Year No. 2 of the Bill O’Brien era at BC begins on Tuesday morning when the team hits the field inside Fish Field House for the first day of spring practice.

BC will be practicing 9:15-11:15 three days a week between now and April 12th. In total, spring ball consists of 15 practices, or in some cases, job interviews for younger players looking to make a statement at the D1 level.

On paper, BC should have plenty of talent at key positions and depth at others. The only problem is, there’s also a lot of guys who simply haven’t had the chance to get a lot of game reps, so that talent and depth is also fairly inexperienced in some spots.

Offensively, BC should be in good shape with QB Grayson James now having a full offseason as ‘the guy’ while newcomers behind him Dylan Lonergan from Alabama and freshman Shaker Reisig making him work to maintain that QB1 status. Running back is still a loaded room with guys such as Turbo Richard, Datrell Jones and Alex Broome all back. You also have new (but not new to local fans) faces Bo MacCormack and Mekhi Dodd on board now too.

Tight end is going to be the biggest question with a wide open TE1 spot as of now. Wide receiver should also be loaded with Lewis Bond, a healthy Jaedn Skeete and Reed Harris as the Top 3. On the line, the Eagles obviously lose Drew Kendall and Ozzy Trapilo, but still have Logan Taylor, Jude Bowry, Kevin Cline, Otto Hess and others with plenty of experience in the system.

Defensively, linebacker has been a question for a long time for the Eagles. Technically, if Bryce Steele, Jaylen Blackwell and Owen McGowan are all healthy, that’s a strong, but unproven starting group. BC recently awarded a scholarship to Juan Zabal, who could force his way onto the field a lot more than many expect. Overall, that’s going to be an interesting competition to watch and it’s feasible a name we aren’t even thinking of ends up being very reliable.

A returning and healthy Amari Jackson is huge. Guys like Carter Davis, Isaiah Davis, Syair Torrence, Cam Martinez and Omar Thornton among others should make this secondary tough to throw against.

The biggest question on that side of the ball is the D-line and replacing the production of edge Donovan Ezeiruaku and Cam Horsley’s big presence inside. George Rooks and Owen Stoudmire are still here and should be able to hold up inside. Guys like Josiah Griffin, Kwan Williams and Sedarius McConnell will obviously have an impact as well.

Special teams was an absolute disaster for the Eagles last year and desperately needs to be addressed. Part of the issue feels like it’s already solved with the addition of Andy Quinn, a kicker from Ireland. Other than that, the punt game and return game (both PR and KR) needs to get figured out as soon as possible.

The Eagles have an extremely difficult schedule this year, but the good news is that a lot of the more difficult games (Clemson, ND, SMU) are all at home. Again, on paper, this team has a chance to be very good, but we need to see it first.

We’ll get that opportunity starting on Tuesday.