BC Holds Steady At #2 in Latest BCS Poll

Despite BC's dramatic victory over then-#8 Virginia Tech, BC did not move from its spot at #2 in the nation. BC did gain some ground on #1 OSU and some cushion from #3 LSU, going from a 0.9501 average to a 0.9559 average, while OSU faltered slightly to 0.9756 from 0.9759. LSU fell to 0.8879. BC was ranked #2 in the Coaches, Harris, and AP Polls while being ranked #1 by the computers. OSU tied for second with Arizona State according to the computers.

OSU faces more stiff competition this week, going against #21 Wisconsin. Wisconsin was once ranked #5 in the nation but then fell to unranked Illinois. BC plays its second to last home game of the season against unranked Florida State, while LSU plays against #17 Alabama after its bye week.

After this week's events, there are now 5 ACC teams ranked in the top 25: #2 Boston College, #11 Virginia Tech, #23 Virginia, #24 Wake Forest, and #25 Clemson. BC still holds the overall lead in the ACC: 4-0, with Wake Forest one game behind in the Atlantic Division.

BC Beats VT in Dramatic Fashion 14-10, Scoring 2 TDs in 2:11

Sorry for the horribly delayed post, but I've been busy since the HUGE victory over Virginia Tech. For 55 minutes, Matt Ryan didn't look like he belonged as the starting quarterback, much less the front-runner for the Heisman, but he proved his worth in the last 5 minutes of the game, rallying the team to two touchdowns in the last 2:11.

Overview of the Game:
First 55 Minutes: VT Scores 10 points.

Last 5 Minutes:
Eagles get the ball on their own 8 with 4:11 left in the game. Ryan leads a 9 play, 92 yard drive, capped by a 16-yard Rich Gunnell touchdown catch.

BC elects to do an onside kick; BC recovers after the ball takes a BC bounce off a Virginia Tech player's chest.

With 2:07 left, Ryan led the eagles on a 7 play drive from the BC 34, capped with a 27 yard touchdown catch by Andre Callender in the middle of the end zone. The extra point was good and BC had silenced the sellout crowd at Lane Stadium in Blacksburg.

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Post-Game Celebrations on Campus:

Being a freshman on upper campus, I only got to see the celebrations on Upper and did not venture to lower for the 3:30 meeting with the team. As soon as the time ran out on the game, hundreds of BC students came out of every single dormitory in the greatest sign of unity amongst Upper Campus freshman I've seen at BC so far. Chants were led by people sitting on the shoulders of others, including the traditional For Boston fight song. The night was capped by the Sox victory over the Rockies, prompting further celebration.

BC Unanimous #2, Gears up for #8 VT

After the upset of South Florida, BC is now #2 in every single poll and #1 according to the computer component of the BCS poll. BC has what will probably be its most important game of the season on Thursday night in Blacksburg, Virginia, going against the #8 Hokies. If the Eagles win this game, there's a chance they'll pick up at least some #1 votes.

South Florida dropped from #2 to #10 in the BCS poll after dropping to unranked Rutgers. Rutgers did not pick up enough steam to break the top 25 of the BCS poll this week. The complete BCS poll can be found by clicking on the title (pdf).

The Scarlet Knights Have Done It; RU wins 30-27 over USF

Despite being down 17-13 at the half, Rutgers did not quit against #2 USF and edged them out 30-27. The game ended when Matt Grothe was intercept on 4th and 37 with less than a minute left, stifling the Bulls comeback hopes. RU's running back Rice was key to the victory; he had 39 carries for 181 yards on the day. A fake field goal in the 3rd quarter that resulted in a touchdown for RU put them ahead by 10 with 4:09 in the 3rd, and Rutgers never looked back from there.

What this means for BC is that we will most likely be ranked #2 in the nation next week, moving up to take over the vacancy left by South Florida.

There are now only 4 teams left in the top 25 that are undefeated coming into the rest of this weekend's games: Ohio State (facing Mich St), BC, Kansas, and Hawaii (who doesn't play anyone).

