BC Preseason Roundtable 2021: Which Position Will Improve Most?
We are now two weeks away from Boston College's opening kickoff against Colgate on September 4th. In our final week of season previews, we got together our staff to talk about the upcoming season. Every day this week we will pose a BC football related question and give our predictions. Today we kick it off by asking "which position group will improve the most in '21?"
Eric Hoffses: Wide Receivers. I believe it might actually be the wide receivers because I’m expecting huge production. The unit was as strong as its been in years last season but I expect the stats to go up even more. Hunter Long’s 57 receptions and 685 yards have to be taken by someone and I don’t think it will all be from the tight end position. I look for Kobay White to get a lot of those targets and receptions and he will naturally fill a lot of that in. Zay Flowers went for 892 yards last year and I think he’ll have right around that number again. CJ Lewis and Jaelen Gill should both uptick over 500 yards this year.
Mitch Wolfe: Secondary. This group made some plays but still gave up lots of explosives to a variety of offenses. Hafley and the rest of the coaching staff talked about how they were forced to be relatively vanilla last year due to COVID and the lack of training camp. This is borne out by the rates at which they used certain coverage shells. According to the PFF College Football Preview, BC ranked in the top-15 in their usage of Cover 1 (37.6% 10th), 2 (11.5%, 16th), and 35.2%, 9th). However, they ranked almost at the very bottom of their usage of Cover 4 and Cover 6 (127th, 3.8%). Obviously, those first three coverages are generally the most popular. But eschewing more complicated coverages like Cover 4 and Cover 6 shows how limited the BC defense was. With a full offseason of training and practice, along with the additions of players like Jaiden Lars-Woodbey and JT Thompson, this secondary has a chance to be among the best in the conference, maybe even the country.
AJ Black: Offensive Line. For the second straight year Boston College's line comes into the season with huge expectations. Zion Johnson and Alec Lindstrom have been on multiple All ACC and All American lists, and they are joined by three returners in Tyler Vrabel, Christian Mahogany and Ben Petrula. Why will they drastically improve?There are a multitude of reasons. First, Johnson is moving back to guard, and Petrula to tackle. Johnson was one of the best guards in the country in '19 but had to move to tackle last season. Secondly, the unit got a chance to work with offensive line coach Matt Applebaum for an entire offseason, which should solidify their understanding of his scheme and have them better prepared in '21. Finally, they spent the entire offseason with strength and conditioning coach Phil Matuscz. Last season, COVID-19 threw a wrench in their training, and now back to a more consistent routine, that should help them tremendously on the field.
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