← Cover 3 College Football
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- [00:00]
Mitch Wolf
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Podcast Host
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Mitch Wolf
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Mitch Wolf
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Podcast Host
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- [00:44]
Mitch Wolf
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Podcast Host
Dante Moore, he showed improvement.
- [01:40]
Mitch Wolf
Better command.
- [01:47]
Podcast Host
What's going on, y'?
- [01:48]
Mitch Wolf
All?
- [01:48]
Podcast Host
Buddy? Here back again for another edition of Summer school on the COVID 3 college football podcast. Today we are talking Boston College and that means we are heading to Eagle Insider. That's Mitch Wolf. Mitch does a great job and like I gotta say, you know, you crush it every year for us, man. People listen to this episode, even folks who are not BC fans, who are not ACC fans or annual opponents of the Eagles. So I'm glad to have you back.
- [02:09]
Mitch Wolf
Happy to be on. Happy to talk about the niche little corner that is BC football that I think a lot of people like to kind of poke fun at, which I I kind of blame on the New England Patriots. But that's mostly because I'm not a Patriots fan, as you can see by the penance behind me.
- [02:22]
Podcast Host
There you go. Awesome.
- [02:23]
Mitch Wolf
Man.
- [02:23]
Podcast Host
All right. Well last year, difficult, challenging season for the Eagles and we were chopping it up a little bit before the call. You know, 2 and 10. I think we both agree for a while they were a bit unlucky. And then, you know, as you mentioned, you know, the injuries just went or just nuclear on defense and they were unable to overcome that. When you're moving freshmen and you know, people change your positions and whatnot mid season they did, from what I've read, commit to bigger financial investment. Full Rev Share access From like, from my perspective, that looks like a vote of confidence in o'. Brien. What's your read for more inside the program? Is it genuine backing or is he kind of on like a one year leash here?
- [03:03]
Mitch Wolf
I think it depends on who you ask. It's a little hard to nail down because obviously BC's private school, so it's hard to get a lot of information about that. When the new basketball coach was introduced recently, somebody asked about exact numbers for nil and rev share and athletic director Blake James basically said we don't talk about that publicly. So that's hard to get that information out. I think there is something a vote of comments. I think they do understand that they were very lucky to get o', Brien so they want to give him some more support because they're realizing that B.C. was so behind in terms of athletic support for the program and a big part of that is you're getting a change in president from Father William Leahy to Father Jack Butler. William Leahy was, is notoriously one of the most anti athletics presidents in BC history and one of the probably most anti athletics presidents in all of D1. And they're going to Father Jack Butler, who has been a chaplain for the football team. He's a huge sports guy. So there's going to be this big trade or shift in the wins for just giving athletics more support. So they're saying the right things. They're making hires in other sports to make it look more legit. They've, I will say they have expanded the staff. They brought in Kenyatta Watson, a former PC player, as the gm. They've brought in some other guys to help build out the staff there, which is something that I've been talking about that they need to do. They've been really behind the times there. So they're talking and talk. They're walking the walk a little bit and it's, it's just hard to know how much of the, the specific money aspect is actually real.
- [04:31]
Podcast Host
Gotcha. Before we get into like the personnel specifics, although there's certainly quite a few tie ins to it. Play calling changes on both sides of the ball. Right. So o' Brien is taking over his play caller from Will Long. Right.
- [04:43]
Mitch Wolf
And yeah, so it's, it's a whole new group of coaches. You go, obviously Will Long's out. He left for a job with the Bears. O' Brien is the quote unquote new offensive coordinator. You've got new. Your entire offensive group except for the quarterbacks coach is different. New running backs coach Mike Hart replaced Savon Huggins who left for Penn State. Wide receivers coach Daryl Wyatt is out, replaced by Joe Daly who has coached at BC before. Offensive line coach Matt Applebaum is out. He's been around for a while. He's had some good old lines, but he's also had some not so great ones and new offensive line coaches. Kurt Anderson, who was at UMass last year, kind of throw that out. He's been at Arkansas and Northwestern and put together some good players.
- [05:24]
Podcast Host
Yeah, yeah, okay.
