Taking a look at what’s going on at Boston College
After a weekend off, Virginia Tech gets back to work today for Boston College next Saturday. The Hokies need to beat the Eagles, then Virginia in its regular season finale to extend their bowl streak to 20 years.
Here’s a look at what’s going on with the Eagles …
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** Boston College dropped to 2-8 overall after a punchless 21-6 loss to Notre Dame last Saturday. The Eagles managed only two field goals against the Fighting Irish’s tough defense, finishing with 300 total yards, only 53 of which came on the ground.
It was BC’s sixth loss in seven games. Its only win in that time came against a Maryland team on its last legs at quarterback. Before that, the Eagles’ only win was against Maine, an FCS team, in September.
** This might be the last home game for head coach Frank Spaziani. The fourth-year head coach is now 22-27 at Boston College, having watched the Eagles’ win total drop from nine wins the year before he took over as head coach in 2006, to eight in 2008, seven in 2010, four in 2011 and two this year. That’s not a favorable trend.
Spaziani seems to be in a mode where he’s trying to stay positive and can’t say much else other than the team is trying to solve its problems. Sound familiar?
BC hasn’t beaten a ranked team since Jeff Jagodzinski was coach in 2008, losing 11 straight since Spaziani took over. The Eagles haven’t lost nine games in a season since 1989. They haven’t lost 10 games since 1978. Both are a possibility this year.
** The offense might be struggling, but quarterback Chase Rettig is doing OK. The junior has 2,808 passing yards and 16 touchdowns to nine interceptions. He’s thrown for at least 200 yards in nine games this year, topping 300 yards three times, including a 441-yard effort against Miami in the opener.
Receiver Alex Amidon has been his favorite target. The junior leads the ACC with 73 catches for 1,157 yards. He also has six touchdowns.
That’s about all that’s gone right offensively for the Eagles. They’re 118th nationally in rushing offense and last in the ACC, averaging only 72.5 yards per game.
The running game took a hit when Montel Harris was dismissed from the team last winter. Rolandan Finch, who led the team in rushing last year, has been plagued by fumbles and personal issues this year. Until running seven times for 40 yards against Notre Dame last week, he hadn’t played since the middle of September against Northwestern.
The Eagles might be out of options otherwise, though. Andre Williams is out with a strained abdominal muscle and Tahj Kimble is out for the year with a knee injury.
BC is 10th in the ACC in both total offense (358.0 ypg, 95th nationally) and scoring offense (20.5 ppg, 104th nationally).
** Defensively, Boston College hasn’t been a whole lot better. The Eagles are giving up 228.4 rushing yards per game, 11th in the ACC and 116th nationally. Those stats are skewed by two awful games against option teams. Army ran for 516 yards — 516! – and Georgia Tech ran for 396 yards.
Remove those and the Eagles haven’t been as bad as the stats look against the run. Maryland ran for only 97 yards a few weeks ago. Wake Forest ran for 116 two weeks ago. Notre Dame ran for 184 yards last week but took 40 carries to do so.
BC has been pretty average at defending the pass, though. allowing 241.6 yards per game. The Eagles have only six sacks all year and 33 tackles for a loss. The first is tied for last nationally with Eastern Michigan. The second is second to last by one TFL to Central Michigan.
** Injuries have hurt this team. In addition to the running backs, BC probably has lost wide receiver Bobby Swigert for the year with a knee injury. He led the team with 44 catches last year to go with 470 yards.
Offensive guard Ian White missed the Notre Dame game with an ankle injury. Linebacker Nick Clancy suffered a concussion. Another linebacker, Kevin Pierre-Louis, missed the game with a leg injury.
The defensive line has been beat up too. Tackles Kaleb Ramsey (leg) and Jaryd Rudolph (ankle) both missed the Notre Dame game. Both started games earlier this year.
** Vegas favors the Hokies. Virginia Tech opened as an 8.5-point favorite. It looks like it’s up to 9 points now.
November 12, 2012 - 10:18 AM
It probably won’t be a pretty game by any means, but I’ll take the Hokies to win 31-10.
Guess we’ll see what kind of game plan Stinespring devises for the Hokies offense this week versus BC. It would not surprise me if he goes back to the power running game and play-action passing attack he’s tried against teams with weaker defenses. The problem is we don’t have the O-line or the elite tailback to play that style of offense against ANY team. I think Stinespring confuses what we are capable of as an offense and what on paper we should be able to do against certain opponents.
The game plan against FSU was the best he’s put together all year. Spread the field and run right at them with the read option. Instead of seven step drops, get the ball out of Logan’s hand quickly. Move the pocket more to counter the Seminoles pass rush. Stinespring and O’Cain knew this was the only way to have any success against a top ranked defense.
My point is we should be doing all those things no matter who we’re playing. First of all, the offense narrows the plays they are repping in practice. This focus will allow them to improve the execution Beamer keeps harping on. Second, it minimizes our weaknesses of sub-par offensive line play and average running backs. If we can put 20-some on a defense like FSU, we could hang 40 on all those bad defenses out there with the same offensive game plan. @gtbowyer
How many times has Tech played team with weaker defense, and yet cannot crush them? I agree with Greg Bowyer. Make Logan Thomas pass happy. The running game is virtually a nonfactor at all. The offense line with Wang in are a train wreck because Newsome fails to realize that Wang has been one of the weak links on this year squad, but that’s ok, because Beamer trusts Newsome more than the fans who can see clearly where the weakness are.
If Virginia Tech manages to score below 30 points, then that will just intensify the call for Newsome’s head on a sliver platter.
Since Tech has lost all their road games this season, lost for the first time in Lane Stadium, I’m going to guess they reverse their fortunte this weekend and win in Chestnut Hill.
Looks to me like Va will have their best chance in a long time to beat the Hokies, and after easiely beating Miami I just think it will be a good game. There are a lot of rumors flooting around, I was just told that one of the offensive coaches said that all of the offensive coaches will be let go at the end of the season with the exception of Shane. Hopefully Foster will get the head coaching job and hire a great OC, that would be great!!!
We had our chances and came up short. However, I can’t fault the effort. An observation, however; FSU’s linebckers and often their DEs were as fast as our running backs. Number of times we seemed to be run down in the hole when it appeared that a big gain was coming. We played a good team with great personnel down to the wire.
Stinespring v. Spaziani = 6 – 3 VT wins the ACC Ineptitude Champions Consolation Bowl.
nice read, Greg……