Hafley Expects Playbook to Open up as Season Progresses
When Boston College takes the field this Saturday against Texas State, the playbook may look different than the one we saw against Duke last weekend.
Head coach Jeff Hafley today explained that last weekend's game plan was not the full playbook and that this week we could expect more. This wasn't unexpected, as he had mentioned before that he wanted to simplify his playbook in the first game to help his players succeed. He explained what that looked like "I think it was about as vanilla in all three phases as you’ll see all year. We kind of took the greatest hits, what we felt best about, most comfortable about, and we just stuck to them."
The offense, which scored 26 points on 384 yards seemingly was primarily focused on four players: Phil Jurkovec, Hunter Long, Zay Flowers and David Bailey. There were only three catches made by wide receivers other than Flowers and Long, and Bailey/Jurkovec had 30 of the 42 rushes. "I think you saw, truthfully, in that first game, a very dialed-down offense from what you’re going to see going forward," Hafley told reporters. "I think you’ll see us open it up a little bit more, and I think you’ll see more guys get involved, for sure. "
The weapons are there for the offense to build upon and become even more explosive. Even with the loss of Kobay White for the season, Ethon Williams and Taji Johnson are both talented young wide receivers who should find a role in Frank Cignetti's offense. Both had big summers, that were marked with highlight reel catches splashed all over social media. While CJ Lewis, a veteran wide receiver, is a big target that had a big catch last weekend and could find more reps with White's absence. And in the backfield Patrick Garwo and Travis Levy will find more targets and carries as well.
On the defensive side of the ball, Hafley wants to see the team do better on preventing offenses from getting in the red zone. He talked about the team needing to do better on first, second and third down to keep opponents from marching down field. But when teams do get in the red zone, the defense needs to keep them out of the end zone or take the ball away.
The Eagles take on Texas State on Saturday. How much the team opens up the playbook will be worth watching, as they face a Top 25 UNC team the following week.
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