[Ed. note -- Front Page'd -- B.]

ESPN has reported that Rutgers has lost three of its new assistants under first-year coach Kyle Flood. Among them, Ben Sirmans left Rutgers to become the running backs coach for the St. Louis Rams.

What does this mean for Boston College? Good news.

1. Ben Sirmans, formerly a BC assistant last year, recruited out of Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. And he recruited well. Sirmans would have undoubtedly hurt BC's recruiting efforts by negatively advertising against BC and by stealing recruits for Rutgers that BC was interested in. Sirmans leaving Rutgers is great news for the Eagles no matter how you twist it.

2. In a general sense, it's fantastic that Rutgers lost three assistants. There is simply not enough room in the Northeast for a strong Rutgers and a strong BC. One of them has to go and become a weak pathetic underling. I would rather have it be Rutgers. Over the past couple of years, Rutgers has experienced a strong resurgence at least in recruiting, if not performance. Conveniently BC has declined. It is difficult to quantitatively say how this resurgence has hurt BC, but it makes a lot of sense considering our recruiting fight over the Garden State.

New Jersey is one of the best recruiting states in the Northeast. Year in and year out, BC has competed with Rutgers for these recruits. And won. Lately the trend has reversed. I'll take anything that helps BC return its stranglehold on college football recruiting in NJ.