Which Former BC Football Players Deserve a Statue Like Doug Flutie's: Just a Minute

Anybody who has been to Alumni Stadium, or even passed by the iron gates down Campanella Way, knows of the Doug Flutie statue which is erected just past the lower-campus-facing entrance to the Boston College Eagles’ home stadium.

Doug Flutie: Boston College. Boston College: Doug Flutie. In the landscape of college football, the two are synonymous for one another.

Arguably the greatest BC football player of all-time, and the only Heisman trophy winner from the football program (1984), Flutie is the equivalent of a Jesus-Christ-esque figure on the Heights, and his regular appearances to football games in Chestnut Hill, Mass., always sparks the attention of students and alumni in the bleachers.

Boston College was the only Division I-A college to recruit Flutie out of Natick, Mass., where Flutie went to high school, but he proceeded to have one of the most decorated stories of a college football player ever, in large part thanks to a final-ditch throw, called the “Hail Flutie,” against Miami on the last play of the game to win it all.

Before the final stretch of the contest, the Hurricanes staged a vigorous comeback drive to take a 45-41 lead in the closing minute of the game, which was nationally televised on CBS the day after Thanksgiving and thus had a massive audience.

Step in, Flutie.

After a pair of passes led the Eagles down the field for 30 yards, with only six seconds remaining, Flutie scrambled away from Miami’s defensive rush and threw a Hail Mary on a wing and a prayer. His college roommate, Gerard Phelan, came down with it, and BC won, 47-45.

Checkmate, Miami.

A week later, Flutie won the Heisman and BC made it to the Cotton Bowl, but he gives all the credit of his legacy to that game-winning drive.

“Without the Hail Mary pass, I think I could have been very, very easily forgotten,” Flutie said.

A bronze statue of the “Hail Flutie” is what protects the gates of Alumni Stadium to this day, and into the foreseeable future.

But what if it didn’t?

Since the early 1980s, there have been dozens of BC football players to grace the turf at Alumni Stadium and put the Eagles on the map to a degree that comes close to what Flutie did. None of them might have casted BC into the national spotlight more so than Flutie, but several came close, if not closer in the quest for a college football national title.

Here are the two players who own the right to have a statue of their own one day, either replacing Flutie’s or situated just next to him, on BC’s campus and why:

1. Matt Ryan, QB, 2003-07

Ryan is the obvious choice to either replace or be in the same tier as Flutie as far as campus statues go. No one can deny this, and he is unquestionably the best quarterback—in terms of skill and pro success—to ever come out of Chestnut Hill.

Ryan led the Eagles to back-to-back 10+ win seasons in 2006 (10) and 2007 (11), respectively, including the Atlantic Coast Conference Atlantic Division title in 2007. During his senior year, Ryan was named the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm winner, won the Manning Award, and was named the ACC Player of the Year.

He set single-season records for passing yards (9,313 total) and touchdowns (56 total), although Flutie holds the record for career yards and Glenn Foley for career touchdowns, by a BC quarterback, and the No. 12 which Ryan wore was later retired by the football program. In 2007 alone, Ryan passed for 4,507 yards and 36 touchdowns, finishing seventh in Heisman voting before going No. 3 overall to the Atlanta Falcons in the 2008 NFL Draft.

The 1984 team under Flutie reached as high as the No. 5 ranking in the Associated Press Top-25 Poll. In 2007, under Ryan, BC ranked as high as the No. 2 team in the nation.

2. Luke Keuchly, LB, 2009-11

Another player to virtually reach the mountaintop of college football during his respective playing years, only this time on the defensive side, is Keuchly.

Kuechly is one of the most decorated defensive players in college football history, finishing his collegiate career with a school-record 532 tackles, including 299 solo tackles, in 38 games. He ranks second in career total tackles in NCAA history, first in career total tackles per game (14.0), sixth in career solo tackles, and second in career solo tackles per game (7.9).

As a junior in 2011, Keuchly earned the Bronko Nagurski Trophy as the national defensive player of the year, the Butkus Award as the nation’s most outstanding linebacker, the Rotary Lombardi Award as the nation’s lineman or inside linebacker of the year, the Lott Impact Trophy as the defensive player of the year, and was a consensus All-American from the AP, the Football Writers’ Association of America, the Sporting News, and the Walter Camp Football Foundation.

He registered a school-record 191 tackles, including 102 solos, in 2011 alone, a year after earning unanimous All-America honors and first-team recognition from all five official selectors as well.

There is no defensive player in BC football history that compares to Keuchly, period. The middle linebacker was eventually selected by the Carolina Panthers in the 2012 NFL Draft, and he established himself as one of the greatest linebackers in NFL history as a seven-time Pro Bowler and five-time First-Team All-Pro in his eight-year professional career. He was both the Defensive Rookie of the Year and later Defensive Player of the Year in 2013.

Honorable Mentions:

QB Glenn Foley
RB Andre Williams
RB A.J. Dillon
WR Zay Flowers
OL Chris Lindstrom
DB Tony Thurman
LB Tom McManus
DL Mathias Kiwanuka
DL Donovan Ezeiruaku
K Nate Freese