Cavalier Preview: Boston College

We are obligated to finish out the season with our breakdowns.  What looked promising after the Miami win, has shown an overall regression and an inability to close out games.  So now we are done with all of our home games and must travel on the road for the final two games.  But before we head to the lion’s den next week, we make a trip up north to Chestnut Hill to play Boston College, who have righted their season with 3 straight wins and are one game away from bowl eligibility.  So in all fairness, let’s scout the Eagles

Coaching Staff

Frank Spaziani is in his second season as BC’s head coach.  UVa faithful remember him as the DC/Backs Coach under George Welsh from 1982 to 1990.  He was also with Welsh at the Naval Academy and Penn State as a grad assistant.  He left Virginia to be a DC with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and then the Calgary Stampeders.  In 1997 he went to Boston College as the runnings back coach and then became the DC in 1999.  He was promoted to head coach after the Jeff Jagodzinski fiasco.

Offense

A purely pro-set offense, they have had a very up and down offensive year.  When Dave Shinskie was injured/replaced, freshmen Chase Rettig took over and he has been pretty average.  Only a 52.8% completion percentage and 5 touchdowns to 5 interceptions, Chase has had decent games recently, even though they have been against Wake Forrest and Duke.  If he goes to the air, his targets have been fellow freshmen Bobby Swigert and Johathan Coleman and senior Ifeanyi Momah.  They spread it around a good amount and can use any one of 7 outlets for big gains.  But the story of the resurgence of the Boston College offense is running back Montel Harris.  He is arguably the best back in the ACC and has 1,129 yards and 7 touchdowns on the year.  Stopping him should be the first, second, and third job.

Defense

They play a straight up 4-3 defense, no big wrinkles, but they are very aggressive and have one of the best defenses in the ACC.  The big story of the year with the BC team is Mark Herzlich coming back from cancer and playing in his senior year.  And as this is the last home game for the Eagles, he should be playing at a extremely high level.  Other important pieces of this defense are tackle Damik Scafe, end Brad Newman, and corner Chris Fox.

Special Teams

Freshmen kicker Nate Freese is decent, but nothing to write home about.  He is 20/21 on extra points, and 16/19 on field goals with a long of 49.  Other than that, it’s an average squad.

How We Lose

Montel Harris goes off and they use him to set up the deep pass off of the play fake.  Verica throws 2 or more picks.  The rest we will do ourselves.

How We Win

Change the big three (penalties, turnovers, defense).  But making Montel Harris non-existent is the main job.

Prediction

Folks its not hard to figure out how to win.  We all know the problems.  Unless we have a two score lead going into the fourth quarter, go ahead and write off the game.  Look for Boston College to win in a low scoring game.  Boston College 24, UVa 13.