By Alex Prewitt, Globe Correspondent

Boston College tight end Chris Pantale is expected to miss "significant time" after breaking a bone in his foot, Eagles coach Frank Spaziani announced at Friday's media day.

Spaziani declined to put a timetable on Pantale's return after receiving the X-ray results Friday morning. Pantale had injured his foot -- Spaziani was unsure which foot, but speculated it was his right -- during practice a few days ago, and it flared up Thursday.

"Chris is one of our tougher football players," Spanziani said. "When I watched it on tape last night, it was hard for me to understand what I watched and what had happened, what they diagnosed it as.

"He's a tough kid and he pushes himself through a lot, but you can't push yourself through a broken bone."

The fifth-year senior redshirted his freshman year in 2008, but has been a stable presence throughout his career at BC, appearing in 38 straight games. He started all 12 games as a junior in 2011 and had a career-high 70 yards with two touchdowns in the season finale, a 24-17 win at Miami.

Pantale finished 2011 with 21 catches for 236 yards and three touchdowns, and was slated to enter this season as one of BC's most tenured offensive players, and the ACC's most experienced tight end.

"The leadership, that intangible itself is going to be missed on the field," Spaziani said.

Junior Mike Naples is listed as Pantale's backup on the depth chart, but according to Spaziani had missed a day earlier in practice, so the Eagles moved redshirt freshman Dave Bowen, a 6-foot-7, 285-pound offensive lineman, to tight end. Spaziani also mentioned sophomore Jarrett Darmstatter as a possible replacement to fill the void left by Pantale's injury.

"That's one of those things we haven't had, some bigger guys running around here now," Spaziani said. "We'll make another move here. We really don't want to beat this down, but the system is flexible enough to move on, and that's what happens in college football. Someone gets injured and you move on. We'll just do things a little differently, that's all, have different packages.

"Every team is going to have problems with injuries, and you're going to have to deal with them. That's the excitement of college football, and that's how sports work."