ACC Football Championship Prime Time and the Big Finish

Brian: ... and I'm back. I never want to see a cardboard box again, and there are still a ton of things to unpack, but of course one of the first things I did was set up my internet connection and catch up on all the Eagles news that I missed ...

We owed you a Big Finish from yesterday. Onward.

The 'Ship is going back to prime time, but will it help attendance?

One bit of ACC conference news that I missed is league's decision to move the Dr. Pepper ACC Football Championship back to prime time this season. This year's game will be played in Tampa on December 5, 2009 starting at 8pm. This will be the first time that the game will be played in primetime since the inaugural 2005 Football Championship. Commissioner ...

"We are pleased that the 2009 ACC Football Championship Game will be nationally televised by our partners at ESPN," said Swofford. "Prime-time exposure is always a plus and will be an excellent showcase for our divisional champions to compete for an ACC title and a BCS berth."

Jeff, do you like the move?

Jeff: I love the move. Everyone watching the game at home would rather make a night of it by having some friends over or heading to a bar to catch the game and it gives people more flexibility to get to Tampa this year. If you're driving, maybe you are close enough to leave Saturday morning or leave after work on Friday. If you have to fly, you can catch a flight Friday or Saturday up until mid-afternoon. No matter what time the game is Saturday, Sunday is a travel home day.

Brian: Eagle in Atlanta chimes in on the ACC Football Championship start time. I get what he is saying with the start time not being the issue in regard to attendance but I think he misses the lead.

Heather Dinich made this (great) point when Joe Paterno rekindled talks of Big Ten expansion and the Big Ten commissioner basically threw the ACC Championship Game's attendance figures under the bus. HD went to bat for the conference she blogs for and put the Big Ten commish in his place. She said that while the ACC Football Championship's attendance has lagged behind those figures of the Big XII and SEC's Championship Games, the game still generates over 6 million TV viewers ... viewers that aren't watching Big Ten Football that weekend.

I agree that the matchup is the #1 factor that will drive the ACCCG attendance figure, but what about those 6 million viewers? While ESPN/ABC's move to prime time might improve TV ratings, what if the SEC Championship - which is broadcast by CBS Sports - goes up head-to-head with the ACC Championship in the 8pm timeslot. And where does this move leave the Big XII Championship which is also broadcast by ESPN/ABC?

The ACC already has an inferiorty complex in regards to the SEC. If the ACC and SEC Championships go up against one another, think the ACC will still continue to average 6 million viewers then?

Jeff: Of course not, but that won't happen. People on the East coast are going to tune in to the SEC or ACC Football Championship over the Big XII while people in the middle of the country will do the opposite. Not many people were turning on their TVs at 1:00pm last year and watching straight through the end of the Oklahoma-Missouri game.

Brian: Last question, is this point moot? We certainly have had a tumultuous offseason. Do you expect the Eagles to even sniff an ACC Football Championship appearance?

Jeff: I still give them a chance. At this point we would have to catch some good breaks, but it is still a possibility to be back in Tampa. Also, I'm going whether BC or Clemson are in so it is not a moot point at all for me.


Big Finish

Brian: Did I really just say that HD made a great point above? Well while I was out, she also had this to say about the newest BC Eagle, Dave Shinskie:

Matt (Philadelphia): Is there a team in the Atlantic Division right now who you would say really has no chance of winning it? It seems to be a complete crapshoot.

Heather Dinich: It is anybody’s game, and that’s in both divisions. I thought BC would have the toughest time contending in the Atlantic, but Dave Shinskie could very well be the answer (seriously).

Huh? HD hasn't seen this guy throw a pass and suddenly he is the second-coming of Chris Weinke? Jeff, your thoughts?

Jeff: I kinda agree with her. We knew what Davis gave us and we knew no one else on the roster seemed to be able to beat him out. Shinskie is no guarantee, but you can't pass judgment on him yet as you could with say, Codi Boek, who was switched to fullback last year. We know he's at least good enough to take up a scholarship.


Jeff: The ACC's two final representatives in the College World Series - North Carolina and Virginia - have been bounced from the Series. What's up with that?

Brian: No idea. Certainly a disappointment for the conference after getting a record 7 teams into the field of 64.


Brian: The men's basketball team recently promoted Pat Duquette to associate head coach. You like the move?

Jeff: Uh, sure. Long time assistants deserve some love every once in a while.


Jeff: The city of Boston finally signed off on BC's expansion plan. Your thoughts?

