BC Football Position Preview: Defensive Backs

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PERSONNEL

Returners: Hamp Cheevers (Jr.), Nolan Borgersen (RJr.), Tate Haynes (RFr.), Will Harris (Sr.), Brandon Sebastian (RFr.), Mike Palmer (RSo.), Lukas Denis (Sr.), Taj-Amir Torres (Sr.), Mehdi El Attrach (Jr.), Jahmin Muse (RFr.), Ben Stewart (RFr.)
Newcomers: Elijah Jones (Fr.), Tyler Days (Fr.), Aaron Gethers (Fr.), Ezechiel Tieide (Fr.), Jason Maitre (Fr.)

The BC secondary has established itself as a “NO FLY ZONE”. The Eagles picked off 18 passes last year, which led the ACC and was 12th nationally. The entire defensive unit ranked first in the conference and third in the country, its highest national ranking, in team passing efficiency defense at 101.85. BC also ranked fourth in the ACC by allowing just 191.9 passing yards per game.

Individually, Denis was second in the country and first in the league with seven interceptions from the free safety position and earned Walter Camp Football Foundation Second Team All-American honors. Named a preseason All-American by four media outlets heading into this season, he posted 83 tackles, including a career-high 13 at Clemson last season. Additionally, Denis knocked down 10 passes and forced two fumbles.

Harris anchors the strong safety position for BC and equaled Denis with 83 tackles in 2017. He led the country with four fumble recoveries; two of which came in the Eagles’ win at Syracuse. Harris, who has started 29 consecutive games, is a Phil Steele’s Preseason All-American.


BY THE NUMBERS

#4 Cheevers, Hamp: 17 tackles, 2.5 TFL, 2 INT, 4 PBU, 2 FF
#8 Harris, Will: 83 tackles, 5.5 TFL, 1.0 sack, 1 INT, 2 PBU, 4 FR
#18 Palmer, Mike: 3 tackles
#21 Denis, Lukas: 83 tackles, 0.5 TFL, 7 INT, 185 return yards, 10 PBU, 2 FF
#24 Torres, Taj-Amir: 32 tackles, 0.5 TFL, 1 INT, 3 PBU
#25 El Attrach, Mehdi: 10 tackles


At the corners, Boston College returns Cheevers, who stepped in to start three games last season. He is expected to draw the assignment of covering the opposing team’s top receiver every Saturday. Cheevers made 17 tackles, grabbed two interceptions, broke up four passes and forced a pair of fumbles as a sophomore. Opposite Cheevers, Torres looks to take on a larger role in his senior season. He has played in 37 career games and made three starts, two of which came last season. Torres has 56 career tackles, including a career-best 32 last season with three breakups and an interception.

El Attrach brings 26 games of experience to the BC secondary although the majority of his playing time has come on special teams. He is the most veteran player competing for playing time at the corners or in nickel packages. Palmer has had a strong camp at safety for the Eagles. After redshirting 2016, he appeared in three games last season and made three solo tackles. A pair of defensive backs that wore the redshirt last season, Tate Haynes and Brandon Sebastian, have earned regular playing time with the second-team defense in the preseason. Haynes, the son of NFL Hall of Fame DB Mike Haynes, arrived on the Heights as a quarterback and made the move to corner leading up to the 2017 New Era Pinstripe Bowl. Sebastian was the No. 1 ranked corner in Connecticut by Scout.com and a USA Today Connecticut first team all-state selection.

THE SECONDARY

Borgersen spent the last two seasons as a receiver and played in 21 games, primarily on special teams… moved to safety last spring and has quickly adapted to the position change after setting New Jersey state receiving records for catches, yards, and touchdowns… Days was rated as the No. 21 player in New York, while at Cicero-North… Gethers rated as the No. 2 corner in Pennsylvania by 247Sports last season… Jones was listed as the top-rated CB by Rivals in New York last season… Maitre was the top-ranked athlete in Massachusetts according to 247Sports… Muse redshirted last season and was previously a second-team All-State selection at Elizabeth (N.J.) High School in 2016… Stewart sat out last season as a redshirt after being named a three-time Associated Press New Jersey All-State at Cathedral (Ind.) High School… the lone Canadian on the roster, Tieide arrived at BC from Lachine, Que., where he played at St. Paul’s.

QUOTES FROM THE STAFF

Will Harris, he’s a dominant player now, a big-time guy. Both of those guys are big-time guys. Lukas and Will are the older guys in that group. Those were guys that have a lot of pride and came up in a group that has a lot of pride, starting with Justin Simmons set that course, Cam, Ike. Now you have Will and Luke. It’s going to keep rolling. It’s kind of a good deal. Luke has done a great job. What a role model. If you haven’t spent a lot of time around Lukas Denis, you should do that. He’s a tremendous kid with a great personality, wonderful heart. He’s a really talented player. That makes usually for really good leadership skills. You can look up to him as a role model, as you can Will.”
– Head Coach Steve Addazio

“I think both Lukas and Will, I’ve said this almost ad nauseam, but they’re both really, really extremely bright guys. They have an incredibly high football IQ, as well. They’ve just been tremendous from a leadership perspective. I think that’s kind of carried on all the way since before I was here, whether it be Justin Simmons, then John Johnson my first year here, Kamrin Moore, Isaac (Yiadom), there’s been a great legacy of older players helping younger players. Our young guys right now are benefitting every day from being around them. They have totally bought into everything that Coach Reid talk about here over the last three years, about being a selfless player, being a high-character person, the toughness. That stuff still does either matter, it’s important to those guys. They are BC men in every way. They’re special people, both those guys.” – Co-Defensive Coordinator Anthony Campanile

Hamp Cheevers— his football intelligence has really kind of shown through right now. Everybody is kind of looking at him through his time here, really a guy that’s a great athlete, kind of coming into his own. I think he’s going to have a great year, make a great jump this year for us. Tate Haynes has come on. Moving from quarterback has made a lot of progress. The benefit now of these guys being able to be here in the summer, talk football amongst each other, work technique on the field together, they’ve done a tremendous, tremendous job with that as a unit, helping one another. I think Hamp is a guy, like I said, whose athletic ability, that’s one thing, but he’s a bright, bright football player.” – Campanile

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