A Tale of Two 'Get Right' Games: Looking Back at 1986 Cal at Boston College

In 1986, the Eagles and Bears squared off for the first time in the two programs' histories in an eerily similar circumstance to this weekend.

Sep 13, 2025; Stanford, Calif., USA; Boston College Eagles quarterback Dylan Lonergan (9) passes against the Stanford Cardinal during the first quarter at Stanford Stadium. | Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

The concept of the "Get Right" game is not a new one. For decades now, teams who have gotten off to a sluggish start have always waited on the one game that it takes to right the ship.

That includes a Boston College team that, in 1986, lost its first regular season game to Rutgers via a final score of 11-9. The offense was stagnant, almost like it was designed for something, or someone else.

Shawn Halloran was the quarterback of that team, and had the unfortunate duty of being the starting after none other than Doug Flutie, who was drafted in 1984. The team went 4-8 with Halloran under center in 1985, but '86 was supposed to be different. Back then, returning production was one of, if not the most, important stat in all of college football, and BC was steeped in fifth-year players who had redshirted in the past.

That's why when BC lost to Rutgers, it came as a disappointment to the players, coaches and fan base. A team full of promise dropped its opening game, and for a moment, it seemed like hope in the season might have been lost. Then, Game 2 happened.

Halloran had been pulled in favor of the backup, and the coaches had literally wiped the playbook clean.

"I spoke to the coaches on Sunday ... When I came into the quarterback meeting that week, the white board had been wiped clean," Halloran said of the days leading up to the program's first initial matchup with Cal. "I think the coaching staff just realized that they weren't calling plays for Doug Flutie."

Head coach Jack Bicknell started anew and began calling plays based around the talent he had in his room, not what was on the roster during the Flutie years. What followed was the exact thing that the 1986 BC team needed — a Get Right game. Bicknell started his two younger quarterbacks over the course of the next two weeks in Mike Power and Mark Kamphaus. Boston College beat Cal in Alumni Stadium via a final score of 21-15.

Unfortunately for the two young starters, the injury bug then reared its ugly head, resulting in both being sidelined, and a shot at redemption for Halloran. What followed transformed a BC offense that was sluggish to start the season into a powerhouse. After a pair of losses that saw the Eagles fight to the final whistle against Penn State and almost steal a win against SMU in Texas Stadium, the first of an eight-game win streak came against Maryland on the road in mid-October.

That season culminated in a win against Georgia in the Hall of Fame bowl that saw Halloran complete a pass to Kelvin Martin during the final minute of play, which cemented the Eagles as an AP Top 25 team to finish out the year.

Flipping the Script

The 1986 season, in a microcosm, was about flipping the script. It wasn't just with the quarterback and the play-calling, but team as whole. What they need to finally get over and move on from was the assumption that it was Flutie alone who guided those previous Eagles teams to victory.

Compare that to Saturday's game and the similarities are easy to see. After a bye week, and a lackluster loss at Stanford, this is a Boston College team that needs to establish its own identity and forget about last season in a bad way. The offense has been there in spurts, but consistency has been hard to come by on both sides of the football.

Fortunately, deja vu could be at hand. Dylan Lonergan, Turbo Richard and head coach Bill O'Brien have ample opportunity to do the same thing against the same program as the '86 team did. The parallels are easy to see, but not as easy to execute. That, according to Halloran, comes down to the players themselves.

"You've got to focus in at practice... You can only control what you can do," said Halloran. "It's all the little things that go into it."

After the Rutgers game in 1986, fans brought signs to Alumni Stadium ridiculing the squad, and Halloran in particular. However, once the season ended, those same fans brought those signs to Halloran after the final home game of the year.

"It was a full circle moment," said Halloran.

When Cal rolls into Alumni Stadium this weekend, it will offer more than just any other football game. It offers Boston College a chance to right the ship, to prove that all the momentum on the recruiting trail isn't for nothing., and an opportunity to show that ican still make plenty of noise in the ACC.

It's all too familiar, a chance to Get Right against Cal.