ACC football preview series: Eagles hope offense takes flight

For the past few seasons, Boston College has fielded some of the nation’s best defenses, including last season, when the Eagles led the country in rushing defense, allowing a mere 82.8 yards per game on the ground.

Coach Frank Spaziani is hoping that BC breaks out offensively this time around and boasts the most weapons he’s had in his three years at the helm of the Eagles.

While BC boasted one of the ACC’s most prolific rushers in Montel Harris, the Eagles still finished among the bottom quarter of the conference in rushing, passing, total offense and scoring last season. Former Virginia offensive coordinator Gary Tranquill shouldered much of the blame and retired in the offseason, leading Spaziani to hire former Minnesota Vikings quarterbacks coach Kevin Rogers to take over the offense.

Rogers, who once served on Virginia Tech’s staff and was mentioned as a possible offensive coordinator when Mike London was assembling his new staff at Virginia, infused his ideas into BC’s pro-style attack in spring practice.

“I don’t think the offense will be that much different,” Spaziani said. “The terminology is what it is and that always changes a bit. But there aren’t many new plays in football. We’re not going to the spread or wishbone.

“Though I’ve been tinkering with the Canadian philosophy of putting a 12th man out there,” chuckled Spaziani, who spent some time coaching in the Canadian Football League.

The main change Rogers made in the spring was to add more plays to the tight end to take advantage of returning starter Chris Pantale, who is talented enough to play wide receiver. He should also benefit from the return of junior wide receiver Colin Larmond, who missed last season with a knee injury. Larmond is the type of receiver that can stretch the field and open things up underneath for tight ends.

Rogers also created some rollout passing plays to take advantage of incumbent sophomore quarterback Chase Rettig’s mobility.

Still, BC features one of the strongest stables of running backs in the country, led by Harris, who is 1,003 yards away from breaking Ted Brown’s 33-year-old ACC career rushing record. Harris suffered a knee injury against UVa late last season, but replacement Andre Williams rushed for 185 yards the following week against Syracuse.

“Oh my God, [Harris] has been a difference maker from the day he came in and started playing his freshman year,” Spaziani said of his star running back. “I don’t know where we’d be record-wise without Montel’s production, and certainly the two years I’ve been the head coach he carried us many times. He’s important for us and we need to get him back on track.”

Where it gets complicated is that BC lost three starting offensive lineman, including former Fork Union star Anthony Castonzo (a first-round NFL Draft pick), who had started 54 games.

Defensively, BC returns six starters and is deep in the secondary and linebacking corps, where Luke Kuechly and Kevin Pierre-Louis dwell. Kuechly led the nation in tackles last season with 183. Pierre-Louis had 93 as a true freshman.

BC’s defensive front returns only one starter, so there could be pressure on the linebackers to cover mistakes.

The Eagles also return both their place-kicker and punter and should be in good shape.

Spaziani’s team has been to 12 straight bowl games and probably needs to lock up that invitation early this season thanks to a brutal second half of the season, which includes Virginia Tech, Florida State, N.C. State, Notre Dame and Miami.