- [05:25]
Mitch Wolf
Yeah. And then the. I think, I'm not sure, I think his title is still technically like senior offensive analyst but Rob Shatinski, former Browns head coach, offense coordinator in the lead in the NFL, what have you, he's been very involved with the tight ends where his son Kalyn plays. And then on defense, defensive corner Tim Lewis is out, replaced by Ted Roof. Almost everybody college football knows Ted Roof. Very close to the Brian. Defensive line coach Ben Albert has been at B.C. twice before, is from Massachusetts, coached in Massachusetts for a long time. And then new Corn Rex coach Jules Montanar, he comes over from Oklahoma State, but he's also been at some lower levels where he's developed a decent amount of players. So you've got a whole, whole different staff. So it's going to look a lot different. Even if the roster didn't change over a ton, which it did.
- [06:10]
Podcast Host
Makes sense. What are we going to see? Well, tell you what, let's go ahead and hit our first break here so we can really do a nice deep dive into this offense. We'll be back in just a second.
- [06:22]
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- [07:20]
Podcast Host
All right, welcome back here to the COVID 3 College Ball Podcast. We are talking Boston College. That means BC Insiders, Mitch Wolf. Mitch so O' Brien's taken over the play calling here. They bring in Mason McKenzie, who's a D2 transfer, Saginaw Valley State. That's like, you know, D2 is certainly a jump up and very different than the quarterbacks that they have had so far under o'. Brien. Right. With the exception of maybe the Castellanos here. How has he looked in spring reps and how is this offense going to look differently with McKenzie at the helm, assuming he wins the job?
- [07:54]
Mitch Wolf
So I would say he's actually closer to Castellanos than most people would think. He's an undersized player. His big thing in at Saga Valley State was his running ability. He is a pretty explosive athlete. He can create outside the pocket. He can be useful as a runner even though he's relatively undersized. So he's kind of just a bit of a, just bigger Castellanos because Gastlonis was extremely undersized. But he still, he has a, I would say he has a live army. He's just got to work on dialing in the accuracy and consistency and, you know, with working with a guy, o', Brien, who's a quarterback guy, you know, think about, you know, dialing in the footwork, getting all the mechanics of it right. That seems like it should be a good match for a guy who's basically started two years at the D2 level. Obviously, like you said, that is a huge jump in talent. It's, you know, that gap is widening every year and, you know, the name Trinidad Chambliss was invoked a few months ago, which I didn't like and I think there was some eventual pushback about making that reference because I think we can all agree that Trinidad Chambliss is an outlier and also in a very good system surrounded by a lot of NFL talent, which I think you could push back about what, what B.C. has on those two fronts. But I, I, it's hard to know how much the offense is looking different. Allegedly they are going under center more, which seems kind of confusing given that they haven't done that since the first game of the 2023 season which was in Halfley was here and they didn't do it at all with Thomas Gaslauns, which made sense. He's an oversized quarterback, you want to get him on the move. But then they didn't do understand at all last year with Dylan Lonergan or Grayson James. When they're more traditional drop back passers, you would think they'd go under center, but apparently they're doing that little bit of in practice. But it's really hard to know because again there are so many moving parts with this offense in terms of the roster that you probably really won't even know what the offense is going to look like until we get into fall camp and into the late summer.
- [09:45]
Podcast Host
Makes sense. So McKenzie, we do think is the guy like like the Grayson Wilson thing is more the backup role.
- [09:52]
Mitch Wolf
Grayson Wilson has apparently impressed in practice, but based on how they've indicated this battle is going, how much they've talked up Mason, how much he's appeared in clips and pictures and social. And social stuff, like I have to think he's the front runner for the job given how much they talked him up. If they, if it doesn't go that way, then that's kind of an indictment on them. So I think it's his job to lose but apparent. But all in all, reports indicate that Wilson has been pretty impressive in practice.
- [10:18]
Podcast Host
Nice. So running back. I thought BC had a dude last year in Turbo Richard. So did Indiana. They grabbed him in the portal. Is there a clear cut starter here?
- [10:29]
Mitch Wolf
No, I think this is going to be a committee group. I bring in Evan Dickens from Liberty, who had a lot of yards but against the Conference usa, which is not, it's, you know, a bit of a downgrade. And then you've got Nolan Ray coming over from Maryland who's had flashes here and there. I liked his tape for what it's worth. I just think Maryland has had some rough teams this past, this past few years, but I think you're going to see those guys split time. It's interesting because Ray is, I would say the better and more experienced pass protector and receiver. But Dickens has more of the build of that type of player. He hasn't done either that much and he's willing to pass protect. He's just small. And then they have a redshirt freshman, Akai Dodd, who has been apparently pretty Impressive in spring ball really bulked up so. But I think you're going to see a lot of running backs get the ball there. I don't think they're going to. I think I'm hoping to see some multi running back sets gets both guys or multiple guys on the field. Especially when you have a running quarterback. You can do some fun stuff with that but I don't think you're going to see a lead back even to the degree that Turbo was last year. Even though the offensive line really struggled to run block.
