Why This Year's Red Bandanna Matchup for BC Football Has Extra Kick to it: Just a Minute

BC football's 2025 Red-Bandanna-game opponent is a team that is starting to form a bit of a rivalry against the Eagles and recently joined the ACC.

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This week on the Heights, in terms of athletics, is arguably more important than any other for the rest of 2025.

That is because on Saturday, the Boston College football program will play its annual Red Bandanna game, which became a tradition in 2014, when BC earned a program-defining victory by taking down No. 9 USC 37-31—at the time, it marked the Eagles’ first ranked win since beating No. 20 Florida State in 2008.

The Red Bandanna game is how Boston College athletics, along with the rest of the university, honors Welles Crowther, the Boston College alumnus credited with saving the lives of about a dozen people during the Sept. 11 attacks. For the annual contest, BC football dons special Red Bandanna uniforms in front of a home crowd, honoring the legacy of Crowther, who is commonly referenced as “the man in the red bandanna.”

Crowther’s mother, Alison, is an attendee of the game each year, and her presence when she is brought onto the field during a break in the game is always met with heavy applause as a salute of honor to her son and the courageous actions he performed. 

Crowther is a true embodiment of the motto “men and women for others,” a phrase out of Jesuit tradition which is a staple in the BC community.

“Red Bandanna week is huge,” BC football head coach Bill O’Brien said on Tuesday. “What Welles Crowther meant to this program, to this university, and what he did, he’s a great example of what BC is all about. So we understand that very much.”

The first Red Bandanna game that O’Brien participated in as BC’s skipper was a triumphant success, as the Eagles bested Michigan State in a Week Four, 23-19 win.

With 1:28 left in regulation, former BC quarterback Thomas Castellanos linked up with Lewis Bond for a 42-yard, go-ahead touchdown pass in front of the sold-out crowd at Alumni Stadium. Max Tucker sealed the win by snatching an interception in the endzone with 42 seconds remaining.

“It’s a special place,” O’Brien said on live television after the win as fans stormed the field and rushed all around the players and coaches on the turf. “I mean Boston College is a very special place. [The] student body is just everything to this place, so I was just so happy that our guys played so hard to give these students something to cheer for.”

O’Brien continued: “That’s what this place is all about. God bless the Crowther family and God bless Welles Crowther.”

Despite falling to Missouri a week prior in a top-25 matchup by six points, 27-21, the victory brought the Eagles to 3-1 on the season, and hopes in the building were as high as ever.

This season, even with fans’ hopes nearing the edge of an all-time low, the spirit of Crowther is a tool of powerful momentum, one that can be utilized by BC to pull off what many individuals around the nation in the college football universe probably believe is impossible for the Eagles at this point—win.

This year, BC also happens to be hosting the perfect opponent for its Red Bandanna matchup, the SMU Mustangs—who have only played the Eagles twice in school history, in 2023 at the Wasabi Fenway Bowl and in 2024 in Dallas, Tex., but have served as the closest thing BC has had to a modern-day rival.

Bitterness between the two programs sparked at Fenway Park on a dreary, wet afternoon in December of 2023, when SMU traveled north to Boston as the No. 24 team in the nation to face the 6-6 Eagles at the time.

Senior tight end Jeremiah Franklin remembers the atmosphere of that matchup as being hostile because of the inclement conditions on the field. SMU was not equipped for that type of weather, and the Eagles seized advantage of that defect en route to a 23-14, postseason triumph.

“It was a very physical game,” Franklin said. “We did a lot of running because it was very wet and slushy. … You know, we try and go out there and just be as physical as possible, because at the end of the day, the more the person who can sustain longer is just going to be the one on top.”

The game also marked the first start of Kevin Jennings’ collegiate career, and Jennings still happens to be the starting quarterback for the Mustangs coming into this weekend’s Red Bandanna matchup.

Last year, the Mustangs took care of business with home-field advantage, capturing a 38-28 victory over BC on Nov. 16—the Mustangs were ranked No. 14 in the nation heading into the tilt—but the Eagles kept the game close on the back of quarterback Grayson James, who will be the starter on Saturday.

Former BC running back Kye Robichaux scored on a three-yard rushing touchdown with 5:52 left in the fourth quarter to decrease the Eagles’ deficit to 31-28, but Jennings’ five-yard touchdown pass to Key’Shawn Smith with eight seconds left on the clock put the nail in BC’s coffin.

Nevertheless, the game consisted of physical, hard-nosed football, similar to the Fenway-Bowl matchup, and the bad blood between the two schools is likely to continue on Saturday.

Before the season, at 2025 ACC Football Kickoff, Jennings even confirmed that some hard feelings between BC and SMU still exist.

“I definitely think there’s a rivalry forming,” Jennings said. “It takes two good teams to form a rivalry and I think Boston College is a really good team. Each and every game they give us a good game. They beat us the first year, in the second year we got the best of them.”