2024 Missouri Football Opponent Previews: Boston College Eagles

Welcome back to Rock M Nation’s annual opponent preview series of the upcoming season. Each week we will break down one opponent from the schedule in chronological order. Given that rosters are ever fluid - and this is done by a hobbyist rather than a pro - there could be some errors in history and current roster makeup. All mistakes are done on purpose and with ill intent because I don’t like you or your team.

Catch up on previous 2024 opponent previews!

Murray State

Buffalo

When last our intrepid Tigers tangled with the plucky Jesuit school from the northeast, Eli Drinkwitz was a still a relatively unknown head coach who had just weathered a new job during a tumultuous season while Jeff Hafley was a young head coach on the rise at a program that had settled into a morass of mediocrity.

Since then, Drinkwitz has lifted Mizzou’s recruiting acumen to heights never before seen before finally breaking through with an 11-win campaign in 2022.

Hafley, meanwhile, scuffled through a 3-9 campaign in 2022 before salvaging a 7-6 season in ‘23 and taking the first ticket out of Chestnut Hill, becoming the Green Bay Packers’ defensive coordinator on January 31st of this year.

Other than the fact that Mizzou played his team before, there really shouldn’t be any point we Tiger fans should have any interest in tracking Hafley’s career since September 25th of 2021. It was one of the dumber losses in a season full of dumb moments, Hafley was always more of an NFL guy than a college guy, and he isn’t even there anymore, so what gives?

What gives is a quick study on the “modern college football coach” and how two guys who crossed paths once have very different ways of adapting to modernity.

We know what Eli Drinkwitz did! He pushed state legislators to pass a law to make Missouri - of all places! - one of the most liberal NIL bastions in the country, giving in-state kids incentive to stay home for their college careers and grant them wealth earlier in the process than anyone else. Drink hired coordinators who were mini-head coaches for their respective sides, embraced the transfer portal/college talent evaluation, and became a CEO-type coach, not just for his team but for the athletic department as a whole.

Hafley, on the other hand, stomped his feet, held his breath, and gave the bitchiest exit interview you could possibly give while running away from the “inferior” level of football:

“Look, there’s some really good people and some really good agents,” he said. “And just like anything else, some really bad ones that are trying to take advantage of kids. And it’s not right, and it’s not fair. There’s kids that are leaving good academic schools with a semester or two semesters left, where they’re going to get a life-changing degree, and instead, they’re getting convinced to transfer. It’s way bigger than making a few bucks right now. I get it, that’s easier said than done. I’m all for it. Let’s pay the players and give them some money. I think it’s all good, and I totally respect it. But we got to look at the degree aspect of this thing, too.”

Here’s a protip: when a coach complains about an aspect of the game, that probably means he sucks at that aspect of the game.

Boston College certainly isn’t lacking for funding but it probably does lack some institutional support for their athletics department, especially compared to football-crazed schools in the southeast. And its pretty clear that - despite a few key wins like Zay Flowers and Christian Mahogany - BC was going to lose bidding wars for their best players and Hafley couldn’t find a way to overcome it.

So he ran to the NFL where you have multiple months off and a healthier work-life balance than the 24/7/365 nature of the college game. Which is fine! College requires a specific type of coach, and a “football first” kind of coach who sucks at the networking/golfing/fundraising game in 2024 probably isn’t a good coach to be the head guy of a program.

Just be glad Eli Drinkwitz found a way to thrive in this era, that’s the main takeaway here.

But back to BC! With Hafley’s departure the Eagles turned to another NFL journeyman to lead them our of the muck: former Houston Texans head coach and New England Patriots offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien. O’Brien had some success in weathering the Joe Paterno fall out at Penn State and did well under Nick Saban’s watchful eye at Alabama, but being flexible or dynamic is not really BOB’s thing, and considering how quickly he’s been in the past to get back to the NFL, it’ll be interesting to see how long he lasts at BC.