- [11:27]
Podcast Host
Gotcha. Receiver wise. I mean Bond, Harris, who else here? Lockwood, Amar Jr. We've got every, every
- [11:36]
Mitch Wolf
pass attempt from last year is gone. 93.1 of the rushes from last year are gone and then 76 of the targets are gone all week five all five. Week one stars in the OL are gone as well. Now it's a two in ten team. So you would say, oh, maybe they got better. I would not say that because again Turbo Richard went to Indiana. He's probably their starting running back. Reed Harris went to Arizona State. He's probably going to be. Well, they have a Omarion Miller.
- [12:02]
Podcast Host
Yep, yep.
- [12:03]
Mitch Wolf
Who's a good receiver. He'll be. He'll be a very good number two there in that system. I forget who their quarterback is now with the transfer books. I know Lovett's gone, but I think you're gonna see they want Jaden Skeet to be the guy. He has had flashes over the last few years but he's gotten hurt, missed a lot of time. They want him to be the receiver. It's just a matter of if he can stay healthy. And then they've got a lot of transfers around him. We kind of have to see how that plays out. I know that some of the missed time in the spring, so that's kind of difficult with you're breaking in new quarterbacks. You have new receivers. If they're not getting time together, they're not gonna be as comfortable with each other. Dawson Pugh is one returner who had some nice moments last year. Again, he wasn't getting the ball a ton, but he was, he was okay. So he's interesting. Probably the, the fun name at least is reed Swanson, who's a 66215 receiver from Colgate who tore up Syracuse last year. He's. He's a big dude. I'm not sure how fast he is and how well to separate, but if he can make contested catches, that's something that could be useful. And then Javerius Green Comes over from North Carolina. He's a very interesting player in terms of. I'm not sure exactly how he fits. He's played kind of all the different roles as a receiver, but never really settled in one. So I'll be interested to see how they use him. And then I mentioned him before, but Kaylin Chandzinski, tight end who really came on at the end of last year, made some big plays, made some touchdown catches, and key moments, he's just got to get more consistent. He's had some drops, had some kind of mental mistakes here and there, but he's. He's got the goods. He's kind of late to football, actually. He was a hockey player originally in New England, and even though his dad was a Titans coach, so he's still learning, but he's, you know, he improved over. Over the season, went on. They gave him more and more snaps. So he's somebody that I think they're really excited about.
- [13:52]
Podcast Host
I mean, it sounds like there's a couple guys who have potential, high upside there. If certain things click that. That could be. Could be decent offensive line. You did mention all five starters are gone, including Logan Tato to the NFL. They bring in. I'm going to butcher this name. The one now.
- [14:07]
Mitch Wolf
Andrew Bowery.
- [14:08]
Podcast Host
Drew Barry. Right. And Vigor. Yep. Okay. All right.
- [14:16]
Mitch Wolf
And luckily, he will go by juju.
- [14:18]
Podcast Host
Okay. So Juju. John Jamau is.
- [14:21]
Mitch Wolf
Yeah, I think we're just going. I think it's a mononym thing. I think we're doing a Madonna here. It's just got you. Which. Which is great, actually, for.
- [14:28]
Podcast Host
For your purposes. You'll probably say the name more than I will, and that would be. Yeah, that's cool.
- [14:32]
Mitch Wolf
Yeah. I feel like this guy would have done. You know, I'm happy we have him, but you got to think he would have done really well at LSU where they had the Cajun accent to go along with it. But yeah, I would have. Okay. I mean, it's too late now, but, man, I would love to have heard Brian Kelly try to pull this one off with his original Massachusetts accent and his. And the adopted affected Cajun one.
- [14:53]
Podcast Host
What if he, like, adopted a French accent?
- [14:56]
Mitch Wolf
Like a True or. No, I need him like a. Like a Basque or Andalusian, like, Barcelona. Barcelona accent. And it's just like, what is happening? Who is this guy?
- [15:04]
Podcast Host
That would be.
