Something Old, Something New, Boston College Preview

Perhaps there is no easier team in college football to stereotype than the Boston College. Big guys, good tight ends, solid defense, and usually good quarterback play have been hallmarks of the program since I watched Glenn Foley lead the Eagles in the early 90's. Steve Addazio's tough guy aura only reinforces the image of Boston College being a physically imposing, smashmouth operation that is always tough to play against and rarely skilled enough to be really good.

The Dudes

In some ways, the 2014 Eagles meet the typical Boston College archetype. They are massive up front. They uses extra offensive tackles as tight ends in 3 tight end sets and roll out Brian Mihalik, a 6-9, 295 pound defensive end, to bring pressure on the quarterback. They are a run first team, and work hard to shorten the game by controlling the clock and limiting mistakes, which keeps their defensive unit fresh. Their secondary keeps everything in front of them and that forces opposing offenses to manufacture long drives, allowing mobile linebackers to run to the football while the huge defensive line takes up space.

That is where the similarities end. Much like Frank Beamer, Addazio looked to the transfer pool for a quarterback that could help keep the Eagles competitive while a talented, but very young roster matures. Addazio cast his lot with former Florida Gator Tyler Murphy. The 6-2, 213 pound graduate student has paid immediate dividends. He's second nationally among quarterbacks in yards per game (105.38), 21st overall and has scored 8 touchdowns.

Most of this week, you will hear about how fast and athletic Murphy is. Yes, he is fast, athletic and a very tough runner. However, what makes Murphy dangerous is his deft ball handling in the option game and how Addazio has adjusted his offense to fit Murphy's skills. Boston College runs a complex offensive system with multiple formations and play designs that are run with enough precision to drive the best defensive coordinators batty. On any particular play, any one of three players could have the football, all reinforced by an huge offensive line that grinds away a defense. While the basic play concepts are not unique (inside and outside zone reads, jet sweeps, counter trey's, powers), Boston College executes their plays in a unique manner that is incredibly tough to defend.

It wouldn't work without Murphy's ability to fake handoffs. The Eagles execute a beautiful triple option series similar to the jet sweep-dive-quarterback keeper series that Scot Loeffler tried to utilize against UCLA in the 2013 Sun Bowl. Let's take a look.

Watch the play closely. Do you know who has the ball? Murphy first creates a mesh point with freshman wide receiver Sherman Alston (No. 6, who the Eagles love to feature on jet sweep action), then he opens up and meshes with the top running back. Then Murphy dives off tackle. Clemson's All American defensive end Vic Beasley is less than a yard from the initial mesh point with Alston, but continues to bite on the dive fake until Alston has broken his contain. Murphy's fundamentals with selling the fakes took a sure loss and turned it into a solid gain.

Murphy's adept ability to run the option also allows the Eagles to run traditional plays in a non-traditional manner. On this play, the Eagles motion from a pistol set to a shotgun set, with the tailback off Murphy's left shoulder. As I have discussed before, this means that the Eagles will likely run either inverted veer (with the QB diving inside and the running back sweeping to the outside), an outside zone read where the QB will run off tackle to the right, or a true sweep with a bootleg by the quarterback. But instead, because of Murphy's ability to pivot and get to the edge, Boston College flips the roles of the quarterback and running back on the inverted veer back to a more traditional veer (running back is the dive, quarterback is outside threat)!

Murphy gets the snap and creates a mesh point where the back can almost go straight off the center's butt. Murphy then spins on a dime and runs to the edge to tie up Clemson's outside linebacker (No. 44.) Instead of pulling linemen up front, BC man blocks straight ahead. The Clemson edge players sell up the field, leaving more blockers than defenders for a quick hitter right up the middle. This is fascinating design and execution.

Muphy's ability to get defenses bite on the inside allows him to get the edge on the option. He is an athletic guy, but he isn't Michael Vick. He creates space for himself by getting the defense to bite, like here as he scores the game winning touchdown against Southern Cal.

Boston College does not throw the ball often, but Murphy's ability to hide the football makes him very effective in the play-action game. The Eagles pound and pound and pound the football, and then look to slip a tight end or receiver over the top while the defender keys on the run game. Against Clemson, the Eagles rarely looked down field, but here is a missed opportunity that shows how dangerous it can be to fall asleep on play-action.

Murphy motions the tailback from a pistol to shotgun look offset to his left. At the snap, Murphy fakes the handoff on a sweep. Boston College helps sell the play by pulling an offensive lineman. From the H-Back spot, the tight end veer releases to his right, like he is trying to seal the outside linebacker to the inside on a sweep. The linebacker braces himself for the block while reading the play in the backfield, and the H-Back slips behind him. Murphy's throw is perfect. The tight end just flat drops it.

All this option football, combined with Boston College's continued use of big power formations, makes them tough to defend. The Eagles have not generated many big plays outside of Murphy's runs on options, keepers, and broken plays, but with the Hokies committed to playing an eight-man front with little deep help, poor gap fits like I have seen against Pitt and Miami could be doom for Virginia Tech's chance of avenging last year's loss.

Where Bud Foster's defense has a huge advantage is in the drop back passing game. Against Clemson, Murphy's first five true drop back passing situations (third-and-long, no play fake) resulted in three sacks and two screen passes that went for very little yardage. Addazio does not put Murphy in a position to make many mistakes with the downfield passing game, so under pressure Murphy will hold on to the ball to try to make plays with his feet. Against Clemson, the Tigers pass rush dominated the lumbering BC offensive line, both with speed rushes from the outside and some pretty basic zone blitz looks.

