Maroon 17 Gold 17: Darius Wade Shines In Spring Game

Boston College held their annual Jay McGillis Spring Game today at Alumni Stadium in Chestnut Hill. The yearly exhibition was played in front of a small crowd during a raw cold damp afternoon. The battle everyone wanted to watch were the quarterbacks, junior Darius Wade against redshirt freshman Anthony Brown. Both QB’s had an opportunity to play long stretches of the game, heading up both the first and second offense. It was an odd game to watch, as Addazio switched up teams when he wanted to set up certain scenarios, and there was no hard tackling meaning that if a guy was wrapped up the play was called dead which was fine because who wants a player hurt in an exhibition game.

The Eagles did a lot of the quick tempo offense that was expected, but it took a little while for them to really click into gear. The beginning of the game started off pretty vanilla, with many sweep runs and short passes that moved the sticks but stalled. Finally BC scored four touchdowns in quarters two and three, all of them on the ground. Richard Wilson scored two touchdowns for the Eagles, while Davon Jones and Jon Hilliman picked up the other two paydirts for the Eagles.

There were a variety of offensive players that certainly were report worthy. Freshman running back Travis Levy looks like he will be ready to contribute moving forward, he had one rush where he juked a defender almost out of his shoes. Jon Hilliman looks back to 100% and really dynamic when he is running, will be interesting to see what he can do against defenders trying to tackle him. Kobay White, Christian McStravick and Ben Glines all look ready to be in the wide receiver rotation as well as they all made some nice catches during the game.

In terms of the defense, returning tackle leader linebacker Ty Schwab had a real nice game finishing with 10 tackles, two tackles for loss and a sack. Defensive end Zach Allen was a monster off the edge as well, swatting three passes along with a sack. Finally, a name to watch moving forward will have to be linebacker Ethan Tucky who really made his presence felt with seven tackles. The defense did a nice job with two three turnovers (a fumble, and two INTs).

The final two quarters were played with the third being a shortened clock, and the fourth with a running clock. John Fadule and EJ Perry both got opportunities as quarterback. There wasn’t anything really memorable about either of these quarters as there weren’t a ton of big plays. The game ended with a long field goal try by Colton Lichtenberg with the entire roster circled around them, he missed by quite a bit.

The quarterback battle certainly is over yet, but after today’s game it’s in my opinion that Darius Wade looks to be the starter going into Week 1. He was more polished than Anthony Brown finishing 16-27 for 190 yards, and seemed much more comfortable in the pocket, with nice touch on his passes. Brown, might have the higher upside, but he still needs some polish. He may certainly be the faster of the two, but his passes weren’t as accurate. Of course this is only April and there are still months to go.