Boston College Begins Preparing for the Fenway Bowl

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After a 6-6 season that saw plenty of ups and downs, the Boston College Eagles were rewarded with a 13th game. That game will take place on Thursday, December 28 when the Eagles take the field to face the SMU Mustangs in the Wasabi Fenway Bowl. For Boston College, this will be the third time in the four years under head coach Jeff Haffey that they have been bowl-eligible. They earned their opportunity after the ninth game of the season, which is the fastest they have reached bowl eligibility since 2018. That year was also the last time BC won a bowl game, the Quick Lane Bowl over Maryland. This will be the 28th all-time bowl game for the Eagles and their record until now is 14-13.

Their history with SMU is a brief one. They have only met once back in 1986 in Dallas with the Eagles coming out on top 31-29. This will change because the Mustangs will be joining the Atlantic Coast Conference after this game. In 2024 these two teams will meet in a regular season game schedule for Dallas, Texas. Until then, SMU is still with the AAC which is the other conference slotted into this game. The ACC is 1-0 in the Fenway Bowl as Louisville defeated Cincinnati in last year’s game.

Boston College got back on the field on December 8, twenty days before the bowl game. The team has been off since their last regular season game which was a loss to Miami on November 24. That practice saw the team doing plenty of 7-on-7 work with quarterback Thomas Castellanos and his two backups redshirt junior Matthew Rueve and freshman Jacobe Robinson getting on-field reps. The next day, the team returned to Fish Field House for more 7-on-7 work that also included situational work in the red zone.

That red zone work paid off when the team returned to Fish Field House on Friday, December 15 as the Eagles offense had a nice day. Castellanos was on target with the passing game in the red zone, at one point throwing for three straight scores. The defensive front, which had problems getting pressure on the quarterback during the season, did so during situational work. Overall, it has been a good week back for the Eagles who will be looking to snap a three-game losing streak on bowl day.

The SMU Mustangs (11-2) are also hard at work getting ready for the game. During the regular season, their offense was ranked #2 in the league. It gained 465.5 total yards a contest. That offense was also very good at scoring points averaging 40 points a game while their defense gave up 17. The Mustangs will arrive at Fenway Park on quite a roll having won their last nine in a row. Their last loss was back on September 23 at TCU, 34-17.

We will dive more into this matchup as we get closer to game day.