Boston College football is no stranger to quarterback changes. In the last four years alone, the Eagles have cycled through four different starting quarterbacks. In Saturday’s contest against Syracuse, the Eagles made a switch once again.
Eight games into his junior-year campaign, starting quarterback Thomas Castellanos did not appear to have the same juice that he did in 2023, when he rushed for over 1,000 yards.
After two quarters and change on Saturday, Castellanos had manufactured just 14 passing yards and rushing numbers in the negatives. His performance solicited a change. With a game like BC was having on the ground, Bill O’Brien needed consistency. Castellanos was not showing that.
So Grayson James, who started against Western Kentucky due to a Castellanos injury, stepped in. It took just three passes for the Florida International transfer to usurp Castellanos’ passing yards by nearly double the amount.
James went 5-for-6 for 51 passing yards and a touchdown, and his first three offensive possessions all resulted in touchdowns. After surrendering 21 unanswered points, the Eagles (5–4, 2-3 Atlantic Coast) stormed back and secured a 37–31 win over the Orange (6–3, 3–3).
“I just want to do what’s best for Boston College football, whatever that is,” James said. “Whether that’s me or Tommy, anybody’s on the field, I want to win. I know everybody in this program wants to win and that’s all the focus is.”
While James took the reins under center, the real heroes were Jordan McDonald and Kye Robichaux, who combined for 331 rushing yards and three touchdown runs. Heavy pass rush from Donovan Ezeiruaku and Quintayvious Hutchins also stymied the Orange’s air-raid offense. Ezeiruaku and Hutchins both collected two sacks and dominated the trenches.
Despite marching down into scoring territory, a six-yard sack on BC’s opening drive pushed Castellanos back to Syracuse’s 11-yard line, and an incomplete pass set up a 29-yard field goal attempt for Liam Connor. But the kick sailed right.
One offensive possession later, another special teams error occurred.
Following a three-and-out on BC’s 45-yard line, Ivan Zivenko rolled his punt attempt just 25 yards down the field, yet Syracuse got nothing out of it thanks to Daveon Crouch, who forced LeQuint Allen to fumble, which Hutchins recovered.
“[Hutchins] is one of the most improved players in our program,” O’Brien said. “He’s made marked improvement, and he’s one of the better players on our team. Donovan, obviously, is one of the better players in the country at his position. They both made plays.”
On his eighth carry of the day, Robichaux scampered for a 34-yard touchdown. Connor drilled the extra point to put the Eagles ahead by seven, and the first quarter ended with another offensive drive set up for BC following an eight-yard Ezeiruaku sack, which forced the Orange to punt.
The Eagles’ edge pressure made quarterback Kyle McCord, who entered Saturday’s contest fifth in the nation in passing yards (2,761), look antsy in the pocket.
Minutes into the second quarter, McCord had just 68 passing yards on a 3-of-8 completion rate. A duck throw to the turf on 4th-and-2 resulted in a turnover on downs, and McDonald got the run game firing on all cylinders.
McDonald took consecutive gains of 14, seven, 18, and five yards to march BC into the redzone, and Castellanos drilled Lewis Bond for a nine-yard score.
“Jordan played a lot because he practiced well,” O’Brien said. “He deserved to play. He earned it on the practice field. That’s really what the program is all about. Jordan was on a scout team and we said ‘this guy needs a shot.'”
Syracuse answered with a six-play, 88-yard drive on Oronde Gadsden II’s slick 17-yard grab on a comeback route in the endzone. Just minutes later, the Orange pieced together another scoring drive which LeQuint Allen finished with a three-yard scurry after bouncing to the outside.
Just like that, it became all tied up at 14 apiece, and McCord had finally found his rhythm. Syracuse took its first lead of the game with Allen’s four-yard touchdown burst, his second of the game, with just over eight minutes left in the third quarter. Then James came in.
Three plays later, the Eagles knotted the score up once again, and decided to keep its foot on the gas pedal. After a kickoff, Ezeiruaku strip sacked McCord on the first play of Syracuse’s offensive drive and kicked the ball out of bounds for the safety.
“That’s a bad look on me,” Ezeiruaku said jokingly. “I pride myself, as you know, on being an athlete. The guys gave me words of encouragement. They said nine is better than seven. I guess I did that for the team.”
With the safety and two touchdown drives, BC held a comfortable 30–21 lead, which it maintained for the rest of the game. The Orange had a touchdown and a field goal in the final 11 minutes of the affair, but an 18-yard floater by James on a play-action design which landed into the hands of Jeremiah Franklin was just enough to add a win into the Eagles’ column.
Ezeiruaku’s hungry appetite for triumph was finally satiated once the win became official.
“It’s hard, especially being a competitor,” Ezeiruaku said of the former losing streak. “You know, I’m a super competitor. And I’ve had a bad taste in my mouth for [five] weeks.”
In terms of a quarterback change, O’Brien is uncertain what the future holds for right now. But he is certain he made the right decision on Saturday.
“I just felt like at that time, it was the best decision for the team,” O’Brien said. “A little bit of everything went into that, but I felt like a decision needed to be made. I thought it was the best decision for the team at the time.”
