Max Ricci talks to Eagle Insider

The BC Draft crew caught up with our latest commitment over on Eagle Insider. Please note that it is a premium article (all recruiting news will be). I know that will disappoint some of you but know that is Scout's business model. My goal is to have the occasional free recruiting article and some sign-up specials as the season approaches. As you've seen the past few days, there will be plenty of free content too.

As for Ricci, he seems like a very thoughtful and well adjusted kid. I was impressed with what he had to say and hope that other schools don't try to poach him.

New position preview and other links

Here is my write up on the running backs on Eagle Insider. There will be more this week and some interviews and recruiting updates.

Scout also has new on potential BC target Dexter Bridge.

Shinskie is an afterthought in this article on ACC QBs.

Ricci gets on board and other links

After a little lull, BC added another member to Spaz's recruiting class in Massachusetts defensive tackle Max Ricci. Ricci is a bit raw but has much needed size. Let's hope this begins another mini recruiting push as BC's class remains smaller than many of our opponents.

The Globe had a nice feature on Matt Ryan. I know he is only in his third year, but this is sort of a make or break season. If he is going to be an elite QB it needs to start coming together soon. Peter King is also going to feature Ryan in his MMQB next week.

The Sporting News posted their ACC overview and their BC preview.

This article throws cold water on Charlie Davies' comeback. If he can't get on the field for Sochaux, hopefully he will end up on a team where he can work on his fitness and form.

Mike McLaughlin is off to a good start in Baltimore.

Catching up with Troy Bell.

Former Eagle player and GA Ryan Mattison is now a full time coach with Bowdoin. Best of luck to him.

Check out WZBC this Saturday

As I've mentioned in the past, while at BC, I covered football, basketball and a little hockey for WZBC. It was a great time and fortunately the station's sports staff is still going strong. During the summer they have a BC sports talk show on Saturday afternoons. You can listen live online at WZBC.org starting at 1 PM ET. I will be a guest in their first hour and new baseball coach Mike Gambino will be a guest in their second hour. We'll be talking football and expectations for the upcoming season.

Behind the scenes with Herzy and other links

Here is a behind the scenes shot of Herzy's ESPN Magazine photo shoot. I was a little surprised that the Dark Knight inspired the eye black. I know he was only about 10-years-old at the time, but didn't anyone tell Mark about Chris Hovan using the eye black while dominating at BC?

The USA Today also featured Mark and included quotes from McGovern.

When I read this piece on Jared Dudley's basketball camp, it became pretty obvious to me that Jared not only has his head on straight but has a long-term plan for himself and his career.

A few BC names popped up on HD's best position's piece.

Providence basketball announced our game is scheduled for December 8.

This is a roundup of Donahue's latest recruiting efforts.

Reading too much into the preseason All Conference team and other links

The ACC media members selected four Eagles onto their Preseason All-ACC Football team. The honorees were Anthony Castonzo, Thomas Claiborne, Montel Harris and Luke Kuechly. The only team with more was UNC. If we had the second most players on the squad and some of our better players were snubbed, does this mean we have the best talent in the ACC this year? I don't think we have the best talent, but the gap between BC and the conference powers is not a wide as the media or some at BC would leave you to believe. I think the team and the fans should use this list as a confidence boosters. BC can compete for the division. Don't let the excuse makers lower expectations. We are all about "ever to excel."

This preview thinks BC will go 10-2. I love the optimism, but don't think our schedule is as easy as they do.

Mike Gambino hired his first assistant Scott Friedholm. The Providence grad has coached at Navy and Maine.

Ryan Quigley spoke with his hometown paper while coaching at a kicking camp. He seems like another good BC guy.

IMG acquired our radio rights holder ISP Sports. This probably doesn't mean a whole lot for BC. The only real synergies might come in ad sales and marketing programs when IMG puts their marketing clients in ISP's broadcasts.

Here is a decent season preview from a Virginia blog.

BC hoops recruit George Matthews is trying to decide if he should go to prep school for a year or give college a shot now.

About the Chick-Fil-A Bowl

Many thought Gary Stokan's explanation on what BC needs to do to get considered for the Chick Fil A Bowl was double talk to placate BC critics. It's not. I joined the Atlanta Sports Council and actually met privately with Stokan earlier this year. Within two minutes of meeting him I was hitting him up with BC bowl questions and he was very candid. It wasn't an on the record conversation, but now that Stokan has spoken about it publicly I don't think I am breaching any confidentiality.

The Atlanta Sports Council is very open to BC and appreciates our TV draw and the newness we would bring to either game. Ticket sales and attendance are vital to the bowl. The Council has commitments to sponsors and local hotels to have the stadium full. That doesn't just mean tickets sold. It means they want butts in the seats. If any school were to buy their allotted tickets and eat them (which BC has done on a smaller scale in the past) it would hurt the Bowl.