Brian: Given this month's baseball NCAA tournament excitement, I am most happy for the baseball and softball teams getting a legitimate ballpark.


Brian: College Game Balls has his list of twenty offseason questions for ACC football. For BC, he asks "Can Boston College overcome the loss of ACC Defensive Player of the Year Mark Herzlich, departure of Dominique Davis and compete for another Atlantic Division Championship?" Jeff, your response?

Jeff: Losing Dominique Davis is not an issue because we were hoping that someone else would beat him out anyway. The loss of Herzlich, however, may be too great to overcome.


Jeff: Andy Katz reports that BC approached Pitt to play in the men's basketball Jimmy V Classic this December. Pitt declined. BC is also talking to 'Nova to schedule an out of conference bball matchup. Which team would you rather see the men's hoops team schedule - Pitt or Nova?

Brian: Nova ... by a mile. Villanova is a much better fit in terms of the type of school (small, private Catholic school) and there are many more alum in the Philadelphia area than there are in Pittsburgh.


Brian: Last one, early handicapping of the ACC football race have Boston College as +8000 to win the ACC ... worse than even Duke at +6000. That ain't right, is it?

Jeff: 80-1, eh? I would've thought 30-1 would've been legit. How we're worse than Duke though, I cannot explain.

ACC Baseball Championship Update and the Big Finish

Jeff: Brian, have you watched any of the ACC baseball tournament? Even though every seat has not been filled, it looks like there is decent fan support by NCAA baseball standards.

Brian: I've been following the action on Gamecasts so I can't really speak to how attendance has been at the ACC baseball championship. From the box scores, I can see that 1,518 were in attendance against Florida State and 1,194 watched the Eagles and Yellow Jackets yesterday. Is this a good draw? Bad draw? I have no idea. We're still new at this "our baseball team is now decent" thing.

Jeff: And how dumb is this tournament format? There are still two more days of round-robin play and Florida State has already clinched a spot in the finals.

Brian: Florida State had advanced to the Championship game out of Division A before Virginia and Clemson played their first of three games of the round-robin format. That is, indeed, crazy. That is going to happen every once in a while with this sort of format. It happens every so often in the FIFA World Cup too. This definitely gives FSU an advantage in the championship game as they can rest their starters in their game on Saturday vs. Georgia Tech and wait to see who comes out of Division B.

Overall though, I would say I prefer this tournament format to a single elimination or a double-elimination format. Participating teams are guaranteed three games and that can sometimes help out a team's NCAA tournament resume a great deal. That's exactly what has happened with BC. The Eagles actually rose in the RPI after their 7-2 loss to Florida State, and our RPI rose again today after the win over Georgia Tech. We are currently at #33, which should be good enough to get into the NCAAs.

Kendall Rogers of Yahoo! Sports has us as a tournament lock at this point and heaps on some praise for the BC baseball team. The College Baseball Blog's latest NCAA tournament projections have the Eagles as a #3 seed in the Oxford, MS regional. with Mississippi, Elon and Army.

Good luck to the Eagles today as they face Miami at noon.


Big Finish

Brian: This The Times West Virginian article discusses the possibility of Big Ten and Big East expansion, and mentions BC as a possible school for the Big East to scoop up to bring the number of teams back to 9. Yeah, right. Anyway, which will happen first - Big Ten expansion to 12 or Big East football expansion to 9?

Jeff: The Big East will expand. The Big Ten might never.


Jeff: Former BC standout Vinny Ciurciu returns to New England having signed with the Patriots. Will he make an impact on the team?

Brian: I hope he can be a solid contributor on special teams. Always have to root for former BC players. And Jeff, you must be especially rooting for him since he started his college career at Clemson before transferring to BC.


Brian: BC QB football recruit Joe Boisture competed in the Midwest Elite Camp last weekend and showed the "best overall passing ability" at the camp. Thanks to ACC Sports Journal for the link. You getting excited about the arrival of Boisture in 2010?

Jeff: Not really. I am not crowning him the future of BC QBs. It's way too easy to get overly exctied about recruits.


Jeff: The NAACP is not happy with the ACC rewarding the baseball tournament to South Carolina. Your thoughts?

Brian: I get that South Carolina is a central location for the conference to hold its baseball tournament, but I am more than curious as to why the ACC decided to break with the NCAA on this issue. Unfortunately, I don't think this is the last we'll hear on the issue.


