Your guide to next years DTs

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

...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

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

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

NCState Game

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

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

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?

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:

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).