BC's first impression important

MUNCIE, Ind. -- It starts here, tonight against Ball State under the newly installed lights of Ball State Stadium, the Cardinals' tiny bandbox (capacity: 21,255).

With the Big East up for grabs now that Miami and Virginia Tech have defected to the Atlantic Coast Conference, so many expectations -- yes, extremely high, but not entirely unreachable expectations -- have been placed on Boston College's football team.

Picked to finish second behind West Virginia, BC has been tabbed as one of the strong contenders for the title in its Big East swan song before departing to the ACC next July. And so, as 17 1/2-point favorites against Ball State, the Eagles can ill afford a pratfall similar to last season's opener against Wake Forest, 32-28, at Alumni Stadium.

"I think we made too many mistakes to win the football game," BC coach Tom O'Brien said, when asked what lessons were learned from last year's opener against the Demon Deacons. "We had a chance to put them away at halftime, but we fumbled the ball and let them back in. We come out in the second half and give up a long run. We ended up giving up a long pass for them to go ahead. And then we ended up fumbling the ball to end the game, so we couldn't execute in the two-minute offense or two-minute defense.

"It still comes down to you got to tackle on defense, you can't give up long passes, and you can't give up long runs," O'Brien added. "On offense, you can't fumble the football and turn it over, and you have to make first downs. If we do those things, we're going to be fine. If we don't do those things, we don't give ourselves a chance to win."

And if you don't think the Eagles have a sense of urgency, then just listen to senior defensive tackle Tim Bulman of Milton, Mass.

"We can't wait until the third game to have our best game," said Bulman, a BC High product who was voted a captain along with junior defensive end Mathias Kiwanuka and senior tight end David Kashetta. "We need to start right from the beginning and we have to keep it going for 11 straight. It's not hard to play 11 straight games, your best games. I've done it in high school and we can do it now."

While the defense returns six starters from last year's squad, the Eagles will be minus one -- senior defensive end Phil Mettling, who this week aggravated a rib injury he suffered in preseason camp.

"I think the biggest challenge is this team can't take any game for granted," Bulman said. "I'm going to personally make sure -- and I know Mathias will, I know all the older guys will -- that we don't let anything derail us. We have to stay on that track [for a Big East title and BCS berth]."

To that end, the Eagles will count on senior quarterback Paul Peterson, who beat out Quinton Porter, to pick up where he left off at the end of last season's 8-5 campaign, leading BC to three consecutive victories, including a 35-21 victory over Colorado State in the San Francisco Bowl.

"I'm excited," said Peterson, who passed for 1,124 yards and 10 TDs last season, 931 yards and 9 TDs coming in the last four games. "I just want to play."

Sophomore tailback Jeff Ross of Lowell, Mass., will be just as eager to cement his role as BC's starter over redshirt freshmen L.V. Whitworth of Milton, Mass., and Andre Callender of Roselle, N.J. Ross's unspoken mandate will be to extend BC's streak of six seasons with a 1,000-yard rusher.

"That's something I'm not even worried about at this point," said Ross, whose last start came three years ago as a Lowell High standout against Thanksgiving Day rival Haverhill. "I'm just going to try and stay focused on my job and work hard."

Said O'Brien, "That's the most important thing. We don't need any freelancing. We need people to do their job and to be the best they can at their job.

"There's always suspense in openers. You don't know what the opponent is going to do, but there's enough experience on this coaching staff and we've seen a lot of things.

"If they come out in something we haven't seen then we have to have the poise and the knowledge to run our base defense and run our base offense," O'Brien added. "Let's not panic, and go out there and be prepared to play 60 minutes, because if you're not then you're going to end up where you start pressing."

And while the Eagles trounced Ball State, 53-29, last Sept. 27 at Alumni Stadium, O'Brien knows the Cardinals, picked to finish last in their division in the Mid-American Conference after going 4-8 under first-year coach Brady Hoke last year, "are not intimidated by us," the BC coach said.

"We're not going to go out there and throw our helmets on the field and [expect] these guys are going to surrender for us," O'Brien said. "We got to be able to know that we're going to be in a football game and we're going to go play. We're only guaranteed 11 chances to play. We look at them all as championship games, and this is the first championship game we have."