FSU which got me thinking about BC's recruiting in general. FSU had 6 major issues, Miami is notorious for issues, though the program does seem to be cleaning up under Shannon. UNC seems to be taking a similar path. I haven't heard much about Clemson so I can't make a complete conclusion here but one thing all of these teams have in common is incredible recruiting, constantly bringing in Blue Chippers. Now I look to our program where we have seen one issue (the Tribble/Cherilus barfight last year doesn't count because in all honesty it looks like they were helping the owner take out some human trash) the issue with Brady Smith, for which he was ultimately given a slap on the wrist because he was really only found to have made a stupid drunken decision. The program still immediately removed him despite the upcoming need for defensivelineman. The point is that BC seems to bring in a lot of good character guys. We also seem to be on the verge of becoming a major player in the league everyyear. If we can make some waves this year and continue the current recruiting trend the team could have a bright future under Spaz. So the question becomes, do we lower standards for the better athletes (more so than we do now). I remember looking back @ Toal's Senior HS info and he had a low GPA but he made the cut for BC. Should we start doing that for all the blue-chips coming in? What about character issues? BJ had some but still played out well on the field.

My feeling is that we should not abandon our routes. BC is a Jesuit institution, held to higher standards than others. As the interest from the big players starts to come in, do the research, not just on game tape but with their communities. If the guys have some question marks but play well let the know that that stuff won't be tolerated. Work it out so they room with high-character teammates and help them make good decisions. If the player is the #1 recruit in the country and hearing that will make him sign elsewhere, then thats his problem. If he's the #1 recruit in the country and shows significant character flaws, then he isn't a BC guy. Ultimately these players are coming to school to be formed for the next part of their lives I don't want to be ashamed of any of our alumni, especially those in the spotlight like NFL players (say a particular QB from VaTech).

The Grass is always greener...

2009-05-07T12:54:00.000-07:00

What makes USC the perennial team to beat, why is Florida always playing in the national championship and why are both stadiums always full? (the fact that they are always in the Championship hunt may have something to do with it but I digress) my theory is that it is due in large part to local talent. I know we've always scored well with bringing in the big guys from our area (SI runs the same story every year) but if you look at it I still think we need to do a better job. This year there are only 4 ESPN watchlisters in New England but theres no reason that we shouldn't be getting the majority of the great New England players. We have one in Pierre-Louis but we already lost out on his teammate Silas Redd and it doesn't look good for cross-town rival Fortt so we have to go after Blake Barker and not miss out on any big time recruits in our own backyard (Andre Lawrence anyone?) At the same time we still need to fill our needs and I love the job Spaz is doing this year bringing in some real blue-chippers for the first time in years (I know the numbers are worthless but I would love to see one BC prospect crack 80 on ESPN's evaluations). Even with those guys coming in we're still going to have some leftover scholarships, so give them to the local stars.

Heres my theory, football may not be huge in the area but each team usually has it's great players every few years. So give those quarterbacks or halfbacks a chance. I'm not a fan of hoarding scholarships for the next year so bring them on, to be honest even the worst have a chance of cracking the depth chart. Take this for instance: if Billy Flutie hadn't gotten bored and Ross Applegate (not a local I know but the basic concept is applicable) hadn't transferred due to Logan's scheme then we could have had a real QB battle this year. No matter who you are three years under the tutelage of any College QB coach (or in this case multiple QB coaches) and your gonna improve your game. All those people that loved Billy @ Natick would be making the trip for the Northeastern Game to see Billy scramble around in the pocket like he did in Natick. I'm not saying he'll be Matt Ryan but sometimes the local heroes can contribute on the field, and in the ticket office.

Still it wouldn't hurt to have USC's recruiting grounds, there are nearly 50 4* or better recruits in their vicinity and they could get whoever they wanted. Meanwhile New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine have 3 prospects Combined (actually NH has all 3, VT and ME have 0 legit prospects at the moment and RI has 4). So while USC and UCLA fight over the Matt Barkeleys of the HS world BC and UConn can slug it out to see who gets Griffin Murphy and Tom Uszakiewicz

Time to whine, again

2009-05-05T08:03:00.000-07:00

So most of the rookie mini-camps have wrapped up so I can finally figure out who ended up where.
Francois is definitely in Minnesota, I haven't found any news but he signed right away and could make some waves there.

B-Rob is probably in Philly, I'm getting this news from couplebeers with some back-up but have heard minimal news about how hes doing and if he might crack the depth chart.

Purvis is definitely in TAMPA, again I jumped on the couplebeers bandwagon and thought Purvis was in Philly with B-Rob but ESPN broke the story of a Purvis-Jags reunion over the weekend, likely after the Bucs sent Alex Smith to the Pats.

