CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – The first week of Boston College football’s preseason camp came to a close early on Saturday morning when the team ran through an intra-squad scrimmage.
It was the Eagles’ first of three scheduled scrimmages before the team finally opens the season against Maine at Alumni Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 5.
Throughout the two-plus hour scrimmage, head coach Steve Addazio saw things he liked and things he said acknowledged would be worked on in the coming weeks in preparation for Eagles’ full 12-game slate.
[callout2]“The [first team] took 70 scrimmage reps today and that’s a lot,” Addazio said. “We have a lot of work done and we walked off the field healthy. It’s not where you are today; it’s where you grow from today and that’s what I want to see.[/callout2]
[callout2]”This is the first real measure. Let’s see how we grow from here and get better and improve. Don’t make the same mistakes now and each time we come out. Take coaching and fundamentally develop. That is what I am really interested in now. We set a bar and now we have to grow. Next Saturday, we have to look a lot better,” he continued.[/callout2]
Senior offensive lineman Dave Bowen echoed Addazio’s sentiment, and sees camps so far as the progression toward a goal, especially for the offensive line.
“It’s been good,” Bowen said. “We’re getting a lot of guys reps. We’re rotating guys so that by week 1 – probably 20 days away now – we’re going to have the best starting five that we can.
“Everyone is fighting for a job right now and that’s the way we want it. We lost of great players last year to the NFL and now it’s our turn to step up and fill those roles and do so by pushing each other on a daily basis and that’s what’s going to get us ready,” he continued.
While the offensive line spent considerable time on the field together this morning, the running backs – a stable of five returnees – continued to fine tune their skills.
Addazio added, “We have very good backs. We generally have good running backs who make plays and we need to utilize them. I have to go up there and talk to the team about how we can utilize them even more. They make plays, they catch the ball, they block people, they run and you roll those guys. I think we are excellent there right now.”
“The running back crew, we work so hard,” sophomore Marcus Outlow said. “Coach showed us a statistic before camp started – the first day we got in – about how the running backs, we didn’t lose any one. There were zero snaps that the running backs lost last year because we’re all returning.
“But for us, we’re trying to focus on everything we do and everything we’re working on is at 100% and try to take out the blemishes in our games.”
After Outlow broke out for a long gain before being pulled down in the backfield – “Mike Walker, fast kid! … I heard a whistling sound as I was running and I heard a coach, ‘Go get ‘em, Mike! Go get ‘em!’ And then I looked over my shoulder and I saw Mike coming,” Outlow added – everyone was reminded of the backs’ penchant for creating big runs, a fact that Bowen says is a strength of team.
“We’ve watched on film where we’re three inches away – we’re three inches shallow in a block – and it’s that close to where we’re springing plays that instead of six yards are six points,” he explained “It’s close. [The running backs] really show that they can make guys miss and burst into the open field. So we have to get them room and let them do the rest.”
The Eagles have two scrimmages left on the schedule before game week preparation begins. Next Saturday, they’ll be back out on the field looking to see further improvement.