While the rivalry may not be fully revived quite yet, Saturday is shaping up to be a win-win for Holy Cross and Boston College football—though not everyone agrees.
It's common for Power Five programs to schedule FCS opponents, so it makes sense for the Eagles to pick one that offers intriguing story lines beyond the lopsided showdown.
"Back in the day, there were plenty of rivalries like this," head coach Steve Addazio said. "It was a good rivalry and an intense rivalry. I'm a big fan of these non-conference geographical games. I think they bring fan interest and it's good for everybody."
The players, for one, are more excited than they have been in years past before playing FCS teams like Howard and Wagner. BC has dozens of in-state recruits on its roster, and almost every one of them has a connection to Holy Cross.
"My uncle played here [at BC] back in the Flutie era, so from what I've heard, they had a strong rivalry [with Holy Cross]," graduate linebacker Connor Strachan said. "A kid from my high school is a quarterback at Holy Cross now, so there's some friendly competition. I'm excited to play them, for sure."
"I always followed UMass as a kid, and I grew up 20 minutes from Worcester, so people always talked about BC and Holy Cross," ACC Co-Offensive Lineman of the Week Chris Lindstrom said. "It's going to be pretty cool to play in one of those games and have a fun experience."
The matchup builds upon long-standing ties between the two Jesuit universities and allows the Crusaders to gain more exposure on a bigger stage. They also get paid, but not nearly as much as the $350,000 UMass took home last weekend.
"For us, it's an opportunity," Holy Cross head coach Bob Chesney said. "It doesn't make or break our season. This doesn't have any playoff or title ramifications attached to it. This is about us trying to do our best again."
The first-year head coach nearly upset Patriot League favorite Colgate in the season opener, but a fourth quarter comeback came up just short in a 24-17 loss. Junior Emmett Clifford emerged from a group of five quarterbacks to win the job, and he looked solid in his first career start. The 6-foot, 197-pound signal caller finished 14-of-23 passing for 113 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. Clifford also rushed 12 times for 21 yards.
The main threat out wide is fifth-year receiver Blaise Bell, who earned All-Patriot League honors in 2017 after catching 46 balls for 601 yards and eight touchdowns. In the backfield, the Crusaders rely on a pair of juniors, Miles Alexander and Domenic Cozier, to share the workload.
Unfortunately, offensive weapons won't be enough for Holy Cross, which doesn't have the size on either of its lines to compete with BC. Saturday's result will likely be decided at the line of scrimmage, but that doesn't seem to faze athletic director Nathan Pine.
“Our guys are eager for the challenge of playing Boston College," Pine said. "We have guys who were recruited by BC but for one reason or another, Holy Cross was a better fit."
For the Eagles, which ESPN ranked third in its latest ACC power rankings, it'd be all-too-tempting to dismiss Holy Cross as an easy win and start looking ahead to Week Three. After all, BC will only have three days to prepare for its conference opener at Wake Forest on Thursday night.
"I still have that mindset of—and I think it's important, that we're playing a traditional rival game," Addazio said. "We're playing a really good football program. We need to get better. We need to improve. There's areas we need to focus on. Players and coaches all have to be focused right now on Holy Cross. It's all hands on deck."
"College football is a funny deal, man," he added. "It's really hard to execute at a high level and win a major college football game. There's a lot of different pieces and parts and different people's mentalities, and my job is to make sure that we're locked in, focused and prepared for this game at hand on Saturday, and that's what we're going to do, and then we're going to have to deal with what's next when we get there."
It helps that there's no hierarchy in the locker room as players try to drown out the hype.
"We don't have big ego guys," Addazio said. "So our guys are going to be really drilled and locked into what do I need to do as an individual, what do we need to do as a team to get better, because you're in a footrace to get better in the early part of the season, and I think they totally get and understand that.
"The beauty of coaching at Boston College is you're dealing with some really mature young guys that—young men that I think totally understand that it's a one-game-at-a-time mentality. The most improvement your team has to make is really within the first few weeks of your season, and how critically important it is to address the areas that we needed to improve upon from last Saturday."
