Boston College’s bowl path got a lot steeper Saturday, and Florida State was the one that slammed the door.
The Eagles looked like they might finally have a night to breathe after a brutal 47-2 loss to Duke, jumping out to early leads of 10-0 and 17-7 at Alumni Stadium. But Florida State, fresh off firing Mike Norvell after a 38-26 loss to Clemson and turning to interim coach Rick Stockstill, shook off its own mess and walked out with a 31-24 win that left BC at 4-5.
That means the Eagles still need two wins in their final three games to reach bowl eligibility, and the road ahead is ugly: Notre Dame next, then Miami in the finale.
“It’s just a very difficult schedule,” BC head coach Bill O’Brien said. “We don’t have any control over the schedule here.
We just try to do the best we can. These kids fight their asses off every single day.
I love these kids, they come to work every day, they sit right here and are never late, they are always on time, they practice hard, they go to class and do everything we ask them to do. The schedule is difficult just like it is for 130 other teams.”
For a while, it looked like BC had the better energy and the better plan. Sophomore running back Bo MacCormack III powered in a 6-yard touchdown, then Nedrick Boldin Jr. turned a quick horizontal throw from Mason McKenzie into a 29-yard score after making a man miss and racing to the end zone. By early in the second quarter, the Eagles had outgained Florida State 182-34.
Then the Seminoles woke up.
Florida State trimmed the gap when Amari Thomas finished a 75-yard drive with a 20-yard run, and the game turned on a wild special-teams wrinkle just before halftime. On fourth-and-goal from the 2, the Seminoles lined up for a field goal, but holder Carter Jula took the snap and flipped it blindly over his head to kicker Gabe Panikowki, who ran it in for a stunning 21-17 lead.
BC answered with its own trickery in the third quarter. First came a variation of the Philly Special, with Javarius Green taking a reverse and finding McKenzie for 10 yards on third-and-3. Then, on second-and-goal from the 2, the Eagles rolled out a ring-around-the-rosey look, spread most of the line wide left and sent McKenzie right, where he delivered an underhand toss to Green for a touchdown and a 24-21 lead with 4:11 left in the third.
“When it’s a gimmick kind of play you feel like you have to make it work just because it gives a lot of life to the team,” MacCormack said. “But we have to make every play work.”
That lead didn’t last. Florida State controlled the fourth quarter with a 90-yard march that ate 8:16 off the clock and ended with Thomas’s second touchdown run of the day, an 11-yarder that put BC in a 31-24 hole with 2:26 left. Thomas led the Seminoles’ ground game with 202 yards on 45 carries.
McKenzie finished 15 of 27 for two touchdowns and one interception. He missed part of one series after taking a hard hit on one of his scrambles, but returned. BC did get the ball back and moved to the Florida State 35, but McKenzie’s fourth-and-15 throw to Dawson Pough fell incomplete and ended the comeback try.
“It is what it is. It definitely hurts,” senior defensive back KP Price said.
“We have to get up and go back at it tomorrow. As a team, we don’t see failure, we see it as an opportunity with three games left and two ranked teams to accomplish what we want to accomplish.”
In Other News...
Boston College Let This One Slip Despite A Huge Night In Net
Boston College had plenty to feel good about in net, but not enough on the scoreboard in a 2-1 Hockey East loss to No. 13 UConn. Grace Bickett scored for the Eagles, while Addison Stewart and Caileigh Tiller answered for the Huskies in a tight game that stayed within reach throughout.
Avah Sedore was the biggest reason Boston College had a chance late, turning aside 48 shots to keep the Eagles alive against one of the leagues ranked teams. Even with that kind of performance in goal, Boston College could not find the extra push it needed to come away with points in a series game that slipped away in the final stretch. [Read more 🡒]
Boston College Let A Winnable Game Slip Away After A Brutal Turn
Boston College and Florida State met with bowl eligibility hanging in the balance, and for long stretches it looked like the Eagles were right there in a game they could have used to steady their season. The first half and the opening minutes after halftime featured a back-and-forth flow of scoring drives, timely plays and contributions on both sides, with Boston College doing enough to keep the Seminoles within reach at home.
Then the game turned on a sequence the Eagles could not afford. Mason McKenzie went down after taking a hit on a rush and had to head to the sideline early in the second half, forcing Boston College to adjust on the fly at quarterback. Grayson Wilson came in shortly after, and the pressure of the moment only grew as the Eagles tried to keep a winnable game from slipping away. [Read more 🡒]
FSU Finally Showed Fight But One Bigger Question Just Started
Florida State finally looked like a team with some fight under interim coach Rick Stockstill, and Boston College was right there in the middle of it for most of the afternoon. The Eagles traded punches with the Seminoles in a game that featured a trick-play touchdown pass for BC and a fake field goal touchdown run for Florida State, the kind of back-and-forth sequence that kept the result in doubt deep into the fourth quarter.
For Boston College, the frustration is less about the effort than the ending, because the Eagles had chances to make this one matter more. Instead, Florida State found enough late to survive and give Stockstill his first win since Mike Norvell was fired, leaving BC with another reminder that close games can still turn on a single drive, a single call, or one missed stop when the pressure peaks. [Read more 🡒]