Boston College received good news this weekend when safety/linebacker Ben Stewart committed to the Eagles. However it wasn't all positives, as star local recruit AJ Dillon named his Top 5 schools and BC did not make the list:
— AJ Dillon™ (@ajdillon7) March 18, 2016
If you look at the list it's not surprising that BC didn't make the list, other than UVA they are all factory/power house schools, schools that BC would be fighting an uphill battle to win recruits against. That doesn't make this news sting any less. Many had hoped that he could be the cornerstone of 2017 recruiting class that would be show improvement over the rankings of the last two years. Boston College needed multiple running backs in this class, as both Myles Willis and Tyler Rouse are graduating, and Dillon would have been the gem of the group someone Addazio could have promised immediate playing time in a run heavy system. Oh well.
You have to be worried looking at this news from a bigger perspective. Steve Addazio has bragged that he wanted to build a fence around New England, but lately it hasn't seemed like that has been the case at all. Using 247's rankings, Boston College only managed two out of the top five recruits in Massachusetts in 2016, losing Danny Dalton to Penn State, Sean McKeon, and Cam DeGeorge to UConn. In 2015 Addazio had a similar success rate of 2 out of 5, losing Justin Yoon to Notre Dame, Joe Gaziano to Northwestern, and Tyrell Smith to Virginia Tech.
Connecticut, Steve Addazio's home has seen a decline as well. In 2015 Addazio did pretty well in Connecticut hitting on 4 out of the top 10, though he did lose Christian Wilkins to Clemson and Chris Clark to UCLA. 2016 was a brutal year for Boston College though, as BC went a shocking 0-10 recruiting the Top recruits in Connecticut. Certainly not a trend you want to see.
Losing out on AJ Dillon is bad news, and showcases the quick collapse of a wall that needs to be rebuilt. It's unfair to say that BC should be grabbing all the top recruits in New England, attrition to the bigger schools is inevitable, something that even those schools face on a yearly basis. But BC, if they want to be an ACC contender, will need to start snagging some of these bigger name local recruits.