Forget the Red Sox, It's USF-Rutgers Time

Instead of watching the Red Sox, a more pertinent game for the BC football faithful.

Right now the score is 17-10 USF; USF just scored a touchdown and got penalized afterwards for unsportsmanlike conduct.

I'll probably given an entry at the end of the game summing it up.

Go Rutgers!

Ohio State, South Florida, LSU Matchups

Since the South Florida game is on Thursday night, it's not too early to take a glance at the matchups that Ohio State, South Florida, and LSU have next weekend. BC has a bye week and will be playing Virginia Tech in the marque match of the ACC next Thursday night.

#1 Ohio State vs Michigan St. University

This is clearly a trap game for Ohio State. Despite nearly knocking off #9 Wisconsin and barely losing to Northwestern, Michigan St. has gained no respect in the rankings thus far. They are 1-2 in the Big 10 and 5-2 overall. I forecast that this might be a tighter matchup than Ohio State would like to see, though I still see OSU coming out with a quality Big Ten victory.

#2 South Florida vs. Rutgers

If there's a team that's been a disappointment this year in the Big East other than Louisville, it would have to be Rutgers. They started the season 3-0 and then lost 2 in a row to Maryland and #20 Cincinnati. The Scarlet Knights got back on track last week against Syracuse, pounding them 38-14 after going down 14-0 early on. Despite the lack of a ranking, Rutgers is still not going to be an easy team to knock off for an inexperienced team like South Florida. I have a good feeling about Rutgers, and that has nothing to do with the fact that I hail from Jersey.

#4 LSU vs. #18 Auburn

Despite being a let-down early on, Auburn has climbed its way towards a #18 ranking in the tough SEC west conference. Auburn already knocked off then-#4 Florida, so this should definitely be a close game. Could LSU lose 2 games in a row? Though I have some faith in this Auburn team, I know Les Miles is not going to stand for losing two straight games against SEC programs. Though Auburn has momentum going into this game, they've been too inconsistent for me to place my faith in them. An interesting side note is that they already lost to #2 South Florida.

Prediction for BC's Ranking Prior to the Virginia Tech Game: #3

Regardless of whether South Florida loses or not, I feel that this is one of the worst possible weeks for BC to have a bye week. Instead of being able to make a statement on the field, BC will have to just watch the scoreboard and hope for the best. I think that BC could go above South Florida if the game is tight enough but will not move up because LSU could easily jump us in the rankings with a pounding of Auburn.

BC Wins Over ND, Climbs to #3 in BCS, AP, #2 Coaches, Harris

Though it was a closer game than many would have predicted, our Eagles prevailed over the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame, 27-14. Despite Notre Dame's long history of winning national championships, the Irish are 1-6 this season thus far and have lost the last five matches against Boston College. Though the Irish came as close as 20-14 at one point, Matt Ryan led the Eagles to another touchdown in the 3rd quarter and the defense did the rest, holding Notre Dame to 27 rushing yards on the day.

Despite this win and the LSU & Cal losses, BC still finds itself ranked just 3rd in the AP & BCS polls. For some reason pollers felt that South Florida's domination of UCF warranted them jumping above our Eagles, despite the fact that UCF is a mediocre at-best Conference USA teams that includes such great programs as East Carolina, Southern Miss, and Tulsa at the top. The computers put South Florida at #1, while our Eagles were ranked #7 by the computers, bumping us down from the #2 spot we earned in the Coaches and Harris Poll, the 2 polls that count towards BCS standings. What this means is that were the season to end today, South Florida would play Ohio State for the national championship in Louisiana while BC would play for the ACC championship against Virginia Tech.

BC-ND Pep Rally

Tonight from 6-7 in O'Neill Plaza a pep rally was held for a rivalry game between Boston College and Notre Dame in which Boston College has dominated the Irish in recent memory. BC has won 5 of the last 6 meetings with the Irish, including the most recent four matches in a row, though the last match-up between these teams was in 2004, meaning that very few if any of the starters have experience against Notre Dame.

