BC set for ABCs of ACC
There has been a two-year buildup to this moment. But now it is here.
Now it is time for Boston College's football team to see how it stacks up as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference. And the Eagles, who improved to 2-0 after Saturday's 44-7 rout of Army before an Alumni Stadium crowd of 40,166, couldn't have asked for a better setting, a tougher opponent, or a bigger stage to make their debut. BC hosts Florida State, ranked No. 8 in the Associated Press Top 25 and the USA Today coaches' polls, Saturday night at 7:45 before a sold-out Alumni Stadium (cap. 44,500) and a national television audience.
''It's an exciting time for Boston College," said coach Tom O'Brien, whose Eagles yesterday climbed to No. 17 in the AP Top 25 and 16th in the USA Today poll, their highest ranking since Jan. 1, 1994, when BC was No. 16 in the AP poll after capping a 9-3 season with a 31-13 victory over Virginia in the Carquest Bowl. ''Seeing that this will be our first conference game in the ACC, and we've got to start off with the best, so I think it'll be great for our school and great for our football team and fans that we'll be playing in front of a national television audience."
ESPN's ''College GameDay" crew will make its first visit to Chestnut Hill, and BC fans should not be shocked to see the bombastic Lee Corso don a Seminoles' war bonnet when it comes time for him to make his prediction on the game. After all, Corso is a former Florida State player (1953-56).
Still, after all the legal wrangling, name-calling and hard feelings BC has had to endure in its defection from the Big East, it now can look forward to the moment it has been waiting for: its first ACC contest.
''It looked like it was awful far off," said O'Brien, asked if he thought BC's first ACC game would ever come. ''We were fighting for our lives last year just to survive in the Big East with all the things swirling around us. We were just relieved that, as of July 1, it was over and we were definitely accepted into the conference and we look forward to a long relationship being in the ACC."
The most difficult aspect of the transition? ''It was the relationships we had with all the Big East schools," O'Brien said. ''It wasn't a very popular move by us to leave. I think [the Big East] could live with Miami leaving and, maybe, Virginia Tech. But being one of the founding members of the Big East, there was a lot of hard feelings still out there, so we're just happy that it's over.
''Going into this year, it was quite a challenge for the staff, because there's eight teams that we play this year that we haven't played since we've been here," O'Brien said. ''So it's been a great challenge. It's like we've changed jobs. We went from a Big East school to an ACC school and so, in some respects, we're starting all over."
O'Brien has quite a dossier on the Seminoles, though. When he was George Welsh's assistant at the University of Virginia, O'Brien was a member of the staff that pinned Florida State with its first ACC loss in 1995, 33-28, in Charlottesville, Va.
''We were fortunate to compete against them," O'Brien said. ''In fact, Coach [Bobby] Bowden is the only head coach who's still in the ACC from the time that I left [in 1997], so the whole league's changed over. But Coach [Mickey] Andrews is still coaching the defense and a lot of that is the same.
''The offense looks like it's changed a little bit. They're more in conventional right-left formations and I-backfields and things like that. I think when I left [Virginia] they were doing all this spread stuff. But a lot of things are constant: They still have great players, they still play great defense and special teams."
The Seminoles, who struggled to break in freshman quarterbacks Drew Weatherford and Xavier Lee, flexed their offensive might in a 62-10 romp over The Citadel Saturday night. As was the case with BC, which rallied for 44 unanswered points after allowing Army to march 80 yards in 12 plays to take a 7-0 lead on the game's opening drive, Florida State rallied from a 10-3 deficit with a little more than a minute left in the first half to score 59 consecutive points, including five third-quarter touchdowns.
Weatherford, who struggled mightily in his first collegiate start (7 for 24, 67 yards) -- a 10-7 win over Miami Sept. 5 -- bounced back to complete 26 of 37 passes for 342 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Lee, Weatherford's backup, rebounded, too, after being pulled for throwing a first-half interception against The Citadel to finish with 143 yards passing and a TD in reserve duty.
