'An Honor to Wear it': Wide Receiver Javarius Green Recognizes the Weight of Boston College's No. 4

The No. 4 jersey is a sacred one in the Boston College football wide receiver room.

From 2019-22, that number belonged to Zay Flowers, arguably — but really objectively — the best wideout to ever come through the program ranks.

In his decorated four-year career with the Eagles, Flowers set the BC single-season mark for receiving touchdowns (12), tied the record for receptions in a season (78) — which Lewis Bond remarkably snapped in 2025 — and produced the third most receiving yards (1,077) in a season in program history.

That led to being named a semifinalist for the Biletnikoff Award, given annually to the nation’s best wide receiver in college football, in his senior campaign, and earning All-ACC First-Team honors twice, including an All-ACC Third-Team nod as a junior.

Flowers’ 29 career touchdown receptions and 3,056 career receiving yards also rank first in BC history, respectively, and will likely never be touched in this era of the transfer portal.

However, after Flowers departure to the NFL — he was drafted 23rd overall in the 2023 NFL Draft to the Baltimore Ravens, who made him the fourth-highest paid wide receiver in NFL history this summer — it didn’t last long until a new wide receiver decided to pick up his number, as Reed Harris did so when he came to the Heights in 2023.

But after redshirting his freshman year and two strong seasons as the Eagles’ top deep threat, Harris left during the offseason to ASU, which reopened the opportunity for somebody else to wear the heralded No. 4.

This season, that player will be wide receiver Javarius Green, a transfer from North Carolina who spoke on his reasoning for selecting the number after Saturday’s fall-camp scrimmage.

“Originally I was number nine at North Carolina,” said Green. “My original number [in high school] was six, and then I came here. You know, Zay Flowers, the four was open, so I thought it was a great chance, a great number to wear. Somebody that means a lot to this school and did a lot of things, and doing big things [in the NFL]. So it’s kind of an honor just to be able to wear it.”

North Carolina transfer WR Javarius Green on what led him to BC.

Said he spoke to Lewis Bond, which contributed. Also took the #4 in honor of Zay. pic.twitter.com/FBf7xJMHJE
— Graham Dietz (@graham_dietz) August 22, 2026

In terms of his decision to transfer to BC, Green said that a conversation he had with Bond, who owns the school record for single-season receptions (88) and career receptions (213), was a major deciding factor.

“I got to talk to Lewis Bond a little bit before [transferring], you know, just to be able to see kind of the roots of this place,” Green said. “It’s a great school, it’s a great, prestigious school academically, [and] it’s a great school football-wise. So kind of just being able to come here, be able to connect with the guys, and get to talk to [Bill O’Brien], that was kind of the biggest thing.”

Unlike Harris, Green is actually built like Flowers — both are 5 feet 10 inches tall, although Green has roughly 30 pounds on the version of Flowers that wore maroon and gold — and has somewhat of a comparable play style.

While Green could only churn out 14 total catches for 162 yards in 16 career games in Chapel Hill, the redshirt sophomore is hoping to use the careers of Flowers and Bond as a template for this next chapter of his collegiate career.

And beyond just dominating between the hashmarks, Flowers and Bond were also team-first players with a will to do whatever it took for the program to succeed.

Green wants to be remembered that way, too.

“You got to do your part,” Green said. “People are counting on you to catch passes. But at the end of the day, you got to be a great teammate, whether you get the ball or not. You got to go do the job.”

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