Though some might see this as just another guaranteed win for our Eagles, one must consider a few things:

1) USC-Stanford, Texas-Kansas State, Wisconsin-Illinois anyone? This year has already seen its fair share of upsets thus far, and the Irish would like nothing else but to unseed the Eagles who are currently ranked #4 in both major polls.
2)This is a rivalry game; anything can happen in a rivalry game, especially a game like this where in the past BC was able to knock off Notre Dame teams that were ranked as high as #1.
3) Notre Dame turning things around? Notre Dame won last weekend against a UCLA team that was once ranked as high as #11 in the national polls, 20-6. Some might see this as a sign that Notre Dame has finally rounded the corner and will finish the season off strong.

Here's the common sense rule that our Eagles must abide by to win: Score lots of points and stop the enemy from doing so.

In other news, I added a counter to gauge how little anyone actually visits this site. Hopefully it'll get picked up by google.

BC Rises to #4 in AP, USA Today Polls

After its drubbing of Bowling Green 55-24, the Eagles are now ranked #4 in both the AP & USA Today/Coaches Poll, after #5 Wisconsin and #2 USC both lost to unranked teams, and #6 South Florida only defeated Florida Atlantic by 12, 35-23.

Rankings (AP&Coaches):
#1 LSU 6-0
#2 California 5-0
#3 Ohio State 6-0
#4 Boston College 6-0, 3-0 ACC

Let's go Eagles!

BC Thumps Bowling Green 55-24

What a day for BC. An offense that struggled to produce against 1-AA UMASS showed what they were made of this Saturday, destroying a Bowling Green team that was 3-1 prior to this game. The victory puts BC at 6-0 for the first time since the 1942 season when they were ranked #1 in the national polls. Out of the top 6, Wisconsin was the first to fall, losing 30-24 as I predicted to unranked Illinois. This means that BC should at least move up one spot before taking on Notre Dame next weekend at South Bend.

#4 Ohio State and #1 LSU are going to be playing tough games later, so it's possible that BC will move into the top 5 after everything is said and done this weekend.

Quick Stats: Matt Ryan: 24/32: 312 yards, 4 TD, Andre Callender: 15 carries/74 yards, 1TD rushing, 2TDs receiving

Undefeated #8 Kentucky Falls to #11 South Carolina in SEC Match

I didn't watch this game to do a proper report on it, but this game is good for the ranking of our beloved Eagles. Had the undefeated #8 Kentucky team defeated the #11 South Carolina team, they might have leapfrogged our Eagles in ranking regardless of a win or a loss against Bowling Green, who most consider to be a bad team. Here's a listing of the top 6 teams and their matchups, with some possible upset predictions.

#1 LSU vs. #9 Florida - Despite Florida's loss last week taking some steam off this game, it still is possible for LSU to lose this game given that they've shown some cracks in the armor as most teams have by this point.
#2 USC vs. Stanford - Should be an easy game for USC; Stanford is one of the few terrible teams in a good PAC-10 conference.
#3 California - Has the week off; next week vs. Oregon St.
#4 Ohio State vs. #23 Purdue - Both of these teams are unbeaten, so it's hard to call this one. An upset would be good for our Eagles, though I don't see that happening despite Purdue's wins thus far.
#5 Wisconsin vs. Illinois - Illinois is hot off beating #21 Penn St. last weekend and could easily upset Wisconsin given how they played last weekend vs. Michigan State. I think this is the most likely upset of the week as far as top 6 teams are concerned.
#6 South Florida vs. Florida Atlantic - A possible trap game for USF; if they lose or come close to losing this game they could drop in ranking.

In other news, I'm going home this weekend so I won't even be able to watch the game on TV, so my description of the game will be from the online radio account. If the Eagles do go 6-0, this would be their best start since the 1942, when BC finished #1 in the national polls despite losing to Alabama in the Orange Bowl 38-21.