- [15:05]
Mitch Wolf
But yeah, Juju is somebody they're very excited about. 6, 8, 2, 90, crazy frame, crazy athlete. Like. Like, they just don't make a lot of people like this. Who can are that big and move like this. I feel like he's being penciled in to start at one of the tackle spots. I think he came in and they were like, okay, we realize that he's a project. It's going to take a little time. But I think he was further along than they thought or he picked things up as they went along. And with looking at some of the other guys they went out and got for the line. You bring in Christian Phillips from Michigan State, who's just been hurt a lot, but he's an experienced player in terms of being around a while. Reggie Jackson kind of other project from Jacksonville State. Tron Humphrey, an older player but an FCS transfer as well. And then you have a guy like Pape Sai who's basically from the. He's from. I forget where exactly he was from. I want to say Senegal, but it could be wrong. But he's from the NFL academy, he's an international player and they're very impressed with how he's progressed. I think he is also projected to start at one of the tackle spots as well. And then you've got some guys like Robert Smith and Michael Krauntz at Garden center respectively, who played last year, had some nice moments, had some stuff they need to iron out, but hopefully they can take another step overall with the. I would say the offensive line specifically, but I think this goes to a lot of the team. They made a lot of these coaching changes because I think they realized that they needed a different type of coach that is better at developing players into college players. They had some coaches that they. I think they were good at getting the most out of guys that were kind of on the fringe of the NFL and getting them into NFL players. You think about guys like a Kyle Hergel, a Christian Mahogany, Zay Flowers, those kind of guys and getting them to take that next step to be draft picks. Donovan as a rock was another one. Obviously they kind of needed to reset to get guys that can we take you from a high school player or a lower level transfer and turn you into a solid starting college player. And it's just a different style of coach that's maybe a little more positive, a little more reinforcing. So that's. I think that's definitely the case with the offensive line, I think. And I think it connects to the other coaches as well.
- [17:07]
Podcast Host
It's more framing carpentry than finished carpentry.
- [17:10]
Mitch Wolf
Exactly. Yes.
- [17:10]
Podcast Host
Yeah, that makes sense. Is there a guy that we have not spoken and obviously like you do such a great Job covering, you know, the entire team. When we sit down, is there a guy who, if he reaches his ceiling maybe a year ahead of where you expect or the staff expects that it like materially changes this offense?
- [17:28]
Mitch Wolf
On offense, I feel like Dawson Pugh would be the one, the wide receiver who played a little bit last year, and again, he had moments. It was kind of like he would make a catch but wouldn't make people miss or just wouldn't make the big play. And I feel like if he kind of clicks and takes that step, then that gives you somebody to rely on if Skeet isn't available or a guy to go with Skeet. Because right now you have Skeet, you have Jacinski, and you have a lot of question marks otherwise. So you don't really even know who your best five are. But if you can say, okay, we've got two receivers that we can put on the field and feel decent about, I think they would really like that because then they don't need to be like, okay, now we need to figure out how to run like this weird 22, 21 personnel offense, which I think would be interesting, but I'm not sure how much they want to do it. Another one, I guess, would be Cameron Costman, who's a tight end transfer from Florida, who I think he basically missed most of last year due to an injury, but was in line to play. And I think. And they want him to be there. Why? They're in line blocking tight end. That allows them to move Chadzinski around, move Zeke More around, use More as a fullback, use Zinski as the big slot, let Costman be the inline wide tight end. So those are two kind of dynamic X factor players where it's like, if these things work, then I think that really rounds up the offense and prevents them or having like any major weaknesses. Nice man.
- [18:47]
Podcast Host
All right, we'll hit our second break here on the flip side. Defense schedule outlook. Stay tuned.
- [18:55]
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- [19:54]
Mitch Wolf
all right,
- [19:54]
Podcast Host
guys, we're back here on the COVID 3 College Football Podcast. That's Mitch Wolf of BC Insider. We are talking all things Eagles here today on summer school. So the defensive line, I feel like this could be okay. So Sterling Sanders is gone. Byerson, you know, returns, right.
