Five Boston College Football Opponents Play Spring Games

Over the weekend six Boston College opponents held their spring games in preparation for the 2012 season. Unlike BC, these games were held in the spring weather of April, and all were much better attended than the Eagles game. Let's take a look at some of the recaps of the games that were played:

Miami

Miami Bloggers The 7th Floor had mixed feelings about the Hurricanes spring game. First, the defense looked strong against an offense that struggled even more than the Eagles' did.

Let's fast forward to today, where the Miami offense— spread across two teams— scored a total of 13 points. The quarterbacks threw four interceptions; they did not throw a touchdown. There is a strong possibility that Miami's offense is not going to be very good in 2012, but the "offense" at the Spring Game today is also not Miami's offense. Stephen Morris, the undisputed best quarterback on the team, did not participate, nor did Allen Hurns, who will likely enter the season as the nominal No. 1 receiver.

That said, today was ugly.

Florida State

In front of a crowd that was larger than most seen at a BC regular season game, Florida State worked out some fundamentals with quarterback E.J Manuel

Manuel did not run or scramble much at all, which is normally a major part of his game. Coach Fisher made Manuel focus on his throwing. Manuel did have some nice throws, but also struggled reading the middle of the field and had some accuracy issues. The game did nothing to increase my confidence that he will ever fully "get it." But he did look better at times.

Like Miami, the Seminole defense was set on destroy:

This defense was missing defensive end Bjoern Werner and cornerback Xavier Rhodes (two top-60) type draft choices, defensive tackle starter/contributors Timmy Jernigan and Jacobbi McDaniel, and starting middle linebacker Vince Williams. and it still dominated. What a ridiculous unit.

The defensive line was its typical dominant self, though many top players were held out. Tank Carradine had an incredible game, abusing the aforementioned Bobby Hart. Brandon Jenkins still played well, despite the nice day from Cameron Erving. Demonte McAllister had a very nice game. Nile Lawrence-Stample was very disruptive, again, abusing Trey Pettis. I am quite confident that FSU has three top-60 picks at defensive end. Just sick.

Northwestern

Returning QB Kain Coulter struggled only throwing for 56 yards. After a season in which the defense struggled, the Wildcats came out with a chip on their shoulder.

Northwestern's defense has struggled for the past season and a half, but the unit stepped up Saturday, recording six sacks and eight tackles for loss. The line had a big performance as four players contributed sacks, and defensive tackle Chance Carter returned an interception 19 yards for a touchdown, which earned the defense 17 points.

"It should be a pick-17 every time -- especially for a defensive tackle," Carter joked.

The defense recorded two takeaways and limited third-down conversions (6 of 18) -- a major problem last season.

Clemson

In a game that oddly went into double overtime, and ended with a kicking contest, Clemson went out and played well on all sides of the ball

Other portions of the offense include decent numbers out of Tajh Boyd sans the interceptions. Nuk continued his excellent spring with 120 yards and a touchdown. Bryant had a nice day, as did Sammy (Watkins), and Peake had five grabs for 75 yards. If we can get any production up front the Clemson WR position is loaded and could crush more than one opponent this season.

Wake Forest

Running back Joshua Harris had a strong game with two touchdowns, and Tanner Price looked sharp:

One play after Bud Noel returned an interception 27 yards to the Black 5-yard line, Harris powered up the middle to put White up 7-3 with 6:08 left in the first half.

Then, he put White back in the lead on its first possession of the second half. Five plays after A.J. Marshall brought an interception back to the Black 31, Harris flared out to the left side, took a screen pass from Brendan Cross and burst down the left sideline for the touchdown that made it 14-10 with 5:05 left in the third.

That came after Price put Black up 10-7 with 3:03 left in the first half. Price faked two handoffs, found Garside down the right sideline and the fullback clipped the pylon as he dove at it. Price didn’t see the field again until there was 1:06 left in the game with his team down by four. His deep pass over the middle was picked off by Marshall for his second interception of the day.