101 Days of BC Football: Mehdi Abdesmad, #45

A little international flavor never hurt anyone. Today, we’ve got our first non-American in the 101 Days, sophomore defensive end Mehdi Abdesmad, representing Les Québécois. Abdesmad hails from Montréal and played his high school ball for Cegep du Vieux-Montréal.

He’s not the only 2012 Eagle to come from la belle province, but he’s probably the most important as of now. Abdesmad is on the two-deep at right end behind fellow sophomore Brian Mihalik, who had a slightly better freshman campaign. In 2011, Abdesmad played as a true freshman, starting in week one of the season against Northwestern. He played a total of three games and managed just three tackles. I sincerely don’t remember him getting injured, but even if so, toasting a redshirt to play in one-quarter of the games last year is as much of a waste as it appears.

If we had seen more of him on the field, we’d have a better basis for judging him, but the consensus from Eagles fans seem to be that when he did play, he did fine. Those in a position of power would seem to agree, as he finished spring football on the two-deep. We know from his high school tenure that he’s a talented pass-rusher, which, let’s be honest, is something BC was not known for last year (the Eagles sacked the quarterback a rather depressing 11 times in 12 games last season) or recent years (9th in ACC in 2010, 12th in 2009). Abdesmad definitely has some usefulness to this team if he can put pressure on the quarterback.

Barring the unforeseen, I would certainly expect to see Abdesmad getting his fair share of playing time in 2012 and hopefully putting some quarterbacks on the brand-new field turf. Let’s wish him bonne chance this year.