Brian: College Game Balls takes a look at each BCS conference's 2009 out of conference strength of schedule and declares the ACC the weakest of the six. Although CGB uses a highly suspect mathematical equation, if this is indeed true, how disappointed are you in the ACC?

Jeff: I'm not disappointed with the ACC. The ACC needs to avoid marquee blowouts like Alabama-Clemson last year and LSU-Virginia Tech the year before.


Jeff: Here's an early look at the 2009 ESPN/ABC college football broadcast schedule. Not one BC game on the list. You surprised?

Brian: Not really. Maybe a tiny bit surprised that Florida State at Boston College didn't get picked up, but expectations are low for next season. At least Comcast finally picked up ESPNU.


Brian: To mark the occasion of Michael Vick being released from prison, Dr. Saturday gives us a Vick article. In said article, there is this highlight reel of Vick at Virginia Tech which came - of course - against Boston College.

Remember this performance, Jeff? I believe we were both in attendance. Bad memories. Can you remember a more dominant performance by an opposing player in Alumni Stadium?

Jeff: No, he was the man that day.


Brian: Last one, INCH wants the Frozen Four back in Boston after the 2012 season. I'll second that. What other cities would you like to throw back into the Frozen Four rotation?

Jeff: I might make the trip when its in Tampa if Boston College is there. I'd also go to Atlanta if it were there.

BC Gets in the Win Column at ACC Championship

Brian: The Eagles claim their first win in the ACC baseball championship:

DURHAM, N.C. (theACC.com) - Sophomore third baseman Mickey Wiswall drove in Boston College's first five runs with a double and a pair of homers to lift the Eagles to a 7-3 victory over Georgia Tech Thursday in game four of the 2009 ACC Baseball Championship.

Wiswall began the Eagles' scoring with a bases-loaded, two-run double in the bottom of the first inning, after Boston College filled the bases with a hit batsman, an error on a sacrifice bunt and a walk. He followed in his next two at bats with a two-run homer to right field and a solo shot to left center.

Big W. Believe it or not - and despite yesterday's 7-2 setback to FSU - the Eagles still have a shot to play in the Championship Game.

Here is your rooting guide the rest of the way out:

• Miami over Florida State
• BC over Miami
• Georgia Tech over Florida State

Miami and BC would then be tied atop the Division A standings at 2-1, with BC winning the head-to-head tiebreaker.

There is also this scenario:

• Miami over Florida State
• BC over Miami
  
• Florida State over Georgia Tech

In this case, Miami, BC and FSU all tie at 2-1, and each team would have beaten the other in a bizarre three-way tie eerily reminiscent of this year's Big XII South football disaster. No idea who advances to the Championship final in this case. Do they use the final BCS standings too?

[UPDATED] TheACC.com has your answer: "Three Teams Tied: (a) The team with the best overall conference winning percentage in regular season play will advance; (b) The team with the best head-to-head conference winning percentage among the tied teams in regular season play, provided that all teams were common opponents during the regular season, will advance;(c) The team with the highest seed in the respective bracket will advance." Advantage: FSU.

Either way, based on my back-of-the-envelope math, the only way BC can win the Division A round-robin and advance to the Championship final is if the Hurricanes can defeat the Seminoles right ... about ... now.

Go 'Canes!

Role Play: A Spaz Guarantee?, Soring to Glory, and So Long Fenway?

Brian: Time for a little role play.


Brian: Jeff, you are head football coach Frank Spaziani. Who you got at starting quarterback? Show your hand.


Jeff as Coach Spaz: To no one's surprise, Dominique Davis will be our starting quarterback when we start play in the fall. He will not see every snap but he will start. Regardless of who is at quarterback, our defense will be awesome and we will win lots of games.

Brian: Follow up question: BC Guy Kevin Armstrong gave you the SI royal treatment yesterday. Any truth to the rumor that you are going to power BC to four wins next season on the power of your magical stache alone?

Jeff as Coach Spaz: We'll find out, but BC is good for 8 or 9 wins without the stache so if it is true, which I hope it is, we're in for something really special next season.


Jeff: Brian, you are BJ Raji. C'mon man, you can really spell "soar" right? You're just playing with us, right ... right??


Brian as BJ Raji: Thats for me to know and for you to find out. Maybe I was trying to be funny Jeff. Did that thought ever occur to you? Perhaps I have a budding career as the new funneyman of the NFL like my boy Shaq. I know I've had my fare share of troubles in the past - smoking weed in college, academic ineligibility, almost smoking weed at the Combine - but this one I could care less about. So what that a bunch of bloggers are poking fun at me about this. I'm a soon to be multi-millionaire.

