Louisville football: Ranking the last four opponents

Boston College Eagles

Record: 5-3

Date of game: 11/27/20

This is not your grandfather’s Boston College team. Jeff Hafley has these guys playing a fun brand of football for the first time in a long time (all offense to Steve Addazio). BC has found themselves a coach.

Hafley came over from Ohio State after excelling as the co-defensive coordinator and a recruiter in just one year at OSU. The offensive coordinator is Frank Cignetti. Cignetti has been an NFL quarterback guru for the likes of Eli Manning and Aaron Rodgers before coming over to BC in 2020.

Boston College has a new offensive identity. They get it done through the air. The BC run game is a shell of itself after AJ Dillon moved on to the NFL. The team only averages three yards per carry on the season.

Notre Dame transfer Phil Jurkovec leads the offense with over 2,000 yards passing through eight games. He is one of the better quarterbacks in the ACC.

His favorite target is Zay Flowers. Many Cards fans will recognize that name. He is explosive and you could see the spurts in games in previous years. However, this is the first time Boston College has been able to scheme him open consistently. That is probably due to the new coaching staff. Flowers already has 600 yards receiving and six touchdowns this year.

On defense, BC is led by junior linebacker Isaiah McDuffie. McDuffie is a player I saw play live in high school and is a heck of an athlete. He easily could have played running back in college at a high level. Nonetheless, McDuffie is second on the Eagles’ team in tackles with 71 total. He also has 6.5 tackles for loss and a pick.

Corner Brandon Sebastian is another player I am fond of on the BC defense.

This is a toss-up game for my money. I trust Kei’Trel Clark will play well on Zay Flowers in man-to-man. However, Boston College has a really good defense once again. They have great linebacker play and some talented players in the back end.