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Today was the first ever start to the early signing day period which will last for two more days. However given the conversation that Steve Addazio had with the press today, I imagine that there won’t be much news over the next 48+hours. Let’s break down how the first day went.
Nothing Out Of The Ordinary
Today was pretty anti-climatic for the Eagles, they landed 19 recruits all of them had been linked to Boston College before today. There were no surprise flips either from or to BC, and the only player that was linked that didn’t end up with BC was Tyler Days a DB from New York. This kind of bland day was not the case for many schools, Syracuse was able to flip a QB from Houston, all the factories had their usual hat ceremonies, and surprises were abound for many. However, for the Eagles it was just ended up being business as usual.
Hitting The Usual Pipelines
Steve Addazio went with his usual stomping grounds picking up multiple recruits from New Jersey (Anthony Campanile), New York (Paul Pasqualoni) and Massachusetts. Interestingly BC did not land any commits from Ohio and Georgia, and you have to wonder if the loss of former special teams coordinator Al Washington has anything to do with the lack of success or emphasis in those states. It’ll be interesting to see if they try again in those states again moving forward, have to imagine that they will.
Increase In Rating
The Heights did a nice job of breaking down the class, explaining that the Eagles class ranked #55, up 11 spots from last year. I saw people clamoring for higher rated recruiting and throwing away the results of this recruiting class. Remember, Addazio had this entire class to this point locked up before the season even started. If the Eagles can defeat Iowa at the Pinstripe Bowl, we could see that rise in rankings that folks are hoping for. Of course the new practice facility will help as well.
Offensive Line U, And Some Help On The Defensive Line
The most impressive haul for the Eagles have to be the big guys up front. On the offensive side they brought in 4* OT Finn Dirstine, who has a frame that is NCAA ready, and two massive offensive linemen from Texas (Thomas Shelmire and Tyler Vrabel). Shelmire was all state in Texas. Add them to Jon Baker, Ben Petrula, Chris Lindstrom, Elijah Johnson, and hopefully with all the other younger linemen progressing, BC is going to be stacked up front. Exciting for a program that should be building around the talent of A.J. Dillon.
On the defensive side, BC is going to be losing Noa Merritt after this season, and needs to build some depth at the tackle. Adding Ryan Betro, Kyiev Bennermon to the 2017 commits T.J. Raynam, Jaleel Berry and Nate Emer gives the Eagles some much needed depth moving forward.
Where The Offensive Skill Positions At?
BC landed two quarterbacks in this recruiting class with Johnny Langan and Matt Valecce, but only added one skill position player at running back, wide receiver and tight end. There could be a myriad of reasons Addazio chose this approach, mostly the numbers on the roster. For instance at wide receiver, they have 13 returning wide outs, 8 with multiple years of eligibility left. At tight end, they have nine tight ends, seven with multiple years of eligiblity left. And at running back, BC has Travis Levy and A.J. Dillon returning. It’s difficult to bring in multiple recruits if you have such a log jam at each position. It’s actually not a bad issue to have, it shows the depth Addazio is building.