Boston College Football Holds First Scrimmage Of Summer

Boston College got things started for the fall today with their first scrimmage of the summer. Players were in full pads today, and the weather was a beautiful high 70s and played in front of former Eagles Dan Koppen, Wes Davis, Gerald Levano and Bryan Murray. Though I did not get to see the scrimmage, there were other media members in attendance, most notably Austin Tedesco from Heights Sports Blog, BC Sports News, and Eric Hoffses from Eagle Action.

In terms of quarterback play there was some interesting news from the scrimmage. First, Hoffses said that the first touchdown pass of the summer was thrown by Josh Bordner to tight end/wide receiver Brian Miller. Glad to see Miller is making positive strides, because I have always felt he could be a huge weapon if he could stay on the field. I didn't get a sense if Bordner or Mike Marscovetra made bigger strides towards securing the back up job.

Chase Rettig played as well, and according to Tedesco he actually ran the ball on three designed run plays. And it appears that he did well on the plays, though Addazio wants him to slide more.  Our own Brian Favat quipped that BC could use Rettig like Chris Crane this year, and he would be okay with that. I have to agree, having Rettig move the ball, it adds another dimension to the offense, though I worry about what would happen if he got injured. Though as we have seen the last three years, Rettig can certainly take a hit.

In terms of the running backs, Andre Williams played only one snap with the first team, and believe me that is fine. Last thing we want is one of two returning running backs getting banged up in meaningless scrimmages. The two freshman (Myles Willis and Tyler Rouse) were pulled from the scrimmage as both left with small injuries, Willis injured his foot and Rouse his hamstring. Addazio confirmed that the injuries weren't major and are day to day.

The star running back according to all reports was Tahj Kimble. The junior running back is returning from a knee injury that forced him to miss almost all of last season.  Addazio spoke highly of Kimble:

"I thought he did some nice things today. He missed a couple days, coming off that knee [injury]. Traditionally, you do a little work and it gets a little swollen and a little sore and you take a day off then come and he's been in that routine. Today, I thought he did some nice things with the ball in his hand. It's all confidence. You come off those injuries and you have to have a little confidence rebuilding, so I thought today was a good step forward for that, and he had some productivity.

The wide receivers also showed some flash today as well. According to Tedesco the wide receiver that opened the most eyes was sophomore Harrison Jackson.

Jackson is a skilled route-runner with good athletic ability. During the spring and today at practice he’s shown off solid hands and seems to have found a groove in the quick routes offensive coordinator Ryan Day has him running. He could challenge Crimmins and Spiffy Evans as a potential second target for Rettig with more days like today.

That's really interesting news because many of us, myself included had assumed Spiffy would be the second wide receiver. That is a very interesting position battle moving forward.

Defensively the news was a little more sparse. Tedesco mentioned that Kevin Pierre-Louis was ecstatic of the play of fellow linebacker Steven Daniels. The sophomore linebacker picked off Chase Rettig, and had this to say:

"He’s doing an amazing job," Pierre-Louis said. "He’s showing up out there. You know where five-two is and that’s real important. Especially as a sophomore, he’s only going to get better and it’s amazing that Steele and I can have a companion like him along with the rest of the linebackers."

For those of who had agita from last year's third down defense, apparently BC has made huge strides in this department. KPL said the third down defense is light years ahead from where it was in 2012. Thank god.