2024 Summer Reading: Early look at Virginia Tech’s Week 8 opponent Boston College (2024)

Boston College overcame a slow start, which included losses to ACC championship game participants Florida State and Louisville, to rattle off five consecutive victories and earn a bowl bid for the second time in Jeff Hafley’s four-year tenure.

The six-win regular season was a drastic turnaround from 2022 when the Eagles won three times and struggled to consistently score.

Quarterback Thomas Castellanos and running back Kye Robichaux were big reasons for BC’s offensive resurgence. Castellanos accounted for 28 touchdowns in his first season as a starter, and Robichaux found the end zone eight times on the ground.

Hafley and the Eagles carried momentum into the offseason with a 23-14 win over SMU in the Fenway Bowl, but the momentum changed drastically in a matter of weeks.

Hafley elected to join the Green Bay Packers as their defensive coordinator. The Eagles made a splashy hire by bringing in Bill O’Brien less than one month after he was named the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Ohio State.

O’Brien, after an offseason of revamping the roster, will make his BC debut on Labor Day at defending ACC champion Florida State. The schedule then features four consecutive nonconference games against Duquesne, Missouri, Michigan State and Western Kentucky. The matchups against Duquesne, Michigan State and Western Kentucky are at home.

What happened? A change in pregame routine— more specifically an earlier-than-normal wake-up call— led to a faster start for the Hokies on the road. Dorian Strong had interceptions on the first two passes thrown his way by Castellanos, and Tech responded from an early deficit by scoring 35 straight points to take control for its first ACC road win since the 2021 finale at Virginia.

Kyron Drones had 219 passing yards, 135 rushing yards and two passing touchdowns. Bhayshul Tuten added three rushing touchdowns as the Hokies racked up 600 yards of total offense.

Position(s) of strength: O’Brien’s strength is as an offensive play-caller. He has enjoyed plenty of success at the college and professional level as both an offensive coordinator and head coach, and he inherits a Boston College offense that isn’t lacking at all on that side of the ball.

Castellanos and Robichaux are back to lead a unit that ranked second in the ACC in both rushing yards (2,584) and rushing yards per game (198.8). The Eagles also return four starters on the offensive line (left tackle Logan Taylor, center Drew Kendall, right tackle Ozzy Trapilo and versatile option Jack Conley).

The offensive line was a weakness in 2022 and became a strength in 2023. Besides the gaudy rushing numbers, Castellanos had time to throw the ball. The offensive line surrendered 19 sacks through 13 games and ranked fourth in the ACC in sacks allowed (1.46 per game).

BC had four running backs leave through the transfer portal, but Robichaux has a potent backup in Treshaun Ward. Ward was at Florida State for four seasons, spent one year at Kansas State and returned to the ACC to finish his college career. Ward was among the nation’s leaders in yards per carry while at FSU, and he rushed for 643 yards and five scores with Kansas State.

Castellanos also returns two of his top three receivers in Lewis Bond and Dino Tomlin. The Eagles brought in Jayden McGowan from Vanderbilt and Jerand Bradley from Texas Tech. Bradley (431 yards and four touchdowns) and McGowan (383 yards) give Castellanos plenty of weapons on the outside.

What’s new in Chestnut Hill: Boston College, Duke and Syracuse were the only ACC programs— including newcomers Southern Methodist, Stanford and California— to make coaching changes in the offseason. O’Brien’s hiring certainly drew the most attention with his NFL pedigree and previous stops in college.

O’Brien retained nearly half of Hafley’s staff. Four assistant coaches from Hafley’s last staff remained with O’Brien, and the new big whistle elevated Jonathan DiBiaso from analyst to quarterbacks coach.

Offensive coordinator Will Lawing has been with O’Brien for 10 seasons dating back to when O’Brien was Penn State’s head coach in 2013. That means Lawing has followed O’Brien to the Houston Texas, to Alabama, to the New England Patriots and now to BC.

Defensive coordinator Tim Lewis has 34 years of coaching experience. He has been a defensive coordinator in the NFL with the Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Giants, and he was most recently defensive coordinator in the XFL and United Football League.

The Eagles only had 15 players enter the transfer portal after the coaching change, which meant O’Brien didn’t have to do much through the transfer portal to replenish the roster.

Lingering questions: Lewis’ first job as defensive coordinator will be implementing a pass rush that actually gets to the quarterback.

Only three teams recorded fewer sacks in 2023 than Boston College. And the Eagles ranked dead last in the Bowl Subdivision with 43 tackles for a loss. The inability to make plays in the backfield was a key reason why BC entered bowl season on a three-game losing streak.

The new staff didn’t go all-out in the transfer portal to upgrade the defensive line. The only addition was Illinois’ Sedarius McConnell, who had seven tackles in 12 games in 2023.

The hope is Donovan Ezeiruaku and Cam Horsley can both make big strides in the new defensive scheme and become more proficient in getting into the backfield.

Linebackers Vinny DePalma and John Pupel are both gone after exhausting their eligibility, which means Kam Arnold will likely be the leader at linebacker.

The Eagles did bolster the secondary through the transfer portal in an effort to make it more difficult for teams to move the ball through the air. BC ranked fourth in the ACC in passing yards allowed last season (197.2), and it brought in Ohio State cornerback Ryan Turner, Georgia State cornerback Bryquice Brown and Ohio State safety Cameron Martinez to solidify the back end.