Greatest BC Football Game 1st Round Matchup Matchup (8)2002-#4 Notre Dame vs. (9) 2014 #9 USC
In our second matchup of the first round we are going to take two more recent matchups, the 2002 win against Notre Dame on the road, and '14 Steve Addazio's signature win against USC.
2002: Boston College 14 #4 Notre Dame 7
In a year where BC was playing some inconsistent football, they headed off to play a #4 Notre Dame team that by all accounts should have smoked the Eagles. Apparently that is exactly what the Fighting Irish thought as well: "It felt like they didn't respect us at all, '' defensive end
Mathias Kiwanuka said. "They thought they could come out and do
anything; they didn't have to prepare the way they did other
games.'' What happened on the field was a master class in defense as the Eagles forced seven fumbles (3 recovered by BC), and ND QB Pat Dillingham threw two interception, the biggest being one to LB Josh Ott who took it to the house to seal the win. Derrick Knight had 129 hard fought yards for the Eagles, and BC left South Bend with an enormous victory.
2014: Boston College 37 #9 USC 31
It was an electric atmosphere at Alumni Stadium that evening, as BC set to face off with a ranked USC team. But things didn't start off well for the Eagles as they quickly fell behind 10-0, after a touchdown pass from Cody Kessler to George Farmer and a long 52 yard field goal from Andre Heidari. BC jumped back into the game with a Tyler Rouse TD run (missed extra point), but USC answered back with another TD pass from Kessler this time to Javorious Allen. But this was not a BC team that was going to quit. BC stormed back with a touchdown run by Jon Hilliman, and an electric 53 yard end around by Sherm Alston to give the Eagles the lead 20-17 going into the half.
Hilliman punched in another short run in the third quarter and Joey Launceford hit a 25 yard field goal to give BC a 30-17 lead, but Kessler hit his third touchdown pass of the game this time to future NFLer Nelson Agholor. BC answered promptly though with Tyler Murphy running through the USC defense for a 66 yard touchdown run and seal the win. That run was probably the craziest I've ever seen Alumni get live (other than Michael Walker's PR against Clemson this year)