Weekly Kickoff: Boston College Football is Right Where We Left Them

Nov 21, 2022 - 1:25 PM

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The loss to UConn was a breaking point for many. In my short stint as a Boston College football fan so far, I’ve never seen more fans tell me that they had given up on the team and wouldn’t be watching any more games. As a writer for BC Interruption and diehard BC fan, I’m not afforded that luxury, so I continued to plug right on through and was fortunate enough to see a completely unexpected win against a ranked NC State team.

But after Saturday’s 44-0 embarrassment against Notre Dame, Boston College football is right where many fans left them. Hapless on offense, overmatched on defense, and generally unmotivated. If the win over the Wolfpack got fans back in, this loss sent them right back out.

Looking at the Boston College offense, it’s fairly easy to understand what happened. The offensive line was as bad as it’s been all season, made worse by all five starters getting the flu. The quarterback was a mistake-prone redshirt freshman facing one of the tougher defenses in college football, leading to 5 turnovers in the first half alone and effectively killing any chance of scoring. The weather wasn’t conducive to a pass-heavy offense, and the playcalling was as uninspired as usual.

These aren’t excuses, just obvious reasons as to why Boston College looked utterly useless on offense against the Fighting Irish. Each part is a clear weakness and each one can be addressed in the offseason, along with many other issues. With one week remaining, there’s not much left to be done in 2022, though.

The defense, on the other hand, has structural problems without obvious solutions. They looked totally overpowered and undersized against Notre Dame’s rushing attack. They gave up huge chunk plays through the air and on the ground. They let the Irish score on 8 straight drives to start the game, 6 of which were drives of 40+ yards. The defense is supposed to be the pride of Jeff Hafley’s squad, particularly the secondary, but they seem to be getting worse as more Hafley recruits filter in and the unit takes the form that he has envisioned. These recruits are still underclassmen, so Coach Hafley has time to prove that his methods can work, but rapid improvement is the only option at this point. If Hafley’s supposed strength in Year 4 still looks like this, then his tenure will have completely malfunctioned.

Moving on, we have Syracuse on the slate this week for Senior Day and this team’s final game. ‘Cuse is in a bit of a death spiral of their own, losing 5 straight after starting the season on a 6-game winning streak. I could definitely see the Eagles coming out of this one with a win despite all of the problems I listed above. The ACC is just flat-out mediocre, and it’s a shame that BC couldn’t put together a better team to take advantage of it.