Boston College Eagles 2023 College Football Preview
July 7, 2023
2022 Recap
Record – 3-9
ATS – 4-8
The Eagles continued their decade-long journey across the SEA OF MEDIOCRITY and only managed to win three games. We’ll give them credit tho for SHOCKING the WORLD on a couple of occasions as they upset LUA-VUH and NC State as massive underdogs.
Is there enough talent on hand to turn this ship around?
Boston College Eagles 2023 Outlook
OFFENSE
The Eagles were DEAD LAST in the nation in rushing offense LY by a wide margin (63 YPG) and that was thanks in large part to the whopping 46 sacks (#126) allowed by the offensive line. Yup, the offensive line was a disaster LY but they’ve got five returning starters this season, and note that star guard Christian Mahogany missed the entire 2022 campaign due to injury. An improved OL means that RB Pat Garwo will have a fighting chance to perform like he did in 2021 when he registered a 1,000-yard season (5.1). QB Emmett Morehead is a monster with a LASER ROCKET ARM and he looked pretty good as a true freshman LY (60%, 10-6 TD to INT). We’re not as thrilled with the WR/TE group as they lose their top-two targets including All-Universe WR Zay Flowers who might have been the most uncoverable dood in college football history. ** It definitely helps to add UCF transfer WR Ryan O’Keefe (career 2,002, 15 TD). We definitely expect better things on offense this season.
** fact check: possible, even likely.
DEFENSE
The defense took a significant step backwards LY and allowed 30.3 PPG (2nd worst ACC) after yielding just 22.2 PPG in 2021 (#3). Only six starters are retained on this side of the football but the good news is that four of their top-five tacklers are back in the mix including star DE Donovan Ezeiruaku who led the team in sacks (8.5) and TFL (14.5) in 2022. LB Vinny DePalma led the Eagles in tacklers LY whilst providing impressive PENETRATING ability (7 TFL, 3 QBH) and he leads a good-looking group. The weak spot on defense appears to be the secondary as they lost a lot of key talent and are much less experienced than LY’s unit. Hopefully a few of the transfer additions will be able to make their mark and provide quality performance.
SPECIAL TEAMS
RUH ROH. The Eagles didn’t perform well in this area last season, and for better or for worse, they’re reloading at most positions. The exception is at PK where they hope that Connor Lytton can wake up and do a better job (9-17 FG LY, 11-12 in 2021).
Schedule Analysis
Overall – Yes, guy. The Eagles have a BUTTERY SOFT non-conference slate and they miss Clemson and North Carolina in ACC play.
Potential ATS Trouble Spot – Connecticut (Oct 28)
This contest pops up in-between ACC dates with Georgia Tech and Syracuse. SANDWICH, anyone?
Season Win Total
Market consensus July 7
Over 5.5 -115
Under 5.5 -115
MEGALOCKS says:
Lean: Over
They should be able to win at least three non-conference games and that means they just need to take down three ACC opponents to hit the ‘over’.
MEGAmazing Tidbit
Boston College has recorded precisely six or seven wins in eight of the last ten seasons. They were 3-9 on the other two occasions (2015, 2022).
MEGALOCKS Forecast:
There’s no question that the Eagles will put a much-improved product on the field in 2023, so the question becomes, how many wins should we expect? The offense and defense both appear to be “average” ACC units so there’s definitely a cap to their upside. We’ll go with the trend of recent history and call for Boston College to win six or seven games and make their first bowl appearance since the 2019 season.
Roll Eagles, WICKIDD HARRRRD!