Chris Crane got a contract with the Colts, yes Crane signed a contract. (to a team with Painter, Sorgi and Manning)

No news on Akins but Toal impressed at the Jets mini-camp so much in fact that people other than me were surprised when he didn't get signed. Tell me HOW do you impress in a mini-camp and then not get a chance to showcase your talents over Summer Practices. I mean come on the Jets signed guys that haven't played football in five years and they're not going to sign Toal? Maybe he'll get a shot with a team that hasn't had their camp yet, but my bet is Brian Toal UFL inaugural Defensive MVP.

Toal, Betancourt and a look at Pro Eagles

2009-05-01T22:44:00.000-07:00

First up, Toal finally got invited to a camp, the Jets camp to be precise where he will compete with former teammate Kevin Akins for a spot on the roster. Even better news is that Toal seems to have left an impression on First Year Head Coach Rex Ryan.

Moving along the pro road both Raji and Brace have started to settle into their surroundings and devouring the massive pro-play books. One year removed the class of 08 (07 season) is headline by Ryan but Jamie Silva has gotten some notice for his Special Team prowess and as of right now looks to have a future with the Colts. Jolonn Dunbar surprised the Saints working as an effective reserve in the two-deep. Cherilus has pretty much cemented a place at Right Tackle for the league-worst Lions while there has been little news on Tribble since he was sent to the Charger's practice squad.

And moving from past eagles to future eagles Seth Betancourt has officially committed to BC, the four star-ish recruit seems to have given us a "solid" verbal, suggesting that overtures from Notre Dame and Florida mean nothing to this BC-guy.

The Recruiting Situation

2009-04-30T09:48:00.000-07:00

So I'll take a break from whining about Brian Toal's lack of news and talk about our recruiting situation.

First I'll start with my take on recruiting in the pass couple years. I'm a member of the class of '10 so I came in with the TOB's last class (HS '06) which was a decent class and produced some greats but wasn't up to snuff with TOB's other classes. I think TOB might have known he was on his way out and didn't put his heart into it. The class of '07 was weak due to the coaching change and then '08 showed us that Jags wasn't a recruiter. I honestly believe that Jags made a phenomenal coach from the X's and O's but he never got the recruiting thing. The '09 class suffered even worse from coach change syndrome but now we're coming into the '10 class

So heres the deal it looks like we might see the first real class that BC is capable of putting together. Spaz is going early after some of the big names, something we haven't seen in quite some time.

The first pick-up was Joe Boisture, a pick that excited and terrified me at the same time. Here's my take on Boisture, he could be ridiculously good, or he might have been playing against a weak competition. He's switching to Prep this year and he'll also be at the Elite 11 camp and Army All-American Game so we should find out if hes the real deal which is the exciting/terrifying part. Boisture got some interest from the big schools, but not overwhelming, we were one of the first offers. I am a little concerned that if he really takes off as a recruit he might de-commit, he has voiced his opinion that BC is now his place but unless he follows Haden and tattoos an Eagle on his chest I'll be worried until he signs his LOI.

Kevin Pierre-Louis originally committed under Jags and decommitted when he was dismissed, Spaz and company showed that this was still the place he wanted so he re-committed. He should help out with the LB core and looking at the Depth Chart he could be an immediate contributor.

Seth Betancourt- rumor has him committing during a press conference that occurred about half hour ago. This could be a sign of things to come as Spaz plays up the o-line U to bring in some really elite guys, Betancourt should be at least a 3-star a 4 and looks to be great. This could also suggest that we might have a strong case for the current #1 recruit in the country Seantrel Henderson.

And now we move into the "Recruit this guy section"
This will be reserved for those non-blue chip players which have interest in BC but BC might not be sold on.

First up is NJ LB Ryan Cobb, physically he's not a real specimen, but if theres ever a "BC guy" this is him, hard working, football knowledge guy, and get this HE WANTS TO COME HERE. We've had a great relationship with Don Bosco Prep and they turn out some elite prospects in NJ, why not make DBP a pipeline school for BC. This guy could be the Jamie Silva of Linebackers, speaking of which...

Ryan Silva RI S. So we've signed a lot of near-blue chip DBs in the past couple classes, we have plenty of extra scholarships and Jamie got the last scholarship of his class when HE came in. Why wait, the oldest Silva holds the rushing record @ Holy Cross, Jamie was a force for BC, theres good bloodlines here, the kid is smart (interest from Stanford and Dartmouth) and HES JAMIE SILVA'S BROTHER

Last up is QB Griffin Murphy, We've got the Blue-Chip in Boisture, now time to take a flyer on a guy that could be great. I'm familiar with Murphy because he goes to my alma mater (which also makes me biased in this situation) His numbers are pretty solid for 5 games in 08, after which he was out with injury. His injury and lack of competition have really only grabbed looks from UConn but Murphy could be great and it would be frustrating to have what little in-state talent MA has taken out from under our noses.

