Notre Dame vs One Win Boston College Cannot Become A Trap

Notre Dame must respect history with Boston College. That will be a significant part of Notre Dame's preparation as the team gets ready for a struggling Boston College team on Saturday.

Notre Dame has enjoyed a well-deserved and much-needed break after its must-win rivalry win over USC in rainy South Bend a couple of weeks ago. What remains for the Irish? A five-game stretch of battles in which the Irish will be favored in all of them and need emphatic victories in hopes of impressing the College Football Playoff committee. First up, the 1-7 Boston College Eagles.

On the surface, it may be tempting to go ahead and check this game off as an easy win for Notre Dame, given how the Eagles have only won one game this year, coming against Fordham in week one. This would be a mistake. As a longtime Irish follower, I know better than to take Boston College games for granted.

This is a program that is more known for ruining other teams' good seasons than having them itself. In recent vintage, Boston College spoiled the Irish's seasons in both the nightmare in '93 and again in the "green jersey" game in 2002. Both of these Eagle teams ruined undefeated Irish seasons in painfully brutal fashion.

I know this particular Boston College team is truly awful, but the Irish must respect their opponent heading into this game. For as bad as this season has been for the Eagles, they did play Louisville tight in their last ballgame. The only big picture goal for Boston College left that is attainable in 2025 is to ruin another Notre Dame season. This must be embraced and recognized by the Irish.

🚨Game time announcement

🆚 Notre Dame
🏟️ Alumni Stadium
🕰️ Saturday, Nov. 1 | 3:30 pm EST
📺 ESPN pic.twitter.com/l8z2SXRTtn
— Boston College Football (@BCFootball) October 26, 2025

Distractions for the Irish fanbase, but not for the Notre Dame team

Facing Boston College already drums up bad memories of seasons ruined for Notre Dame fans, but there's an extra dynamic in play this time around. For the last few days, Notre Dame fans and content creators, myself included, have been so enamored with Brian Kelly's epic failure meltdown at LSU, that talking about a 1-7 Boston College team has taken a backseat to this national news.

I completely realize that what the media and fanbase focus on isn't necessarily what the Notre Dame team focuses on, but I am a bit uncomfortable personally with this dynamic that I'm actively furthering in my own content. I surely hope and do believe the Notre Dame team is much more focused on this game than the rest of us are, but given our history with the Eagles, combined with everyone looking at Brian Kelly right now and how bad Boston College is this year, I felt the need to at least discuss this potential trap.

The bottom line is that Notre Dame is a much better team than Boston College, and this will only become a trap game if the Irish allow it to become one.