101 Days of BC Football: Gerald Levano, #32

When Boston College football starts a new punter, they tend to stick around for a while. For the last four years, those duties have been assumed by Ryan Quigley, a young man who developed into a very useful, reliable punter. Before that, BC had Johnny Ayers for four years, who now ranks behind Quigley as having the second-most punts in BC history. There is a lot of stability here, generally speaking — which is why it’s a bit unusual that our next starting punter will only be of service to us for one season.

Enter Gerald Levano, a senior punter from Long Island who will finally get his shot. In 2008, he was redshirted, in 2009, he was a “valuable scout team member,” and in 2010 and 2011 made some brief appearances in games. Now, in 2012, he gets to be BC’s punter, with the obvious downside that he only gets one year in the limelight before graduating.

On a personal level for Levano, if the BC offense looks anything like it has for the last several years, he’s going to get to do all the punting he can handle (even in the fourth quarter if the Eagles are down four touchdowns and are in plus territory). That, of course, wouldn’t be good news for Boston College overall, but he does have another function on this team: holding. No, not the penalty: special teams holding the football.

Back to punting: what will likely happen here is that Levano will punt this year and BC will break in the student who will be their punter going forward, redshirt freshman Alex Howell. Unless you’ve watched him in high school or spring games, you haven’t seen Levano punt, either, so it’ll be a new experience for all of us in September. If he’s half as solid as Quigley, we’ll be okay.