- [20:11]
Mitch Wolf
Got a decent amount of returners. Yeah. And guys who had to play last year maybe before they were ready. And guy like a guy like Micah Amity, who's a local recruit who got thrust in the lineup, but then he got hurt out for the year. Similar thing with any. And Wasisi and Chuck NATO, who were FCS transfers last year who had to red shirt due to kind of BC academic stuff. I think from what I understand. So some weird situations there, but then you're able to bring these guys back, have them in the building for another year. Same with Favor Bate, who came over from Merrimack, had a incredible fall camp, but then was never able to really materialize that against FBS opponents. And then guy like Ella Boykin, who was a D2 transfer, had some nice moments down the stretch, really came into his own as an edge defender, a guy that they can use in versatile ways. I think will be a good fit in Ted roof's defense. And C.J. maribel, the other defensive tackle, he really came on in the last month, month and a half of the season where he was making, starting to make some plays. So there's some bright spots there, there's some interesting pieces. It's just a matter of, you know, can this new coaching staff get the most out of them? Can Ted Roof find the best way to use these kind of guys?
- [21:16]
Podcast Host
Makes sense. Linebacker. So what?
- [21:18]
Mitch Wolf
So I do want to touch on two transfers, though.
- [21:21]
Podcast Host
Yeah.
- [21:21]
Mitch Wolf
Yes. Chris Jones from Georgia and Demetrius Ballard from Buffalo. Jones has been very impactful in the spring. From what I understand, he's was kind of playing that Jalen Walker, Nolan Smith role in Georgia's defense. Obviously not that caliber of player. Otherwise he'd still be at Georgia, respectfully. But he's been impactful and I think he's a guy that again, it's from what I watched him, very good run defender, especially for his size. Still working on developing him as a pass rusher. But I think with Ted Ruth's defense, how aggressive it is. With blitzing, you're not necessarily relying on a guy. You're relying on scheme, which against the better opponents, you need a guy. But for pieces purposes, for now, it's okay. And then Demetrius Ballard, super tall, super long. Just giant dudes. I think he's like 6, 6, 250 right now. Vines for arms. I think they really like him and they want to get him on the field if he's ready to go. He had some nice moments. You know, he was kind of in a rotation of Buffalo. I think if they played him more, he would have been more productive. But they had a pretty, pretty good experience touchline, so he just couldn't get on the field. But I think he could be a breakout player for this defense.
- [22:22]
Podcast Host
Nice, man. All right, so linebacker, Couch and Hewlett are both portaled out. Calhoun comes in from Notre Dame. Justin Medlock's in. Like, how do you think this linebacker room shakes out? And like, do you think it's any good?
- [22:36]
Mitch Wolf
So it's the other guy that's actually going to be the starters. Anthony Palano, the transfer from Washington State. He is a very, very good zone defender, a very good coverage linebacker, which I think BC has not had in a long time. And he's very cerebral and they are very excited about him being the kind of intellectual leader of this defense. I imagine he'll wear the green dot the other positions. It's kind of up for grabs and I imagine it'll be situational. You had Griffin Collins last year, who played a good bit as a true freshman, and he had his true freshman moments, but he's also 6, 4, 2, 30 and moves pretty well, and I think they like what he can bring and they want to develop him. Bodhi Cahoon from Notre Dame, just Medlock from smu. I think those guys are probably more in the Sam role. They're going to kind of situational based on what they want. Medlock's kind of just a athlete in space that Cahoon just hasn't played really enough to really know what he is. But they just needed to get some new blood in this room. They had a lot of guys that were or couldn't get on the field or were injured or what have you. So they kind of refreshed this whole room. But I feel like so Plano is definitely going to be a starter and then I feel like Collins will probably be there, base downs, linebacker, and then we'll kind of see. I know. I think Medlock has been a bit banged up this spring, so he Might be a step behind, but he's an experienced. He's an older player, he's played a lot, so. But I think you'll see him and Cahoon compete for the third linebacker spot. We'll have to see how. I know that roof scheme uses that kind of hybrid safety linebacker Sam role, which they name something different wherever he goes. So I imagine it'll be the eagle at B.C. or something like that. So we'll have to see how they do that because I could all see KP Price taking that role given how much he played linebacker last year. But I also think they want to let him play more safety after last year because linebacker was pretty rough experience for him.
- [24:19]
Podcast Host
Makes sense secondary wise. I mean, this was the complete mash unit and in some ways the downfall of the team last year. As you know, you covered so thoroughly. Tons of injuries, playing a ton of freshmen, you know, like safeties who had no business playing corner, how to move over to corner. Like, often. Davis and Thornton are out. Davis went to Penn State. I don't know if he's. We haven't done Penn State summer school yet, so I don't know if he's actually starting there or not.
