101 Days of BC Football: Chris Pantale, #81
By Joe Micik
Nobody likes to be ignored or shut out (heh, tell that to my ex). In the previous Boston College football season, the tight end position was mainly forgotten inasmuch as it was part of the passing offense, but with a new coordinator comes what we expect to be a new system. For senior tight end Chris Pantale, the most tenured of the backs and receivers, this is music to his ears.
Pantale, a New Jersey recruit who came to BC in the previous coaching regime, redshirted in 2008 but has appeared in all 38 games since. For the 2011 season, Pantale caught 21 passes, three of which were touchdowns. Two of them came in the season finale in Coral Gables. Still, that’s an average of less than two receptions per game and a touchdown every four games. In 2012, he’s back as the starting TE once more and looking for Doug Martin to get him more involved in BC’s offense.
Take spring scrimmages for whatever they’re worth, but there did not seem to be much involvement for Pantale (at least nothing that was reported). In the first scrimmage, Pantale caught a touchdown pass from Chase Rettig, but there were no reports on him for the final two. That’s the period in the football year where you’ll end up with a lot of career bench-warmers playing, so don’t read a ton into it, but there it is.
Paul Myerberg, who broke this team down several months ago, mentioned Pantale in the context of the whole passing game:
"The top three [receivers] are fine targets, as is senior tight end Chris Pantale (21 catches for 236 yards), but they’re not striking fear into A.C.C. defensive backs. B.C. won’t move the ball via the big play – for the most part – so the offense needs to go six or seven deep at receiver and tight end. [Johnathan] Coleman, [Brian] Miller and others need to step up their games."
Pantale is a decent player who made Phil Steele’s All-ACC preseason second team, but the question is how much he’ll be used. Doug Martin seems more willing to utilize the tight end for something other than blocking, but there’s been a lot of conservative playcalling going on around here the last couple years, so we may need to see it to believe it. Pantale can help this team succeed, but can the coaches finally figure out how to use him and get him more than two catches a game? Stay tuned.