Paul Rutherford-USA TODAY Sports
Can you believe we’re now going to be four weeks in to the Boston College football season?
Time flies when you’re having fun, so let’s get right to it. Here is everything you need to know about the Eagles as they head into another ACC matchup with Pittsburgh at home on Saturday:
FINAL THOUGHTS FROM THE UNC LOSS
The UNC loss was another one that came down to the last play. The Eagles committed 10 penalties for over 100 yards and struggled mightily on third down in the first half, and yet they were still right there in the end. Coach Hafley met with the media early Sunday afternoon as he does following every game for one final recap.
“Really, really proud of the way our guys played and fought,” he said. “You can see it on tape, the effort is outstanding. They’re playing tough, playing physical and playing for each other…I appreciate and love coaching them.
“We missed opportunities. We missed opportunities to go up. We missed opportunities to stop them on third down. We missed opportunities on explosive plays where there was a lot of self inflicted. I’m confident if we do our job at a higher level we win that football game.”
CASHING IN ON RED ZONE ATTEMPTS
BC has settled for six field goals this season on 14 Red Zone attempts. The Eagles struggled again down there against UNC and coach Hafley knows touchdowns will be even more critical this week against a high-powered Pitt offense.
“That’s one of the more disappointing things we need to do better as coaches and players,” Hafley acknowledged. “We dropped some balls in the end zone…you’re talking about 14 points we took off the board ourself. We need to score touchdowns in the Red Zone. That’s always going to be the plan to win and we need to emphasize that more because that was a big part of the game. You can see some of our better players…they had it and we didn’t come up with them.”
THIS ONE IS PERSONAL…AGAIN
For the second straight week, coach Hafley has some personal ties to the Pitt program. Hafley coached for Pitt early in his career and opened up Tuesday’s media availability talking about it.
“I’ll talk a little bit about Pitt. Obviously I have some experience, I was there for five years. That’s really where I got started and got my first opportunity thanks to Dave Wannstedt, a guy who really changed my life,” Hafley said. “I know coach Pat Narduzzi pretty well, I have a lot of respect for him. I’ve known him for a while, and actually he texted me before my first game, and congratulated me after our win. I have a ton of respect for him, he’s been really good to me.
“He’s actually a guy that early on in the Zoom calls, called me after and said ‘hey if you ever need anything give me a call’ so I really appreciate him for that.”
THIS ONE IS PERSONAL FOR THE QUARTERBACK AS WELL
It’s not just coach Hafley who has some extra ‘oomph’ for this one on Saturday, starting quarterback Phil Jurkovec is a Pitt native and grew up watching Panther games. Jurkovec got pretty in-depth with his love for all things Pittsburgh when he met with the media on Wednesday.
“It means a lot,” Jurkovec said. “It’s really a dream, just growing up watching Pitt all the time and now getting a chance to play them, it is weird. I’ve played against a lot of those guys, I know a lot of them, so it’ll be fun to play against them.”
Jurkovec also has had some interactions with Narduzzi, interactions he says were friendly, but, the chance for him to wear the blue and gold never really came up.
“Any interaction I’ve had with coach Narduzzi has been good,” Jurkovec said. “After entering into the transfer portal BC was really on me hard. They were on me first and were recruiting me the hardest. I did talk to coach Narduzzi, and really, BC was just a better situation for me.”
Jurkovec was also asked about being part of a special sports city like Boston having grown up in a similarly well-known sports city with Pittsburgh, and he was able to sneak a nice little jab to fans in this area.
“Boston is a very cool city. They’ve got some really good sports teams, although, they try to say they’re the City of Champions, but it’s not really the City of Champions,” Jurkovec said with a sly grin. “Pittsburgh always will be.”
HOW TO SLOW DOWN KENNY PICKETT AND PITT’S OFFENSE
For the second straight week, BC will be facing a phenomenal quarterback, this time it’ll be Kenny Pickett. Pickett is currently third in the country with 1,123 yards passing and Pitt is in the top 10 in total points with 128 scored thus far. So, how do you try and slow him down?
“He’s a very good quarterback,” defensive end Marcuz Valdez said on Tuesday. “He’s experienced and he has an experienced offensive line. He likes to scramble a little here and there, he can make plans with his legs, so we’ve got to stay in our rush lanes. We’ve been working on that all week. They’re disciplined – upfront especially – so we’ve got to just try and contain him.”
“On offense, Coach Whipple has got a pro-style attack,” Hafley added. “I know Coach Whipple from being around the NFL. He’s done an incredible job with that quarterback, who I think is a really good player. The offensive line is really well coached. Probably play together better than any O-line we’ve played all year. Combination blocks, pass protection, they work really well together, you can tell they are a very well coached team.”