Throughout the offseason, the talk surrounding Boston College has been about a new offensive line, the Jurkovec return, how special Zay Flowers can be and a number of questions on defense.

Rightfully so.

Lost in the shuffle is the fact that there’s a weapon on special teams that fans and the media are completely forgetting about.

Connor Lytton had a fantastic freshman year kicking for the Eagles after taking over for Aaron Boumerhi and could be a sneaky factor in a lot of games this season. Most importantly, the young kicker carries himself as if he’s an NFL veteran. Lytton is calm, cool and collected.

Last year’s spring game gave everyone an early indication of what Lytton could do. This year’s game is a week away and won’t create the same kind of nerves, but Lytton said he never really had them anyways.

“Nerve wise, not too much different,” he said after practice on Thursday, comparing how he felt at this time last year to now. “We just had a little change in our holding and we’re trying to figure that out right now. It’s looking pretty good and we’ve made improvements over this entire spring ball so heading into the game I feel pretty good.”

Lytton finished 12th in the ACC last year making 11 of 12 field goals. The 91.7% mark was the third highest in the league, only behind teammate Danny Longman (100% 2/2) and Nick Sciba from Wake Forest (92% 23/25). Lytton’s longest made kick of 49 yards was the seventh longest out of 16 qualifying kickers. You’d think a freshman year like that would boost a guy’s confidence significantly, but it didn’t really do much for Lytton. He didn’t need it.

“Not too much,” he said after a pause when asked how much his performance boosted his confidence heading into spring ball. “I’ve been doing kicking for a long time now, so I don’t really feel too much pressure in games.”

Lytton did acknowledge there’s an adjustment when building chemistry with new teammates, but that’s the case with every football team every season.

“Just the new group of guys we brought in, just getting used to them and the whole operation,” he said on what might be different mentally in 2022. One of those new teammates is Australian punter Sam Candotti, who Lytton has enjoyed working with so far.

“It’s been great, he’s a great guy,” Lytton said with a huge smile. “Funny dude, great to be around. He has multiple different ways to punt the ball. We’re already adding a bunch more techniques to our punt scheme, so it’ll be interesting going into the year.”

Boumerhi may not have had the ending he wanted, but he may have helped the future of the program more off the field than he ever could have on it by helping Lytton get adjusted. Even as a sophomore, Lytton is now trying to do the same with Candotti.

“He just helped me figure out this entire process,” Lytton said. “It’s kind of a difficult process just to transition into everything, he really helped me out and I’m trying to pass that on to Sam now and coach him up a little bit.”

Lytton beat Longman out for the job last year and he was asked about what that relationship is like.

“It’s great,” he said. “He’s a great guy, I love working with him. He’s a great competitor, we always love competing against each other. He’s actually doing a little bit of holding too, so I help with that as well.”

It’s not often a freshman in college finds himself in the middle of 80,000 people on prime time television, but Lytton got to get that nerve-racking experience out of the way early in his career, which should serve him and the Eagles well moving forward.

“Probably Death Valley,” he said when asked what the hardest environment to kick in was. Just because it was the loudest.” While he may not have needed the confidence boost, Lytton did say those types of moments were very significant.

“A lot, actually,” he said on how much it helped. “Just going through this past season and then carrying it over now, it’s actually boosted my confidence a lot more.”

It’s early, but Lytton’s demeanor on and off the field screams clutch. Don’t be surprised if he becomes a household name this season, but for now, the Eagles are just fine having him fly under the radar.