More NFL Recaps

2009-04-29T08:41:00.000-07:00

I've been trolling blogs and other sources since Sunday trying to find where our guys have been going. Obviously Raji is with the Packers, Brace the Pats and Francois signed incredibly quickly with the Vikings.

News has come down the wire that a player that I completely forgot about has also signed a FA contract, Brandon Robinson. While B-Rob's hands might be a little suspect now that I think about it I would say that he could very well last in the NFL, he has decent speed and a great leaping ability despite his size, if he works on his hands and isn't afraid of going over the middle he could definitely make it. The trouble comes with the fact that he signed with the Eagles, a team laden with a number of good-not-great WR like Jackson, Curtis, Baskett and I'm pretty sure they signed a number of WR over the weekend.

Kevin Akins agent claimed that he got one offer "but it wasn't right for him" so he got an invite to the NYJ mini-camp in the hopes of picking up a contract.

Still no news about Toal, Purvis or Crane. At this point I would say Crane is going to Med School, I can only imagine that Toal is looking at a similar situation to Akins, where he'll head into a mini-camp, just as of right now we don't know which one.

The Draft is done...

2009-04-26T21:39:00.000-07:00

Raji went 9th to Green Bay, right where I expected him. Some are suggesting him as an early pick for Defensive rookie of the year, time will tell but I think he's got a 75% chance of being phenomenal and a 25% chance of never living to the billing.

Brace went 40th to New England. Bittersweet for me because it means that one of the best talent evaluators in the history of football thought as highly of Brace as I always did. It is a little unfortunate however because Brace is clearly a NT space filler, big one dimensional kind of guy (perfect for that position) but a position that the Patriots have filled with a pro-bowl caliber guy in Wilfork. Being such big guys they get worn out easily so Brace will still see plenty of playing time, and I presume it will come early but I don't think you'll ever get a chance to see him really shine.

No one else got drafted but Francois got snapped up quickly by the Vikings, no surprise there considering his special teams prowess and some killer numbers he put up during the pro-day

I feel like Purvis should get a shot somewhere but doesn't have the stand-out capabilities of a NFL tight end.

What really bothers me right now is that I have not sniffed any news on Toal since the Jets talked to him early in the month. Unless it means that hes got multiple offers that he's trying to decide between, this boggles my mind. Ok, I get it you don't want to waste a draft pick on a guy that will in all likelihood may get hurt again. But really his numbers were absolutely stellar, I went back and simulated what his stats would have looked like if he continued at the pace he was going (98 tackles, 9TFL, 4.5 sacks, and a few break-ups). In all probability these numbers would have been higher because we played some easier teams down the stretch (could you imagine Toal against Jimmy Clausen? or Maryland?) and if memory serves me right Toal was outshining the beast himself who finished with 110 tackles and the ACC Def player of the year. Teams were also impressed by his versatility at the pro-day as he both ran and caught balls. So I really have to wonder what the deal is here. Toal is a great player, yeah maybe a little undersized and not as fast as he was when he came in, but the guy clocked a 4.6 which is plenty fast enough for an LB and he has been a heat-seeking, bone-crushing amazing player when hes on the field, even if he was hurt. He deserves a chance, someone needs to give him one.

Thoughts on the Spring Game

2009-04-25T22:27:00.000-07:00

#1 Next time remember to wear sunscreen
#2 Our Offense looks awful...or
#3 Our Defense looks amazing

But realistically I was surprised by what I saw today, reading other peoples first hand experiences doesn't really work because I was caught off guard after reading all about the 1st and 2nd scrimmages, so if you can head over and check out the spring game stream from bceagles.com. Either way here is what I took away.

Offense:

Quarterback
Dominique Davis is the clear front runner @ QB, they all looked pretty poor to be honest but Davis was the least of 3 evils, Boeks numbers were inflated for some reason and he showed that in his line today but even more so in his play. Tuggle, was in all honesty, just as bad another blog is reporting him as saying he just hit a cold streak today but his passes were off target, he looked uncomfortable and made some poor decisions.
Davis meanwhile seems to have added some zip to his passes, we aren't seeing the same 5-yard touches that he threw last year. He had some amazing throws but there was pretty much nothing really over 10 yards though there were attempts. I just get the feeling this might be an offense similar to Dana Bible and TOB.

Running Backs
Surprisingly did not look good, Haden was pulled out early which suggests that he might be injury prone again, Harris made one or two solid runs and the rest were 1-2 yard flops. Smith rattled off one very impressive 13 yarder. Most of our rushing came from the QBs though, which might not be a horrible thing considering most of the "tackles" came from tags that would never bring them down in a real game

O-Line
Pass protection looked good, run blocking looked weak, not much else to say really

Receivers
Oddest surprise of the day. I had a feeling that we would really just see a cycle of about 6 guys and that seems to be the case. Clyde Lee was a disappointment but oddly enough Billy Flutie really impressed. He made some stellar catches and was DD's go-to-guy (I don't know why his numbers weren't reported but if I had to guess I would say 6-7 catches for 50-75 yards). The other stand-out was RS Fr Pantale, absolutely amazing plays on the ball, he went up for some, he grabbed and turned with others and looked decent in run-blocking.

