Each day for the next 12 days, we're going to preview the opponents for the 2012 CANES season. Today in Part 1 of the 12 part opponent series, we're going to preview the 2012 Boston College Eagles.
Up in Beantown, the heat is on head coach Frank Spaziani in his 4th season as the head man with the Eagles. There are many up in Boston that want him out. They've been in decline since 2007 when Jag (Jeff Jagodzinski) was there running things and Matt Ryan was a stud.
On O, Doug Martin is the new coordinator. We're going to see from them more of a spread offense than people are used to seeing from them in the past, even in the glory days of Ryan. This will be their 4th OC in 2 years, not so good from a stability standpoint.
However, Martin will have key pieces back to run his offense. Notably, Junior QB Chase Rettig who in 2011; had a completion rate of 54% and a sack rate of 7% of a deep ball thrower, however, he only averaged 11.5 yards per completion due to the fact that he didn't have anyone that could stretch the field on the deep balls. Even though Montel Harris is gone (transferred to Temple), they have Rolandan Finch, who's a junior, Andre Williams, also a junior and Tahj Kimble, who's a sophomore back for 2012, after combining for 1,378 yards in 2011 (albeit at just 4.3 yards per carry with a combined minus-19.2 Adj. POE). The receiving core all return and they are led by Bobby Swigert and Colin Larmond Jr., as in 2011, they combined for 103 catches for 1,305 yards (6.9 per catch, 54 percent catch rate). At TE, they have a preseason Mackey award candidate in Chris Pantale. This guy had 236 yards, 7.9 per catch, with a catch rate of 70%. He will see the field more and this will be a go to guy for them. On their O-Line, Emmett Cleary, a two-year starting tackle on their line, is their leader there who has 64 career starts. Their other senior on that line is John Wetzel (6'8" 302). They also have 2 two sophomores (Bobby Vardaro 6'5" 312 and Harris Williams 6'4" 301) and a Junior (Ian White 6'5" 303).
The question in Beantown is can this staff, specifically Martin and Spaziani develop that talent? We'll see and they'll get a quick idea when Miami comes to town on 9/1 in the season opener. Finch had a great spring game (27 carries, 196 yards), but it is hard to simply develop big-play ability in an offseason; you typically either have it or you don't, and nobody had it last year. If you're looking for new blood to make a difference, you might want to keep an eye on redshirt freshman Brian Miller, a four-star tight end recruit and big, lanky target (6'4, 232 pounds), and awesomely-named sophomore Spiffy Evans, B.C.'s kick returns man last year.
Defensively, when you look at the 2011 season, their defensive line was just horrible, some would say the worst they've seen in a very long time. Their front seven was devastating, and they had some run stuffers on their D-Line and if the back got by them, Luke Kuechly would finish the deal. When you see how many tackles he had in 2011, 22.2% of their tackles, its no wonder he was drafted in the Top 10 of this past NFL Draft by the Carolina Panthers. Their line ranked 80th in Adj. Line Yards and 119th in Adj. Sack Rate, which is just appalling. The other linebacker (Kevin Pierre-Louis) had 55.5 tackles, 6.0 tackles for loss last season.
Now, Kuechly's gone, and not there to bail them out this year. Yikes. It'll be up to Sophomore Sean Duggan to fill those huge shoes left by Kuechly's departure. However, with Duggan, Pierre-Louis and junior Steele Divitto returning, their LB corps will still be pretty good and formidable. On their D-Line, they get Senior DT Kaleb Ramsey (6'3" 288) back, He missed the entire 2011 season with a foot injury (and was incredibly missed), their D-Line will be better with him returning.
This stat really blew me away. In 2011, their front seven combined for an anemic nine sacks; even if you are in read-and-react mode and aren't sending seven pass rushers on every passing down, you should still stumble into more sacks than that. With Ramsey back and Can some combination of tackles Ramsey (2.5 sacks in 2010) and sophomore Dominic Appiah (6'5" 291) (2.0 in 2011), ends Junior Kasim Edebali (6'2" 258) and sophomore Brian Mihalik (6'8" 285) (combined: 1.0 sacks) and redshirt freshmen Connor Wujciak (6'4" 267) (four-star tackle) and Kieran Borcich (6'3" 254) (three-star end) make the requisite improvement up front?
As for their secondary, this unit is going to have to step up the most with Kuchely's departure. They lost starters from 2011, which includes Donnie Fletcher (two interceptions, five passes broken up), however, with sophomores Manny Asprilla and Al Louis-Jean, who both saw more action in 2011 than they perhaps anticipated returning, they still have one of the more exciting sets of corners in the conference, even though, in 2012, they'll have to likely go through more tough times. When you add sophomore safeties Spenser Rositano and Sean Sylvia to the mix, their future looks pretty darn good, however, its going to be good, if their front seven doesn't step up.
