101 Days of BC Football: Liam Porter, #75

Natick, Massachusetts has given us some great Boston College Eagles; one in particular has a statue outside the stadium. Liam Porter, a redshirt freshman offensive lineman from Natick, followed in the Flutie footsteps and slid a few cities over to Boston for his collegiate career. Now, Porter’s probably not going to win the Heisman or have a bronze statue at the entrance to Alumni Stadium, but he certainly has skills to contribute to the 2012 Eagles.

As an offensive tackle and a defensive lineman at Natick High School, Porter had a solid career; in fact, he was a four-sport athlete. His senior football season of 2010 was perhaps the most impressive, making a few All-State teams and an All-Scholastic team, primarily for his work at offensive tackle. Porter showed some versatility in high school by playing on both sides of the line, but he is at Boston College as an offensive lineman.

One of the first things people noticed about Porter, at least when biographies are concerned, was his size. He will turn 19 on August 15 and yet he came to BC 6-6 and 310 pounds. This would have put him right up there with Bobby Vardaro as the bulkiest lineman on the team. Yet his updated biography and the new summer depth chart list him at 276 pounds. Either his high school measurements were way off or Porter lost a lot of weight.

Porter’s scouting report coming out of high school has its pluses and minuses. He has been hailed as a good run-blocker, which is a necessity given the typical offensive philosophy of this team, but needed to work on becoming stronger and more explosive.

Porter cracked the two-deep coming out of spring football, but not at a tackle position: he is the second-string right guard behind Harris Williams. When Porter plays, he’ll need to sharpen his overall blocking abilities to truly be successful.