BC’s Best Two-Star Players in Last 10 Years
Andy Backstrom
Staff Writer
Steve Addazio helped excavate Boston College football from the conference cellar but never got the Eagles over the hump of ACC mediocrity.
It’s that second clause that caused BC fans excruciating pain.
His coaching philosophy and game management skills left a lot to be desired because of the talent that graced the field at Alumni Stadium. The thing is, Addazio was partially responsible for that talent.
In his seven years with the program, he and his staff repeatedly identified and developed unheralded recruits. There were some that carried over from Frank Spaziani’s brief run as head coach. Between 2011 and 2020, Boston College football signed 73 two-star recruits, according to the Rivals database.
Four of them have made up a third of BC’s NFL Draft selections in the last five years. And several others have left the Heights with illustrious careers.
Let’s look back at the program’s best two-star players from the past decade (2011-20) of BC recruiting.
10. DE Marcus Valdez: The Don Bosco Prep product had four Power Five offers coming out of high school. He redshirted the 2017 campaign, and injuries afforded him his first extended action the following year when he piled up four tackles in the regular season finale against Syracuse. Valdez built off that performance in 2019. That season, he turned in a 79.7 Pro Football Focus defensive grade, good for eighth among edge defenders in the ACC. He was voted a team captain ahead of 2020 and lived up to the increased expectations, starting all 11 games and recording 5.5 TFLs while posting an 80.9 run defense grade, tied 27th among all edge defenders nationally. He’s only 6-foot, but his impact on the line is large.
9. OL John Phillips: Phillips’ Eagles career ebbed and flowed. BC was his only offer, according to Rivals, and after he arrived in Chestnut Hill, he redshirted the 2015 season. By 2017, though, he was the starting right guard for a BC offensive line that allowed just 13 sacks. His role was scaled back at the beginning of the 2018 season, yet he started the final six games of the year at left guard, including BC’s “College GameDay”-featured contest against No. 2 Clemson. The next season is when Phillips turned heads. A fifth-year guard, the Phoenix, New York, native received All-ACC first team honors, registering a PFF offensive grade of 73.4 in the process. But, because of the pandemic, Phillips never got a Pro Day, and he went undrafted. He’s yet to find an NFL home.
8. CB Hamp Cheevers: The rise and fall of Cheevers’ football career is quite remarkable. He came to BC with a pair of Power Five offers: of course, one was from BC—which was coming off its infamous 0-8 ACC season—and the other was from a Kansas program that went straight up winless in 2015. Cheevers was 160 pounds and spent the bulk of his freshman year playing special teams. An injury to cornerback Kam Moore at the end of 2017 paved Cheevers’ path to a starting corner gig, which he maintained the final three games of that year, finishing with a pair of interceptions. Taking the ball away was his signature in 2019, when he logged seven interceptions—including an 81-yard pick-six against Holy Cross—en route to second team Walter Camp All-American honors. Cheevers left BC early for the NFL Draft but struggled at the Combine, went undrafted and couldn’t make an NFL roster.
7. S Lukas Denis: Interestingly enough, Denis had a similar career progression to Cheever’s. The cerebral safety got his break as a first-year starter in 2017 and often found himself in the right place at the right time. Denis matched his 2016 tackle total in interceptions with seven picks. He was BC’s first defensive back to land on a Walter Camp All-American team in 10 years. Denis was a menace with the ball in his hands, returning interceptions an average of 25.6 yards that season. Additionally, he racked up 83 total tackles, tied for third most on the team. He stayed for his senior year, but his PFF defensive grade plummeted from 90.9 to 59.6 as his missed tackle rate climbed to 21.2%, and he allowed five more yards per reception than he did in 2017. He was signed as a UDFA by Tampa Bay but didn’t make the roster.
