Charlotte -Boston College will start off the 2021 season with what some could call a warmup game against Colgate. They will then head to in-state opponents UMASS before traveling to Philadelphia to face the Temple Owls. They wrap up their non-conference schedule with a home game against SEC opponent Missouri.
After this, the ACC gauntlet starts, and they will travel to Clemson to get that party rolling. It will be a grueling season for year two of the Jeff Hafley Era at BC. Last season, the Eagles went 6-5. Two of those five losses were games that the Eagles were in until the end, against both UNC and Clemson.
Their offensive rushing attack was 2nd worst in the conference. Despite that, head coach Hafley doesn’t see that as much of a weakness, as they were focusing on throwing the ball more.
“I want to run the ball, and you have to run the ball. But you’ve got to throw the ball to score points,” said Hafley. “I think you’ll see us run the ball a little bit more, but we’re going to throw the ball down the field. And we’re going to get better at that as well.”
Their passing attack was ranked 3rd in the conference, averaging 284.2 yards through the air per game. Quarterback Phil Jurkovec, the Eagles redshirt junior, started all ten games for them after transferring from Notre Dame. He ranked as the 5th best passer in the conference and completed 61% of his passes.
On the defensive side of the ball, the Eagles lost two of the leagues’ leading tacklers in Max Richardson and Isaiah Mcduffie, who have both made the jump to the NFL. Boston College’s defense overall was middle of the road last season and had an inability to get off the field on third downs. Being able to get those third down stops is going to be the key to their potential success this year.
“On defense, we’ve got to get off the field on 3rd down,” said Hafley. “Looking back at the film, that was a highlight of last season.”
The Eagles ranked 64th in the country in 3rd down efficiency, allowing opponents to convert 40.4% of the time last season. Even worse was their 4th down efficiency, which ranked 123rd in the country, or 5th worst in the nation, allowing conversions 81.2% of the time.
