BC Football Mailbag: What's Next for Staff, O-Line and D-Line?
Andy Backstrom (@andybackstrom)
Publisher
Jeff Hafley was extended through 2026. Phil Jurkovec announced his return for the 2022 season. Boston College was invited to play East Carolina in the Military Bowl.
A lot has happened since the Eagles wrapped their regular season.
Let’s get into the questions for this week’s mailbag.
irishnatty: Is there any concern about high-performing assistants getting poached? I’m thinking of Sean Duggan and Aazaar Abdul-Rahim mostly.
It seems like BC’s assistants have been on the recruiting trail the last couple of weeks. So far, none of them have been hired away. I would be surprised if Aazaar Abdul-Rahim jumped for anything that wasn’t a legit defensive coordinator opportunity. He turned down a Power Five DC gig last year, according to Hafley, and was promoted to associate head coach. He has a good thing going for himself right now, especially in regard to recruiting. Last year, offensive line coach Matt Applebaum apparently was offered a job by an NFL team yet stayed put in Chestnut Hill.
Continuity down the line of a college staff is hard to come by, though. Hafley had the luxury of that in 2021. Would be quite rare for a head coach to have the same staff three years in a row.
WINNINGEAGLE: Will Hafley upgrade the assistant coaching staff? Where?
There were obvious offensive issues this season. And it’s easy to point to offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti Jr., but what people often overlook is that Cignett is also BC’s quarterbacks coach. He played a big role in Jurkovec coming to the Heights and presumably staying there. Cignetti has helped develop Jurkovec into more of a pro-style passer and, this season, helped the 6-foot-5 signal caller re-establish himself as a dual threat. Now, that doesn’t dismiss concerns about his play-calling—because it was problematic for significant stretches of the 2021 campaign—however, it does give you perspective on why he’s probably sticking around for at least another season.
I think the most likely change would be moving on from Applebaum. BC’s offensive line didn’t live up to its preseason hype for the second year in a row. Hafley has spoken out about how the blame doesn’t solely fall on that group. You have to wonder if he thinks another year with Applebaum leading the unit will be what BC needs to get things sorted out up front.
weswood25: Why does the offense have no short passing involved except dump offs to running backs? It’s a 50-yard bomb or a run.
Here are the passing depth breakdowns of quarterbacks Phil Jurkovec and Dennis Grosel, per PFF:
Jurkovec
-Behind LOS: 18 attempts
-Short (0-9 yards): 21 attempts
-Medium (10-19 yards): 19 attempts
-Deep (20+ yards): 33 attempts
Grosel
-Behind LOS: 30 attempts
-Short (0-9 yards): 65 attempts
-Medium (10-19 yards): 57 attempts
-Deep (20+ yards): 25 attempts
So, as you can tell, there’s a much different distribution when you compare Jurkovec and Grosel’s numbers. For Grosel, 85.9% of his attempts came within 10-19 yards, whereas only 63.7% of Jurkovec’s attempts (granted, a smaller sample size) were in that short-to-medium range. Jurkovec enjoyed much more success with the deep ball (15 completions versus Grosel’s four), but it appears as if Cignetti has become a little too dependent on those explosives at times.
mishima: What freshmen show the most potential?
A positive of having so many injuries this season was that it thrust some true freshmen into action, particularly on the defensive side of the ball. It seems like Hafley really likes Shawn Asbury II. He was a three-star recruit coming out of North Stafford (Fredericksburg, Virginia) and showed out in the preseason. Asbury emerged so quickly that he became BC’s backup nickel. He was called upon in the Louisville game following Brandon Sebastian’s knee injury. Soon enough, though, he broke his arm and was out for the year. Asbury’s development is noteworthy. As is that of cornerback CJ Burton. The former four star who flipped from Florida got on the field a good bit in 2021. He played 183 snaps, per PFF, and allowed eight catches on 13 targets. Burton made his first career start in the regular season finale against Wake Forest and had a third-down pass break-up in that game as well as a near interception.
Linebacker Bryce Steele also turned some heads. He piled up seven total tackles twice down the stretch: first at Syracuse, then against Wake Forest. In the regular season finale, Hafley and defensive coordinator Tem Lukabu moved Steele around a ton. He played on the defensive line, in the second level and even spent some time with the defensive backs.
On the other side of the ball, wide receiver Jaden Williams comes to mind. The speedster, who drew some comparisons to a young Zay Flowers in fall camp, burst onto the scene this season. He caught touchdowns in three of his first four games. Williams didn’t find the end zone after that, though. Still, he ended the year with 19 receptions, the fourth most on the team, and came up with some critical catches against Louisville and Georgia Tech.
I’m still really intrigued by running back Xavier Coleman. He didn’t do much in his 12 snaps this season, but he’ll get to redshirt and perhaps showcase more of his twitchy movement in 2022. Coleman’s a guy the Eagles really liked in spring ball and fall camp. He could take over the return duties from Travis Levy, too. Lastly, I think Eagles fans have to be somewhat encouraged from what they saw of quarterback Emmett Morehead. He hadn’t played in a game since his junior year of high school because of COVID-19, and he came and made some eye-catching throws in the Carrier Dome.
mod12a: I know Hafley wants to develop players and “build it right,” but can you hit the portal and bring in immediate offensive line and defensive line help from day one?
He most certainly can. We’ve seen it before. When there’s a need, Hafley has demonstrated the ability to address it through the transfer portal, even if he prefers developing high school recruits. For instance, when the Eagles were thin up front defensively in 2020, he went ahead and got Chibueze Onwuka (Buffalo), Luc Bequette (Cal) and Max Roberts (Maine). Then, this past year, following the departure of tight end Hunter Long, Hafley scooped up Trae Barry from Jacksonville State. He and offensive line coach Matt Applebaum could search for offensive linemen. That said, I don’t think there is the need to.
Sure, Jack Conley struggled mightily at tackle this year. And Ozzy Trapilo didn’t play great against Florida State (after a strong debut versus Virginia Tech). But BC stockpiled offensive linemen for a reason. It’s time some of those highly-recruited guys get a true shot. Finn Dirstine, Kevin Pyne, Drew Kendall and Trapilo are all four stars. Christian Mahogany, who quietly turned in the team’s second-best PFF offensive grade (among players with more than two games played this year), is coming back. And Tyler Vrabel could return, too.
As for the defensive line, I think it’s more likely BC adds a piece or two there.
