101 Days of BC Football: James McCaffrey, #29

James McCaffrey, a sophomore from Winchester, is our new 101 Days focus. The file on him is kind of thin, but there’s enough to get by and fill up some blank space.

He redshirted in 2010 and made his Boston College debut last season, appearing in 11 of BC’s 12 games. In those contests, McCaffrey netted nine tackles, which account for the sum total of his appearances on the stat sheet. The first tackle of his BC career came at home against Duke, in a game most Eagles fans would likely care to forget.

While so many other defensive backs were out of commission for the 2012 Jay McGillis Memorial Spring Game, McCaffrey was not, and he made the most of his playing time. He ended up picking off two passes that afternoon while also recovering a fumble.

Heading into 2012, he is listed second on the two-deep at back corner, behind fellow second-year player Manny Asprilla. Aside from a spring game, which should never carry too much weight with anyone (unless there are things that take place which are truly concerning), we have not seen much from him. McCaffrey is going to get his fair share of playing time this year — he made it into all but one game last season, and there’s no reason to think that he’ll get less time with the depth issues being what they are — so he will have to take a step forward. Merely doing his job and being a reliable defensive back all season long without injury would be sufficient.