Boston College Eagles Football: 2015 Season Preview and Prediction
Boston College head coach Steve Addazio has exceeded expectations in his first two seasons at Chestnut Hill, but will his third year be a rebuilding one?
With back-to-back bowl berths and 7-6 records in his first two seasons at Boston College, head coach Steve Addazio has changed the culture and brought a toughness to the Eagles.
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With Florida transfer Tyler Murphy also exceeding expectations in his lone season with Boston College last year, the Eagles were able to runt he ball with great success but with Murphy gone will Addazio be rebuilding this year?
Offensive Outlook
Boston College had the nation’s No. 15 rushing offense last year and were second to Georgia Tech and their triple option offense for the ACC lead. Murphy’s 1,179 rushing yards were the second most among FBS quarterbacks and more than notable running backs like Alex Collins, D.J. Foster and Leonard Fournette. But with Murphy gone to graduation the offense will look radically different from a year ago with Darius Wade who is more of a pro-style passer.
He’ll run the system of first-year offensive coordinator Todd Fitch who has the unenviable task of breaking in a new quarterback and five new starters on the offensive line. Boston College won’t have one of the best rushing offenses this year with the new system, Murphy gone and five new bodies up front, but they hope to have more balance.
Last year’s passing offense was near the bottom, ranking 124th out of 128 schools with an average of 129 yards per game. Dan Crimmins is the team’s leading returning receiver with 25 catches for 305 yards last year. A pair of sophomores in Sherman Alston and Charlie Callinan will see increased work from their freshman totals.
The running game will still be the focal point of the offense, however, with Jon Hilliman looking to improve on the 860 yards and 13 touchdowns from his freshman season. He should top the 1,000-yard plateau and be complemented by Myles Willis, Marcus Outlow and receiver Alston had 352 yards and an average of 10.4 yards per carry last year so he’ll get the ball in his hands too.
Defensive Outlook
Boston College had one of the best defenses in the country, finishing second in rushing defense, allowing 94.46 yards per game. The 3.08 yards per carry average allowed was sixth best in the country and the Eagles defense only allowed 43 runs that were 10 yards or longer and five starters return to that front seven.
Defensive end Kevin Kavalec leads the defensive line after he finished second on the team with 10.5 tackles for loss last year and is joined by Truman Gutapfel, Connor Wujciak and Malachi Moore on the defensive line.
Steven Daniels leads the group of linebackers after he finished second on the team with 72 tackles last year and Justin Simmons returns to lead the secondary after he had a team-high 76 tackles and two interceptions last year from his free safety spot. The secondary will have to replace Manny Asprilla, Ty-Meer Brown and Dominique Williams from last year’s No. 11 ranked pass defense in the ACC.
Prediction
Addazio took over a two-win team when he arrived at Boston College and has a pair of seven-win seasons on his resume as he’s done one of the better coaching jobs in the country during his tenure. However, I don’t think the third year will see a dramatic improvement in the win-loss column. Addazio’s teams actually improved so much and so soon that they were ahead of schedule the last two years but I think they take a step back in this rebuilding year.
The defense is still good enough to stay in most games and give the offense a chance to win the game, but outside of Hilliman and potentially Alston, the offense lacks the necessary playmakers to improve on a seven-win season. With road games at Duke, Clemson and Louisville and home games against Florida State, Northern Illinois, Virginia Tech, NC State and a neutral site game against Notre Dame, I think BC needs to win at least two of these games to get to six wins and be eligible for a bowl game.
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