I'll tell you one person who is happy about my spelling mistake - the seller. The item is up to $180 now! That's me giving back to the communeity.


Brian: Jeff, you are Al Skinner. The Eagles are set to play in the 2009 USVI Paradise Jam. (You can't seem to avoid Purdue in these early season tournaments.) How your Eagles going to fare this year in the tournament?


Jeff as Al Skinner: Yes, we might get to face Purdue again next season. It will be a tough game for us if we do but I really hope that we get a game against Tennessee so that I can beat Bruce Pearl before he succeeds me as BC's head coach as you guys like to talk about.


Jeff: Brian, you are BC athletic director Gene DeFilippo. You at all upset over the fact that the conference passed over historic Fenway Park in favor of the slightly less prestigious NewBridge Bank Park in Greensboro, NC?


Brian as GDF: Upset? Yea I'm upset. First the ACC Championship is moved from Boston to Durham this year because of a Fenway Sports Group scheduling conflict. What am I paying these guys for? To conveniently forget about my college athletics program and have them instead worry about the Red Sox?

Then the commissioner yanks the 2010 tournament away from the city citing the economy? What an excuse. Cut down on travel costs? Greensboro, NC may be central to 5 ACC schools, but if you look at this year's standings, 3 of those 5 schools aren't even going to qualify for the Championship (Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, NC State) and a fourth (Duke) is barely hanging onto one of the last spots. BC is going to have to travel to the championship. What about our travel expenses? So are Florida State, Miami, Georgia Tech and Maryland. Not to mention it costs just as much, if not more, to fly to small North Carolina airports as it does to fly into a major city like Boston.

I thought the conference brought us in to expand their reach and enter the Boston sports market?

You may be wondering why I'm so upset about this in a sport as insignificant to BC as college baseball, but I think this is sending the larger message to Boston College that the city of Boston will never host an ACC championship in any of these sports. The commissioner and the balance of power in the conference is in North Carolina, and the commish and the league brass would rather do what's convenient for them than reward some of these college ballplayers with a once-in-a-lifetime experience of playing in Fenway Park. BC will just stick to hosting Hockey East, Frozen Four and national sailing competitions - sports we actually have a chance of winning a national championship in and conferences that actually care about us. Also, I hear that old man Paterno is ruffling some feathers about Big Ten expansion. Maybe I should give him a call and see if they are interested in BC?


Brian: Last one. Jeff, you are ACC commissioner and BCS coordinator John Swofford. Congress wants to know, Why was the attendance down in the ACC championship last year?


Jeff as John Swofford: So are you going to give me some time to answer the question this time? With the game being held in Tampa, Florida State, Miami, Georgia Tech and Clemson are the teams whose fan bases would be most likely to fill the stands because of georgraphic location. None of thos teams made it last year and instead two of our four northernmost schools represented the league in the Championship Game. To make matters worse, the game was a rematch of not only a regular season game, but also the previous season's game. Add in the economy and you have a perfect storm for bad attendance. Can you get off my back about ACCCG attendance, Brian? It moves to Charlotte in 2010, happy!!??

Happy Time: Motherwell, Football and Fenway

Providing your daily dose of happy.

First, props to Will Blackmon, who ran back a punt 76 yards to the hiz-ouse last Monday against the Vikings. In case you missed it, we gotcha covered, partner.

It was a good time to be an Eagle in the NFL last weekend ...


Happy Birthday Brett Motherwell. Eagle fans may remember that Motherwell was permanently dismissed from the Eagles men's hockey team last season after violating undisclosed team rules. Motherwell would go on to sign an American Hockey League contract with the Syracuse Crunch. In his two years with the Eagles, he tallied 7 goals and 45 assists in 81 games.

Here's some more You Tubage of Motherwell getting his frustration out on a Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguin.

Happy Anniversary to the Boston College football team. On this date four years ago, you beat Penn State 21-7 in the 2004 home opener. Paul Peterson threw for 199 yards and 3 scores in the winning effort. And a redshirt freshman running back by the name of Andre Callendar came off the bench to fill in for an injured L.V. Whitworth. Callendar would finish the night with 27 carries for 114 yards.

Random factoid: Boston College is 2-1 playing on September 11, with a 14-13 win in Chestnut Hill against Texas in 1976 and a 45-14 Mountaineer beat down of the Eagles in Morgantown 1971.