Bad news: yeah Offense didn't score once, that can't be good

Defense:
No point in really doing a unit by unit break down the D-Line looks stout and I think we'll see a rotation of guys including a rather jacked individual prowling the sidelines (looked like Dillon Quinn, but if it wasn't there was one freak of a human that Herz and Scafe both seemed to be doing a lot of chatting with). Alex DiSanzo impressed at LB but look to Dan Williams and Darius Bagan to get a fair amount of snaps as well as the LeGrande on passing situations (probably the next Kevin Akins, smaller speedy S/LB hybrid). My sleeper pick, Distaso seems to have been relegated to 3rd-string, ahh such is the life of a walk-on.
One Bad note: We need to work on some hands drills with some of these boys, I'm talking 6-8 balls that should have been intercepted but were dropped instead (which speaks little about what our offense was doing.

I'll post more on the draft tomorrow in hopes that one of the other guys might go in a late round.

Spring Game, NFL Draft

2009-04-24T15:15:00.000-07:00

Only BC schedules Spring Games on the same day as the NFL Draft when they have guaranteed first rounders (Matty last year BJ this year) but alas thats the situation.

First Up: Spring Game Things to Watch
1. The QB Competition-If I had a blog last year you would have known how much I disliked watching DD play because I was positive that Tuggle would come in as the starter and do something great. After the first scrimmage it seemed like I was right... until last weeks scrimmage. Now I get that Tuggles seen limited number mostly against 2nd or 3rd team defense but the fact that the Staff felt Tuggle should only attempt suggests they either ran out of time or he might not be the leader after all. Boek's rise only adds to the confusion again this is against the 2nd and 3rd but I have to wonder why he hasn't seen more snaps against the 1st team defense
2. The Linebackers, everyone wants to see the new tackles but I think we have enough quality guys that barely get mentioned that we shouldn't have a problem, the LBs however present a different sort of problem. Herzlich has one OLB spot covered but McLaughlin's injury forced Thompson inside leaving the other side wide open. LeGrande's move to LB suggests hes the leading candidate and likely will get the nod in a manner similar to Akins. My personal preference goes to oft-injured RS JR Bagan or walk-on SR Distaso who both have much better size for the position.
3. Running Backs- While we won't see any of the incoming Freshman you have to wonder if Gary(Tranquill) will find a proper way to use the Haden-Harris Duo. What I saw last year was that when we started Haden he seemed to wear out the defense allowing Harris to bullrush his way through in the second half. Rumors of Haden's nagging injury also suggest that he might live up to his hype.
4. WR- A compelling story developing over who will stand out. You have to love Jarvis and Momah's size and while I don't think Gunnell will make for a great #1 receiver I think that's where you'll see him. In all reality we have a lot of options here including rapidly-rising RS FR Clyde Lee, Music City Bowl highlight Colin Larmond and Mr. Do-Everything Billy Flutie.

NFL Draft
1Rajis going top ten, hands down. There seems to be a lot of love for him going to Cleaveland @ 5 but I really think that his character concerns drop him to either Jacksonville, who doesn't seem to like him much or my pick Green Bay who would love to grab BJ @ 9.
2. Brace-Honestly I always liked Ron while he was @ BC more than BJ so I think that Ron will have a great career in some 3-4 defense who needs someone to clog up the line so the Linebackers can get in there. I don't see him sneaking into the 1st round like Kiwi but he should go pretty early in the 2nd round to a team like Denver or I'll go out on a limb here and suggest that you might see KC trade up for him to replace Dorsey who doesn't really fit into the 3-4 the Chiefs are trying to develop (either pushing Dorsey out to DE or possible trade fodder)

As much as I hate to say it I think thats all we're going to see for drafted eagles. Toal might go to a team that values versatility like New England or KC and Francois might go late do to his great Pro-day numbers and developmental possibilities. I love the G-Men connection for Ramsey that Atleagle suggested though I think if Giants pull the trigger it will be later, more than likely it will be Undrafted Free Agent. I think Purvis will get plenty of looks and pick up a FA contract somewhere. CC will get a shot to crack a practice squad and this might sound odd but I see a lot of similarities between Crane and Matt Cassell (now of KC) both are big guys who have strong arms with sub-average touch and can wheel when they need to. Look at teams with an open spot for a very developmental player (NYG, Indy, Chi, or Dallas)