Head Coach: Bill O’Brien is entering his 2nd season with the Eagles with a 7-6 record. A winning record in his debut was a very solid start. Now he looks to build on that. Bill O’Brien is also well known for his previous stops as the OC of the New England Patriots, HC of Penn State and as the HC of the Houston Texans which was an era where he allegedly wanted to get fired but kept receiving more power instead.
Program Outlook: Boston College is a program that is in a difficult spot this day and age. They’re located in one of the most populated regions in the country but it’s also a region that focuses heavily on pro sports with little room for college programs to gain attention. It’s going to be an uphill climb but if Bill O’Brien can continue to stack headlines they can get there. They finished last season with a winning record and despite how bad Florida State was, winning that game in primetime early in the year was a headline grabber that gave BC some much needed attention, but they have won six or more games in eight of the last nine years and ten of the previous 12, but no more than seven in any of those seasons. At least they’re consistent?
How does the 2025 Roster look?: Boston College ranks 51st in the country returning 58.5% of their production per Punt and Rally’s returning production rankings. Key players starts with WR Lewis Bond, he’s the go-to guy in this offense and one of the better receivers in the ACC. BC also has a game breaker in Reed Harris, he can score from anywhere. BC had 4(!) RBs with over 50 carries last year, it may be less of a committee now with Jordan McDonald and Turbo Richard taking the lead roles. The defense will be led from the backend. The safeties KP Price and Carter Davis are one of the better duos in the ACC, and corner Amari Jackson if he can stay healthy will be a top corner to round it out. Boston College is known for great linebackers and outside backer Davveon Crouch certainly fits the mold. The question marks starts with QB, Grayson James finished out the year as the starter once Bill O’Brien got frustrated with Thomas Castellanos but he was only ok, Alabama transfer Dylan Longeran was brought in to push him or take the job outright, chances are you’ll see both play at some point. Boston College was slowly getting better in the trenches after not recruiting them well enough early under the previous regime, they finally performed well last year but now key players on both the offensive and defensive lines are gone. The offensive line will need some portal guys to make an impact, the DLine will handle the ground game but there’s no telling where the pass rush will come from with Donovan Ezeiruaku off to the NFL.
Screenshot from FBSchedules.com
2025 Schedule Thoughts: This has the makings of a difficult schedule for the Eagles. Their non-conference is very challenging, they open with Fordham who is a FCS foe that likely won’t threaten them but they also have Notre Dame, a potentially improved Michigan State on the road and a UConn team that won 9 games last year. The conference schedule opens in manageable fashion with Stanford and Cal teams that had tumultuous offseasons but that’s as easy as it gets. The remaining ACC foes the Eagles face are expected compete toward the top of the conference.
Final Thoughts: There’s just enough change for me to be concerned that Boston College may regress, but there’s still some hope for them to avoid that. First, the Eagles were absolutely putrid in the redzone last year, if they can improve to even being decent they may be able to pick up a couple more wins. The other key will be turnovers, BC was +9 in turnover margin last year, they’ll need to keep that pace to get a few more wins. Chances are it will all even out to another 6 or 7 win season.
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