Image courtesy of BC Athletics

There’s no sugarcoating it. It’s been ugly.

There’s no denying that the BC football season has been the complete opposite of what many thought it would be just a couple months ago. The Eagles are 1-4, 0-3 in the ACC and could be on the verge of one of the poorer seasons in recent programs history.

But, it’s also important to remember that these are college athletes. Sure, money is now involved (albeit not a ton) and 17, 18 and 19-year old kids have a lot on their plate outside of football. All college fan bases can be ruthless at times, especially with so many passionate alumni still following their programs.

On Tuesday morning following practice, I asked Franklin specifically about social media and if the older guys are telling the younger guys to stay off it as much as possible while the team goes through its struggles.

“Yeah, you know, everyone says to stay off social media and I think that’s a real thing,” he said. “We all know how dangerous it can be getting all that stuff. I think some people fail to realize that as much as…as angry as you guys are, we’re also angry. All that extra stuff, some people can’t handle it. “I think what would be a good idea for the young guys, it’s like, just keep focusing on what you’re doing.

“You’ve got a lot of stuff going forward. Make sure to keep your mind…keep the rails on the tracks…I don’t know what that saying is. But, just keep going. “People are going to be ruthless on the internet. There’s not much you can do about that. There’s not a lot of sympathy out there, just ignore it. That’s all you can really do.”

Asked if he had a message for the fans that are still hoping to see BC turn things around this season, Franklin said the team feels the same way they do.

“What was that, our fifth game? We have seven more. So, we’ve got a lot of weeks left. We’re going to keep playing, so all we can say is we’re going to continue to do our best out there and we understand your frustrations. We’re frustrated too,” he added. “We know how you guys feel. This is obviously not what we want to put out there as a team. So, we’re going to go out there and try our best every single week, you know…we appreciate all the support we can get.

“Obviously, there’s frustration, it’s understandable. I am frustrated as a player on the team. We’re just going to do our best. That’s all we can do.”