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Boston College Football 2013 Previews: Wake Forest Demon Deacons

2013-05-21T20:00:08Z

Last week we started our summer series previewing Boston College's upcoming 2013 season. We kicked off the series with a discussion on Villanova football, a look at the history of the series, an indepth look at QB John Robertson and an interview with 'Nova Blog VUHoops.com. This week we move on to the second installment, the Wake Forest Demon Deacons.

Boston College starts their slate of ACC games early this year with a matchup against our rivals (?) the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. Both of these teams have a long history of close battles, with BC holding the edge 10-8-2. BC had a long strong of domination over WF from 2005-2006 where the Eagles won 5-6 of six, however in the past two seasons however, it has been Wake who has come out victorious, most recently beating BC 28-14.

Wake is a team that has tools to be good on offense, but a defense that was almost as bad as Boston College's last year. The Deacons will be led by senior QB Tanner Price, who has started the previous three seasons for Head Coach Jim Grobe. Price is a legit college quarterback who has had good success over the past two seasons against Boston College averaging close to 300 yards a game. However this has been against Frank Spaziani's cushion defense, and with a wily wide receiver like Michael Campanaro, the results were inevitable.

Speaking of Campanaro he stands to be the biggest offensive threat the Eagles will face in September. He is fresh off a monster junior season where he caught 79 passes, even when he missed two games due to an injury. He absolutely lit up Boston College in 2012, when he caught 16 passes for 123 yards and three touchdowns. Eagles fans everywhere have to be praying that Don Brown has an alternate plan for dealing with Michael Campanaro.

On the ground BC will be facing a familiar foe, senior running back Josh Harris. The senior will be playing in his third game against the Eagles, two of which he has scored touchdowns. Last season Harris finished the year with 608 yards and five touchdowns.

Defensively, Wake suspectible to giving up lots of big plays and lots of points. Last season they allowed 432.8 yards a game, with a pass defense that ranked 101st in the country allowing 302 yards a game. In terms of positives the defense was led by linebacker Justin Jackson who had four sacks last season, and cornerback Kevin Johnson who led the team with 3 interceptions.

Things You Need To Know About Wake Forest:

Head Coach: Jim Grobe, 12th season, 62-60 record
Leading Returning Passer: Tanner Price, senior QB, 228-420, 2300 yards, 12 TD's 7 Ints
Leading Returning Rusher: Josh Harris, senior RB, 137 rushes, 608 yards, 5 touchdowns
Leading Returning Receiver: Michael Campanaro, 79 receptions 763 yards, 6 TD's
Recent Success: In 2006 Wake Forest won the ACC Championship
Famous Alumni: Tyson Clabo, Aaron Curry, Desmond Clark, Bill George, Fred Robbins, Norm Snead, Jay Williams, Joe Zelenka

Wake Forest Twitter Accounts To Follow:

Wake Forest Athletics: @WFUSports
Wake Football: @DeaconFootball
SB Nation Wake Forest Blog: Blogger So Dear
Blogger So Dear Writers: @MartinRickman , @BSD_RAJohnston , @BJohnston

Upcoming Schedule for Wake Forest Week:
Wednesday: Preview of Wake Forest Wide Receiver Michael Campanaro
Thursday: Boston College's Key To Victory
Friday: Interview With Blogger So Dear

Military Bowl Moving From Washington To Annapolis, Adds Conference USA In 2013

2013-05-21T19:00:09Z

According to an announcement by the D.C. Bowl Committee and Events DC, the Military Bowl will be played at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis in 2013, moving from its previous home at RFK Stadium. This year's game will be played on December 27 at 2:30 p.m. (ESPN) and pair the No. 8 selection from the ACC against an opponent from Conference USA.

The bowl game played at Navy's home stadium in Annapolis is the first of its kind. With the bowl game moving further east on US 50, it's only a matter of time before Boston College is hosting a bowl at Alumni Stadium, yes?

When the ACC released its 2013 bowl schedule earlier this month, the Military Bowl paired an ACC team against an at-large selection. That has been remedied with a new deal that will send a Conference USA opponent to the game.

Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium seats 34,000, down from the more than 50,000-seat capacity of RFK Stadium. The game has only averaged about 27,000 over the first five years of the event. While Boston College has never played in the bowl, they do have a bit of history playing at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. The Eagles are 9-3 in Annapolis -- all vs. Navy -- last playing at the Naval Academy in 2001 (a 38-21 W).

Last season, Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician sent Syracuse fans on The Quest For Beef ('O' Brady Bowl). Now accepting name suggestions for Boston College's quest to play Middle Tennessee State in Annapolis. Bowl season - there's nothing quite like it.

