101 Days of BC Football: Bobby Swigert, #10
By Joe Micik
Every quarterback has a favorite target. For Tom Brady, it’s Wes Welker. For Peyton Manning back in the day, it was Marvin Harrison. For Chase Rettig at Boston College, it’s Bobby Swigert.
This soon-to-be junior led Boston College in receptions in 2011, catching 44 passes for 470 yards (2nd; Larmond) and three touchdowns (T-1st; Larmond and Pantale). He even contributed in the kick return game, taking 12 of the team’s 14 punt returns and doing three kickoffs. All told, Swigert had the second-most all-purpose offensive yards on the team behind running back Rolandan Finch. Hell, Swigert even recorded an unassisted tackle last season, doing a little bit of everything on a team that needed all the help it could get.
We did not see Swigert in the spring game on March 31 because of injury; we certainly wish him a speedy recovery and continued health for the upcoming season and beyond.
Swigert established himself as one of the most productive offensive players on the Eagles. As a receiver, he’s been Chase Rettig’s safety blanket, and the football often finds its way towards his hands. When it does, Swigert typically obliges by catching it, though to be fair, he did have some drops. His counterpart, Colin Larmond, was more of the deep threat (in theory, that is), while BC didn’t really stretch the field too much with Swigert, or anyone for that matter. Nevertheless, he has succeeded in the role they’ve given him.
If we’re going to be thorough, while Swigert has been one of the best wide receivers on the Eagles since coming onto the scene, he has also been a big part of the punt return game, which isn’t good. In fact, BC had the second-worst punt return number in the ACC last year, but Swigert himself averaged 6.4 yards.
Everybody knows what Swigert’s chief function will be for Boston College in 2012: one of the top two receivers on the team. Even though Doug Martin is supposedly altering BC’s gameplan to spread the football out more, Chase Rettig is going to look his way a fair share of times. Everyone knows that Swigert is reliable for the most part and will turn in a good performance more often than not, so why not? There are a couple other decent to good receivers on this team, but losing Swigert during the year for any reason would be a big blow.