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Fans, casual observers and blogs have picked up on one of Frank Spaziani's talking points last season when he talked about his team's struggles: inexperience. It was a constant, and even this spring he brought it up when he spoke with Sirius XM about the upcoming season. But how inexperienced are the BC Eagles this season?
Phil Steele, who is a wealth of college football knowledge, broke down the amount of lettermen who left each program after the 2011 season, and came up with a percentage to see what programs have the highest and lowest percentage coming back for the upcoming season. The top of the list included programs such as University Texas San Antonio, Florida, Western Kentucky, and Stanford. At the very bottom of the list was Navy who have only 2 returning lettermen next season, followed by USC and North Texas. At #32, Boston College.
Let's see where BC falls compared to their opponents next season:
| Rank | Team | Returning | Lost | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | Florida St. Seminoles | 68 | 20 | 77% |
| 16 | Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets | 53 | 16 | 76% |
| 32 | Boston College Eagles | 40 | 15 | 72% |
| 37 | Wake Forest Demon Deacons | 55 | 21 | 72% |
| 42 | Army Black Knights | 57 | 23 | 71% |
| 61 | Northwestern Wildcats | 58 | 26 | 69% |
| 74 | Clemson Tigers | 48 | 24 | 66% |
| 90 | Maryland Terrapins | 42 | 22 | 65% |
| 93 | Virginia Tech Hokies | 43 | 23 | 65% |
| 112 | Miami Hurricanes | 41 | 24 | 63% |
| 118 | N.C. State Wolfpack | 31 | 21 | 59% |
| 121 | Notre Dame Fighting Irish | 41 | 31 | 56% |
As you can see BC is right up there in terms of experience next year. They have a higher percentage than all but two of their opponents. What does this mean? In terms of talent probably not a whole not, it's just raw numbers and those don't win and lose games. But what it does do is give solid proof to dispute Spaziani if he tries to play the "we are inexperienced" card again this season.