A team doesn't need to fill all 12,000 allotted seats. The bowl can live with a smaller commitment if they can pair us with a strong ticket buying opponent (say South Carolina, Alabama or Georgia). However, BC has never stepped up to the plate on the minimums. I don't know if BC doesn't think they could rally 5,000 fans or doesn't want to take the financial risk involved. Maybe they just don't want to embarrass themselves by coming up short for such a public ticket push.

As much as it would be my dream, I don't think BC should focus on the Chick Fil A Bowl. The short window to sell tickets will always be a challenge for BC. Instead we should try to get into one of the Labor Day weekend kickoff games. Those would have more than a year of build up. BC marketing and the fans could plan out the trip and spread the word. We've brought more than 5,000 to Notre Dame and more than 4,000 to Clemson. With planning and support we could do the same for a big game in Atlanta.

If you want to do something about this, send Gene a note and let him know that you would buy tickets for either of Atlanta's games. Send the bowl game an email too. If 5,000 of us let them know we are excited about these games, we may actually get into a real bowl one day.

Radio interviews with AC and Herzy and other links

On this page you can hear interviews with Castonzo and Herzlich with an Atlanta radio station at the ACC Media Kickoff.

Here are the results of most of the preseason awards and predictions.

Athlon ranks BC 34th overall.

Brian St. Pierre is back at his high school working out and hoping for another shot at the NFL.

Hopefully Sean Duggan will be the next St. X star from Ohio to come to BC.

While Herzy hit the links in Greensboro, Castonzo worked on his thesis. The Chick-Fil-A Bowl will consider BC if we commit to a certain level of ticket sales. I never thought BC would get in the Chick Fil A Bowl until BCMike told me he was getting married that night. His jinx will ensure that BC is playing in its biggest bowl in decades in Mike's own backyard on the one night he cannot get to the game.

The Enormity of the Herzlich story

Things are about to change for Mark Herzlich and BC football. In a few weeks the hoped for and hypothetical will become real. Mark will play football again and if the ACC media day is an indicator, this story will be huge. But Mark's candid responses to his risk and his goals opens up all the possibilities in play in this unbelievable narrative.

First (and this is our worst fear), Mark admitted that if he breaks his left leg, it would have a hard time healing due to the radiation and tumor. Most wouldn't risk that, but as we know, Mark is not most people. I can't see this ending that way. However, if this ending takes a sad turn, it will not be a tragedy and I don't think it would play out that way in the media. A broken leg would just mean Mark left everything he had on the field and that football ended his career, not cancer.

I think most BC fans expect Mark to contribute and be an emotional inspiration this season. If he is pretty good and BC is pretty good, Mark will still be the center of attention on a weekly basis and an inspiration to us all.

Mark clearly expect more than that. He wants to be better than he was in 2008. If he is better than his ACC Defensive Player of the Year season, he will win the Heisman. That's not hyperbole. Regardless of my BC allegiance, I believe that after the Reggie Bush nonsense, the media/Heisman voters would trip over each other in a rush to mail in their ballots for the All America, cancer-conquering linebacker from a BCS conference. The hype and pride surrounding his recovery would quadruple if Mark plays that well. No other candidate would stand a chance.

The odds of a defensive player winning the Heisman are long. The odds of a BC player winning the Heisman are long. But Mark has already shown that he is an outlier and isn't worried about statistics and normal outcomes. As I said, this story is going to be huge. Why not think big and think the impossible?

Raycom's story:

Day 1 of the ACC Media Kickoff

First a tweet from Bruce Feldman that captured the day:

I doubt any school has two more impressive spokesmen than BC does w cancer survivor Mark Herzlich and Rhodes Schl candidate Anthony Costanzo

HD wrapped up the events. When people weren't talking about Herzy they were talking about the agent mess at UNC.

The Herald their coverage Sunday night. The Globe is taking there time forgetting that they have a blog they can use before things go to print.) The Herald also noted Castonzo's weight gain.

BCeagles.com did an admirable job covering the events and getting atmosphere shots.

The players have to tell the same stories over and over again, but every once in a while someone will uncover something new like the Herzlich brothers bowling with Clemson's Jacoby Ford.

Here are the players -- including Herzy -- making names for themselves this year. While Castonzo is one of many ACC players expected to be a 1st round draft pick.

This flikr album has a good mix of posed and candid shots. A shot of Mark and Anthony.

Maryland's Alex Wujciak was asked about his brother committing to BC.

Brad Herzlich's essay on Mark

If you ignored the Athletic Department's annual report or didn't get a hard copy in the mail, you missed out on a great essay written by Brad Herzlich. Because it deserves as wide an audience as possible, I posted Brad's work below.