My take for the Boston College Eagles in 2012, they will be better, hell, it can't get any worse for them. They'll be better and in the end, I think 7-5 is a reasonable projection for them in 2012.
In Part 2 tomorrow, I will talk about a team that might be a serious contender for a BCS title in 2012, and that's the Kansas State Wildcats.
However, Martin will have key pieces back to run his offense. Notably, Junior QB Chase Rettig who in 2011; had a completion rate of 54% and a sack rate of 7% of a deep ball thrower, however, he only averaged 11.5 yards per completion due to the fact that he didn't have anyone that could stretch the field on the deep balls. Even though Montel Harris is gone (transferred to Temple), they have Rolandan Finch, who's a junior, Andre Williams, also a junior and Tahj Kimble, who's a sophomore back for 2012, after combining for 1,378 yards in 2011 (albeit at just 4.3 yards per carry with a combined minus-19.2 Adj. POE). The receiving core all return and they are led by Bobby Swigert and Colin Larmond Jr., as in 2011, they combined for 103 catches for 1,305 yards (6.9 per catch, 54 percent catch rate). At TE, they have a preseason Mackey award candidate in Chris Pantale. This guy had 236 yards, 7.9 per catch, with a catch rate of 70%. He will see the field more and this will be a go to guy for them. On their O-Line, Emmett Cleary, a two-year starting tackle on their line, is their leader there who has 64 career starts. Their other senior on that line is John Wetzel (6'8" 302). They also have 2 two sophomores (Bobby Vardaro 6'5" 312 and Harris Williams 6'4" 301) and a Junior (Ian White 6'5" 303).
The question in Beantown is can this staff, specifically Martin and Spaziani develop that talent? We'll see and they'll get a quick idea when Miami comes to town on 9/1 in the season opener. Finch had a great spring game (27 carries, 196 yards), but it is hard to simply develop big-play ability in an offseason; you typically either have it or you don't, and nobody had it last year. If you're looking for new blood to make a difference, you might want to keep an eye on redshirt freshman Brian Miller, a four-star tight end recruit and big, lanky target (6'4, 232 pounds), and awesomely-named sophomore Spiffy Evans, B.C.'s kick returns man last year.
Defensively, when you look at the 2011 season, their defensive line was just horrible, some would say the worst they've seen in a very long time. Their front seven was devastating, and they had some run stuffers on their D-Line and if the back got by them, Luke Kuechly would finish the deal. When you see how many tackles he had in 2011, 22.2% of their tackles, its no wonder he was drafted in the Top 10 of this past NFL Draft by the Carolina Panthers. Their line ranked 80th in Adj. Line Yards and 119th in Adj. Sack Rate, which is just appalling. The other linebacker (Kevin Pierre-Louis) had 55.5 tackles, 6.0 tackles for loss last season.
Now, Kuechly's gone, and not there to bail them out this year. Yikes. It'll be up to Sophomore Sean Duggan to fill those huge shoes left by Kuechly's departure. However, with Duggan, Pierre-Louis and junior Steele Divitto returning, their LB corps will still be pretty good and formidable. On their D-Line, they get Senior DT Kaleb Ramsey (6'3" 288) back, He missed the entire 2011 season with a foot injury (and was incredibly missed), their D-Line will be better with him returning.
This stat really blew me away. In 2011, their front seven combined for an anemic nine sacks; even if you are in read-and-react mode and aren't sending seven pass rushers on every passing down, you should still stumble into more sacks than that. With Ramsey back and Can some combination of tackles Ramsey (2.5 sacks in 2010) and sophomore Dominic Appiah (6'5" 291) (2.0 in 2011), ends Junior Kasim Edebali (6'2" 258) and sophomore Brian Mihalik (6'8" 285) (combined: 1.0 sacks) and redshirt freshmen Connor Wujciak (6'4" 267) (four-star tackle) and Kieran Borcich (6'3" 254) (three-star end) make the requisite improvement up front?
As for their secondary, this unit is going to have to step up the most with Kuchely's departure. They lost starters from 2011, which includes Donnie Fletcher (two interceptions, five passes broken up), however, with sophomores Manny Asprilla and Al Louis-Jean, who both saw more action in 2011 than they perhaps anticipated returning, they still have one of the more exciting sets of corners in the conference, even though, in 2012, they'll have to likely go through more tough times. When you add sophomore safeties Spenser Rositano and Sean Sylvia to the mix, their future looks pretty darn good, however, its going to be good, if their front seven doesn't step up.
My take for the Boston College Eagles in 2012, they will be better, hell, it can't get any worse for them. They'll be better and in the end, I think 7-5 is a reasonable projection for them in 2012.
In Part 2 tomorrow, I will talk about a team that might be a serious contender for a BCS title in 2012, and that's the Kansas State Wildcats.
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