By Mark Blaudschun, Globe Staff

Frank Spaziani had the scene played out in his head. Halftime of a BC basketball game and the Boston College football coach would come out to midcourt at Conte Forum and make an announcement.

"I'd like to congratulate Luke Kuechly and...."welcome him back''' to Boston College.
"That,'' said Spaziani, "would be a home run.''

The other option for Kuechly--BC's 6-foot-3 inch 237 pound two-time consensus All American linebacker--wasn't quite as cheery for BC and Spaziani--a decision to pass his senior season at The Heights and declare himself eligible for the National Football League draft this spring.

After a whirlwind span of collecting awards and trip home to Ohio over the holidays Kuechly still has not made up his mind as he has discussed his options with his family and friends

But with projections of Kuechly ranging anywhere from as high as sixth in the draft, the lure of the guaranteed money and potentially life time financial security, were too tempting.
Kuechly looked at all the options, sometimes deciding he wants to come back to BC and others deciding that the money and the opportunity to play in the NFL was too great to put off any longer.

Kuechly's honor list this season far surpassed the accomplishments of BC, which staggered to a 4-8 record, the Eagles' worst season since 1998. In addition to being a consensus All American for the second consecutive season, Kuechly again led the country in total tackles (191), solo tackles (102) and set a BC career record of 532 tackles over a three, rather than four year span Kuechly also won several individual awards including the Butkus (best linebacker) as well as g the ACC Defensive Player of the Year. and the Lott IMPACT Trophy and the Bronko Nagurski Award, honoring the nation's top defensive player.

Through it all, Kuechly maintained a low key, "this is nice'' but the team is important'' attitude. When he was done with his exams at BC for the semester he went home to Ohio to spend the holidays with his family to make his decision about the future--at BC and beyond.

Spaziani said that he expected Kuechly to examine the issue in his normal fashion of looking at the situation from every angle.

"I would love to have him come back,'' said Spaziani, "so he can win all of these awards again.''

Kuechly's main issue was to determine if the projections which had him going between 10 and 15 in next spring's National Football League draft--which would mean a guaranteed signing bonus of several million dollars--were accurate and whether the risk reward of waiting another year was worth it.

Kuechly is currently a semester ahead of schedule in his academic progress which means he could earn his degree at BC next December. In the past year such high profile top draft picks as Stanford QB Andrew Luck (last winter) and USC QB Matt Barkley have returned for their senior season in college.

Kuechly had until mid January to make his final decision and announcement. Spaziani has maintained that having Kuechly return would elevate the BC recruiting class considerably, especially at linebacker which is already stockpiled with productive players with potential such as Kevin Pierre-Louis, Steele DeVitto and Sean Duggan.

If Kuechly did return, he would have no doubt taken on injury insurance for his senior season to protect himself and his future.

"I'm still thinking about it,'' Kuechly said in an text message when asked.

Kuechly has maintained that he still enjoyed going to school and being a student. But he also professed his love of the game of football. A move to leave early woud accelerate that process, meaning leaving school and preparing for the NFL combine in February and other NFL tryouts prior to the NFL draft.

For Kuechly, who came to BC three years ago as undersized position player who was passed by some schools for being too small to be a linebacker and too slow to be a defensive back--both of which he played at St Xavier in Cincinnati--the metamorphosis to a two-time All American and high profile draft pick has been remarkable.