101 Days of BC Football: Sean Sylvia, #19

The defensive secondary featured several new faces in 2011; as such, Boston College fans did not know what to expect from some of them. Sean Sylvia, a redshirt freshman from Dartmouth, was certainly an unknown quantity in joining the Eagles.

Sylvia’s path to Boston College was not without its difficulties. His first high school was Dartmouth High in southern Massachusetts where he played both quarterback and defensive back. Unfortunately, as the story goes, his grades were not up to par, despite being respected for his work on the field. Sylvia ended up moving over to Cheshire Academy in Connecticut in between high school and college to pull up his grades and re-establish himself as a sought-after recruit. He did just that in one excellent year at Cheshire, and sure enough, BC came calling.

2010 was a redshirt season for Sylvia, who is heading into his sophomore campaign in 2012. During his freshman season, Sylvia filled out several boxes on the stat sheet. He managed 38 tackles, one tackle for a loss, an interception and two pass breakups in eleven games. This year, he is on the second line at free safety behind Josh Keyes (and he did not appear in all of the team’s scrimmages in the spring). Technically, he’s tied with Keyes, as the depth chart says Keyes “or” Sylvia.

If what we have for evaluation is Sylvia’s freshman year, then it was hit or miss. There were heads-up plays that he made which were very good, and some of them had pretty nice results (such as the interception he gained), but there were also some not-so-good decisions he made. He was a freshman; it happens. Still, based on what I saw, I’d expect that he will get a good amount of playing time. As with everywhere else in this secondary, maintaining a sliver of depth will be crucial if BC is to have any success this year. The Eagles can’t afford to lose Sylvia for any length of time.