2015 College Football Preview: Boston College

Boston College

Offense

 The Golden Eagles will only have 3 returning starters from last year on the offensive side of the ball when they kick off the 2015 season. Unfortunately none of whom are an offensive lineman, which would create a large problem for Boston College this season. However they do have a 6th year senior lineman, Harris Williams, who will be the leader of the line this coming year. Besides the O-line concerns, the Eagles have plenty of raw talent at the skills positions with returning running back, Jon Hilliman leading a very skilled back field including speedy Myles Willis and ground-pounder Marcus Outlaw. Hilliman had 860 yards rushing and 13 tds in only 7 starts in the backfield last year. The starting quarterback is expected to be sophomore Darius Wade, who is a dual threat quarterback who has an arm. Although accuracy is up in the air, Wade will have tight end/wide receiver Dan Crimmins back as the leading returning receiver for the Eagles along with 6'4" Charlie Callinan to help bail him out, not to mention 5'6"  Sherman Alston who is shifty when in open space.

Defense

 The Eagles are more optimistic about their defense than their offense. They will have 6 returning starters coming back to the 2^nd best rushing defense in the nation last year. Boston College will have Senior Connor Wujciak and Juniors Truman Gutapfel and Kevin Kavalec lead the way in the trenches. Linebacker Steven Daniels is back who was second on the team last year in tackles (only one behind graduate Josh Keyes) and leader in interceptions, Justin Simmons, to back up the stacked Golden Eagle front line.

Final Call

           If the Golden Eagles are going to win games this season, they are going to have to do it with their defense with the hope that they have a repeat of last season’s run-stopping defense, however they need to create more turnovers with just 2 fumbles (worst in the nation) and only 5 interceptions. The Eagles have raw talent in the skills positions with their best asset being Jon Hilliman leading the way in the back field albeit behind a very questionable front line, but don’t be surprised if Steve Addazio rallies the Eagles just like he did the last two seasons to a 7-6 record.

The First Playoff Championship

The moment all college football fans have asked for will come on Monday night when the Oregon Ducks, lead by heisman trophy winner, Marcus Mariota, go and face Urban Meyer's Ohio State Buckeyes, led by the hands down best third string quarterback in football Cardale Jones.

The two teams face each other after beating the previous champion (Florida State) and a team in the middle of their dynasty (Alabama). The very ironic part about this, is that if the college football playoffs were to be implemented one year later, the projected polls would have Alabama as number 1 and Florida State number 2 and they would be playing for the national championship. But instead it's Oregon and Ohio State who both are looking really good going into the championship.

How close are these teams?

Well I evaluate a team based on  three things; can they run the ball, can they throw the ball, and can they stop the ball. So can Oregon throw the ball? Is this even a question? absolutely, they can. Can Ohio State throw the ball? In there win against Alabama, Cardale Jones looked shaky in the first quarter with drives only coming up with field goals while Alabama was cashing in touchdowns. But Jones rallied his crew and put up 42 on a Nick Saban defense, which was due to Ohio State's ability to run the ball, not his arm (only 243 passing yards) which answers my next question about the two teams. So can Oregon run the ball too? With arguably the best dual threat qb behind center and a very talented true freshman, Royce Freeman, absolutely they can. So with the slight edge to Oregon we still need to factor in each teams defense. Both defenses are the cream of the crop, Ohio State giving up 22.1 points per game and Oregon only giving up .2 more points per game than them.

Final Call

This game will be a iconic game, for being the first playoff final and having two excellent teams compete against one another. But when it comes down to who will win will be determined by Ohio States question marks. Can Cardale Jones throw the ball to win and not rely on his legs? Will Ohio State rely too heavily on the run game against Oregon? Can Oregon stop Jones and Elliot from running all over them? All questions will be answered Monday night but as for a prediction...

Oregon 38 Ohio State 30

I just need more proof of Jones's throwing ability to give Ohio State the nod and from watching the Alabama game, when in doubt, Jones ran for the first down and it'll be hard to believe that Oregon hasn't noticed that and hasn't came up with a game plan for Ohio State. Mariota will show once again why he won the Heisman trophy and why he should be the number one draft pick.