Week 1 is in the books! BC rolled out to an easy win over Fordham on Saturday that featured some great playmaking from Dylan Lonergan, Jaedn Skeete, Lewis Bond, Reed Harris, Grayson James, Dawson Pough, and more. Now we’re onto Michigan State.
Lonergan Looks Solid
In his first career start at Boston College, quarterback Dylan Lonergan went 26/34 passing, with 268 yards, 4 TDs, and 0 INTs. His offensive
line gave him plenty of time to throw and he completed some pretty passes, including a strike to Reed Harris in the back corner of the endzone from 17 yards away. He was especially effective in the short passing game and was able to keep the BC offense moving despite a lackluster performance in the BC running game. Lonergan did take a couple of sacks, though, and the BC offense stalled out a few times in the first half because he was holding onto the ball too long. I’m hoping that doesn’t become too much of an issue moving forward because he’ll have significantly less time to throw against FBS-level defenses. But overall, I really liked what I saw from QB1 this week and I’m looking forward to his performance on the road against Michigan State this weekend.
East Lansing Up Next
We’ll be talking a lot about Michigan State this week, so I won’t go into the details about their roster just yet. But looking at their 23-6 victory over Western Michigan on Friday night, they seemed solid all around. Quarterback Aiden Chiles had a steady, not flashy, game, and the Spartan defense shutout WMU until garbage time. Their defense has a lot of veteran transfers taking on big roles this season, so I have my doubts about their ability to be good by Week 2. But so far they look formidable. It will be a great early season test for BC’s offense to take on this unit, especially in a hostile environment for a nationally televised night game.
Dawson Pough is the Future?
Here’s a tidbit from Saturday I wasn’t expecting: true freshman wide receiver Dawson Pough looked fantastic. Fordham was still playing their starters in the 4th quarter when the 2nd-team offense rolled out with Grayson James at QB. The backup QB immediately found a deep connection with Pough for 52 yards on the first drive to set up a touchdown. Then they found each other again on the final drive of the game, with James passing to Pough for a 22-yard TD strike over the top of the defense. Obviously it was just a pair of plays in garbage time, so it might not mean much, but Pough looked really dynamic and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him get some playing time later in the season.
Who watched that FSU game?
Finally, I couldn’t let the long weekend pass without talking about Florida State’s upset over Alabama, led by none other than our own Thomas Castellanos. Tommy Touchdowns went 9/14 for 152 passing yards, 78 rushing yards, 1 rushing TD, and zero turnovers in a 31-17 victory over the #8 Crimson Tide.
It was frankly baffling to watch. Any coach worth his salt would have looked at Castellanos’s game tape from last season and realized that you need to stack the box and force Tommy to use his arm to beat you. Yet Alabama continued to sit back in pass coverage and let FSU’s rush-heavy offense dice them up and own the time of possession battle. Castellanos had one long passing play the entire day and it wasn’t even a very accurate throw. Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer seems in over his head and I don’t think this level of success will last very long for the Seminoles. But we’ll see if TC continues to prove his doubters (like me) wrong.