ACC Season-Ending Rivalry Games: Not New, Not Hard, Not Created In A Vacuum

2013-05-21T16:00:04Z

If the ACC is going to move towards every program having a season-ending rivalry game, the youngbloods Pitt and Syracuse are also going to need a dancing partner. On Monday, ESPN's Heather Dinich weighed in on Pitt and Syracuse's need for a rivalry game to end the season. Many silly things were said that largely ignores the entirety of Syracuse and Boston College football history.

"Boston College makes sense because it’s in the Northeast, fans of both schools can travel to the games, and the two programs played almost every season from 1961-2004. There’s just nothing about BC-Cuse football right now, though, that makes this series any more than two programs trying to step over each other in the Atlantic Division."

I hope the league brass doesn't agonize over picking a "rival" for Syracuse too much, because it should take all of 10 seconds before Boston College and Syracuse are paired together. Appreciating that rivalries take time to develop -- or in BC-Syracuse's case, take time to be rekindled -- this is a slam dunk pairing given geography, recruiting, academics, demographics and an extensive shared football history.

Season-ending rivalry games are not new and not created in a vacuum. The ACC can't just dream up these rivalry games without also considering what the other four major conferences are doing at season's end. This also isn't rocket science. Programs from each of the five major conferences have played season-ending rivalry games for years. All this does is formalize matchups between the programs that either haven't such a series or have struggled to replace a long-standing season-ending rivalry game a la BC-Holy Cross.

We're also not likely to see an influx of non-conference rivalry games to end the season. Conferences will strive to maximize their own TV inventory before handing over valuable properties to other conferences where they won't realize the TV benefits every other year. Keeping these games in-conference boosts conference TV ratings and adds intrigue to late-season division races. This is why you'll likely see Penn State-Michigan State to end the year over Penn State-Pitt or Penn State-Syracuse, given the game's importance to the Big Ten East division title and the Big Ten Championship Game. Other than long-standing existing non-conference rivalries -- Florida State-Florida, Clemson-South Carolina, Georgia Tech-Georgia -- don't expect to see an influx of new season-ending non-conference series.

As I said, this has been done for years. Leagues are finally realizing that there's value in having a fixed scheduling opponent to end the year. All that's left to do is pair the remaining programs and, if only for one week out of 13, assemble the greatest weekend slate of games for the sport.

Big Ten East
Maryland vs. Rutgers (the game)
Ohio State vs. Michigan (The Game)
Penn State vs. Michigan State (Land Grant Trophy)

Big Ten West
Iowa vs. Nebraska (Heroes Trophy)
Illinois vs. Northwestern (Land of Lincoln Trophy née Sweet Sioux Tomahawk)
Minnesota vs. Wisconsin (Paul Bunyan's Axe)

Big Ten Cross-Division
Indiana vs. Purdue (Old Oaken Bucket)

ACC Atlantic
Boston College vs. Syracuse
Louisville vs. N.C. State (?)

ACC Coastal
Duke vs. North Carolina (basketball)
Miami vs. Pittsburgh
Virginia vs. Virginia Tech (Commonwealth Cup)

ACC vs. SEC
Clemson vs. South Carolina (Palmetto Bowl)
Georgia Tech vs. Georgia (Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate)
Florida State vs. Florida
Wake Forest vs. Vanderbilt

SEC East
Kentucky vs. Tennessee (Battle for the Barrel)

SEC West
Alabama vs. Auburn (Iron Bowl)
Arkansas vs. LSU (Battle for the Golden Boot)
Mississippi vs. Mississippi State (Egg Bowl)

SEC Cross-Division
Missouri vs. Texas A&M

Big 12
Iowa State vs. West Virginia (the Big 12 calls these two neighbors)
Kansas vs. Kansas State (Sunflower Showdown)
Oklahoma vs. Oklahoma State (Bedlam Series)
Texas vs. NOT Texas A&M (Baylor / Texas Tech / TCU)
Baylor / Texas Tech / TCU vs. Baylor / Texas Tech / TCU

PAC-12 South
Arizona vs. Arizona State (The Duel in the Desert)
Colorado vs. Utah (Rumble in the Rockies)
UCLA vs. USC (The Crosstown Showdown)

PAC-12 North
California vs. Stanford (Big Game)
Oregon vs. Oregon State (The Civil War)
Washington vs. Washington State (The Apple Cup)

PAC-12 vs. Notre Dame
Notre Dame at USC OR Notre Dame at Stanford

Either the ACC or the Big 12 wins the award for weakest season-ending "rivalry" games. If you're the ACC and don't like this fact? Go the "Big Ten" route and realign the divisions into something that makes a little more sense. That, or dip into the American to pair the remaining programs (Miami-USF? Louisville-Cincinnati? N.C. State-East Carolina?).

