Boston College vs Colgate - Offense Preview

Colgate is an FCS opponent, and not a very good one at that, so in this week’s offense preview we’re going to take a look at Boston College’s offense and what you should be looking out for as the Eagles start the season.

Quarterbacks

QB Phil Jurkovec is back for his second year with Boston College as starting QB, and you should be excited to watch him stretch his legs (and arm) against Colgate this week. The competition shouldn’t be difficult, but there are still some things to look out for to see if Jurkovec is still up to last season’s standards and if he’s improving at all:

• Is Jurkovec more consistent with his ball placement?
• Is Jurkovec able to scramble out of the pocket and make accurate throws?
• Is Jurkovec reading the defense well before the snap?
• How does Jurkovec’s left knee look after his season-ending injury last year?
• Is Jurkovec still able to stand tall in the pocket while being hit?

Some of these things he did very well last season, some of them he was inconsistent with, so Colgate should be a good warm-up and may give us an idea on where his progression is.

This game should also feature plenty of back-ups, so keep your eyes out for the performance of Dennis Grosel (AKA Denny Dimes) to see if he’s still in good football shape and making improvements as well.

Wide Receivers

Zay Flowers is the obvious name to watch here. He’s WR1. But don’t expect him to get a ton of playing time as the game progresses due to BC potentially turning this into a blowout. Jaelen Gill, CJ Lewis, and others are also wideouts who are important, but this game won’t tell us much about them due to the weakness of Colgate, though watching them outrun the competition should be a bunch of fun.

My eyes will be primarily on the return of Kobay White. After he missed all of last season with an ACL injury, BC’s former premier WR is back again in a totally revamped offense. I’ll be paying attention to see if he still has that quickness we saw so many times in 2017-2019 and if he’s able to have good communication with his new QB Phil Jurkovec. If White is firing on all cylinders against Colgate, that will be an encouraging sign that this BC offense is truly ready to rumble.

Running Backs

What intrigues me most about this group this year is the playing time balance between Travis Levy, Alec Sinkfield, Xavier Coleman, and Patrick Garwo. Unfortunately, a game against an FCS opponent will probably give us a skewed representation of what playing time will actually look like during the season. So that analysis will have to wait.

Instead, take a look at how they use each of the RBs:

• Who is taking goal-line carries?
• How often is Levy taking carries versus running routes?
• Is Sinkfield playing on 1st and 2nd downs, or serving as a 3rd down change-of-pace back?

Tight Ends

Oh boy, I’m so excited to see what Trae Barry can do. He’s a highly-touted TE transfer from Jacksonville State making his debut with Boston College, and so far he’s been dazzling in practice. After the departure of Hunter Long, it’s exciting to have another potential NFL draft prospect lined-up and ready to play for BC at TE again. I’ll be looking at how the offense uses Barry, especially if he’s able to go deep down the field and serve pretty much as a big-bodied WR. If Barry is truly that versatile, then BC’s offense is going to be crazy good.

Joey Luchetti is listed on BC’s depth chart as TE1, however, so I’m curious to see if that means Luchetti is simply very good or if coaches think Barry has struggled to acclimate to the FBS level. It will be insightful to see who BC eventually views as TE2 down the line and how their skillset brings may compliment the offense in different ways. Other names to look out for are Charlie Gordinier, Spencer Witter, and Brendan Smith.

Offensive Line

There’s not much to be said here unless there’s some sort of collapse or injury. The BC OL should hold up perfectly well against Colgate considering how high the expectations are this season. If they let up more than 1 or 2 sacks then there’s a problem, but otherwise expect a clean pocket for most of the game.