- [24:43]
Mitch Wolf
I've. They're very. From what I've seen, just because we've. We've kind of tracking it, they're very excited about him, which I was like, oh, okay, because he played a little bit last year, just because basically they moved the veteran safeties to other roles, then put true freshman at the regular safety positions. So he played a little bit and I thought he was okay, you know, getting his true freshman. Then it was kind of surprising when he transferred and then Penn State was very excited to get him. So. That's interesting.
- [25:07]
Podcast Host
Interesting. Okay. There's no way this group is worse this year. I mean, let's be real.
- [25:12]
Mitch Wolf
I would. I think it would be. I would love to. I would love to see it if that were. If. If that happens. I would just love to see how that takes place because, yeah, you lose your two starting corners by week three. You then have to move safeties around. You lose your starting slot. You. You're playing just true freshmen who are then getting hurt. And then the guys you're playing for, the true freshmen who are hurt are also getting hurt and playing hurt. Like Max Tucker, who's back played most of the season, like with a broken elbow and had to put a brace on. And I mean, respectfully, he just couldn't tackle just because he was. It would have cost too much pain and I know their corner Isaiah Ferris was dealing with stuff too. So Amari Jackson's gone. He has missed basically the last two year and a half due to injury, but he was a good player. But he's down in Maryland. This is an interesting room and again, like this is kind of the benefit of you play a lot of true freshmen last year they get some experience. Then this year, hopefully they can capitalize on that again. New defensive backs coach Jules Montanark of Oklahoma State has developed some players, so I'm interested to see how he can do that. Sire Torrance was the star of camp last year, but only made it two games before he got hurt, so he'll be a name to watch. Marcellus Townsend was also making plays early on last season before he got hurt. TJ Green became the starting slot after Cam Martinez went down. That I think the slot is still up for grabs along Ashton Cunningham will be competing there and then safety. I think you. For some reason they did not want to play Carter Davis that much. I don't understand why. He's a good free safety and they had Omar Thornton who is a very good player, but they just didn't. They couldn't figure out how to get all three on the field at the same time, which was very confusing to me until the injuries happened. So Davis will play more at the free safety role. Hopefully got K.P. price, who's a very good safety. I think he's probably the best player on this team. Played a lot of linebacker last year, but he's an iron man. He's played basically every snap that he. That is was available to him. And I think he's a really good player. And then you've got guy like Mark Septon who played a little bit as professional last year. He can rotate in. And the two transfers they brought in are interesting. One, Cameron Howard from Charlotte, who or sorry, from Alabama was at Charlotte before mostly played teams at Bama. I think they're interested to see what he can do. And Then Chandler Jordan, a 64215 defensive back from Georgia State who played a little bit as a profession basically as a slot defender at Georgia State last year. From what I understand, he kind of just waited too long to make his decision. Then the offers at the bigger schools kind of dried up, so he had to go to Georgia State and that's. He had some better offers but at the power 4 level just didn't end up there. But he's somebody that. I think they're still figuring out exactly how they're gonna play him, but he could be an interesting piece just given his size and athletic profile.
- [27:52]
Podcast Host
Georgia State had some really good young defensive players on that, on that team last year. I loved the. I don't know if you watched him or not. Tartavius Flournae.
- [28:02]
Mitch Wolf
I did not know that name. That sounds a great name.
- [28:04]
Podcast Host
Syracuse scooped him.
- [28:06]
Mitch Wolf
Well, Fran Brown is different. Yeah, guys, you know, practicing with Achilles tears and losing rapper recruits to lsu.
- [28:14]
Podcast Host
Yeah, they did lose one LSU for sure. Yeah. Like, this is very off course, but I thought like, really impressive is like a 18 year old who could like actually hold the point, eat doubles, you know, just like, oh, okay, like no real pass rush, but I got it.
- [28:29]
Mitch Wolf
Yeah, I feel like that's kind of with some of these G5 guys, like they have like one thing that they do really well, especially young, and then, you know, sometimes they just get overmatched because the other things are underdeveloped. But I think what they want with Jordan is like, ideally I would want him to be their tight end stopper, you know, just because he has that size, he has experience playing in the middle. So I'll be interested to see how much he gets on the field and
- [28:50]
Podcast Host
where this schedule is not particularly friendly in some spots. I mean, you do play Notre Dame, smu, Miami, and then, you know, after that, like, you know, Pitt, Florida State, Georgia Tech, obviously they have to hold serves in the games that they should win, depending on kind of how you define those. What really has to go right for this team to get back to a bowl a lot.