Given the programs left, this really isn't all that hard. Watch the ACC screw it up anyway.

Detroit Lions To Start College Football Bowl Game To Replace Little Caesars Bowl; Pit ACC Vs. Big Ten

2013-05-21T15:20:27Z

According to ESPN's Brett McMurphy, the Little Caesars Bowl will be no more after this season; replaced by a new Detroit bowl game sponsored by the Detroit Lions. The matchup? ACC vs. Big Ten.

Detroit Lions expected to start new bowl in 2014, likely B1G vs. ACC, at Ford Field sources told @espn. Would eliminate Little Caesars Bowl
— Brett McMurphy (@McMurphyESPN) May 21, 2013

The bowl formerly known as the Motor City Bowl has been played annually since 1997. Boston College became the first Big East program to participate in this bowl game in 2002, pasting Toledo 51-25 in what was the first bowl game at the new Ford Field. The previous five installments of this game were played at the Lions' old home, the Pontiac Silverdome. The Eagles, led by Brian St. Pierre, scored on each of their first six possessions en route to a Motor City Bowl record 51 points.

Of all the NFL cities within the combined geographic footprint of the Big Ten and the ACC, why was Detroit selected to continue hosting a bowl game; let alone one pairing the ACC up against the Big Ten. Sorry but were Indianapolis, Minneapolis and St. Louis all booked solid?

With any luck, BC will never play in this bowl game again. Never ever.

Boston College GIF Of The Year: Sweet 16 Matchup #6

2013-05-21T12:00:11Z

Day 6 is go.

Tim Joy Rocks Maryland:

Tim Joy just destroys the Maryland quarterback.

There weren't many highlights from games not involving Maryland. Oh Maryland.

Spaz Doesn't Know:

Tournament dark horse, perhaps?? Not much of a caption needed for this one.

24 hours to vote. Hit it.

Poll

Which GIF advances to the Elite 8?

Boston College Daily Links: Ryan Day Returns To Boston

2013-05-21T11:39:57Z

Ryan Day makes his return to Boston (ESPN ACC Blog)
"During my time at BC I worked under Dana Bible, Gary Tranquill, Kevin Rogers, Dave Brock and Steve Logan, five different coordinators, so I was able to take a look and say here are some things I like that they did, some things at BC we can do, and here are some things we don’t do so well here based on the personnel we have, and I had that experience to draw upon," Day said.

Spring MVP -- Boston College (ESPN)
Andrea Adelson wraps up the spring MVP video series with Boston College, and talks about the improvement center Andy Gallik made for the Eagles.

BC Athletics Holds Inaugural Student-Athlete Reception (BCEagles.com)
Boston College Director of Athletics Brad Bates welcomed the Class of 2013 with families to a reception on BC's Bapst Library lawn on Saturday afternoon to celebrate the student-athletes' achievements.

BC Introduces New All-Access Gold Pass For Student Season-Tickets (Heights Sports Blog)
The Boston College athletic department is set to announce a new “Gold Pass” for student tickets this week, a major change from the old season-ticket system. Tagged as “Your Student All-Access Pass to Boston College Athletics,” the Gold Pass will be implemented this fall and will replace the old ticketing structure that sold individual and season tickets by sport.

State Now - Summer Hoops Preview '14: History points to Duke in new ACC (newsobserver.com)
8. Boston College (16-17, 7-11): Fourth-year coach Steve Donahue has hitched his wagon to sophomore guard Olivier Hanlan, who has the program on the cusp of a breakthrough.

BC in the NHL Playoffs, May 20: Eaves Assists in Wings Win (Soaring To Glory)
The President’s Trophy winners are in a bit of trouble now as one team with an ex-Boston College Eagle made a statement on their home ice.

The Charlotte Touchdown Club produced this Doug Flutie career highlight reel, including the Patriots extra point drop-kick, natch. I never realized how creepy old Baldwin was. Nightmare fuel.

Boston College Baseball Takes One Of Three From Maryland; Finishes Year 12-40

2013-05-20T20:00:10Z

Despite starting the weekend series with a win on Thursday, Birdball dropped the final two games of the series -- the finale in extra innings -- to finish the year with a record of 12-40 overall and 4-25 in the ACC. I chalk the series loss up to the fact that BC doesn't have this super awesome promo video.

Lol.

Back to our own crummy baseball team, Boston College finishes with the worst record by winning percentage in program history -- 12 up and 40 down (.231), besting the 1978 season's mark of 6-18 (.250). Extrapolated over a 162-game season, BC would have won just 37 games. That's six games back of the 2003 Detroit Tigers (43-119), the worst MLB program of the 162-game season era.

