Last year, the Eagles lost their 19 game regular season non-conference winning streak when they lost at Notre Dame 20-16. Two years ago, BC's seven game bowl winning streak was snapped by Vanderbilt in the Music City Bowl.
Today we take a look at some of the current Boston College winning streaks to keep in mind as we approach summer practices.
Streak: 18
Who: Division I-AA Opponents
The Buzz: After losing to UMass 27-0 in 1978 -- the first year of the Division I-A / Division I-AA split, BC has rattled off 18 straight wins against opponents from college football's lower division. This streak includes 6 straight over UMass, 5 over Holy Cross and 2 over Northeastern. BC's game against an FBS opponent has become an annual fixture on the schedule since 2006, a year after the NCAA decided to allow one win over an FBS opponent to count towards bowl eligibility (wins over Maine, UMass, Rhode Island and Northeastern). Future FBS opponents include UMass (2011), Rhode Island (2012) and New Hampshire (2014).
Streak Threat Level: Extremely Low. Weber State isn't the exactly the dregs of college football's lower division a la Northeastern and Rhode Island, but they aren't world beaters either.
Streak: 18
Who: Home Games Against Non-Conference Opponents
The Buzz: Since dropping a WTF 32-28 loss to -- strangely enough -- Wake Forest back in 2003, the Eagles have rattled off 18 straight non-conference games at home. Notable games in that stretch include a 21-7 win over Penn State (2004), a 30-23 overtime victory over BYU in 2006 and a 17-0 shutout of Notre Dame in 2008.
Streak Threat Level: Medium. This streak should reach 20 before Notre Dame comes to the Heights on October 2. BC should win that game, but throw out the record books when it comes to the Holy War, right?
Streak: 11
Who: Teams from the Mid-American Conference
The Buzz: BC holds an all-time record of 11-1 against teams from the Mid-American Conference. BC's only loss was in its first ever game against a MAC opponent, a 23-14 loss to the Ohio Bobcats way back in 1966. Since then, BC has won at least 1 game against a MAC opponent annually since 2002. In 2002, 2006 and 2009, the Eagles took down two MAC opponents. The 11-game winning streak includes three straight wins against Ball State (2003-05) and three wins against Central Michigan. The MAC winning streak also includes a bowl win over Toledo in the 2002 Motor City Bowl -- the only ever meeting between the two programs. BC currently only has two future dates with a MAC opponent (a home-and-home with Buffalo in 2011 and 2012).
Streak Threat Level: Low. In the first two games of the series, BC has outscored Kent State 55-7. Even with the return of RB Eugene Jarvis to the program, Kent State will have a really tough time knocking off the Eagles in the second game of the season.
Huge drop off in winning streaks, then ...
Streak: 4
Who: Virginia Cavaliers
The Buzz: Boston College is 4-0 all-time against the Cavaliers. The Cavaliers are one of only three FBS teams that the Eagles have an undefeated record against with at least 4 games in the series -- Connecticut (10-0-2) and Kansas State (4-0) are the others. Only two of those four games came in league play, as BC only draws Virginia once every 2-3 seasons with the way the Atlantic and Coastal schedules work.
Streak Threat Level: Low-ish. Last season, BC escaped their trip to Charlottesville with a 14-10 win over the Cavaliers. But first year coach Mike London has a pretty big task to turn around a Cavs program that dropped last year's season opener to I-AA William & Mary. Even though London is a rising star in the ranks of college football coaches, the 'Hoos are still a few years away from getting back into contention in the ACC. This year's game is at home, so I would expect the winning margin to be a bit higher that last year's result. With the way the ACC schedule breaks, the Eagles don't play the Cavaliers again until the 2014 season.
Streak: 3
Who: Wake Forest Demon Deacons
The Buzz: This winning streak could have easily been back down to one entering this season, if not for some late-game heroics from Herzlich and Dominique Davis in 2008. The Wake Forest-Boston College series has produced some of the strangest, most wild games of the past 10 years of Eagles football. I see a lot of BC's football program in Wake Forest -- a small school that always seems to overachieve under coach Jim Grobe. This season, though, Grobe will have to rely on a lot of young talent if the Deacs want to compete in the ACC Atlantic. But that's probably just where Grobe wants to see his team ranked in the preseason, daring prognosticators to count them out.
Streak Threat Level: Low-ish. This threat level would probably be lessened if the game was at home, but BC has struggled playing in Winston-Salem, and would have fallen to 0-3-1 all-time at Wake if not for the aforementioned Davis / Herzlich heroics. Still, this is a game BC has to win if they have any hopes of winning another Division title.
Streak: 3
Who: N.C. State Wolfpack
The Buzz: TOB is now 0-3 against the program he helped build and I'm sure that irks the hell out of him. In fact, BC hasn't lost to N.C. State since TOB's 2006 squad traveled to Raleigh and lost a truly WTF game 17-15 in late September (putting TOB's own personal coaching record in this series at 0-4). BC is 4-1 against the 'Pack since joining the ACC.
Streak Threat Level: Medium. N.C. State's offense is solid, bolstered by the return of QB/2B Russell Wilson. It's the defense that's a problem, as illustrated by Harris shredding the 'Pack defense for 264 yards and 5 touchdowns last season. Two years ago, Chris Crane led BC in a 38-31 shootout victory over the Wolfpack in Raleigh. It will take a much better defensive performance for N.C. State to stay in the game against BC. But because this game is in Raleigh and is the Eagles first road game, I'd say the Pack have a decent-ish shot at knocking off BC.
Streak: 3
Who: Duke Blue Devils
The Buzz: Boston College football -- undefeated against Duke since 1927. Of course, BC has only played the Blue Devils three times since then, and due to the quirks of the ACC schedule, have only faced Duke once as a member of the ACC. In BC's only meeting against Duke in the modern era, the Eagles defeated the Blue Devils 28-7 back in 2006 in Chestnut Hill. BC hosts Duke next season and next travels to Durham in 2015.
Streak Threat Level: Low-ish. Cutcliffe has to replace senior QB Thaddeus Lewis, and will look to sophomore Sean Renfree to step into Lewis' shoes. The Blue Devils do return 8 starters on offense (including 4 on the O-line), but will have to reload on defense, particularly on the defensive line where they lose three seniors. Interesting factoid of this series is that BC will be making its first-ever trip to Wallace Wade Stadium, with the first four games in the series all being played in Chestnut Hill.
BC also currently holds 2 game winning streaks over Kent State (2-0 all-time), Florida State and Maryland.
Any other winning streaks I missed? Thoughts?