Boston College Football Spring Game: Offense Defeats Defense 68-58, QBs Struggle

In front of a couple of hundred cold and wet fans, Boston College held its 10th Annual Jay McGillis Spring Game at Alumni Stadium. The game was advertised by BC Athletics as an opportunity to see new Running Game Coordinator Jim Bollman and Offensive Coordinator Doug Martin. It was a miserable day to watch football, but it was interesting to watch none the less.

First off, the offense was a complete mess. BC quarterbacks threw five interceptions today and never seemed to get in a good rhythm. Chase Rettig struggled mightily in what could be his third season as the starting quarterback at the Heights. He threw four interceptions, many of them either under or over thrown or just thrown into very tight situations. He also missed wide open receivers, which was highlighted when he completely missed Alex Amidon who was completely wide uncovered 25 yards down the field. It was discouraging to watch, because Rettig himself looked defeated and dejected coming off the field even after situations where he didn't throw a pick.

Josh Bordner was easily the strongest of the five quarterbacks to play in today's game. The sophomore threw for 159 yards and two TDs while throwing one INT. Bordner showed off his arm throwing a bomb to freshman Joel Zoungrana, who caught two touchdowns in today's game. The battle between Bordner and Rettig will certainly be worth watching as the summer progresses. Dave Shinksie, Mike Marscovetra and Christian Suntrup all got playing time as well and were mostly ineffective.

What was striking to me was that the play calling was drastically different between Bordner and Rettig. Rettig seemed to be still running the same system as last year -- run, run, play action, repeat. On the other hand, Bordner was calling plays out of the gun with multiple packages of wide receivers split on the field. In other words, more of what we were expecting out of Doug Martin.

With both Andre Williams and Tahj Kimble out, Frank Spaziani leaned on Rolandan Finch for most of the game. Finch was the feature back running the ball 27 times (why Spaz?) for 196 yards. Finch was impressive, fighting for yards and blasting through defenders though he did fumble the ball twice during the game. The offensive line was average, playing well on running plays, but allowing the quarterbacks to get sacked multiple times, especially in the second half.

On the defensive end of the ball, takeaways were key. Redshirt freshman Ameer Richardson picked off BC quarterbacks twice, as did James McCaffrey. While the linebackers played strong in their first public showing without Luke Kuechly. Nick Clancy had 10 tackles while Sean Duggan had eight. The defensive line played well, including getting some pressure on the quarterback in the second half.

The offense won and put the icing on the cake when Mike Marscovetra threw a last second bomb to Joe LaCorte in the end zone. LaCorte's fans, who were sitting near me, made the biggest noise of the game after his catch.

During halftime the Eagles presented the Jay McGillis Memorial Scholarship to Jim Noel. The scholarship goes to a defensive back. Noel was accompanied by his mother, but unfortunately Nerlen wasn't there. Maybe Donahue could have worked some magic on him to get him to come to the Heights? Spaz also honored the Iron Man Awards to all the players who participated in every practice this Spring.

It's hard to read too much into a spring intrasquad game, but the team's overall play certainly left a lot to be desired. It's only March so there is a lot of time for improvement, but it's clear that Spaz and co. have a lot of work to do before they open the season in September against Miami.