Boston College Football Recruiting: Comparing The Previous Five Classes

With National Signing Day 2.0 in the books, the class of 2018 is officially complete for the Boston College Eagles. In all, BC brought in 20 full scholarship players in this class, which seems about the norm for Steve Addazio since he has taken over in Chestnut Hill. Of course he will always claims he goes for character guys over rankings, but something has to be said about the higher ranked players he has landed (A.J. Dillon, Harold Landry, Jon Hilliman, Connor Strachan). Today, let’s look at how Rivals ranked this class, and how it compared to classes in the past.

Class Rankings According To Rivals.com:

2014: 42 (9th in ACC)
2015: 46 (10th in ACC)
2016: 83 (14th in ACC)
2017: 66 (13th in ACC)
2018: 69 (14th in ACC)

Clearly when Steve Addazio came in he brought some buzz to the program, and turning the program around in 2013 and 2014 was a big part of that. 2016 reflects the complete mess that was the 2015 season, but what concerns me is that ‘17 and ‘18 be all accounts shouldn’t be so low. They are coming off seasons where BC made a bowl, albeit a lower ranked bowl. What struck me about the last two years has been the lack of end of cycle players. Last year Addazio landed A.J. Dillon and TJ Raynam late in recruiting cycle, but for the most part every other recruit was committed before the season had started. Same as this year. While there is a definitely a comfort knowing you are getting “BC guys”, and you very well may get character guys, Addazio has to know that he is missing out on some of those elite athletes who take longer to make a decision. With the new field house being completed this summer, this could be the first recruiting class where he can use a physical example of the improvements BC is making, will that impact the class rank? We shall see, but you have to hope that it will help them.

The fact that BC has been last in the ACC (or 13th) the past three years is concerning. Recruiting is an arms race, and if rankings have any bearing on future success this is something to worry about. Should BC Be expected to be the top of the ACC in terms of recruiting? No, it’s safe to say that will never happen. But we should be hoping for classes that rank around where 2014 and 2015 landed on Rivals charts.