Boston College May Have Deepest RB Depth In ACC

Boston College's running back position may be defined by one man, AJ Dillon. Clearly, he is the most talented and well recognized player on the team, and watching him run can be awe inspiring as he cuts down defenders and uses his sneaky speed to grab huge gains. What we saw for most of 2018 was not the real AJ Dillon, after a high ankle sprain he didn't look like himself, getting cut down usually on the first hit. A healthy AJ Dillon can break tackles better than any running back in the country, and could open the passing game like he did in the Wake Forest game in 2018.

But behind Dillon there is a stable of backs that could rival any team in the ACC. Last year we saw Travis Levy, a fantastic third down back with good hands eat up Virginia Tech with two touchdowns. He is the perfect change of pace back to the bruising Dillon, and Addazio will need to find a way to get him on the field this year.

Sophomore back David Bailey has slimmed down substantially, as Addazio mentioned during Media Day he said he looked like a completely different back. In 2018 he looked played a big hulking back, an AJ Dillon-lite who could punish defender but probably wasn't going to juke anyone with his move. But when I saw him at the scrimmage on Saturday he looked more of a back that could do anything. He caught passes, and showed some shiftiness that was absent in 2018. Again, Addazio will want to see him get some touches this year.

And a new player to get excited about is Patrick Garwo, a 4 star running back who just got on campus this summer. Everything I've heard about his play and his mind for the game has been positive. He appears ready to play immediately, and looks like a seasoned back. If he doesn't become a star this year, he may become one when AJ Dillon leaves. If there is a player that BC could use to spell Dillon and still make huge plays, it may be Patrick Garwo.

Behind these backs are some other depth pieces that could see the field as well. There is Javian Dayne another bruising back who saw some time last year. Quinn Stott, a freshman from Newburyport has had a nice summer as well and AJ Dillon had positive words to say on his play as well.

With all of these players BC has the tools to do a lot with their offense, and hopefully do more than just over play AJ Dillon. A good mix of these players should give the offense multiple looks that should keep defenses off balance and more honest. It'll be up to Steve Addazio to manage their usage, and to best utilize their talents. Can he do that? We will see in under two weeks.

See what AJ Dillon had to say about the running backs after this week's scrimmage:

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