bosoxs45's Blog

 

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Don't look now, but the Boston College Eagles have a football team in Chestnut Hill that could compete for the National Championship. Already on track for a BCS bowl bid, as the front-runner to win the ACC, the Eagles are one of the teams that benefited most from this weekend's 'Upset Saturday' in college pigskin.

 

In case you were camping in the back woods of Maine or decided to spend the weekend without the services of a TV, radio, or newspaper- seven of the nation's top thirteen ranked teams in college football lost in a 24-hour period. It started with South Florida's 21-13 upset over West Virginia on Friday and finished with Auburn's dominating 21-17 win over the Florida Gators in the swamp on Saturday evening. Get this- Oklahoma (#3), Florida (#4), West Virginia (#5), Texas (#7), Rutgers (#10) Oregon (#11), Clemson (#13) all lost this weekend- five of those six teams lost to unranked opponents. Four of those teams lost at home EVEN though three of them were favored by seventeen points or more! Are you kidding me? Simply unbelievable! As Chris Fowler said, "you could watch college football for decades and never see a weekend like this."

 

So how does this help the undefeated and first place ACC Boston College Eagles? Well, it opens the door to what should be a crazy finish to the 2007 college football season. Already at 5-0, the Eagles came into their game this past weekend against UMASS ranked #12 in the country. With absolute insanity rocking the nation's TOP 10 rankings- BC has earned their first TOP 10 ranking since November of 1992. That team was led by the controversial Tom Coughlin and reached the ninth spot in the country before being crushed by the eighth ranked Irish of Notre Dame by the whopping score of 54-7. And how fitting, considering that BC has to travel to South Bend to take on the winless Irish in just two weeks. But first, they'll have to get through another non-league opponent in Bowling Green next week at the Heights.

 

BC will be hoping to regain their dominant start in which they easily handled three ACC rivals in Wake Forest, NC State, and ranked at the time- Georgia Tech. The last two weeks have been an entirely different matter as the Eagles have struggled and looked lethargic against two weaker teams in Army and now UMASS. On the bright side, BC is grinding out wins and beating the teams that they are supposed to. However, they have looked nothing like the elite team and TOP 10 squad which they are currently ranked. Ideally, it would have been nice to see some gradual improvement in the team each of the past two weeks, but beggars can't be choosers. As their quarterback and Heisman candidate, Matt Ryan said after the game, "There's nothing else that matters besides winning."  He couldn't be more right after the entire slate of college games unfolded this past weekend.

 

You see, Boston College is now one of fourteen teams left in the country which is undefeated. But that list includes the likes of Connecticut, Hawaii, Cincinnati, and Arizona State. Only five (USC, LSU, Ohio St, Wisconsin, California) of those teams are currently ranked ahead of them. USC still has to play Cal on November 10th while LSU hosts formerly ranked Florida this coming weekend. I'm sure the Tigers weren't too happy to see Auburn upset the Gators at home a week before their mega-game in Baton Rouge. Meanwhile, Ohio State squares off against Wisconsin at home on November 3rd. All of this is excellent news for BC and as it could pave its way into a Top 5 ranking if they simply continue to win.

 

Their schedule is set up perfectly for a title run. After Bowling Green this week at home and Notre Dame on the road, the Eagles have twelve days off to prepare for their toughest road test of the year against (#17) Virginia Tech- a team struggling to find their identity that they can clearly beat. From there, BC returns home against a dangerous Florida State team before taking on Maryland on the road. With the Terps big win over #10 Rutgers this week, it's clear that BC's game in Maryland may not be as easy as fans once thought. But, I really can't see Maryland's defense stopping a fully-charged air assault led by Ryan and the rest of the offense. To close out the season, BC then travels to Clemson before finishing up at home against Miami. Obviously, none of these games will be pushovers or gimmes for that matter.  Regardless, the Eagles now control their own destiny. If they continue to win, it's a virtual certainty that before long they will be ranked in the Top 4 in the country.

 

Either way, the Eagles are very well-positioned at 3-0 in conference play to land a spot in the ACC title game even if they do end up losing one game in league play. The best part could be an ACC title game match-up which might be against the likes of Virginia which currently holds down the first place spot in the Coastal division. Virginia? Yeah that's the same team that was crushed by Wyoming 23-3 to open the season before winning their last four. And if it's not Virginia- chances are it will be either Miami or VTECH- two teams the Eagles will have already played and hopefully beaten. Thus, it looks like it's BC's conference to lose.

 

It will be interesting to see how Coach Jags' team responds to the unfamiliar territory that they currently find themselves in. After all, the Eagles haven't started 5-0 since 1954 and the undefeated mark at this point in the season marks only the seventh time in 107 seasons of football that the 'Maroon and Gold' have looked this good after six games.

 

However, the fast start shouldn't surprise many followers of the Eagles. Be that as it may, BC is tied with Florida- that's right the national champion Gators- with the 13th most wins in the last five years (2003-07) in Division 1-A football with 41. They also have the fourth longest winning streak in the country at home, winning 15 straight dating back to their 28-17 loss to the Seminoles on September 17, 2005- a game they should have won.

 

So while the Sox begin their play-off march and the Pats storm through the NFL- just remember there's a team right here in Newton that could find themselves atop their own heap when it's all said and done. As former NY Jets and now Kansas City Chiefs head coach Herm Edwards once said, "That's why we play the game!"