Traveling for a couple weeks, I’ve been delayed putting out a season recap of sorts. While that has not stopped BC from making some key offseason moves, nor has it stopped the ACC from planning for next
season, we carry on. Content waits for no man.
First, there was the extra investment to football Blake James outlined. Email, so you know it was serious. As a wise man once explained, “Why do we fall? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up.” Maybe BC needed to hit this bottom to jolt this NIL- funding push and half-sale change. (Reminder Father Jack takes over this summer). That all paired with the hiring of Kenyatta Watson as the team’s new GM. As expected, several players entered the portal, namely Dylan Lonergan, and Bill O’Brien made some moves to shake up the staff. Again expected after a two win season – and it was certainly not going to be the coach taking the fall. The Athletic recently had BC as the 4th hardest job in the country. They obviously didn’t read Blake James’s email, but the point is we’re not doing better and we struck lightning on the timing for his hire.
Watson is a massive addition. Not only is he a BC alum, but he comes with high level experience as an assistant GM at Auburn, Director of Scouting with Georgia Tech, and Director of Player Relations at Florida State. Ryan Bartow joins as assistant GM, spending last season at Sacramento State after working with Watson at FSU.
Defensive Coordinator Tim Lewis, offensive line coach Matt Applebaum, and wide receivers coach Darrell Wyatt were all let go. Berj Najarian, O’Brien’s chief of staff, is also out. When it comes to Lewis, we know the defensive performance was awful this year. It’s tough with all the injuries, but the significant drop-off in terms of tackling and allowing explosive plays was inexcusable. Applebaum did a solid job across his stints and Wyatt was a strong recruiter and built one of the best position groups, but as Hafley holdovers these moves make sense.
O’Brien quickly replaced the two position coaches. Kurt Anderson comes in on the offensive line and Joe Dailey as the receivers coach. Dailey was with BC in 2020 coaching the same position. A collegiate quarterback, his coaching career post BC brought him to the Carolina Panthers, Kansas, Hampton, and Appalachian State. Anderson was with UMass this past season and was with Northwestern for six seasons prior to that. He was responsible for recruiting and developing a couple first round picks there, so he can hopefully continue BC’s recent run.
O’Brien mentioned wanting to get more involved in coaching again particularly on offense, and bringing on Watson will help him do just that. OC Will Lawing is very much an O’Brien disciple and given the changes were at the position groups and not coordinator, it’s clear O’Brien needs to keep someone more malleable so he can take the reins. Again makes sense, that’s his expertise and we welcome it. On the flipside, he elects to keep the defensive position group continuity while looking to bring in a new coordinator to lift the group overall.
OK back to more of a post-mortem. The season was downright dreadful, there’s no way around it. But now further removed from the season, I have to say it was great to see the team fight up until the end and get the bookend win. There’s a reason O’Brien isn’t losing that many guys in the portal either this season or last, and that can be commended. While his exasperated demeanor was overdone and genuinely needs to be worked on, I’m glad that negative attitude didn’t flow into the locker room. It’s clear the added burden of roster management and constant losing took their toll. We hope much of that will be lifted with Watson’s addition and the extra investment, and we’ll be able to tell quick. The transfer portal opens up just after the new year, and it can’t be the same lackadaisical output there was last season. Yes, most of their eggs were tied to Lonergan, but the roster needs a major lift.
The best spin we can hope for is that this was a wake up call. You can’t mess around anymore and expect to find yourselves skating by in the (bottom) middle of the pack. And on the other side you can see what a meaningful investment can do to quickly turn around a program and make for a memorable season. Indiana is the poster child for this, but just in the ACC, UVA shelled out and came this close to a spot at the CFP. (There’s no doubt in my mind that’s how an imaginary BC magical run would end as well). Anyways, it’s nice to see a positive trend up coming out of the season — even if that starting point was down bad.
Other positives notes—
Kaelen Chudzinski looks like a stud. He should be a freshman All-American at tight end and I like to think we can hold onto him with dad in the house. Lewis Bond is in the record books! The standout senior receiver leaves as the school leader in career and single-season receptions. He’s also fifth all time in yards and has now declared for the NFL Draft. Bond and OL Logan Taylor were named to ACC Second Team. TE Jeremiah Franklin was given third team honors, and safeties KP Price and Omar Thornton as well as kicker Luca Lombardo were given honorable mention. LB Bryce Steele was today named one college football’s Comeback Players of the Year. Steele battled four bouts with cancer and worked his way back. After another surgery in October 2023, he got back on the field this year playing nine games this season and starting two. Well deserved.