As one would expect, the Eagles' season-ending statistics are predictably terrible. The Eagles hit .206 as a team. Eight batters finished the year at or below the Mendoza line, including senior outfielder Matt McGovern (.168). The pitching wasn't much better. The team's final ERA: 5.38. Opposing batters hit .292 during the year, .086 percentage points higher than the Eagles. Andrew Chin and Eric Stevens combined to start 26 of the Eagles' 52 games this year, winning just one game between the two (1-20).

The program was eliminated from the postseason weeks ago, but for the sixth time in the program's eight years in the ACC, the ACC Baseball Championship goes on without Boston College. The only programs that have missed the championship more than BC since 2006 are Duke (seven of eight times) and Maryland (all eight years).

ACC Baseball Championship - Programs Not Participating By Year, 2006-2013

2006: Boston College, Duke, Maryland, Virginia Tech
2007: Boston College, Duke, Maryland, Virginia Tech
2008: Boston College, Duke, Maryland, Virginia Tech
2009: Maryland, N.C. State, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest
2010: Duke, Maryland, North Carolina, Wake Forest
2011: Boston College, Duke, Maryland, Virginia Tech
2012: Boston College, Duke, Maryland, Virginia Tech
2013: Boston College, Duke, Maryland, Wake Forest

This year is the final season of the eight game Championship format as the tournament expands to 10 teams with the additions of Notre Dame and Pittsburgh in 2014.

The question becomes what new AD Brad Bates will do with the program. Does he fire Gambino given this year's results and the four-year body of work? Or does he find more funding to bring the Eagles' coaching staff in line with the rest of the conference? When will the school break ground on the program's new baseball/softball stadium on Brighton Campus?

As an outsider looking in, it would seem that the team quit on Gambino and that retaining him would only set the program back even further. Looking at the larger picture, I'm not sure BC can afford to wait another year before making a move. The ACC is only going to get more difficult with Notre Dame and Pittsburgh joining next season, and Louisville in 2015, though this will mean BC will face one less program from the much stronger Coastal Division in 2014 (this year, BC missed Virginia (45-9, 22-8 ACC) from the other division). The following season, the conference's worst post-expansion baseball program, Maryland, is jettisoned for Louisville, which is eyeing this year's Big East title and another NCAA Tournament berth.

If the program aspires to ACC competitiveness, it makes sense to part with Gambino now, find a new coach with prior head coaching experience and fund a full coaching staff. While Bates was not here at the end of the 2011 football season, hopefully there's enough of an institutional memory within the athletics department to not make the same mistake twice with the baseball program.

An ACC Network? Not So Fast

2013-05-20T18:20:14Z

Much of the speculation surrounding last week's ACC Spring Meetings in Amelia Island, Florida centered around the possibility of the conference forming its own television network. Now enjoying long-term stability that comes with the league's grant-of-rights agreement, league officials entered into exploratory talks with ESPN about forming its own network.

According to the Sports Business Daily's Michael Smith & John Ourand, the idea of an ACC Network might be D.O.A. before it ever even gets off the ground.

"Don't expect an ACC-branded TV channel to be launched any time soon.

The biggest problem so far is a rights issue. ESPN needs to control the conference's syndicated rights to launch a channel. But those rights are tied up until 2027 through deals with Raycom and Fox Sports Net.

"There's no way an ACC network co-exists with a syndicated model," said Chris Bevilacqua, a media consultant who worked with the Pac-12 to form a league network. "They're going to have to get those rights back."

Raycom tho.

I can't imagine Raycom and Fox Sports Net will give up syndication rights on the cheap, so the league will be forced to buy back those rights at a premium before entertaining thoughts of starting its own ACC Network. Those syndication rights likely make the formation of a joint venture ESPN/ACC Network cost prohibitive to even start.

However, it's not all bad news for the conference. Should ESPN pass on forming an ACC Network, which I imagine they will, the conference will get a bump in its media rights payout. ESPN saying 'no' to a channel would increase the compensation to the ACC, pushing the per-school average close to $20 million. That would be up from about $18 million per year today.

Despite the ACC boasting the most TV households in its footprint of any other league, it would appear that conference has missed the window of opportunity for forming its own league network. With the per-school financial windfall that comes from the BTN, SEC Network and PAC-12 Network deals, this feels like a loss in the short-term when compared to other peer programs and conferences.

But longer-term, as other disruptive models mature and with the difficulties these conferences are having gaining carriage on cable providers, I'm not so sure. I'd much rather have the conference focus on ways of better distributing and monetizing content through other channels -- online, mobile, etc. -- instead of following the 'me too' approach and chasing the dream of having your own cable network.