2020-21 Season Preview: Boston College Eagles
By: Dakota Isgrigg | July 7th | @dakota_isgrigg | @BoilerInTexas
We are officially on the countdown to the 2020-21 Purdue football season! Even though there are still a lot of details to be figured out because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it seems as though the precautions taken in early 2020 will allow us to have college football in some form or fashion. So we here at Boiler In Texas will continue as if the season will be taking place and Purdue will be suiting up this fall. So over the weeks leading up to the presumptive start to the season, we will be going week by week and taking a look at the season for our Boilermakers and their opponents every week.
Purdue 2020 Football Schedule:
9/5: @Nebraska
9/12: Memphis
9/19: Air Force
9:26: @Boston College
10/10: Rutgers
10/17: @Illinois
10/24: @Michigan
10/31: Northwestern
11/7: @Minnesota
11/14: Wisconsin
11/21: Iowa
11/28: @Indiana
Purdue will enter week 4 of the season having just played a tough game against Air Force. They are then greeted with another tough game having to travel Northeast to take on the Boston College Eagles in a return game from the 2018 match up. The last time the Boilermakers played Boston College, Purdue ended up leaving Ross-Ade with their first win over a top-25 team in seven years. It was a perplexing result as Purdue was 0-3 after three straight losses to begin the season. There is a non-zero chance that this season could begin similarly to 2018 as the lineup of Nebraska, Memphis and Air Force is a lot tougher than the 2018 lineup of Northwestern, Eastern Michigan, and Missouri.
Boston College 2020-21 Football Schedule
9/4: Syracuse
9/12: Ohio
9/19: @Kansas
9:26: Purdue
10/2: Clemson
10/10: Louisville
10/22: @Virginia Tech
10/31: Holy Cross
11/7: @NC State
11/14: @Florida State
11/21: North Carolina
11/28: @Wake Forest
Last season was the final straw for former hear coach Steve Addazio, wrapping up his seventh season with the program finishing exactly 44-44 in his stint with BC. In 2019 they finished 6-7 and lost to Cincinnati 38-6 in the Birmingham Bowl. It was an up-and-down season for the Eagles as they lost a home game to Kansas (Kansas’ first power-5 road win in 11 years), but also got a power-5 road win themselves with a win at Rutgers (less impressive).
With the departure of Addazio, enter the new head man Jeffa Hafley. Hafley is a first time head coach after serving as the Ohio State co-defensive coordinator last season. While he has spent time as an NFL position coach and lead a solid OSU defense last year, the transition to head coach can be a bit of a toss-up and it will be interesting to see how he will perform as the head coach.
Boston College Offense
Boston College will be resetting their offense this season as they lost their leading rusher as well as their starting quarterback. They lost A.J. Dillon to the draft after he rushed for over 1,600 yards in 2019 and almost 4,400 yards in his career. They also lose QB Anthony Brown to the graduate transfer market as he leaves the program for Oregon after throwing for 1,250 yards with 9 TD’s against 2 INT’s. These are a couple of major losses that shouldn’t be overlooked as the new coaching staff looks at the roster.
Quarterback
Since the Eagles lose Brown to transfer, the quarterback spot will be up for grabs coming out of camp. It seems that it will fall to either Dennsi Grosel or Phil Jurkovic. Jurkovic started his college career at Notre Dame before transfering to Boston College and was a former top recruit who should be able to battle for the starting spot. Grosel has the advantage as he split time with Brown and actually took over when Brown was injured midway through the year. In 2019 he [Grosel] ]threw for almost 1,000 yards and 9 TD’s, but he completed less than 50% of his pass attempts.
David Bailey: RB
The loss of A.J. Dillon is significant and should not be overlooked, but David Bailey should be a solid next man up for Boston College. Bailey rushed for 844 yards and 7TD’s last season as a reserve. He will also have the pleasure of running behind a very good offensive line that returns 3 starters including an all-ACC selection.
Receiving
The receiving corp wasn’t too involved in the offense last season as the Eagles were a run-first team, but they will still return some experience that should help the transition to a more balanced offense. Tight End Hunter Long returns after putting up 509 yards and 2 TD’s in 2019. They also return top WR Kobay White who finished with 29 receptions for 460 yards and team high 5 receiving touchdowns.