It's common for Power Five programs to schedule FCS opponents, so it makes sense for the Eagles to pick one that offers intriguing story lines beyond the lopsided showdown.
"Back in the day, there were plenty of rivalries like this," head coach Steve Addazio said. "It was a good rivalry and an intense rivalry. I'm a big fan of these non-conference geographical games. I think they bring fan interest and it's good for everybody."
The players, for one, are more excited than they have been in years past before playing FCS teams like Howard and Wagner. BC has dozens of in-state recruits on its roster, and almost every one of them has a connection to Holy Cross.
"My uncle played here [at BC] back in the Flutie era, so from what I've heard, they had a strong rivalry [with Holy Cross]," graduate linebacker Connor Strachan said. "A kid from my high school is a quarterback at Holy Cross now, so there's some friendly competition. I'm excited to play them, for sure."
"I always followed UMass as a kid, and I grew up 20 minutes from Worcester, so people always talked about BC and Holy Cross," ACC Co-Offensive Lineman of the Week Chris Lindstrom said. "It's going to be pretty cool to play in one of those games and have a fun experience."
The matchup builds upon long-standing ties between the two Jesuit universities and allows the Crusaders to gain more exposure on a bigger stage. They also get paid, but not nearly as much as the $350,000 UMass took home last weekend.
"For us, it's an opportunity," Holy Cross head coach Bob Chesney said. "It doesn't make or break our season. This doesn't have any playoff or title ramifications attached to it. This is about us trying to do our best again."
The first-year head coach nearly upset Patriot League favorite Colgate in the season opener, but a fourth quarter comeback came up just short in a 24-17 loss. Junior Emmett Clifford emerged from a group of five quarterbacks to win the job, and he looked solid in his first career start. The 6-foot, 197-pound signal caller finished 14-of-23 passing for 113 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. Clifford also rushed 12 times for 21 yards.
The main threat out wide is fifth-year receiver Blaise Bell, who earned All-Patriot League honors in 2017 after catching 46 balls for 601 yards and eight touchdowns. In the backfield, the Crusaders rely on a pair of juniors, Miles Alexander and Domenic Cozier, to share the workload.
Unfortunately, offensive weapons won't be enough for Holy Cross, which doesn't have the size on either of its lines to compete with BC. Saturday's result will likely be decided at the line of scrimmage, but that doesn't seem to faze athletic director Nathan Pine.
“Our guys are eager for the challenge of playing Boston College," Pine said. "We have guys who were recruited by BC but for one reason or another, Holy Cross was a better fit."
For the Eagles, which ESPN ranked third in its latest ACC power rankings, it'd be all-too-tempting to dismiss Holy Cross as an easy win and start looking ahead to Week Three. After all, BC will only have three days to prepare for its conference opener at Wake Forest on Thursday night.
"I still have that mindset of—and I think it's important, that we're playing a traditional rival game," Addazio said. "We're playing a really good football program. We need to get better. We need to improve. There's areas we need to focus on. Players and coaches all have to be focused right now on Holy Cross. It's all hands on deck."
"College football is a funny deal, man," he added. "It's really hard to execute at a high level and win a major college football game. There's a lot of different pieces and parts and different people's mentalities, and my job is to make sure that we're locked in, focused and prepared for this game at hand on Saturday, and that's what we're going to do, and then we're going to have to deal with what's next when we get there."
It helps that there's no hierarchy in the locker room as players try to drown out the hype.
"We don't have big ego guys," Addazio said. "So our guys are going to be really drilled and locked into what do I need to do as an individual, what do we need to do as a team to get better, because you're in a footrace to get better in the early part of the season, and I think they totally get and understand that.
"The beauty of coaching at Boston College is you're dealing with some really mature young guys that—young men that I think totally understand that it's a one-game-at-a-time mentality. The most improvement your team has to make is really within the first few weeks of your season, and how critically important it is to address the areas that we needed to improve upon from last Saturday."
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