Ranking the 2011 BC football schedule by difficulty, 12th-7th

8.) vs. Northwestern
September 3, 2011 | Week 1 | Chestnut Hill, MA

Northwestern, like BC, went 7-6 last season. If you look at their season, they started off very hot and then started giving up buckets of points. In fact, in week one of last season, they went on the road against a bad Vanderbilt team and beat them in their building. Could that happen here? Well, the situations aren’t entirely analogous, because I don’t think BC this year is going to be as bad as Vandy was last year. The Wildcats are bringing back QB Dan Persa for his junior year, and he had a very good sophomore season with 15 touchdowns (more than all three Eagles QBs threw combined, by the way) and only four interceptions. There is one catch, however: he is coming off of an Achilles injury. He did not participate in any of their three final games last season, and Northwestern was taking a wait-and-see approach with him as he continued to recover over the summer.

Northwestern coaches, however, say he’s ready to go, and fans are mounting a Persa-for-Heisman campaign. With the Eagles as a strong seven-point favorite, his campaign could end before it begins.