BC Football Preview: Recent History Against the Miami Hurricanes

After a six year hiatus, the Miami and BC rivalry is reignited once again. Without a doubt, this is easily one of the two home games on BC’s schedule that Superfans are most definitely looking forward to (the other being Clemson). The obvious reason being is that these two teams have had a history ever since the mid-eighties with Doug Flutie’s miraculous Hail Mary toss to Gerard Phelan to clinch a last-second victory down in Miami. While those last six seconds of the game caused the name Flutie to be etched into BC football history, and also got him a nice statue out in front of Alumni, it also sparked a rival between two tough-gritted programs for years to come. While Eagle fans do like to look back on that game with a bit of nostalgia and a longing for the past, the rest of the matchups between these two teams have been games that Superfans would rather not bring back into focus.

The Hurricanes and the Eagles have played 29 total games against each other with Miami leading the series by a huge margin of 24-5. It just has always seemed that Miami was the better team with better recruits and more overall talent than the Eagles. However, six years is a long time not playing the Eagles and we all can attest to the fact that this is a far different BC team than in the years prior. So different that ESPN analysts are starting to predict that BC is going to come into this night game undefeated. Needless to say, this is going to be a game for the ages, so get your tickets while you can!

September 9th, 2003: Boston College 14 vs. #2 Miami 33

• Location: Chestnut Hill, MA
• With Coach Tom O-Brien at the helm for BC, the Eagles were thrown into a battle against a stacked Miami team that proved relentless throughout the game.
• Future NFL RB Frank Gore rushed for 74 yards and a touchdown and Roscoe Parish had a field day on special teams collecting 106 yards on 4 punt returns including one for a touchdown.
• QB Quinton Porter had an abysmal game behind center completing only 33% of his passes for 61 yards with one interception.

November 11th, 2006: #18 Boston College 14 vs. Miami 17

• Location: Hard Rock Stadium, Miami FL
• This was only one of the three losses that BC encountered that season
• Matt Ryan completed half of his passing attempts for 169 yards but could not find the back of the endzone all game. He also threw one interception to Glenn Sharpe for Miami.
• BC accrued all of its offensive points on the ground through Andre Callender who rand for 32 yards and a touchdown. The other score was off of an interception returned for a touchdown by Dejuan Tribble who ended up picking off Miami QB Kirby Freeman three times throughout the game.
• While the game stayed close through its entirely, BC could not rack up any points in the fourth quarter giving them their last loss of a great season.

November 24th, 2007: #15 Boston College 28 vs Miami 14

• Location: Chestnut Hill, MA
• With coach Jeff Jagodzinski arriving to the heights to replace Tom O’Brien, the Eagles were cruising through the season as one of the best teams in the FBS.
• Matt Ryan’s Heisman-esque qualities were on full display as he threw for 369 yard and three touchdowns to L.V. Whitworth, Clarence Megwa and Keving Challenger.
• WR Rich Gunnell also had a fantastic game on the receiving end catching 9 passes for 135 yards.
• Mark Herzlich also had a forced fumble (I just wanted to make sure his name didn’t go unnoticed in this article)
• BC ended up outperforming the Hurricanes in totals yard by a 462-281 margin.

November 25th, 2011: Boston College 24 vs. Miami 17

• Location: Hard Rock Stadium, Miami FL
• In the last game of the regular season, BC traveled down south against a Miami team that five days before kickoff withdrew its bowl eligibility due to an ongoing NCAA investigation into notorious Ponzi Schemer Nevin Shapiro. Twelve Miami players were forced to pay restitution with eight of those players being suspended for one or multiple games.
• Boston College QB Chase Rettig threw only 17 passes connecting on 13 of them for 196 yards and two touchdowns both of which were to TE Chris Pantale.
• LUUUUUUKE Kuechly also had one interception which he returned 45 yards for a touchdown. He also had his stereotypical beast of defensive performance with 9 tackles on the day.

September 1st, 2012: Boston College 32 vs. Miami 41

• Location: Chestnut Hill, MA
• In the season opener for a year that would easily go down as one of the worst BC season’s of all time with the team finishing 2-10 on the year, BC came out of the gates with ferocity in a heavily offensive game against the Hurricanes. BC ended up having 537 total yards of offense to Miami’s 415.
• Chase Rettig threw for a whopping 441 yards and two touchdowns on 52 passing attempts. Tahj Kimble and Jake Sinkovec were on the receving end for both of Rettig’s touchdown throws.
• While Rettig did have a dominate performance, BC still felll victim to the turnover bug as they coughed up 3 turnovers in the game.
• Denzel Perryman returned a Rettig interception for 41 yards for Hurricane touchdown and Ladarius Gunter also scooped up a fumble for 28 yards. Andre Williams also coughed up the ball in front of BC’s goal-line on a pivotal drive that could have ended up with BC tying it up late in the game.
• Freshman Miami RB Duke Johnson also had a phenomenal game from scrimmage rushing for 135 yards and two touchdowns on 7 carries