[Ed. note -- Bumped]

When BC gets in it's first scrimmage tonight, all eyes will be on junior QB Chase Rettig. Rettig has already been through a lot during his BC career, from when he was thrown into the fire as a freshman on ABC against Notre Dame to last year's inconsistent performances as a full-time starter. Moreover, most BC fans have been waiting for Rettig to take the next step and prove to BC that he can be at least a solid starting ACC QB. And his team will want him to do the same thing, as almost their whole season is riding on the cannon-armed QB.

Rettig is the key to BC's season for a number of reasons. First, advanced stats show that if Rettig plays well the team dramatically improves offensively. For example, when BC defeated NC State 14-10 last year, Rettig played extremely well in the first half and BC scored all their points in that half. However, in the second half Rettig played horrible and the offense didn't score a point. Also, in the Miami game, when Rettig consistently played well, the BC offense played extremely well.

Second, when Rettig plays well, that allows Rolandan Finch, Tahj Kimble and Andre Williams to pick up rushing yards because teams have to respect BC's passing game. For example, in the Miami game, Chase went 13-17 for 196 yards and 2 touchdowns. When Miami began to respect BC's passing game, Finch, Kimble, and Williams combined for 158 yards and averaged 3.8 yards per carry.

Third, this year's offense under Doug Martin is going to give Chase an opportunity to really prove himself. There will be a lot more passing and the offense will be more up-tempo. Chase apparently has great chemistry with Doug, but let's face it, he supposedly had great chemistry with previous offensive coordinators. Do I have more optimism with Doug at the helm? Yes. But it's all how Chase runs what Doug gives him that define Chase's year at QB.