BC-Army preview

The short season nature of college football always has you looking ahead to the rest of the schedule. After BC beat Virginia last week, I revisited the remaining opponents and felt better. As UConn, Pitt and Georgia Tech’s terrible days progressed, BC’s chance at a winning season and Hafley saving his job became much more viable. All of that presumes we beat Army this week. The Cadets are favored and our last trip to West Point was a disaster. But we can win this week. We have to win this week.

What's on my mind (not totally related to this game)
BC doesn’t schedule the service academies enough. It has been ten years since we played Army, 20 since we played Navy and 43 years since we’ve played Air Force. The East Coast academies used to be a regular part of our schedule. I know their offenses are hard to play and there is very little upside. But you have to play someone out of conference. Isn’t playing Army or Navy more respectable than trying to drum up a series with a random mid-major? With the conferences in flux, I know we can’t predict much regarding future schedules, but I hope BC calls Army and Navy first when they are trying to fill out their calendars.

Three Simple Keys
1. Disciplined play on the Defensive line. Army’s new offense is more like Wake’s than the Triple Option, but it still starts with an option style read in the backfield. Our DLine needs to win their battles up front and keep Army from establishing tempo or space in the pocket.
2. Get Bond more touches. It is natural when things are gloomy to latch on to the first sign of life. I know Bond won’t be Zay tomorrow (or maybe ever), but he has some key attributes – finding space, making people miss, etc – that are in short supply. We need to get him seven or eight touches this week.
3. Win the turnover battle. We got lucky last week. Very lucky. This week we need to protect the ball more and hopefully force a few turnovers.

Gambling Notes
-- BC leads the series 25-13
-- BC is 12-11 in Michie Stadium
-- Hafley is 7-4 in non-conference games
The current line is BC+3

Factoid
We had a five game win streak vs Army prior to Spaz’s loss in 2012 and a nine game win streak prior to Henning’s loss in 1995.

Scoreboard Watching
Syracuse-UNC. The Orange lost last week (which gave me some hope). Immediately people online mentioned this year might be another season where Baber’s starts hot and ends the season in a free fall. I hope so. It will be telling if they bounce back this week vs Carolina.

BC is in trouble if… Army eats up the clock. They are not triple option, but they are still slow and methodical. We can’t let them have seven and eight minute drives.

I hope to see… Castellanos be more careful with the ball. He looked good on the ground, but the passing game was a hit or miss. Castellanos can’t force things and needs to be careful throwing into coverage.

Bottom Line
I think this is another close game. BC wins by making fewer mistakes and Hafley gets us back to .500
Final Score: BC 28, Army 20