Boston College Football: Future Opponent Scouting
By Joe Micik
Liz Condo-USA TODAY Sports
There is no more lonely Fall Saturday than that in which your team has a bye week. It is magnified when it’s your team’s second bye week. Such is the case for the Boston College Eagles, who are watching football from their dorms this weekend as they will prepare to return to the action in one week.
Four of their six opponents yet to come either have played or will play by this time tomorrow. That affords us an opportunity to look ahead at several teams yet to come as the Eagles search for (at least) three more wins.
North Carolina Tar Heels
Very shortly, we’ll be talking quite a bit about this football team. On Thursday night, they lost to the #10 Miami Hurricanes, 27-23. North Carolina was able to make it a game, to their credit, but what a mistake-prone team they are. Seven penalties, a couple turnovers, and a field goal blocked for a Miami touchdown are just some examples of what they did wrong against the Hurricanes. This all aside from blowing a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter at home, giving up the losing score with 16 seconds to go.
Another thing worth noting: Dallas Crawford, Duke Johnson, and the rest of Miami rushed for a total of 234 yards against the Heels, which has to have Andre Williams and Myles Willis licking their chops.
UNC also did some things right. For example, they racked up 500 yards of offense against Miami, which has to get Don Brown’s attention. Further, they picked off Stephen Morris four times, but it’s doubtful that Chase Rettig will even have the same number of pass attempts as Morris (35) next week.
Syracuse Orange
Syracuse travels to Atlanta to face the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets this weekend. They won last week against another future opponent, NC State, but now we get to see if their first road win of the year was part of a trend of just a one-off. Syracuse’s run defense has been alright this year and everyone on the planet knows the Jackets are going to run all day and all night. How Syracuse does against Georgia Tech’s triple-option may be a glimpse into how they’ll handle Boston College’s power-run offense late next month, not that the Eagles are nearly as slanted towards the run as the Jackets.
Maryland Terrapins
Maryland is off to a surprising 5-1 start this year and they’re looking for bowl-eligibility against prior opponent Wake Forest. They should get it. Even at 5-1, it’s still hard to make the Terps out this season, as clearly they are an improved product on the field and yet, few people seem to be afraid of them. Getting obliterated by Florida State and barely beating Virginia may have something to do with that. Boston College will not face them until close to Thanksgiving.
New Mexico State Aggies
New Mexico State is a godawful football team and that’s being kind. Their opponents today, the Rice Owls, are okay, nothing more and nothing less. If Rice blows them out, and they probably should, that will continue to confirm that Boston College should be big favorites in that game on November 9. Seeing as how they give up 340.83 rushing yards per game (and a staggering 27 rushing touchdowns in six games), Andre Williams may yet have another crack at breaking Montel Harris’s single-game records.