BC’s SP+ journey since 2005 is just one precipitous nose dive from “great” territory all the way down to “major sucky bad”. It still blows my mind that they fired one of their best, most dynamic (and young!) head coaches because he interviewed for an NFL job...and they’ve never recovered from that decision! Each coach since then has had one interesting season but, for the most part, it’s nothing but mediocrity in a conference that is perpetually mired in mediocrity: the fact that BC rarely can break through an easy conference speaks a lot to their program quality.

Let’s see what Boston College did last year:

Boston College finished 7-6 for the season and, frankly, it should have been so much worse. They finished with a -5.9 SP+ rating - meaning they were about six points worse than the average college football team - and ranked 83rd in the country. For additional context, the three teams ranked right ahead of them - Georgia Southern, Colorado, and Syracuse - did not finish with winning records, nor did the team right below them in Arkansas State. In fact, BC’s second order wins put them between 3-4 wins, which is much more realistic for the caliber of team they deployed last year.

So what gives? Well, an incredible 5-3 record on one-possession games did the trick, losing squeakers against Northern Illinois, Florida State, and Pittsburgh (good luck finding the through point for those three teams), and managing just enough points against FCS Holy Cross, Virginia, Army, Connecticut, and Syracuse.

In games decided by more than a possession: 2-3.

Here’s another way to view it:

• BC vs. SP+ Top 50: 1-4
• BC vs. SP+ 51-133: 4-2

This one is good, too:

• BC vs. teams with winning records: 2-5
• BC vs. teams with losing records (and FCS): 4-1

They weren’t very good, is the point. Any team with a pulse managed a victory and any team that went bowling usually took care of business against the Eagles. And now they have a new head coach and not a lot of transfers in to replace the transfers out. Should be interesting!

Coaching Staff

Photo by Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

Bill O’Brien - 1st Year - 0-0 (0-0)

Bill O’Brien has been around for a long time and has had a surprising amount of memorable stops for a guy who doesn’t seem to be all that great at what he does. Consequently, what you know Bill O’Brien for probably varies wildly by how old you are when you started watching the various levels of football.

If you’re like me, you probably know him as a position coach/eventual OC of the dynamic Tom Brady-led Patriots offenses that utilized two tight ends and Randy Moss to prolific scoring outbursts and a near undefeated season.

Or maybe he first popped up on your radar when he took over Penn State after the awful Jerry Sandusky scandal that saw the end of the Joe Paterno reign.

There’s a good chance you know him as the Houston Texans head coach, especially since that was the job he’s held the longest and, of course, had actual screen time on Hard Knocks.

Of course, maybe you only know him as Alabama’s offensive coordinator when he was coaching Bryce Young for two years.

In any case, O’Brien has had many different jobs in the offensive side of football but has only been a head coach for 9 years at two stops: Penn State (with a record of 15-9, 10-6 in conference) and the Houston Texans (52-48). As a coordinator he likes to find one or two players that are really good and just feed them the ball (Lane Kiffin likes to do this a lot, too). As the Texans’ head man, his criticisms mostly revolved around his lackluster efforts as a General Manager (which he insisted on also having in his job responsibilities) while also being mostly uninspiring in his deployment of talent.

And now he gets to take on a football program that isn’t very imaginative, operates behind its peers in spending, and hasn’t won more than 7 games in a single season since 2009.

Assistant Staff

Will Lawing - Offensive Coordinator: If BOB wanted an offensive coordinator who thought like him, knew what he wanted to do, and was intimately familiar with the offense he wanted to run, then Will Lawing is the perfect hire. Having been with O’Brien every year since 2013, Lawing is basically Mini Bill as every job he’s had has been in an O’Brien system or on his offensive staff. If it’s a trust thing then, yeah, this makes sense. If he wanted a guy who would bring a fresh view into the modern college offense then, no, this isn’t a great hire.

