This is what everybody expected to happen, right? For Boston College football to go into Tallahassee, Fla., and flat-out dominate a top-10 opponent on national television.
Well, not exactly.
The top-10 victory wasn’t just a rare event for the Eagles, who didn’t get picked by a single college football analyst to win their season-opening contest on ESPN’s College GameDay special. The win was monumental, even program-defining. The identity of the 2024 BC football program unearthed itself in front of the entire college football world on Monday night. Tuesday afternoon, BC finished second off the AP Top-25 list behind Texas A&M.
With a 28–13 road win over No. 10 Florida State, first-year head coach Bill O’Brien put the Eagles where they have been trying to go for more than a decade—to a seat of major relevance. National media is taking notice. O’Brien said it’s “just one game,” which is fine. That mentality is sound. His approach is disciplined, but it’s already infinitely more important than just one game or just one moment.
This is what actual hope feels like for this generation of the BC fanbase. This is genuine excitement that hasn’t been felt in a long time, and the buzz around O’Brien throughout all of the preseason, and all of the offseason, is showing its true colors.
The victory marked BC’s first win over a top-10 team since it upset No. 9 USC back in 2014. The Eagles haven’t opened the year with a top-10 win since defeating No. 7 Texas in 1976. In addition, BC hasn’t captured a win at Doak Campbell Stadium since 2008.
The “BoB” era is officially underway, and he couldn’t have drawn up a better start.
Here are my thoughts from the season-opening win:
Castellanos’ Preparation is Evident
A big question heading into the season was if quarterback Thomas Castellanos could develop into a mature pocket-thrower to complement his otherworldly ability to run the football. That question was certainly answered on Monday.
Last year, Castellanos finished with nearly as many touchdowns (15) as interceptions (14) and an overall completion percentage of 57.3 percent. He showed flashes of arm talent, but his poise as a signal caller needed to be finetuned. He needed more time to prepare, and this first game showed his progression. Those early morning wakeups to go over the playbook and film with quarterbacks coach John DiBiaso during preseason camp paid off.
Castellanos completed 10-of-16 pass attempts against the Seminoles for 106 yards and two passing touchdowns, and he registered a total quarterback rating of 87.1—which ranks 18th in the nation after Week One. Unsurprisingly, he also racked up 73 yards on the ground and a rushing touchdown.
The biggest difference was Castellanos’ ability to control the field and not force scrambles, which he often relied on last season. The Eagles converted 9-of-16 third-down chances and the majority were on pass plays. Castellanos also spread out the field, connecting with seven total players.
A big factor was how well the offensive line held up, especially in the run game, which dominated despite being without starting offensive guard Logan Taylor, a preseason All-ACC selection. Jude Bowry, Ozzy Trapilo, Jack Conley, Drew Kendall, and Dwayne Allick showed up big-time in the trenches and upheld BC’s “O-line U” nickname.
Robichaux’s Got Company
The ground game is BC’s bread and butter, and Kye Robichaux is at the heart of it. In the matchup, Robichaux showed that his totals last season—780 rushing yards and eight rushing touchdowns—were no fluke. He tallied 85 rushing yards, a receiving touchdown, and a rushing touchdown late in the third quarter to essentially put the game to bed.
But O’Brien made additions to the backfield, which is now a three-headed monster. Kansas State and Florida State–transfer Treshaun Ward was the clear breakout player of the game.
Ward received ACC football’s Running Back of the Week award after totaling 77 rushing yards, 61 receiving yards on just three catches, and a receiving touchdown. He isn’t a downhill runner like Robichaux is, but he possesses a shiftiness that makes him dangerous in open space and hard to catch up to. Ironically, his BC career began with possibly one of the worst drops of his college career.
On the Eagles’ first offensive drive, Ward coasted up the left sideline on a wheel route on 3rd-and-5, and Castellanos threw a dime into his lap. The ball caught Ward in stride and couldn’t have landed any softer, but it bounced right out of his fingertips and fell to the turf. Even as the ball remained in midair, sinking back to the surface, Ward’s hands shot up onto his helmet as he went into utter shock. He didn’t have a single drop the rest of the night.
Ward ended up scoring on the exact same concept just over halfway into the second quarter to put BC up 14–0, and he regained his confidence from there. With the addition of Ward, the Eagles could easily vie for the top rushing offense in the ACC for a second straight year, and they could even boast the top rushing attack in the country if everything runs smoothly.
New Makeup for The Defense
Apart from a 29-yard touchdown for Seminoles wideout Kentron Poitier, the Eagles’ defense was flawless. Even under former BC head coach Jeff Hafley, now the defensive coordinator for the Green Bay Packers, the defense never looked so good.
BC’s defense barely let up any chunk plays, and the pass rush was phenomenal and offered a glimpse at a legitimate NFL prospect. The secondary, which to Hafley’s credit, developed through him, was lights out. 247 Sports selected BC defensive coordinator Tim Lewis as one of the ACC’s two “coordinator’s of the week,” and rightfully so.
Donovan Ezeiruaku really came into his own after a rather disappointing 2023 season, where he finished with only two sacks and 6.5 tackles for loss. The senior defensive end out of Williamstown, N.J., registered two sacks and two tackles for loss in the contest for a total loss of 21 yards, in addition to four tackles. His jump on the pass rush looked phenomenal as he tormented First-Team All-ACC left tackle Darius Washington with an array of twitchy moves off the line.
Neto Okpala also finished with a sack for a loss of seven yards and 1.5 tackles for loss. The leading tackler, however, was redshirt freshman defensive back Carter Davis (nine tackles, six solo), who looked like a flying hitstick.
In the secondary, Catholic Memorial product Max Tucker came up clutch with a game-changing interception on fourth down in the third quarter, which he returned for 58 yards to set up another scoring drive for the offense. Tucker and Amari Jackson will be a force to reckon with for opposing quarterbacks, and that was obvious with DJ Uiagalelei’s abysmal performance.
The Poitier touchdown was really the only instance where a BC player didn’t finish a tackle or make a play to stop the ball. Tucker ripped into the wideout but got ragdolled by Poitier, and the receiver broke off for the score after making another defender miss. Other than that, the defense showed stellar pursuit of the ball and ball carriers all night long, limiting the Seminoles to just 21 rushing yards compared to BC’s 263.