The offense will be a mix of new and old faces as Boston College and new head coach Jeff Hafley will have some work to do to implement a more balanced offensive attack. They have weapons available, but whether or not they can take advantage of them with the losses of Brown and Dillon.
Boston College Defense
The Eagles defense last season struggled at times. As a unit, they gave up more than 32 ppg, teams converted almost 50% of third downs, as well as allowed almost 500 ypg as a defense. They finished the season as the worst defense in the ACC and it shows in giving up 59 points to Clemson (understandable), but more noticeably in giving up 48 points to Kansas. The good or bad news is that there is a ton of returning experience in 2020.
Linebackers
Leading the way is linebacker Max Richardson who led the team with 108 tackles as well as led the team with 3.5 sacks. He will be joined by John Lamont (78 tackles) in the middle to try and lead this defense.
Secondary
Last season the Eagles intercepted 10 passes on the season but it was spread out across 9 different players. A name at corner to keep an eye out for is Mike Palmer who was a decent corner in 2019 finishing with 76 tackles and 2 interceptions.
Defensive Line
The defensive line returns a good amount of experience in 2020. Brandon Barlow and Marcus Valdez return to the end positions along with TJ Rayam at the tackle spot. The experience should pay dividends though those 3 only combined for 5 sacks a year ago.
The Boston College defense will have to improve from it’s bottom-of-the ACC finish last season. They return a lot of experience which should help them moving into 2020, but the issue with returning players who struggled, means there is a chance they struggle again. There is also the added factor of a new coaching staff, how will they adapt to the new regime? As for the Purdue game, they will have to face a pass heavy, weapon laden offense with a defense that struggled to get pressure on the quarterback a year ago. If they can’t get to the Purdue QB, it could be a long day for the Eagles defense.
Boston College Special Teams
The special teams unit will see some continuity in 2020 as kicker Aaron Boumerhi returns after going 12-18 on FG’s last season with a long of 45 and he will look to be more consistent with another year under his belt. At punter, senior Grant Carlson returns after averaging 42 yards per kick in 2019. Also returning, is Travil Levy who handles both the kickoff and punt return duties for the Eagles. He has dangerous speed who is always capable of breaking free and Purdue will need to stay in front of him on special teams plays.
Game Outlook
It’s weird to say that this may be Purdue’s easiest non-conference game this season since it is a power-5 true road game and, no matter the team, those will always be a challenge. I think the two biggest questions surrounding this game for Purdue are these:
1. How well does BC make the transition to the new coaching staff and the new system? And 2: How does Purdue come out of their extremely tough 3-game opening stretch?
As for the first, this is a program that lost some of their best players from a year ago and will look to use their own opening stretch to work out as many kinks as they can before Purdue visits. If the switch to the new system goes quicker than thought, it will only get harder for the Boilers when they make the trip north. If it doesn’t go as smoothly, Purdue should have a leg up in this game and I like Purdue’s chances.
That of course is dependent on the answer to the second question. How does Purdue come into this game going into their last non-conference game of the season as well as having a tough conference road game at Nebraska. As we saw last year, Purdue struggled to stay healthy and it was the primary reason that the Boilers played and relied on so many freshman a year ago. Purdue needs to stay healthy this year on both sides of the ball, the more time these units get to play together the better the long-term outlooks will be. There is also the mental aspect with playing such a challenging non-conference slate. How will the team mentality be if they come in at 0-3 or 1-2? Hopefully that won’t be the case, but it can’t be understated how the confidence level plays a part in these games.
Score Prediction
This is the non-conference game I have the best feeling about as a fan. The BC defense truly struggled against the pass a year ago struggling to get pressure on the opposing quarterbacks and Purdue will need to utilize their weapons if they once again struggle to get pressure. On the other side of the ball, Purdue will have to face a re-tooling Eagles offense that will look to switch from a run-first offense into a more balanced attack. They seem to have a good replacement for AJ Dillon at running back, but the questions surrounding the quarterback position still loom large. After all is said and done, I believe Purdue should be able to go on the road and pick up a very important non-conference win.
Score Prediction: Purdue 35, BC 28
How do you feel about Purdue’s trip to the Northeast?
As Always, Boiler Up, Hammer Down, Hail Purdue!
