Scoreboard-Watching: How Boston College Opponents Fared

It’s hard to put “Boston College football” and “bowl chances” in to the same sentence until the Eagles have a chance to truly put the Virginia Tech debacle in the rearview mirror with a quality performance against a good team. Obviously, a win over Wagner does nothing to make anyone feel any better. But a look at the out of town scoreboard helps size up what’s ahead of BC.

The most interesting out-of-town score may have been one that requires looking back instead of forward, as BC’s last opponent, Virginia Tech, blew the doors off of ECU 54-17. Given ECU’s win over NC State, this makes you feel a little better: maybe the Hokies are ahead of schedule in the Fuente renaissance.

Two opponents looked at as teams BC could beat faced off in Hartford this past weekend, with Syracuse battling UConn. ‘Cuse pulled away late and pulled off the road win, 31-24, in what was largely a neck-and-neck battle, suggesting both teams are probably both pretty close in quality to one another and to BC. Syracuse is #79 and UConn is #99 to BC’s #80 in the Sagarin rankings; playing at home, BC will certainly hope to win both of those games.

NC State, another game considered potentially winnable, was idle this weekend. Wake Forest, however, continues to look a little better than we thought, improving to 4-0 and moving up to #62 in Sagarin with a 33-28 win over Indiana. Wake also has a win over Duke on their resume, so that game is going to be a challenge.

Florida State, Clemson and Louisville have generally been written off as losses and nothing really happened to change opinions on that over the weekend, though FSU appears to have some issues on defense, giving up 35 points in a 55-35 win over USF.

The Eagles’ path to a winning record remains realistic but not easy. Obviously, it has to start with a strong win this weekend against Buffalo.