- [29:14]
Mitch Wolf
I think everything pretty much has to go right in terms of you need your philosophy, changing coaching to go right. I think that's the big one where it's like you need the coaches to reach these players, get them up to a certain level where you are deeper across the roster. You're definitely not as talented. You know, you lose guys like Harris, Richard to the portal. You lose guys like Jeremiah Franklin, Lewis Bond, Jude Bowery, Logan Taylor to the NFL. So you've, you're over. Your high, high points of talent have dropped. But you hope that you can kind of bring the bottom of the roster up so you can rotate players, keep them fresh and, you know, withstand injuries, which was something they couldn't really do last year, particularly on defense. The schedule, the first. The important thing to remember with the schedule is that Bill o' Brien has won two road games in his two years of bc. The first, first was on the road at Florida State in 2024. The second was the season finale of Sierra against Syracuse this past year. So he went. That's. Those the only two road games he's won, so. And Syracuse last year was obviously destitute. So you're pretty much saying you're penciling every road game in as a loss, so that's a problem. So you. So Cincinnati, smu, Georgia Tech, Notre Dame, Miami. Oh, and Duke. I'm sorry, Duke is after Georgia Tech. Now, Georgia Tech and Duke are interesting because Georgia Tech obviously loses the offense coordinator lose Tain's King. They lose the backup, Eric Rivers.
- [30:34]
Podcast Host
Aaron.
- [30:35]
Mitch Wolf
Aaron Philo. They lose running back Jamal Haynes. Like they. And they lose Keela Rutledge, the guard. Like they lose a ton of players on the offense. That was good. And for some reason, that defense has just never been good since Brent Key has been there, which I just. I just. It's hard for me. I know he's an offensive coach, just hard for me to fathom that. They've always been terrible on defense. Yeah. So I think that's interesting. Like, that could be a win. I think at Duke could be a win. You don't really know what Duke's gonna be.
- [31:00]
Podcast Host
We haven't done Duke summer school yet, but I am very curious to do that, especially with the late loss of Mensa.
- [31:05]
Mitch Wolf
Yeah. So, like, going into this year, but. And probably. We probably didn't know the schedule at the time, but when they had Mensa and the receivers, they're like, okay, this is a problem. But now it's like, okay, these teams are probably pretty evenly matched. So you wonder about that. You wonder about the season opener at Cincinnati just because Cincinnati kind of a. Did they lose Sourceby obviously loose receivers, the NFL, they lose linebackers, the NFL. So that's just a question mark. They. So then go to the home games. You get Rutgers, main, Tech, Virginia Tech to open the season three games in a row at home. Rutgers is the red bandana game, mains and FCS opponent. You get Tech at home. BC has really struggled against Virginia Tech for the last few years, regardless of who the coach is, which is kind of crazy, but I. I'm questionable with that one just because I know I. I think Franklin is a good coach. He's maybe not an elite coach, but. So that's going to be a problem. Pitt obviously took B.C. to the woodshed last year. I was there for it. That was crazy. But in the last few years, that game has always been won by the home team. So I wonder if maybe that could flip. November 7th in Florida State. Gotta wonder about Florida State coming up to Boston in early November, depending on who's the head coach question mark. And then home against Syracuse. They've owned Syracuse last few years with Fran Brown, the coach who. Fran Brown, again, he's different. He's really, he's different guys.
- [32:18]
Podcast Host
So there's no, there's no rivalry there at all between BC and Q Scissor?
- [32:21]
Mitch Wolf
No, definitely not. Especially with the staffs. They definitely don't have any hate for each other over competing for the same recruits. But anyways, I think there's a path to a bowl game and I think that would go a really long way towards solidifying sport for o' Brien support for this program. It's just hard for me to see because there's so many question marks on both sides of the ball because you don't know. You still don't know who the quarterback is going to be. There's so many rotational pieces on the offense, especially the offensive line. The defense is a major question mark. Even if, like, even if you stay healthy, it's like, okay, you've got a lot of young guys, some playing new positions, just a lot of transfers that you just are still a bit in the dark about. And so, you know, you try to count the losses because it's a little bit easier. So from going for the end of the season at Miami, at Notre Dame, those are both probably losses. You probably are going to lose on the road to smu. If you probably, you say, like, we'll coin flip Georgia Tech and Dukes, that's five, four or five, and then Cincinnati Tech. So I, I think most people are saying, can they get to 4 and 8 and be competitive in the games against, you know, Cincinnati Tech?
