Boston College Football: One Week To Go, The Countdown Is On

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More than eight months have passed since the 2020 football season ended at Boston College. It was five days after the season-ending loss to Virginia, and BC was simply ready to end its year. The grueling 11-game slate permeated fatigue into everyone’s daily life, and the constant stream of COVID-19 testing weighed heavily on head coach Jeff Hafley, athletics director Patrick Kraft, the players, the coaches, and the family members of the involved parties.

The season simply ran its course for BC after the six-month haul from late June’s reintroduction to campus, and the college football postseason went on without it. Alabama crushed Ohio State, 52-24, to win the College Football Playoff National Championship, and 26 bowl games granted postseason wins to a number of teams who chose to participate.

The results feel like a lifetime ago, but the last chapter of that history book remained in full view through spring practice and the early pieces of fall training camp. There were no results to erase those memories, and no games existed to form new thoughts about teams for an upcoming season.

That all changes this weekend when the NCAA hosts its annual Week Zero event with five bowl subdivision games. They will informally kick off the 2021 season in earnest while sending Boston College’s final preparations into overdrive in the last weekend before the schedule truly begins on September 4 against Colgate.

It feels like a lifetime ago, but the last chapter of the history book officially fades into the past this weekend when the 2021 season kicks off five games in its annual Week Zero event. For those same BC Eagles, it means one last weekend before their season begins next weekend against Colgate.

“I want to see how much we can handle,” Hafley said this past week. “The assignments that I talk about (are about) knowing what you’re doing and executing at a high level. Once we figure out how much the guys can handle, we start game planning, and then we need to shrink (into) how much we really carry into the game. That’s our job as coaches to figure out.”

Switching gears into 2021 hasn’t been difficult for BC, but the college football world will be increasingly different for Hafley’s second season. The 15-team, one-division Atlantic Coast Conference is split back into two sides, and Notre Dame is back to independent status after playing last season in its first conference-based schedule. They are off BC’s schedule after renewing the Holy War each of the last two and three of the last four, but five repeat teams are back on the team’s slate, three of which are divisional opponents.

One is Clemson, the six-time defending conference champion, and the Tigers are considered the heavy favorites to repeat again despite losing quarterback Trevor Lawrence and running back Travis Etienne to the NFL Draft. But the other four teams include three wins from last season, and the two Coastal Division crossovers are Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech, repeat opponents from a year ago.

Four non-conference opponents are back on the schedule after last year’s lone game against Texas State, and the kickoff against Colgate sets a table that runs through UMass and Temple to Missouri in the first four weeks. Only one of those games – the September 11 meeting against the Minutemen – is on the road, though a steady contingent of BC fans is likely to make the short trip west to watch the Eagles’ first trip to McGuirk Stadium since 1982.

“I know a lot of guys that I played with in high school that went to UMass,” center Alec Lindstrom, a Central Massachusetts native, said. “It’ll be good to see those guys, and I haven’t been to UMass since high school. It’s going to be a lot of fun, and technically it’s an away game, but it’s only a two-hour ride. I’m just super excited to see everyone that I know there, and a lot of people from Central Mass. are planning to be out there for that game to support us.”

All of this, of course, operates under the same storm clouds swirling throughout college football’s national landscape. The general confusion induced by COVID-19 led to several conferences playing more games than others, and BC stood out for the way it completed its 11 games with one single positive coronavirus test result. The streak actually became part of the season-long folklore because nobody tested positive over the course of the team’s nine straight games to start the year.

COVID-19 hasn’t gone away, and the ongoing pandemic forced BC to announce vaccination requirements for its student population and its student base. The Eagles are requiring full vaccination or a negative PCR test within 72 hours of kickoff in order for its adult fan base to attend, and masks will be required for younger fans ineligible for the vaccine. It’s a necessary piece of the puzzle this year but a sign that BC is finding a way to invite people back to Alumni Stadium for one of the most anticipated seasons in recent memory.

“I’m really the most excited for the fans,” Hafley said. “It’s really not for me. I think it’ll be fun for the students, faculty, and people on campus to come to the game, and it’s most exciting for the families of our players to get a chance to watch our kids play. I can get my family there, which hasn’t been able to happen yet. And when that smoke clears, it’s time to see real people.

“I just hope they’re not yelling at me,” he joked, “but I’m really excited for it.”

“Our team is continuing to take (COVID-19) very seriously,” Lindstrom agreed. “There are new mask mandates (in Boston). We know it’s tough, but we’re all 100 percent vaccinated on the team, so we’re all taking it seriously. When we play a team, we’re going to do what we have to do because nobody is more important than the team. Guys aren’t going to go out and sacrifice to risk a forfeit.”

The rich storylines have pundits drooling over BC’s possibilities, and almost everyone is predicting the Eagles to finally break that .500 moniker that has them setting the bar. The ACC preseason poll slotted them third in the Atlantic Division, and both the Associated Press and Coaches Polls offered them votes for the Top-25.

Those same publications are lauding the Eagles among the preseason elite, but BC understands how quickly those views can disappear in smoke if it doesn’t meet the oncoming challenge. The 2018 team passed its first three tests by averaging over 52 points per game, but a No. 23 ranking was obliterated by a 30-13 loss at Purdue. It took a 4-1 record over the next five games to securely return BC to the polls, but consecutive losses to Clemson and Florida State ended any dreams of a resurgence.

“I just want to be better than I was last year (personally),” wide receiver Zay Flowers said. “I just want to keep that going through the season. If everybody gets better, and if we do what we have to do this season, it will be a special (year).”