6. LB Josh Keyes: Keyes is best remembered for his show-stopping performance in the first annual Red Bandana Game, a 37-31 win over then-No. 9 USC. He piled up eight total tackles, most notably 5.5 TFLs, as well as a sack. The Chatham, New York, native came to BC as a safety. Then he transitioned to linebacker, where he started all 13 games as a senior in 2014. That season, he finished fourth on the team with 66 total tackles. His strong play got him a chance in the NFL, where he bounced around practice squads, namely those of Tampa Bay, Atlanta and Houston. He spent much of the 2016 season with the Falcons except was inactive for their Super Bowl loss to the New England Patriots.
5. CB Kam Moore: BC was the only Power Five school to take a chance on Moore, who eventually served as a team captain during the Eagles’ 2017 season. The hard-hitting corner started three years at BC, ending his time in Chestnut Hill with career highs in tackles (50) and pass break-ups (nine) as a senior. He also registered the second-highest PFF coverage grade among all ACC corners in the 2018 draft class. Moore was selected by the New Orleans Saints in the sixth round but was waived and then claimed by the New York Giants that September. He played 10 snaps for the Giants in 2018, however, a domestic violence complaint against the former BC standout in the summer of 2019, which was ultimately dropped, marked the end of his NFL career. He was picked by the DC Defenders in the 2020 XFL Supplemental Draft yet was released during minicamp.
4. TE Tommy Sweeney: Sweeney made 47 straight starts at tight end during an Eagles career that saw him post 99 receptions, 1,281 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns. He established himself as a redshirt sophomore, kickstarting a stretch of three years where he tallied at least 340 receiving yards and a trio of touchdowns. Sweeney’s best statistical season occurred in 2017 when he recorded 512 receiving yards, 137 of which came on the frozen tundra of Yankee Stadium in the New Era Pinstripe Bowl. He fell to the Buffalo Bills in the seventh round of the 2019 NFL Draft. Sweeney played his way onto the active roster as a rookie and registered eight receptions for 114 yards.
3. C Alec Lindstrom: Like his brother Chris, Alec Lindstrom has come a long way since he was playing at Shepherd Hill Regional. Last season, Lindstrom notched a PFF pass blocking grade of 85.1, the highest on the team. He was recognized with first team All-ACC accolades, an achievement a BC center hadn’t accomplished since Andy Gallik in 2014. Lindstrom is gearing up for his third consecutive year in the middle of BC’s offensive line. He made his Eagles debut in 2018 when Jon Baker was injured. The opportunity allowed Alec to play next to Chris, who was a four-year starter at right guard.
2. TE Hunter Long: Long became the highest-drafted tight end in school history this spring when he was taken in the third round by the Miami Dolphins, but it wasn’t too long ago that he was just a two-star recruit from Exeter, New Hampshire. He redshirted his freshman year and saw limited snaps in 2018, competing among an extremely deep Eagles tight end room. In 2019, though, Long led the team in receiving and, this past season, he reeled in 57 passes, the most of any tight end nationally in 2020. Long can line up anywhere on the field, and he’s a great inline blocker who second-year Eagles head coach Jeff Hafley expects to have a lengthy NFL career.
1. S John Johnson: Johnson was a big winner this offseason. He signed a three-year contract with the Cleveland Browns worth $33.75 million, making him the league’s eighth-highest paid safety. Before the third-round pick turned himself into a team captain with the Los Angeles Rams, he led an Eagles secondary that ranked 34th nationally in pass defense in 2016. That season, Johnson’s final year on the Heights, he finished second on the team with 77 total tackles while adding three picks and nine pass break-ups. He started games at free safety, strong safety and cornerback during his BC career. In fact, he was playing corner when he intercepted a pass in the end zone and forced a fumble against Notre Dame in the teams’ 2015 Fenway Park matchup.
Honorable Mentions:
P Alex Howell (2011-15)
CB Manuel Asprilla (2011-14)
DE Kevin Kavalec (2013-16)
DT Truman Gutapfel (2013-16)
RB Tyler Rouse (2013-16)
LB John Lamot (2016-20)
DE Brandon Barlow (2016-now)
S Mike Palmer (2016-now)
P Grant Carlson (2016-now)
DB Jason Maitre (2018-now)
