BC Bulletin

Bye Week Notebook: Boston College Football by the Numbers

How do the Eagles compare to the rest of the FBS in categories such as passing offense, defensive yards and points allowed, field-goal kicking and more?
Graham Dietz|
Sep 13, 2025; Stanford, California, USA; Boston College Eagles quarterback Dylan Lonergan (center) scrambles against the Stanford Cardinal during the third quarter at Stanford Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images
Sep 13, 2025; Stanford, California, USA; Boston College Eagles quarterback Dylan Lonergan (center) scrambles against the Stanford Cardinal during the third quarter at Stanford Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images | Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

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Boston College Eagles

Through the first three weeks of the college football season, the Boston College Eagles’ football program is 1-2 overall and 0-1 in Atlantic Coast Conference play.

BC initially clamored down on Fordham, an inferior, FCS-level opponent, in Week One, demolishing the Rams, 66-10, before coming out of East Lansing, Mich., with a double-overtime loss to the Spartans by a final score of 42-40.

In Week Three, trying to reverse the road-loss misfortunes which have held back the program ever since Bill O’Brien took over as the head coach last season, the Eagles blew a 17-6 lead with 8:05 remaining in the first half, losing to previously-winless Stanford, 30-20. BC did not score in the first, third, and fourth quarter of the game.

Now on a bye week, O’Brien will have to try and rally his pawns to bounce back with a home tilt against California-Berkeley, which is making the second-furthest road trip of the season for an ACC football competition—BC made the furthest when it traveled to Stanford, Calif., this past Saturday—on Saturday, Sept. 27, at 3:30 p.m.

Before Boston College Eagles On SI previews that game next week, here is a look at the Boston College football program by the numbers through Weeks One, Two, and Three.

Among the Nation’s Top Passing Offenses

If you watched the first three games of the season, it should be no surprise that BC is currently one of the best passing offenses in the country.

Redshirt-sophomore quarterback Dylan Lonergan, who made his first career start in college against Fordham and transferred to the Heights from Alabama last December, ranks fourth in the country in passing yards with 991, tied for fifth in passing touchdown with nine, tied for 11th in completion percentage at a rate of 73.2, and tied for first in total completions with 90.

Except for maybe O’Brien himself, nobody would have seen this coming from BC’s signal caller given how much the Eagles have relied on the run game the past three seasons as opposed to attacking through the air.

On the flip side, BC’s run game is still in the process of searching for its spark, but O’Brien claimed that he wanted to be as close as possible to a fifty-fifty split between pass and run, and that it all depends on the looks which the Eagles’ opponents are showing the offense.

On the receiving end, the current leader in receptions in the entire nation is BC’s own Lewis Bond, who has led the Eagles in both receiving yards and receptions the past two seasons and decided to return for his senior year.

Bond has hauled in 29 receptions through three games—which puts him on pace for 116 receptions over a 12-game span, which would rank him first in program history over Zay Flowers (200)—accumulating 275 yards on an average of 9.5 yards per catch.

Tight end Jeremiah Franklin is already close to passing his 2024 season receptions total of 27 with 19 through three games—which is the most of any tight end in the nation—for 175 yards (9.2 yards per catch) and a touchdown.

Right behind Bond and Franklin is Reed Harris, BC’s 6-foot-5, 210-pound go-get-it wide receiver with 11 receptions for 196 yards—141 of which came against the Cardinal last week—and two touchdowns, while running back Turbo Richard ranks fourth on the team in receiving yards at 149 followed by Campbell transfer wideout VJ Wilkins (105 yards), freshman Dawson Pough (96 yards), and junior starter Jaedn Skeete (67 yards, three touchdowns).

Overall, BC’s passing offense ranks first in the country at 393.7 yards per game, followed by Texas Tech, Syracuse, Bayler, and Nebraska, including first in total passing yards (1,181), completions (95), and attempts (128), on an average of 42.7 average passing attempts per game.

Surrendering Points Unsustainably

While BC’s defense is only giving up 315.7 total yards per game, which puts it close to the top third of defenses in the nation in that category, its 27.3 points surrendered per game ranks much closer to the bottom third of the FBS—the Eagles are tied with Jacksonville State and Washington State in that category.

There are 11 total teams in the country that have relinquished between 310 and 320 yards per game through three weeks, including BC, but the Eagles are handing out points to opponents at a rate which is 7.6 points higher than the team with the next highest average points allowed mark out of those 11 programs—the Temple Owls (19.7 ppg). 

Of the 10 other teams that give up an average of 310 to 320 total yards per game—so not including BC—the average points allowed per game between all of them is just 16.9 points, a full 10.4 points less than the Eagles, which is more than two scores (a touchdown and field goal, and then some).

This is all to say that defensive redzone execution and limiting explosive plays are severely lacking for the Eagles, which is not going to make it easier for O’Brien and co. to win games even with such a lethal passing game.

BC has been decimated by injuries on defense, particularly in the secondary, with its top two cornerbacks, Amari Jackson and Syair Torrence, failing to suit up last week against Stanford, along with starting defensive tackle Owen Stoudmire.

The Eagles had a total of five players in the secondary alone who did not play last Saturday, and more injuries arose during that game, including one sustained by linebacker Daveon “Bam” Crouch, who is arguably the best pure tackler on the team, which BC has struggled mightily with—per Pro Football Focus (PFF), the Eagles’ defense has missed a combined 30 tackles over their last two outings.

Leaning on Lombardo

One of the major surprises of the 2025 season thus far has been the success of Luca Lombardo’s leg.

In 2024, the Eagles attempted the fewest field goals of any team in the nation—five—and were successful at 60 percent of the time on those attempts.

This year, O’Brien has already elected to go for just as many field goals as the Eagles did in the entirety of last season, and Lombardo, a junior out of Westport, Conn., has made all five—including kicks from 51, 48, 38, and 37 yards.

Lombardo’s 48-yard kick in BC’s first game of the season was usurped by his 51-yard boot against Stanford in the second quarter, a career long, when the score looked promising in BC’s favor.

Lombardo is also 15-for-15 on extra points this season.

Published
Graham Dietz
GRAHAM DIETZ

Graham Dietz is a 2025 graduate of Boston College and subsequently joined Boston College On SI. He previously served as an editor for The Heights, the independent student newspaper, from fall 2021, including as Sports Editor from 2022-23. Graham works for The Boston Globe as a sports correspondent, covering high school football, girls' basketball, and baseball. He was also a beat writer for the Chatham Anglers of the Cape Cod Baseball League in the summer of 2023.

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