NC State at Boston College: Opening Line & the Basics
By Joe Micik
The Boston College football season is unofficially over, but the players still have a lot left to prove.
This week, they will try to salvage their Senior Day against the North Carolina State Wolfpack, coached by none other than Tom O’Brien. O’Brien, the original conservative, “we’re up, aren’t we?” head coach of Boston College, will try to make it back-to-back wins over his former employer and former assistant, Frank Spaziani.
Despite NC State winning over North Carolina last weekend and the Eagles getting taken to the woodshed by Florida State, the opening line is very close. The point spread here favors the Wolfpack by two points; it is essentially a pick-em game at this point in time.
Over the bye week, BC fans were able to identify two winnable games in the second half of the season: Maryland was the first, and this is the second. Boston College will probably not come close to being favored in either of the last two (at Notre Dame and at Miami), so if one believes that this game is the Eagles’ last realistic chance for a win this season, they may be right.
Of the “winnable two,” however, Maryland looked like the more beatable team. At the time, the Terps were 2-5 whereas the Eagles were 1-6. Now, NC State is 5-4 while the Eagles are 2-7 (though the Wolfpack schedule has not been all that tough). Aside from that, while NC State has been far from stellar most of the time, they’ve also got a respectable win or two over bowl-eligible teams Virginia and North Carolina. Meanwhile, when assessing the Eagles’ only two victories, one was against an FCS team and the other was against a team that has also clinched a sub-.500 season. Beating NC State would give the Eagles their first, and possibly only, win over a team that qualifies as mediocre or average.
NC State has struggled for most of the year, and in particular have had some highly questionable games defensively, though they have put together a better body of work than BC and are not nearly as bad as the Maryland team the Eagles just saw. In last weekend’s contest, the Wolfpack shut the Tar Heels out as they won 13-0. Offensively, though the overall results have not been great, their offense has been more prolific than BC’s, which is not saying much. They’ve gotten more production out of the quarterback position, as Mike Glennon has thrown twenty touchdown passes so far this year. Of course, to Chase Rettig’s unfortunate disadvantage, few quarterbacks could be successful given his porous offensive line.
The Wolfpack are not a great team by any stretch, but when it boils down to it, they’ve got a winning record and BC doesn’t. This is, however, a rivalry game, and I’m sure both coaches circled this date on their calendars. Further, both coaches would like to win more games so as to avoid their rightful canning. At stake for O’Brien with a win is securing a bowl berth for his team, and his seat will get toasty with a loss, while the stakes for Spaz may include his termination if he loses out (which is a distinct possibility, given how his team played against Florida State).
This should be an intriguing contest, from the BC perspective, to see what the Eagles have left. There is nothing to play for but pride, but we’ll see if they’ve still got it on Saturday.