Following Boston College football’s 23–19 victory over Michigan State, Eagles’ head coach Bill O’Brien looked genuinely happy—the type of happiness you can’t fake, where even just the simplest smile can’t be suppressed.
As ACC Network projected a split-screen broadcast, with O’Brien and a reporter on one side, and the other displaying the scenes of ecstatic students flooding onto the field to celebrate and congratulate the Eagles’ triumph, O’Brien let the intensity out of his body.
He laughed, shook his head in a euphoric manner, and claimed what he claimed at his initial press conference: BC is a place where you can have a win.
“Boston College is a special place,” O’Brien said. “I was just excited these guys played so hard to give these students something to cheer for.”
The talk of Chestnut Hill all week was that BC had sold out the game against Michigan State. While that’s a promising invitation to any hyped-up college football matchup—especially one that commemorates Welles Crowther, a real-life hero who sacrificed himself in the Sept. 11 attacks and embodies BC’s motto “men and women for others”—only reality matters. There is no guarantee of anything in life.
But the fans showed up. Undeterred by relentless droplets of rain all night long, students and fans packed Alumni Stadium in a way that had not been seen in a very long time, and rushed the field in swarms to cap off what turned out to be a magical night on the Heights. For the first time since 2021, the Eagles captured a win in the Red Bandanna Game.
Here are four observations from the win.
Igniting Top Talent
O’Brien was thrilled to see Lewis Bond featured on the post-game ACC Huddle show. O’Brien has praised the stealthy wideout since he arrived, and wants Bond to get more credit for the success of the team.
“It’s really great you guys brought him up here, because he deserves it,” O’Brien said. “He was open all night—should’ve had like 10 more catches.”
On six receptions, Bond accumulated 102 of BC’s 140 total receiving yards on Saturday night—a season high for him in both—and caught what became the game-winning touchdown.
Quarterback Thomas Castellanos hadn’t connected on a deep ball all night until Bond decided to take matters into his own hands with time in the fourth quarter dwindling and BC down by three points, 19–16.
From the shotgun on 3rd-and-1 at Michigan State’s 42-yard line, Castellanos zipped the ball through a pair of defenders with the corner already stumbling behind Bond and the safety too high to contest it. The ball had somewhat of a duckish spiral on it, but it fell precisely into where only Bond could make the grab. Bond shook off the defender just above the 10-yard line and pranced into the endzone to give BC a 23–19 lead with 1:38 left to play.
O’Brien said the timeout two plays beforehand put Castellanos, Bond, and offensive coordinator Will Lawing all on the same page, and that Castellanos loved the play design. BC’s signal caller placed the ball into his top playmaker’s hands, and Bond delivered for his first-ever game-winning touchdown catch.
It’s also worth noting that Treshaun Ward grabbed a go-ahead touchdown with 12:22 remaining in the third quarter on a drive that needed just one play to score. Ward eluded the dogpile up front and down the sideline for a 36-yard touchdown run to make it 16–13 Eagles.
Ward has quickly become a BC household name as the backfield’s most versatile weapon, and has proven his abilities both as a runner and a pass-catcher. Ward tallied 102 yards on the ground and a touchdown with a 7.3 average yards per carry mark. Apart from Castellanos, Ward is BC’s leader in total touchdowns with four on the year so far.
Up For Grabs
Michigan State quarterback Aidan Chiles produced just-okay numbers (650 passing yards, four touchdowns, four interceptions, and a 56.8 completion percentage) going into his fourth start of the season, and BC’s secondary capitalized tremendously on his mistakes.
Chiles tossed three interceptions on Saturday, including a pick on the Spartans’ last drive of the game which could have reversed the game’s entire script. Max Tucker made the interception in the back of the endzone on a double coverage assignment with Carter Davis to make it a check in the BC win column.
To be fair, the throw was more out of desperation than anything. Chiles had 44 seconds left from BC’s 36-yard line to pull a trick out of his hat and drown the Eagles’ faithful in a bucket of pain, but it never happened. Tucker timed the ball out of midair and pressed both of his feet down just a foot away from the out-of-bounds line to give Castellanos a final drive on the field to kneel the ball down and let the clock hit zeroes.
Davis and Amari Jackson recorded the other two interceptions, both on balls thrown far behind the intended receiver. The slickness of the ball from the pouring rain surely didn’t play to Chiles’ advantage, but he paid the cost of making a handful of bad decisions as the signal caller, which ultimately decided the outcome.
Dominant Donovan
After a monstrous outing at Florida State in Week One, defensive end Donovan Ezeiruaku chilled off just a bit in the Eagles’ following two matchups against Duquesne and Missouri. The 6-foot-2, 247-pound edge rusher showed off his prowess at the line of scrimmage once again on Saturday night.
Ezeiruaku was a menace in the trenches, racking up 2.5 tackles for loss (13 yards combined) and one sack (12 yards), along with eight tackles in the affair.
His sack came early in the fourth quarter with 12:12 left to play. On 1st-and-10 from Michigan State’s 32-yard line, Ezeiruaku crashed through the Spartans’ pass block and upended Chiles in the backfield as he was attempting to scramble. The play resulted in an eventual fourth down for Michigan State, which it converted, but still provided a momentum boost for BC’s defense and the booming crowd in the south endzone.
“We got something brewing here,” Ezeiruaku said after the game.
After his performance Saturday night, it’s clear he might just be on to something.
Legs Need an Upgrade
There are still many things this BC squad needs to finetune, and many things to be very proud of. But of all the things that need replenishing, or just an entire makeover completely, it’s the punting. At this point, open tryouts for the position might have to be something O’Brien considers.
There have been several shanks so far this year, and another case arose on Saturday. Between Ivan Zivenko and Liam Connor, BC’s punters averaged just 37.73 yards per punt on four total punts, some of which gave the Spartans ideal field position to score.
It might not be at a level of abysmal just yet, but it’s something that has been addressed in media conferences with O’Brien during the week, and something to keep an eye on as the Eagles face the brunt of their ACC opponents with the remaining schedule.