Tim Lewis - Defensive Coordinator: Tim Lewis is an NFL guy, through and through. He has spent 28 consecutive years in the professional ranks, with his last college gig being a position coach for the Pitt Panthers in 1994. Again, when hiring an NFL coach, the perks are that the coach is probably a great tactician who can craft incredible defenses that are unique, effective, and intricate. The downsides are just the flip side of those benefits: they’re often not as good at teaching, tend to be pretty poor recruiters, and can over-complicate things for guys who (mostly) aren’t professionals. How Coach Lewis shakes out when coaching at a deficit will be interesting.

Matt Thurin - Special Teams Coordinator

Jonathan DiBiaso - Quarterbacks

Savon Huggins - Running Backs

Darrell Wyatt - Wide Receivers

Matt Applebaum - Offensive Line

Jeff Comissiong - Defensive Line

Dan O’Brien - Linebackers

Ray Brown - Secondary

Roster Movement

BC is losing 17 players to the portal but most of them are the “depth” type of losses. Emmett Morehead was the starting QB in ‘22 but was yanked after two drives of the first game of the ‘23 campaign. All four running backs that are transferring combined for 129 carries...or, put anther way, 66 fewer carries than BC’s starting quarterback. And while Taji Johnson was the second-leading receiver on the team, the other pass catchers were situational and not super active.

The defense loses their ace pass rusher Shitta Sillah but the other losses were, again, guys who didn’t see the field all that often. That can be manageable as long as the team brings in guys to replace that depth.

BC had a decent haul come in from the portal. They nabbed an experienced starting quarterback in Grayson James from FIU, as well as experienced K-State runner Treshaun Ward. They also brought in Vanderbilt’s 2nd-leading receiver and Texas Tech’s leading receiver to help bolster a passing attack that was underwhelming for most of the past two years. Adding two blue chip defensive backs from Ohio State is also a key win for a team that has a long road to go in rebuilding.

It’s not easy to salvage a first recruiting class, especially when it’s done in January and definitely in the era of the transfer portal. Even with all that said, BC signed a tiny high recruiting class of only 13 guys. Also, take a look at the states those guys are from: other than two guys from Texas all 13 are from a different state (and the United Kingdom!). It’s not easy to recruit quality football players in the northeast, and the limitations of academic restrictions adds to the difficulty, but BOB’s going to have to do much better going forward. Why? Because even in its nascent era the transfer portal has been shown that it is a resource to be used to fill in gaps and improve maybe a few positions but not a tool that can be relied on to rebuild an entire team.

Offense

Bill O’Brien and Will Lawing are inheriting an interesting offensive situation. BC’s offense last year ranked 87th overall with the 30th-best rushing attack but featuring the 107th-ranked passing offense. Quarterback Thomas Castellanos was tremendous in the ground game but scattershot in the passing game and didn’t have any receivers who could step up and bail him out. The biggest issue though? Explosiveness; 95th on the ground and 74th through the air is pretty bad for any power team, even one in the ACC. The good news is that the important pieces are back: Castellanos, running back Kye Robichaux, leading receiver Lewis Bond, their starting center and tackles, plus portal additions for the running backs and receivers. There’s a good chance that the returning production plus a new offensive coaching staff can produce a noticeable improvement in short time.

Quarterback

Photo by John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

When Jeff Hafley pulled Emmett Morehead after the second drive of the first game, most people thought that Thomas Castellanos would be a nice change of pace for the stilted, statuesque Morehead. Instead, Hafley never put Morehead back in and now he’s at Old Dominion. And while the BC rushing offense absolutely exploded with the zone-read machinations of the wily Castellanos, the passing game tanked noticeably; a 57% completion percentage and a 5.1 ANY/A are some of the worst in the country, let alone at the P4 level. The reason for this, however, was that the offense under Hafley asked Castellanos to only throw deep, meaning the BC offense was Top 25 in completions of 20+ yards but bottom 100 in completions in contested catches and completion percentage. BOB did what he should do by immediately improving the quality of the receiving corps, now Castellanos needs to take the next step and improve the accuracy at a minimum. Giving him easier throws with better receivers can make a huge difference.