- [33:33]
Podcast Host
Pit.
- [33:33]
Mitch Wolf
If you, if you get destroyed by Notre Dame at the end, Miami at the end of the year, it is what it is. But remain competitive in the other games, be on the verge of Boulder of a bull berth. You know, I, I've always been. B.C. has never had this problem, but I've always been curious to see how they would handle a 5 and 7 season, given that they would probably have one of the higher APRs right in the FBS. But they've never had to deal with that problem. But I'd be interested to see if they got there this year, what they would do about it. So that's a good point.
- [34:00]
Podcast Host
I, in looking at this, like, on my prep sheet, I always put like, if the goal is to make a bowl, you want to play your best opponents on the road because you're probably going to lose to them regardless if your goal is to make the playoff or Win a conference title, you want your best teams at home. You know, it's kind of like on cover three. I'm like, road home, played on the moon. You're gonna lose that one anyway, regardless. Right. That kind of deal. I do like that for BC that they're three. Like, they're. In my mind, they're pretty clear three. Best opponents they play. Smu, Notre Dame, Miami, are all on the road.
- [34:30]
Mitch Wolf
Yeah.
- [34:30]
Podcast Host
You know, probably just.
- [34:31]
Mitch Wolf
You would just want one of Georgia Tech or Duke to be at home.
- [34:35]
Podcast Host
Yeah. And you also don't have to. And I think this does impact your psychology a little bit. Like, you don't have to wear a butt whipping at home in front of your fans to like a Notre Dame, which they actually played tough last year, or to a Miami, you know, or an smu, which, because of the tempo, they can run it up on you pretty hard, you know, like they did.
- [34:52]
Mitch Wolf
Yeah.
- [34:53]
Podcast Host
Was it two years ago? BC played them pretty tough. Yep.
- [34:56]
Mitch Wolf
Yep, they had. That was another. That was one where it was one score until, like the final 10 seconds because you had like fourth and goal from the one, and they were like, well, we'll kind of fall into the end zone and score. So it was kind of a. The final score did not really indicate how close the game was, because it was. BC was winning for a good bit of that game. It was very close.
- [35:13]
Podcast Host
I think I had BC Moneyline in that game because I was like. Just because I thought it was mispriced, not because I really thought they're going to win, but they're not that bad, you know, like, stuff can happen.
- [35:20]
Mitch Wolf
I feel like I. I feel like I remember you saying that on cover three. And I was like, I don't know about that, but I'll take them with the spread. And that worked?
- [35:26]
Podcast Host
Yeah, for sure. Awesome, man. Mitch, I really enjoy this. Like this. This is.
- [35:30]
Mitch Wolf
I want one. Sorry, one more thing. I think BC special teams could be elite this year. Lombardo is coming off a excellent year. Really only missed one kick. That was in the season finale. Ironically, in a dome. Very good field goal kicker. They bring in Bryce LaFollette, a transfer from Towson, who was a very good punter last year at the FCS level. And for what it's like. The kicking has been a bit of an adventure last few years, but the coverage units have been stellar for this team under Matt Thurin. So I think you could see that, like, this is something that B.C. has really struggled with and something that they should have been focusing on more because they need to find edges like this. And I think that this is one a year where they'll finally have an edge on teams because of great kicking game and very good coverage units, return units probably giving them nothing.
- [36:12]
Podcast Host
I mean look, honestly, if you're, if you're gonna try to squeak into a bowl, you're probably like squeak is going to be the operant word there. You're probably gonna play a lot of tight games. So finding a way to win those tight games, it's usually, you know, coaching quarterback and kicking game in the tight ones. So be interested to see how this all plays out. Mitch really enjoyed it. So everybody can check out your work course at, you know, BC Insider and and also plug your Twitter as well.
- [36:33]
Mitch Wolf
You can follow me at Mitchell T. Wolf W O L F E on Twitter Think I'm on the same handle in blue sky. That's pretty much all where it's where all my stuff is and I'm still I've my the BC fans will know this but I'm still working on this long term nil study for BC and I'm making some progress and we'll I'm kind of now holding it until the end of spring practice slash the draft because as we all know May and June are kind of that dead zone for content. So got to have something to pay the bills.
- [36:59]
Podcast Host
Absolutely man. All right, take care buddy.
- [37:03]
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