101 Days of BC Football: Colin Larmond, Jr., #1

The 101 days of Boston College football begin with the players, going up numerically (while taking a few pit stops along the way) before transitioning to other football-related matters. Day 1 should clearly then start with #1, senior wide receiver Colin Larmond, Jr.

Anybody who watched Eagles football in 2011 knows that the offense was virtually non-existent. This also extends to the passing game, where Boston College had 173 completed passes in total (as compared to 265 for opponents). As a result, you’ll get a lot of receivers with relatively unimpressive stat lines. Larmond was amongst the lucky ones, catching the second-most passes on the team last year with 34 and leading the team in receiving yards with 528. Not surprisingly, he also tied for the team lead with three touchdowns (which is sad when you consider that those mere three accounted for 25% of BC’s passing touchdowns last year).

Larmond lost his 2010 season due to a medical redshirt, injuring his knee shortly before the year began. 2011 was his comeback season and he acquitted himself fairly well all things considered, though he was perhaps a bigger threat prior to his injury. After Ifeanyi Momah’s BC-career-ending injury, he became an even more integral part of the plan. In the previous offensive coordinator regime(s) last season, Larmond was a frequent target and is likely to be again in 2012. Yes, we all know that the tight ends also need to become involved in the passing game, but Larmond has established himself as a reliable receiver for Chase Rettig who was usually open. With that said, he only caught an average of about 3 passes per game, which is indicative that something wasn’t quite right.

The biggest passing play of the year, 57 yards, belongs to Larmond, and he’s still been the foremost option for going down the field. Of course, stretching the field was (and perhaps still is; we’ll find out in September) not something we saw very much. Obviously the wideouts are not fully culpable, as they were just one of several parts of the passing game. Regardless, heading into his senior season, the unmistakable truth is that Larmond is one of the best wide receivers we have on the team.

For Larmond and BC to have an even better season, for one thing, Rettig has to be able to get the ball to him. As much as we like Rettig, the completion percentage was not very good (and even he’s not entirely to blame for that; for example, he didn’t always have adequate time). Additionally, Doug Martin has to keep him involved and occasionally send that deep ball Larmond’s way. If anyone on this team can come close to being a deep threat, it’s probably Larmond.

Time will tell how he is used under Martin, but one would expect Larmond to remain a key player in the passing game.