Reflecting on Clemson: What Did Hafley Say During His Sunday Presser?
Andy Backstrom (@andybackstrom)
Staff Writer
Boston College has lost 21 straight games to AP Top-25 opponents. Three of the Eagles’ last five losses, including Saturday’s 19-13 defeat at then-No. 25 Clemson, have been decided by one score, whereas BC lost to AP-ranked teams by an average of 30 points from 2016-19.
Regardless of the improvement, the outcome has remained the same.
Second-year Eagles head coach Jeff Hafley is well aware.
“Really proud of the guys and proud of this team,” he said Sunday. “But I didn’t come here to be close.”
Hafley emphasized that, offensively, BC left plays out on the field. Eagles quarterback Dennis Grosel threw two interceptions, missed Zay Flowers—who routinely had a step on Clemson’s secondary—downfield on a few potential home run balls and, of course, fumbled the snap with 53 seconds remaining and BC in striking distance of a game-winning touchdown.
But Hafley is standing by the redshirt senior gunslinger. Grosel was 12-of-16 in the fourth quarter and became one of four quarterbacks to log more than 300 passing yards against Clemson in the last three years. The others are Ohio State’s Justin Fields (twice), LSU’s Joe Burrow and Notre Dame’s Ian Book, all of whom are now in the NFL.
No BC quarterback had thrown for more than 208 yards versus the Tigers in the teams’ previous eight matchups.
“Dennis is the guy,” Hafley said. “Dennis is a good quarterback. He’s our leader right now, and he took his team, our team, in Death Valley and came up 11 yards short. He’s the guy.”
He was also playing without his left tackle for most of the second half. Tyler Vrabel left with a knee injury, and Jack Conley had to fill in.
Conley, a 6-foot-7 redshirt sophomore who had played a total of 59 snaps in the first four games of this season, struggled protecting Grosel’s blind side Saturday night. Conley allowed a sack, two quarterback hits and five pressures. It was his first appearance at left tackle this year. Before last weekend, all of his 2021 game action came at right tackle.
Hafley said the team would learn more about Vrabel’s status in the coming days.
“Hopefully he’s ok,” Hafley said. “He’s a tough kid. He’s had a really great year. We missed him. Jack [Conley] did a good job coming in, and it will always be ‘next man up,’ and we’re not going to flinch. But we certainly missed Tyler out there.”
While BC’s offense, hampered by 10 penalties (notably, five false starts), left a lot to be desired, Hafley was pleased with his team’s performance in the other phases of the game.
He talked about how, after last year’s 32-28 loss at Clemson, he wanted his defensive backs to play significantly more aggressive. Given the Tigers’ size on the perimeter—for instance, Justyn Ross is 6-foot-4 and Joseph Ngata is 6-foot-3—Hafley wanted his cornerbacks to play tight and not allow “quick access, easy throws.”
BC’s secondary delivered, holding Clemson quarterback DJ Uiagalelei to a 46% completion percentage and just 207 yards through the air. Elijah Jones and Brandon Sebastian both had pass break-ups. Sebastian actually was responsible for two third-down stops.
“Brandon [Sebastian] and Eli [Jones] played—I mean, they played lights out,” Hafley said. “I mean, there was no separation from those wideouts. They finished with violence. They played with great technique. What a day those corners had.”
After an off week against Missouri, Tem Lukabu’s defense regained its mojo, holding Clemson to 3-of-14 on third down. BC is now tied for seventh nationally in third-down defense, with opponents converting just 27.6% of the time.
Special teams were critical for the Eagles, too. Connor Lytton made two more field goals. True freshman defensive end Neto Okpala burst through Clemson’s punt block team to deflect a punt in the third quarter. And Grant Carlson kept doing his thing.
The graduate punter booted a 72-yarder that rolled all the way to the Clemson four-yard line. It was one of three 50-plus-yard punts for Carlson on the day as well as one of four kicks that he dropped inside the Tigers’ 20. Carlson leads the ACC in punt average.
“He just keeps flipping the field for us,” Hafley said. “I mean, some of those punts were ridiculous. Just overall on special teams guys, we gotta be playing as well as anybody in the whole country.”
But BC couldn’t capitalize on a handful of the opportunities its defense and special teams provided—often because of penalties. And then there were some chances that were taken away because of flags that weren’t thrown. Most notably, Clemson cornerback Andrew Booth Jr. tip-toed across the line of scrimmage after showing blitz in the final seconds of the third quarter. No penalty was called, and Grosel was sacked for a loss of 13 on the play.
“The non-offsides call you saw, right?” Hafley said when he was asked about the no-call Sunday. “You could probably talk about it. I can’t because I’ll get in trouble. The non-offsides call, I mean you’re talking about—guys, it’s third down, and we get sacked. That’s a first down, and we’re in field goal range, and it’s 16-13.
“Anybody who wants to know my answer, just turn on the tape and watch that play.”
Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney wasn’t happy about the officiating Saturday, either, at halftime telling ACC Network, “I feel like we’re playing 14 people.”
Regardless, Hafley said that there are no excuses for BC’s 10 penalties. He said that, as the head coach, he is responsible for the Eagles cutting that number down weekly.
After the loss, Sebastian told reporters that he thought it was a bad time for a bye week. Hafley had a different perspective, though.
“You’d certainly love to go into a bye with a win,” he said, “but I think we’re banged up, and we need to get healthy. After five straight weeks of a long training camp, I think, on the schedule, it comes at a pretty good time for us to rest, mentally and physically.”
Hafley said that this week will consist of a lot of 7-on-7s and team periods with players who haven’t earned too many snaps recently so that they can develop, and so that the starters can “get their legs back” and rest up for the final seven regular season games.
“I think it's a good time for our players and our coaches,” Hafley said.
