Boston College heads to the Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl

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Saturday afternoon, another ionic ballpark will be the setting for a college football bowl game. Yankee Stadium will be the site for the Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl. The Boston College Eagles (7-5) will meet the Nebraska Cornhuskers (6-6). This will be the first time these two programs have met on the football field.

This will be the 31st bowl game for the Eagles and their record to date in the postseason is 15-13. They are no strangers to playing in the Bronx having played here twice before. In 2014 vs Penn State and again in 2017 vs Iowa. Against teams from the Big 10, the Eagles are 2-2 in bowl games. This is the second straight season playing in a bowl game. Last year they defeated SMU in the Fenway Bowl.

BC arrives at Yankee Stadium winners of three of their last four games to become bowl-eligible. The good play at the tail end of the season has been bolstered by two players on each side of the football. On offense, the Eagles running game has been carried by RB Kyle Robichaux who in his last four games has gained 442 yards and scored six touchdowns. He is averaging 4.8 yards a carry in those games. On defense, DE Donovan Ezeiruaku leads all of FBS with 16.5 sacks during the regular season, which also matches a BC single-season record. For his career at Boston College, Ezeiruaku has 30 career sacks which is the second most in Eagles history.

For Eagles head coach Bill O’Brien, this will be the ninth bowl game he has been a part of either as an assistant, coordinator, or head coach. He was the offensive coordinator for Alabama in the 2022 Sugar Bowl. Boston College is seeking their first win at the Pinstripe Bowl in three tries.

Nebraska heads to New York having gone 1-3 in November. Their last time out was a loss to Iowa by a 13-10 score on November 29. The offense is run by QB Dylan Raiola who is 253-of-380 for 2,595 yards with 12 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. He averaged 216.3 yards through the air per game. Raiola likes to spread the ball around as he has five different receivers who have at least 30 catches on the season. Jacory Barney has the most with 52 catches. On the ground, Donate Dowdell gained 628 yards on 143 attempts. He scored 12 touchdowns and averaged 4.3 yards per carry. On defense, two players stand out. First, there is Ty Robinson who led the team in sacks with six and tackles for loss with 11. In the secondary, Malcolm Hartzog led the group with four interceptions.

Both teams are looking to end 2024 on a good note. The Eagles are looking for an 8-win season while the Cornhuskers are looking to finish above .500.