Running Backs

Photo by John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

Having Kye Robichaux return was a huge victory for a BC offense that needs as much talent as they can get. Plus Castellanos was the leading rusher of last year and returns as well. Adding K-State’s Treshaun Ward is huge for depth, as the BC rushing attack completely went into a hole if Robichaux wasn’t on the field. Assuming that BOB does what he usually does, expect a healthy dose of the ground game until the new receivers find a good rapport.

Receivers

Photo by Maddie Malhotra/Getty Images

Getting Lewis Bond back was extremely beneficial as he was the one receiver with more than 20 targets who managed a catch rate better than 57% last year. Nabbing Texas Tech’s #1 receiver seems good on paper before you realize that Jerand Bradley managed a 50% catch rate as a deep threat and probably won’t add something different that BC didn’t already have. Getting Jayden McGowan out of Vanderbilt helps as well, as his catch rate and preferred routes brings some variety to a receiving corps that badly needs it.

Offensive Line

Photo by Fred Kfoury III/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Both tackles and starting center return, which is great for an offensive line that was Top 25 in pass protection and sacks allowed. They also return backups who filled in on the interior line as well. Given Castellanos’ predilection for scrambling and the strength of the run game it’ll be important to make sure the offensive line gels, and having most of the contributors from last year’s unit is a big win for the new staff.

Defense

Jeff Hafley’s entire appeal was to bring a competent defensive mind to maximize BC’s natural recruiting advantages, but Hafley’s defenses got worse as the years went on. Last year’s unit ranked 77th overall and wasn’t really good at anything except turnovers. 96th in success rate allowed, 98th in explosiveness, 72nd against the run, 119th against the pass, 90th in standard downs, 86th in passing downs...the Eagle defense was a mess that couldn’t do anything well enough to even attempt to stop the competition. New coordinator Tim Lewis will have to use his exotic NFL defenses and hope he can communicate it effectively to a college roster and hope that it can click quickly.

Much like Buffalo, Boston College needs to ratchet up the havoc badly. At each level of defense Eagles defenders were some of the worst at creating havoc. And they were bad enough in allowing big plays that the benefits of not being havoc-forward weren’t even being felt. BC just played man coverage and hoped that the defensive line could get home and...they never did. The linebackers couldn’t generate TFLs, the linebackers were inaccurate tacklers, and the secondary would constantly get beat on double moves.

It won’t take a lot to get better but the guys last year weren’t very good and the Eagles are basically just running it back with the same roster again this year (minus the backups). For their sake, let’s hope some key transfers and a returning production boost can make them semi competent.

So what does it all mean?

Look how easy that ACC schedule is. Obviously big things are expected of Missouri but if our beloved Tigers are the highest ranked team in SP+ on your schedule (from preseason projections), you play a pretty soft schedule.

Even projected as 3 points worse than the average college football team, Boston College plays four opponents in that same SP+ range and all four are at home, and college football teams usually win their home games. All four of their toughest games are on the road, and college football teams usually lose their road games. It’s very easy to see BC winning their five easiest games, getting smashed in their four toughest games, and then stealing a win from Western Kentucky, North Carolina, Louisville, or Virginia Tech. And a bowl game in Year One - while not that far from the norm - would at least get BOB and his staff some good will early.

From a Missouri perspective, this is a nice, progression step up in yet another season that lines the opponents up from easiest to hardest (like ‘23 did). An opponent roadmap that goes FCS -> bad G6 -> bad P4 - > bad SEC team is my preferred opening slate and BC fits the bill perfectly. Additionally, a new coaching staff for a bad team that has to travel halfway across the country to play a team with something to prove and Playoff spots in their eyes is just the right amount of boxes you’d check to create a favorable matchup in your preseason schedule-scouting brain. BC’s offense should be good - particularly the ground game - but it’s hard for me to see their defense being anything but inconveniences to a seasoned Brady Cook and his fleet of 5-star receivers he can throw to.

If Missouri is as good as we think they are and comes out to prove what we think they want to prove, this game should pose no threat. It won’t be a blowout but it should be a comfortable win, right before Mizzou gets to dip its toes into SEC opponent waters.