Phil Steele's College Football Bible Look at BC

I am a college football junkie.  Yes, I try to have a life and too often my work life gets in the way of my college football life (the nerve of some people, huh?), but July 1 has been a day that I put all of that aside and get the football season officially kicked off by purchasing Phil Steele's College Football Preview, the Bible of all things college football.

Do yourself a favor, pick one up, and while you're at it, if your eyes aren't great, pick up a magnifying glass, because never has so much been packed onto a page.

So then, what does Phil say about the 2015 Eagles?  Let's take a look at some of the most salient points:

• Overall record: oddly Steele does not predict records for his teams, rather just conference and national ranking finishes, so one must extrapolate a bit and say that the Eagles are destined for 7-5 or 6-6
  • Although Steele says it is most likely Addazio will get BC to a bowl "a great shot," he does not list them in his bowl prediction section.
• Power ranking of #69 in the country, up from 90 in 2014.
• The Eagles played the 48th-toughest schedule in the country last year and are estimated to have the 54th-toughest in 2015.
• 127th experience wise. Only Florida State is less experienced in the entire country. Last season, the Eagles were also 127th in the country and managed that 7-6 record.
• Each of the individual positions are grouped into units and each unit ranked, BC appears in two
  • #22 on the defensive line, #27 special teams, primarily due to Miles Willis as a kick returner
• No first, second, third or fourth team All-Americans
• Only Connor Wujciak and Miles Willis (KR) make the top two all ACC teams, while Jon Hilliman (4th team running back) is the only other Eagle listed in the top four all ACC teams.
• In the ACC, BC has the last rated QB group (tied with Duke for 13th) and are also low (12th) in both offensive line play and defensive back play. Their highest ratings are 3rd for defensive line and 6th for special teams.
• BC's recruiting class ranked 58th in the country and 13th in the ACC. None of BC's recruits were ranked in Steele's top 500 players. This put BC ahead of only seven Power 5 conference schools in total.
  • The recruiting haul lists 1 very highly touted and 15 highly touted players. Wake Forest and Syracuse list zero very highly touteds, while Clemson lists the most at 18, with Florida State at 17
• The Eagles are picked to have the 14th most improved passing offense but are dead last #128 when it comes to improvement in rushing offense.
  • Both yards per game (-8.7) and points per game (-2.9) are expected to be down this season
• 2016 draft eligible players—essentially the top 30-40 at each position
  • Just one, Connor Wujciak as the 17th rated defensive tackle

Overall, the magazine clearly respects the work done by Addazio and his staff in the previous two seasons and believes things are on the right track at the Heights, but the inference is that it will take another masterful job by the coaching staff to overcome the inexperience BC will have on the field in 2015.