Addazio spotlight on QBs
College football programs don’t enjoy the luxury of preseason games or joint practices like what transpired in Foxboro this week between the Patriots and the Jaguars.
Instead, first and second units are determined from practices and scrimmages, with the latter being the tiebreaker in the depth chart decision-making process.
So Boston College coach Steve Addazio will be in heavy evaluation mode today as he conducts a scrimmage between balanced maroon and white squads at Alumni Stadium.
“This is that grinding kind of period of time where you’ve got heavy camp legs, and we are in that mode already,” said Addazio. “This is another big Saturday and these are critical Saturdays.
“This is an important time where we see who can handle the mental and physical grinds.”
The showcase of the scrimmage is the duel for the starting quarterback job between graduate Darius Wade and redshirt freshman Anthony Brown.
Addazio also intends to get a look at true freshman EJ Perry of Andover and junior John Fadule of Wellesley at QB. Fadule and converted wide receivers Jeff Smith and Troy Flutie have more game experience at quarterback than either Wade or Brown.
Merritt system
Senior defensive tackle Noa Merritt has been a contributor to one of the toughest rush defenses in the nation over the past three seasons.
BC finished No. 3 against the run in 2014, No. 2 in 2015 and No. 5 last year, primarily because of its stout defensive fronts. The run of success began under coordinator Don Brown, who left to join Jim Harbaugh’s staff at Michigan after the 2014 season. The trend has continued under current coordinator Jim Reid and sage line coach Paul Pasqualoni.
“I feel it was just everybody working together and wanting to do our jobs,” said Merritt. “We all have good relationship with each other and that plays a big role because we know we can trust each other.”
Merritt is competing to become the Eagles’ starting tackle after three seasons behind Truman Gutapfel, one of the fiercest players to ever work the position at BC.
Merritt appeared in 11 games last season and started the final three at nose tackle in place of injured Ray Smith. Merritt, Smith and middle linebacker Connor Strachan will be the point men on BC’s rush defense this season.
Tight ends are rising
Junior Tommy Sweeney is expected to be one of the finest tight ends in the ACC with the skills that translate to the NFL level. Sweeney needed five games to get in sync with quarterback Patrick Towles last season but their combined efforts helped BC win four of its last six games.
Sweeney will be a key component in BC’s attack this season but the Eagles have another big target option over the middle. Sophomore Korab Idrizi has performed well all camp and grabbed a deep pass from Wade in Monday’s drills.
“Our tight ends are excellent,” said Eagles offensive coordinator Scot Loeffler. “They are able to play multiple positions which creates matchup issues and they’ll be used.”