WHERE EAGLES DARE!
Young BC has eyes on return to prominence
Steve Addazio sat at a table in the Yawkey Center on Boston College’s campus last fall after his football team had lost another ACC game to sink to 2-4 — and insisted the future was bright.
“It’ll come together,” the coach said, pointing his f inger out to the media, “and it’ll be beautiful. You can write that one down.
“I don’t have the time clock on it right here,” he said with a hint of indignation in his voice, “but it’ll come together and it’ll be beautiful.”
The Eagles went on the road the next week and beat Louisville in a game that saved their season. They were missing starters in key spots and throwing young guys into the fire — redshirt freshman quarterback, freshman running back, redshirt freshman receiver, freshman center, redshirt freshman linebacker — and rebounded to f inish 7-6 for the fourth time in Addazio’s five years at the helm.
They were planting the seeds toward f inding true beauty in 2018.
“I just could sense the chemistry of our football team,” Addazio said recently of his 2017 proclamation. “I saw all these young guys playing, the talent. I saw the injuries we sustained, yet we were improving every week. You could just feel chemistry, the momentum, and it was palpable. You just kind of knew it. It’s just a race against when it’s going to happen right now.”
BC is still playing in the ACC’s toughest division, which includes national title contender and No. 2 Clemson, No. 19 Florida State, North Carolina State and Louisville. But the Eagles are looming as sleepers, spoilers and a team ready to break through into the Top 25.
“We’re ready to take that next step,” said sophomore running back AJ Dillon, the reigning ACC Rookie of the Year. “Not 7-8 wins, but however many we can get. We want to win them all.”
Dillon’s 272-yard, four-touchdown effort against Louisville last October helped spur that fe e l i n g . He wi l l be running behind an offensive line that returns all of its starters and taking handoffs from dual-threat quarterback Anthony Brown, who is returning to full strength from a season-ending knee injury.
Senior defe nsive end Zach Allen anchors a strong defensive line alongside Wyatt Ray, who stepped up last year when ffirst-irstround pick Harold Landry was injured.
“I think coach Addazio just did a great job bringing in coaches and players who were really likeminded and not just great coaches and players but great people,” Allen said. “I think the biggest thing is coming into the building now, it’s always fun.”
Addazio was hired in 2012, weeks after the Eagles f inished limping to a 2-10 season under Frank Spaziani. They were 21-29 in four years under Spaziani after Jeff Jagodzinski’s two-year stint saw them rise as high as No. 2 in the country with an offense led by Matt Ryan. But when Jagodzinski interviewed to be the Jets head coach in 2009, he was fired, BC began to trend downward.
The Eagles had a pair of 7-6 seasons in Addazio’s f irst two years before hitting rock bottom in 2015, going 3-9 without an ACC win.
Around that time, they began recruiting Dillon. When he came to campus, everyone around the program told him they were ready to take the next step. He was committed to Michigan, but over the course of the 2016 season, the four-star recruit became another believer and flipped to BC.
“As I kept coming back and coming back again, I could just get that vibe from the players that something great was about to happen,” Dillon said. “It kind of sounds crazy, but it’s definitely just a feeling. You can feel it in the locker room, you can feel it talking to the coaches and talking to fans that we’re ready to take the next step. I feel like we’re there again.”