In this third-and-long situation, Clemson brought the left inside linebacker up on the line of scrimmage to show a blitz. At the snap, he blitzes, while the left defensive end drops off into the flat. The BC right guard never even looks at the linebacker, who gets a free shot on Murphy.

Here, we have a four-man rush, with three down linemen and one blitzing linebacker. BC sets the protection to the left (away from the linebacker) and the right tackle tries to cut the defensive end.

Without even needing help from the linebacker, the end steps over the weak cut block. Murphy takes his eyes off downfield and eats the sack. For Bud Foster's defense to get back on track it will have to force Boston College off schedule. Negative plays will yield third-and-longs and favorable situations for Virginia Tech's defense. Addazio is incredibly risk-averse with Murphy. Instead of trying to go down field on third-and-long, expect to see a bunch of run/pass options on rollouts, quarterback draws, and screens in those situations rather than challenging the Hokies secondary.

Playing Eight Men in the Box... Safely

Boston College has two unique approaches to defense. In non-passing situations, they tend to use a very similar approach to Duke. The Eagles rely on their down linemen to tie up blockers, leaving their active linebackers and safeties to make tackles. Outside linebacker Josh Keyes leads the team with four sacks and 10.5 tackles for a loss, while 6-0, 257 pound cruncher Steven Daniels leads the team in tackles (47 total) from his middle linebacker spot.

On film, I was very impressed with how the Eagles engage their safeties. I have discussed in the past how the Hokies use inverted cover 2 looks to get safeties into run support from nickel defenses. Boston College inverts their zones but use more man off and cover 1 looks. Let's take a look

BC has only six men (three down linemen, two inside linebackers, and BC's version of a whip outside) in the box before the ball is snapped. Behind them, the Eagles seem to be using two true corners and three safeties (one deep to the boundary at the top of the screen, one deep to the field at the bottom of the screen, and one deep middle). Well before the ball is snapped, the boundary and the field safety are already creeping up to the line of scrimmage. By the time the quarterback has the ball in his hands, the Eagles essentially have eight men in the box, with both safeties playing outside leverage working back to the inside. The two corners and middle safety drop deep into a cover 3 look. As an offensive lineman, it is incredibly hard to locate and account for those safeties in those situations.

However, I picked this play because Clemson scored on a quick hitter that got the running back to the second level before the safeties closed back into the middle. The Hokies must get downhill quickly in the running game to catch those safeties on the outside. Boston College does an outstanding job of containing on the edge, so holes are going to be quick and up the middle. It is also critically important to establish Bucky Hodges on intermediate routes from the slot. BC's cover 3 looks make it hard to go over the top, but the areas in front of the corners (deep outs and comeback routes), post-corner double moves, and the middle in front of the deep safety are open. Ford and Phillips have been excellent on deep in routes all season. Expect to see Hodges and Malleck working the area around 10 yards behind the linebackers, while Phillips and Ford run 7-12 yard in cuts most of the game.

Also, Tyler Boyd from Pitt had some success against Boston College running jet sweeps. The jet sweep seems to be utilized less and less often by Loeffler this season (largely because defenses key on Deon Newsome, who has not proven to be any kind of threat in the passing game). Don't be shocked if the Hokies try to reestablish the jet sweep in order to draw those safeties wide, and then slip the dive play back to the inside.

On third-and-long situations, the Eagles throw the changeup that gave the Hokies fits last season. BC still uses the soft zone and man off coverages, but up front, they change to an "amoeba alignment" with players standing and moving everywhere.

Last season, Boston College pressure had a major role in the two late turnovers that cost the Hokies the game. Both plays involved busts in setting the offensive line protection and the lack of an attentive hot route to bail out Logan Thomas. With setting the appropriate protection still proving to be a challenge (as I pointed out on the drive killing Miami sack early last week), the amoeba defense could put Michael Brewer under tremendous stress in third-and-long situations.

Hog-molly nose tackle No. 90 Connor pops off the film. Wujciak, at 6-3, 304, looks like a road grader in the middle of the Eagles defense, but the big man is surprisingly nimble. Over the last couple of seasons, the Hokies have struggled against big nose tackles. Wujciack is a potential matchup nightmare for Stacy Searels interior blockers.

Here, Wujciak fights off a cut block and then pursues well to the outside to make the tackle.

Wujciak doesn't look particularly quick, but he dominates his gap, and then closes space to the football. Here again, Wujciak blows up the guard to disrupt the play.

(Note, again you can see the safety from the top of the screen is creeping up before the snap.)

While Wujciak doesn't often play in the amoeba looks on passing downs, his power and quickness can collapse the pocket from the inside.

Michael Brewer and Mark Leal are 6-0 and 6-1, respectively. Having a road grader with long reach like Wujciak, or a 6-9 monster like defensive end Brian Mihalik with their arms in the passing lanes could make for a very rough day.

Win or lose, any football contest with the Eagles is generally a miserable experience. Boston College has gotten off to a decent 5-3 start to their season, with their only losses coming in close games against Pitt (who put up big offensive numbers), Clemson and a baffling lose to Colorado State. With both offenses struggling to create big plays, expect this one to be a nail biter right to the very end.

Oh, and eat toast. Boston College hates toast.