Mark Herzlich, my best friend, my brother, is a warrior. He was an All- American, the ACC Defensive Player of the Year, a projected top draft pick. He turned a smear of eye black into a feared glare of intensity. Last May, Mark proved that his relentless attitude isn’t confined to that 6,000-square-yard piece of turf. He battled cancer in front of millions, finding himself, his health, and his religion; a personal trial streamed live over the most public of arenas. Even with the hopes and expectations of the world on his shoulders, he remained gracious and loving. He remained determined, never wanting sympathy and always putting others first. And, most impressively, he remained stubbornly positive, heart locked on the day he could call himself a survivor, high stepping into Boston College’s Alumni Stadium with fire in his eyes, adrenaline in his veins, and a 12-inch titanium rod in his left leg. The doctors told him they would try to save his life. They would do their best to save his leg. Best-case scenario -- he would jog again. Mark heard their words, but within a day, he had made up his mind. “They know cancer, but they don’t know me.”

In his relatively short time in the public spotlight, Mark has demonstrated his fortitude. He wracked up tackles. He beat cancer. But I was lucky enough to have him as an inspiration before anyone else could even pronounce our last name. He was the subject of my first-grade role model sentence and the reason I started playing football. He would pick me up when I was down and knock me down when we played pick-up in the neighborhood (even though he two-hand touched everybody else). No matter the problem I faced, he always held the answer. Honestly, I felt silly for how much I looked up to him, until I realized that everyone else did, too.

When I was 14, Mark invited me to a preseason seven-on-seven at BC. He toured me through the locker room, introduced me to the guys, and even invited me to run routes with the team. Mark was a freshman in his first weeks on campus, the youngest player in a new system. Never have I heard of another player bringing a sibling to practice, let alone as the only freshman at summer workouts. He introduced me to future NFLers and threw me into Matt Ryan’s drill. He put his reputation on the line because he wanted me to be included, to enjoy myself.

That’s just the type of person Mark is. He’ll sacrifice himself for those around him. Throughout high school, he never hesitated to bring me along with his friends when I had nothing to do. He backed out of a senior week in Cancun, opting for a camping weekend spent with yours truly in the hills of Jim Thorpe, Pa., knowing that the next four years would be dominated by football, with little room for the brotherly time we cherished.

Mark has uplifted the sporting community. He helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to fight cancer. He has reached out personally to dozens of athletes, coaches, officials, and fans going through similar struggles. All while he continued to fight for his own life. He has turned me into the man that I am, so maybe I’m biased, but I can’t think of anyone more deserving of the tremendous support and recognition provided to him by the Boston College family over the past year.

Brad will play football at Brown next season. As much as I would have loved to see the brothers together at BC, I also think it is fitting that Brad creates his own path at a different school. Regardless, he obviously going to make those around him better. Congrats to Sandy and Barbara on raising two great young men.

Getting ready for the ACC meetings and other links

BC is absent from the burnings questions facing the ACC this year. It seems that the media is either predicting big things for us or ignoring BC as usual. There is no in between.

The Daily Press thinks we will finish third in the division.

On this page you will find an interview Matt Ryan did with an Atlanta radio station a few days ago. In it he recounts his first start against Syracuse.

Quick Taylor update and other links

As promised, here is my Eagle Insider story on Travis Taylor. Basketball wise this is not big deal. Campus politics wise it is huge. Let's hope everyone gets on the same page so this doesn't happen with future recruits.

[WARNING BLATANT SCOUT.COM PIMPING AHEAD] Eagle Insider will have premium recruiting articles of our own soon, but if you like recruiting, you might want to sign up now because you can gain access to the network's content. Right now we have updates on the following BC targets:
-- Richard Rodgers
-- Patrick Flavin
-- Leonte Carroo
-- Chase Hounshell

HD has been putting together "key stretches" for each ACC team. Here is BC's version.

Mike Gambino has eyed the BC baseball job for a long time.

Preston Murphy is back at URI as an assistant.

The Blackhawks traded former Eagle Marty Reasoner to Florida.

Update on Nebrich

I broke the news via twitter that BC did have a skills camp on July 8. No one was offered out of that event. ESPN's ACC and Big East bloggers picked up on the non-story, but this is all getting a lot of attention because it is a slow news time.

Getting to the bottom of the Michael Nebrich nonsense

For those who didn't pick up on the Michael Nebrich story, here is a very quick timeline:

-- Mid-level 2011 QB prospect verbals to UConn. (He doesn't have a BC offer.)
-- UConn writer/blogger reaches out to the kid and is shocked to find out BC is talking to him after he has verbaled to another school.
-- BC fans flood writer/blogger's post doubting BC's interest given we have a QB in this recruiting class and that he seems to be a middling prospect.
-- Thin-skinned writer/blogger posts an excerpt of the alleged BC email as proof of BC's dirty tricks, including a BC coach claiming that Edsall will be leaving after this season.

