For most, Christmas in Detroit sounds like a cruel punishment. For Boston College football, it’s the ultimate present.
The Eagles are headed to the Quick Lane Bowl on Dec. 26 to face off against Maryland at Ford Field, home of the Detroit Lions. The game will be televised on ESPN at 2:30 pm.
BC and Maryland have matched up against each other 11 times, but not since the Terrapins left the ACC in 2013. Their most recent meeting was that same year at Byrd Stadium, where BC edged Maryland, 29-26. The Eagles lead the all-time series, 8-3.
The former ACC foes will both be seeking their seventh win of the season. The Terrapins (6-6, 3-6 Big Ten) won their first four games under first-year head coach D.J. Durkin before dropping six of their next seven. Like the Eagles (6-6, 2-6 Atlantic Coast), they rebounded with a victory in their last regular season contest to guarantee bowl eligibility.
Head coach Steve Addazio noted that there is some history between Durkin and himself. When Addazio was the interim head coach at the University of Florida, he was involved in bringing Durkin to the Gator coaching staff from Stanford. Addazio, who earned a trip to a bowl in his first year at BC, has one piece of advice for Durkin in his first bowl.
“It’s exciting to get there, but it’s gotta be more exciting to win it,” Addazio said. “You wanna work hard, you wanna drive and push, but you also wanna make sure it still remains a reward. So there’s a fine line there in terms of how hard you work … you don’t want bowl season to become drudgery.”
With the selection—the 25th bowl appearance in school history—BC has achieved a bowl berth in 15 out of the last 18 years. Although BC has never participated in the Quick Lane Bowl, it has played a bowl game at Ford Field. In 2002, the Eagles emerged from the Motor City Bowl with a convincing 51-25 win over Toledo.
The last time BC was still playing during bowl season was in 2014, when Christian Hackenberg and Penn State eked out a 31-30 overtime win in the Pinstripe Bowl. Maryland’s last bowl appearance was also in 2014, when Stanford handed the Terps a 45-21 loss in the Foster Farms Bowl.
Aside from extra practice and national coverage, the Eagles will receive another added bonus from their bowl appearance: bowl swag. Since its inception in 2014, the Quick Lane Bowl has given out some of the cooler gifts in college football, including JBL headphones, custom-made, life-sized fatheads for all players, and $200 Best Buy gift cards.
“It’s almost the perfect gift to get a senior,” team captain Myles Willis said of the full-sized decals. “I’m gonna give it to my dad, it’ll be something he’ll cherish forever. He’s gonna love that.”
Featured Image by Amelie Trieu / Heights Editor
