This schedule has been floating around the past few days. I was waiting for an official announcement, but since the Globe went ahead and published it, I figured I might as well weigh in too. My thoughts follow. Please add your own in the comments section.
Aug. 30 at Kent State
Sept. 6 vs. Georgia Tech
Sept. 20 vs. Central Florida
Sept. 27 vs. Rhode Island
Oct. 4 at Florida State
Oct. 18 vs. Virginia Tech
Oct. 25 vs. Clemson
Nov. 1 at Wake Forest
Nov. 8 vs. Notre Dame
Nov. 15 at North Carolina
Nov. 22 vs. Maryland
Nov. 29 at North Carolina St.
A good start
Last year notoriously opened with three ACC games. This year we get a MAC team at a neutral site (although technically it is a home game for them), Georgia Tech at home in the second week under their new offense, a good but beatable Central Florida team at home, an off week and then URI parents weekend. That is manageable. Regardless of how much the offense struggles, our defense should be enough to win those games. 4-0 is likely.
Tough midseason
Putting aside Florida State's recent inconsistency, we have not matched up well against them. On the road makes things that much more difficult. Our second break in the schedule doesn't add much. I would have preferred it later in the season when everyone is more beat up. VT and Clemson are probably the two best teams on our schedule. Fortunately we've played well against both recently and have both at home. At Wake to start off November...not an easy game. This stretch could go about ten different directions.
The final four games
Notre Dame cannot be as bad as they were last season, so that makes this game tougher. But it will be at home and our team and fans will be pumped up. UNC on the road is a tough game but winnable. I expect Maryland to have another down year. Closing out at NC State against TOB is an interesting twist. He'll be in year 2 of his rebuilding, so I like our chances there.
On paper this schedule is less demanding than last season's. Of course once we played the games, we saw that some were tougher than others. It is very early and there are still many things we don't know about our own team, but I think this sets up well for BC. Our new offense gets a few winnable games under their belt before the true tests. I am optimistic and think this will play out well.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
12 comments:
Hello Bill:
Thanks for posting our schedule. Once again doodling and thinking that we BC fans should enjoy our season - always with a goal to win our division and the ACC Championship. But otherwise, the bowl situation is not that interesting, unless there is a great matchup in the particular bowl. Let's not live for the bowl per se.
Let's dwell on the terrific games that are on our schedule this year - and show up early for home games - 6 of the 7 are great games. I don't know if I will, but I personally can go to UNC, NC State, Wake Forest and Florida State - 3 of which are great venues and Winston Salem is a very nice area to visit. I know fans who are talking about going to Cleveland to play Kent State - it should be a great year - let's get fired up over THE (so-called)REGULAR SEASON.
While the OOC opponents certainly won't be push-overs for us, we really are starting to build a tradition of scheduling no-names. I know USC is scheduled for 2013, 2014, but are we pursuing any other big names? Any chance for a post on the issue sometime in the offseason?
Hello Brett:
I think we stack up pretty well with all the other top teams. I don't know anything about the challenges of finding 4 OOC opponents each year.
Bill will know a lot more about this.
We're trying to reestablish the rivalry with Syracuse. I think this is a good move, and hopefully Syracuse will get back to their old ways of fielding strong teams year in and year out. I'd like to see the Big East shift back to them and away from WVU and Louisville and Cincinatti, etc.
There are still some other opportunities, and we'll have to see what GD is doing. I think we'd all like to see an SEC Team in here. Check out 2013.
2009
TBA @ Notre Dame
TBA Kent State
room for 2 more
2010
TBA @ Syracuse
TBA Kent State
TBA Notre Dame
room for 1 more
2011
9-3 Northwestern
TBA @ Notre Dame
TBA @ UCF
room for 1 more
2012
9-15 @ Northwestern
TBA Notre Dame
room for 2 more
2013
TBA Syracuse
TBA @ Southern California
TBA @ Notre Dame
room for 1 more
2014
TBA @ Syracuse
TBA Southern California
room for 2 more
2015
TBA Syracuse
will add 3 more
I'm with you, BJK...regular season trips can be a lot of fun and more affordable than bowls due to the long lead time in making trip arrangements. (That said, Jacksonville and Orlando were awesome times.)
I'm probably headed to Cleveland for a fun trip that I can do on the cheap (thanks to nearby friends in the Rust Belt) and because it'll probably be the only way to see BC play (no TV for that game) after eight months without Eagle football.
Could BC actually outnumber Kent State at that game? I noticed KSU's final home game drew fewer than 3000 fans, and they only averaged 10,000 or so on the year.
For comparison I saw the ND Future schedules, and they are basically replacing BC with Rutgers with 3 years of playing both. They have Rutgers in East Rutherford, NJ in 2012 - I think that’s a great move for them and the Big East. I think we got trumped on this one.
They also have Navy in Baltimore 2010 and in Dublin, Ireland in 2012. They’re also picking up Oklahoma in the future.
The mystery to me is matching the opponents with the available open dates.
Alabama has plenty of openings, as does Tennessee - either of those would be sweet. Who else? Georgia, Florida? Let's get a list up and send it along to Gene!!!!
DR - I'd hate to think the game in Cleveland would only draw like 25,000 if they have it in the professional stadium. Let's go BC!That could be a fun trip.
Absolutely my last one - I promise - but Brett got me to thinking.
Here are some other teams I think would be good fits in addition to those listed above:
Penn State
Michigan
Ohio State
Air Force
Texas
Texas A&M
Stanford
UCLA
Vanderbilt
Navy?
I'm sure there are others that make sense as well. Do really want 10, 11 or even 12 tough games every year? Why not?
BJK....just as an FYI...the series with ND only goes through 2010...
BJK:
If you start playing Air Force and Navy, be prepared for uninformed masses to start saying your annual schedule includes all the service academies. Even if you don't play them all each year.
Also expect a few Commander-in-Chief Trophy jokes from the sheep as well.
It gets annoying.
Sebastian - you are right. I rescind Air Force and Navy, with all due respect to each. Those games were exciting and huge (to me) when I was at BC - but that was many years ago :-)
I think that if we have good October then it's going to be a great year for us. That being said slorida state, clemson, and v tech is impossbile, much harder then when we started last year with Wake, G Tech, and NC State. 9-3 is very possible.
Jack -
Thanks for all the posts, after looking over them I think we're doing a fine job of scheduling interesting matches and not trying to shoot ourselves in the foot before the season starts. I really like the Northwestern series - a lot of similarities b/w the schools, and we probably draw from the same applicant pool, especially around Chicago (I'm from Seattle and almost went to NU).
While an SEC team would be amazing, I'd say hats off to Gene D so far.
Post a Comment