First let me say this: the UConn writer Des Connor is a melodramatic chicken shit. He posted the email but didn't take the final step of showing which BC coach wrote it. Let me save him the time: the email either came from Mike Siravo, Dave Brock, Ryan Day or Grad Assistant Bob Callahan. Why play games? The coach has nothing to be ashamed or afraid of because...

1. There is nothing illegal about recruiting a player who has committed elsewhere. Nebrich cannot sign with anyone until February. Every school -- including UConn -- keeps recruiting committed players after they verbal.
2. Randy Edsall is a good bet to move on from UConn. While I don't love negative recruiting, it happens. And negative spin happens in all walks of life. Anyone who has ever bought anything from a salesperson surely knows this. And if BC is going to go negative, I don't think questioning UConn's stability is a bad angle. In the past two offseasons alone, Edsall has been a candidate for numerous open positions. One of these days he is going to jump.
3. BC was just trying to get him to campus to evaluate him. According to Scout and Rivals, Nebrich doesn't have an offer from BC. We already have a QB in this class. I assume BC wants to see him as an athlete and if we can use him anywhere. This is not doing anything underhanded with a 5-star prospect. It was purely due diligence with a mid-level guy. If anything it shows the staff is looking high and low for talent.

This has already received more attention than it deserves. Just know that this UConn writer is either oblivious to the rules of recruiting or looking to generate attention for himself.

Travis Taylor not coming to BC and other links

Travis Taylor won't be transferring to BC. The initial spin blamed BC and painted a picture that BC did not know about his suspension. Fortunately that is not the case. BC was well aware that Taylor had some history. Where things fell apart was the story Taylor shared with BC and what the truth was. I will have more about the case on EI Thursday, but for now, know that BC did not screw up or screw over this kid.

I could read variations on the Herzy story over and over. Here is another good one with some Dick Vitale quotes.

In this mailbag Stewart Mandel admits he thought BC fans were spoiled when we complained about TOB, but now we might have been right.

This is the latest recruiting roundup for the Atlantic Division.

Part II of AC interview and other links

Here is part II of BC Draft/Eagle Insider's interview with Castonzo. In this section he discusses his improving teammates and the highlights of his BC career.

BC put up a video interview with new baseball coach Mike Gambino on bceagles.com. Unfortunately BC is not letting us embed those videos (yet). Also you can get a glimpse of the new Under Armour polo shirts.

Matt Tennant has good things to say about Sean Devine and his time at BC. Matt also says he wants to go to law school after his playing career is over.

The BCI guys spoke with the Football Outsiders to better understand how they came about their projections for BC.

BC is in the final three for Delaware lineman Trip Thurman.

Craig Smith got a new deal with the Clippers.

Troy Vincent was on campus to talk to the football players about finishing their degrees and life after football. I hope with all the agent news going on in college football, that he told them to be smart about their decisions off the field.

BC Draft's Interview with Castonzo

As I mentioned there will be many different voices at Eagle Insider. I was very excited when the BC Draft guys agreed to contribute and there first effort didn't dissappoint. They held an interview with Anthony Castonzo (PART I) and touched on a variety of topics both personal and related to Xs and Os.

Part II will be up Tuesday.

More on Gambino and other links

BC made the Gambino announcement official this afternoon. I like his youth and the fact that he is a BC grad, but I think his biggest asset will be his eye for talent. He has been Virginia Tech's recruiting coordinator and over the past few years the Hokies have upgraded their talent.

Baseball America has a rundown of the other candidates that interviewed and speculates that current assistant Steve Englert will stay on.

Soaring to Glory put together a good Q&A with the College Baseball Blog regarding the Mike Gambino hire. What I find interesting is that the close observers of the baseball are not concerned about the Aoki loss and feel he left the program in worse shape than he found it.

Dr. Saturday thinks we will win the division again.

The National Football thinks that Harris is the 2nd best RB in the ACC.

BC just offered Florida WR Tacoi Sumler.

Report: Gambino next BC baseball coach

According to the Herald, this afternoon BC will announce Mike Gambino has been hired as the new BC baseball coach. As I tweeted, this is a safe, sound hire. Gambino brings a nice mix of college and MLB experience. He also played and recruited at BC, so he knows what he is getting into and what sells at the school. I also appreciate that he left BC to join Peter Hughes at Virginia Tech. Sometimes that time spent away makes you appreciate what BC is all about and gives you some exposure to things that BC might need to emulate.

Congrats to Coach Gambino and let's hope when we finally have the new baseball field, we'll have a championship team playing on it.