Happy Trails Fenway Park as host of the ACC baseball championship in 2009. The ACC found a replacement venue for next year's tournament in the Durham Bulls Athletic Park. Apparently due to an in-house scheduling error, Fenway Park wasn't available to host next year's tournament. The tournament is slated to be held in Boston for the 2010 season.

Hopefully the Eagles can, you know, make an appearance in this tournament some time in the near future.


TV Picks

Brian: Tonight it's the Battle of the BCS Bottom Feeder Conference Part 1 with North Carolina visiting Rutgers for the Thursday night ESPN game. (Part II is Virginia at Connecticut on Saturday). I know you'll be watching tonight. North Carolina is something like 0 for 1,000 outside of the state of North Carolina (actual stat: 0 for 20 in their last 20 outside of North Carolina), while Rutgers is coming off an opening weekend loss to Fresno State at home. Who do you like? Make a prediction.

Jeff: This game is tough to predict and tough for me to choose a side here. If UNC wins that will get people talking about the Tar Heels being decent which they are not. If Rutgers wins, the ACC looks bad. But Rutgers looked real bad against Fresno State in a nationally televised game at home already. I'm gonna give UNC a slight edge in a fairly low scoring game but it's really just a coin toss.

Headlines: ACC Championships Post Expansion Scorecard

Brian: I stumbled upon an article on a Virginia Tech blog Tech SideLines that listed out all the VTech ACC Championships won post expansion. I was surprised to see that our fellow ACC interloper has already won 8 ACC championships across all sports. This got me thinking about how well BC has done in the ACC hardware department. Using some back of the envelope math and powered by the ACC website, check this out. What does this tell you? Think Gene is earning his pay?

	2005-2006	2006-2007	2007-2008	TOTAL
1. Virginia	5	3	6	14
2. North Carolina	4	5	4	13
3. Florida State	4	3	4	11
3. Duke	5	4	2	11
5. Virginia Tech	0	4	4	8
6. NC State	1	3	0	4
6. Georgia Tech	2	2	0	4
8. Clemson	1	0	2	3
8. Miami	2	0	1	3
10. Wake Forest	0	2	0	2
10. Maryland	1	0	1	2
12. Boston College	0	0	1	1

Granted ice hockey isn't on here and we've won 2 of 3 Hockey East titles over this same span. Sailing isn't an ACC sport either. Sports included are cross-country, field hockey, soccer, football, swimming & diving, track & field, basketball, wrestling, golf, tennis, rowing, lacrosse, softball and baseball.

Jeff: Brian, I know you are disappointed with the reality you just discovered, but do not go starting a campaign against GDF. BC doesn't even compete in as many sports as these big state schools do. For example, we don't have varsity men's lacrosse where Virginia does. Also, as you pointed out, ice hockey is not an ACC sport. And finally, we have only been in the league 3 years.

Now why haven't we won a track and field title? Can you even tell me where the track and field team practices? No? I didn't think you could. How about wrestling? Oh wait, that is another sport we don't have. Now think about our golf team and tell me what recruit is going to come to BC versus going to Clemson or one of the Florida schools where they can play and practice outdoors all year round. Or maybe they'll go to Wake Forest where Arnold Palmer went to school. My point is that BC has focused on the major sports which is fine with me and they don't have the facilities to compete in Track and Field, nor the climate to compete in some other outdoor sports. BC will improve in these areas but we should never expect to be up there with UVA, FSU, or these other large schools. We need to try and compete with the likes of Wake Forest and Duke. Even Georgia Tech has a huge advantage over us because their swim team competes where the Olympics were held.

Brian: I'm not going to start a "Fire GDF" campaign over these numbers but this is still pretty pathetic. And don't give me the small, private school excuse. We're last in that group of schools as well - Duke, Wake, Miami and BC. We compete in more varsity sports (31) than any of these other schools. Virginia Tech has been in the league a year longer than us and they have 8 ACC titles.

And if you're going to give me the "quality over quantity" argument and say that we are only focused on the major sports, how is that working out for us? Sure, we have competed for championships in basketball and football since joining, and came within a bucket and a special teams disaster away from winning both, but still 0 championships. Also, your golf argument applies to the one sport BC has won an ACC championship in - soccer. I could use the same argument. Who wants to play soccer up north in the cold when you could play at National Champion Wake Forest or Duke?

