Wings Up, Down: Which Eagles Improved or Dropped Their Stock in BC's Florida State Loss
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Welcome to our Week 10 “Wings Up, Down,” where we assess which Boston College football players were worthy of highlighting from Saturday’s 31-24 loss to Florida State, which took the Eagles to 4-5 and 2-4 in the ACC, and which did not perform up to the level that was expected of them.
The selections for both categories can either be an individual player, a position group, or even a specific coach.
Let’s get started with the ones who improved their stock.
Wings Up
RB Bo MacCormack III — For the second time in the past three weeks, the true sophomore garnered over 100 rushing yards and a score, as MacCormack led the backfield with 105 yards on 16 carries and scored BC’s first touchdown of the game, doing so with a six-yard scamper.
MacCormack’s usage has increased a ton since Evan Dickens’ season-ending knee injury that transpired in the Eagles’ loss at SMU, and he’s made the most out of his opportunities — in the three games since, the Westford, Mass., native has totaled 284 yards and four scores while averaging 5.7 yards per carry.
MacCormack was also a threat in the passing game on Saturday, hauling in three catches for 24 yards.
He’s a player who BC head coach Bill O’Brien highly regards for his impressive leadership qualities as an underclassmen, but now he is becoming a true offensive threat who the Eagles rely on every week to produce.
WR Ned Boldin Jr. — There really hasn’t been a clear pecking order among BC’s receivers this year, which has led to different players stepping up every week.
This week, it was the redshirt freshman Boldin, who caught Mason McKenzie’s first touchdown pass of the game on a wide receiver screen to the boundary, which he ran into the end zone from 29 yards out.
He finished the game with only two receptions for 49 yards and the score, but they were both crucial plays, as the first one, a 20-yard catch over the middle of the field, came on the initial play of the drive he scored on.
K Luca Lombardo — Lombardo, who was a Lou Groza semifinalist last season, converted all three extra-point kicks and nailed a 48-yard field goal in the first quarter to extend BC’s lead to 10-0.
Lombardo’s confidence has been shaken this year with some inconsistency, but he looked far more like his 2025 self on Saturday.
S Marcus Upton — Upton recorded the first interception of his BC career in the third quarter off a deflection that came right to him, and it led to the Eagles’ scoring drive that put them on top 24-21.
In addition to the pick, which he tacked a 24-yard return onto, the true sophomore notched eight tackles, six of which were solo tackles.
Wings Down
QB Grayson Wilson — Right before Upton’s interception, the Eagles’ backup quarterback entered the game for a brief stint after McKenzie was taken to the medical tent to be looked at following a seven-yard scramble, at the end of which he absorbed a hard hit to his head.
Wilson threw just three passes, the first of which was incomplete, the second of which resulted in a loss of four yards, and the third of which he air-mailed over the head of tight end Kaelan Chudzinski and into the hands of the other team, as Ja’Bril Rawls picked it off.
It was a tough position for Wilson to be in, as BC desperately needed a bounce-back drive after surrendering a touchdown in the final minute of the second quarter on a fake field goal.
But it doesn’t excuse the redshirt sophomore from making a bad throw, which it most certainly was.
DC Ted Roof — Allowing the Seminoles to score on all five of their red-zone trips is more of an indictment on Roof, the Eagles’ first-year defensive coordinator, than any specific player on the defense, because the same thing happened in BC’s blowout loss at Duke last week — the Blue Devils scored on all seven of their red-zone visits.
It shows that to some extent, Roof’s scheme in that area is malfunctioning, and there appeared to be very little adjustment to it as the game went on.
Outside of that, the Eagles relinquished 202 net yards and four scores on the ground as well, which allowed FSU to control time of possession in the second half by a wide margin. A run defense like that just isn’t going to cut it against the majority of ACC teams.
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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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