Jeff: The golf up north argument is very different than the soccer argument. When was the last time you really didn't want to go run 5 miles just because its only 50 degrees out? Meanwhile, playing golf in 50 degree weather or below is not at all appealing. Also, once you get snow on the ground you can basically still do your entire off-season workout routine for soccer but not for golf.

Then aside from football and basketball, Wake Forest is dominant in golf, Duke is dominant in lacrosse, Miami I believe is pretty darn good in track and field, and BC dominates ice hockey. I agree that these numbers need to improve, but if you threw in hockey, BC is doing ok.

Happy Time: Liotta, Peterson, Winning Streak and Jax

It's happy time, people.

A weak BC-related Happy Birthday wish to Ray Liotta (December 18). Ray Liotta played the real-life mobster Henry Hill in the movie Goodfellas, who was linked to the 1978-1979 Boston College basketball point-shaving scandal. The first two games of the scandal? December 6, 1978 against Providence (BC favored by 7 and won by 13) and December 16, 1978 against Harvard (BC favored by 12 and won by 3).


Happy Anniversary Paul Peterson. On this day 3 years ago, you were cleared to play for the 2004 Continental Tire Bowl. Peterson had broken his hand November 20 and had not played in the 43-17 loss to Syracuse that would have secured BC's first ever BCS birth. The replacement QB for that game against Syracuse? Freshman Matt Ryan. 24-for-51, 200 yards, 3 interceptions. BC's senior QB would come back to lead the Eagles to a 37-24 bowl win over North Carolina, only to be carted away with a broken leg in that game.


Happy Trails BC’s eight game winning streak against UMass basketball. The men’s team was upended by the Minutemen 83-80 last night at Conte Forum in a sloppily played affair. Preseason first team all ACC guard Tyrese Rice led the way with 26 points, but missed a 3 pointer to tie late.


Jeff: Also a happy Happy Trails to Jacksonville as the host of the ACC Championship game. Earlier this week, I correctly predicted a 0% chance of the game returning to JAX next year.

Brian: Due to scheduling conflicts with the city of Charlotte, Charlotte will not host the ACCCG until 2010. In my opinion, this is unfortunate for the ACC as I do not see Tampa producing a better draw than Jacksonville. That is unless Florida State and Miami right the ship quickly.

Jeff: At least in Tampa you have a bigger airport, more hotels and more residents within a 50-mile radius.

Headlines: Terps and the ACC Championship

Jeff: OK Brian, Al Skinner's squad went into Maryland last night and pulled off a victory to improve to 7-1 and their next two ACC games are Miami and Wake Forest at home. I see them starting 3-0 in ACC play. I originally thought this was going to be a down year for BC basketball but i'm starting to get excited. Am I getting excited too early?

Brian: Yes, you are getting excited too early. I think our defense is suspect and we have looked like we were going to give up the game twice in the final minutes against Providence and Maryland. We need to put away teams when given the opportunity. If the Eagles fail to do this, that's the difference between a 4-12 and an 8-8 ACC season.

Jeff: I'm still excited to be 1-0 on conference and I think we're headed to 8-8 or better and an NCAA bid. Football season isn't over though so next topic. BC dominated the first half of their first ever trip to the ACCCG yet the halftime score was 16-16. BC then goes on to lose the game 30-16. What happened?

Brian: Do we really have to talk about this again? Such a sore subject. I think while we won the special teams battle in Blacksburg (good punts, roughing the kicker calls that kept drives alive, onside kick), the special teams unit lost this game. Two blocked kicks were huge momentum changers. Still, we had our shots and couldn't put the Hokies away when we could. I think this team needs a bit more swagger next year. We seemed to play like the "nice story" that we are instead of going for the jugular.

Jeff: SPECIAL TEAMS. You hit the nail on the head. BC was perhaps a better special teams unit away from going undefeated and it showed the most when it counted most. Worst case we should've been up 20-14 at the half instead of tied 16 all. In the second half drives stalled out by not converting on some third and shorts. But we were close to being headed to Miami for the Orange Bowl. At least closer than the final score indicated. As far as the "nice story" though, I disagree. We simply finished exactly where we should've. Winners of the atlantic division. If there were no coaching changes BC would've been in the top 20 preseason but instead was barely left out of the top 25 because of the concern of the coaching changes. Now we sit in the top 20 headed into a bowl game that because of the opponent a victory will only keep us where we are rather than launching us into the top 10.

Brian: At least 1 ACC beat writer had picked Boston College to finish last in the Atlantic division preseason. So I'd say we were more of a surprise than we care to believe.