Boston College’s running backs room looks a lot different heading into 2026, and that’s by design. The Eagles leaned heavily on the transfer portal to rebuild the offense, and nowhere is that more obvious than in the backfield.
At the center of it all is Evan Dickens, the former Liberty standout who arrives in Chestnut Hill with real star power. Dickens piled up 1,339 rushing yards last season, good for fifth in the country, and his 16 rushing touchdowns ranked fourth nationally. He also turned in six games with at least 100 rushing yards and three games with more than 200, earning Group of Five Second-Team All-American honors along the way.
Dickens made it clear he isn’t treating last season like a finish line.
“I’m still hungry for more,” Dickens said after the first practice of fall training camp. “Obviously, I had a really successful season last season, but that’s in the past.
I’m looking forward to mimicking or even having a better season this year. I’m still hungry.
I’m not satisfied, and I'm gonna keep plotting.”
That kind of production changes the shape of an offense, and Boston College is betting on Dickens to be a major piece from the start. He’s already been around the ACC once before, too, after spending two years at Georgia Tech, where he worked mostly in a reserve role. This time, the expectation is very different.
The Eagles also brought in Nolan Ray from Maryland to deepen the room. Ray, a Southfield, Mich., native, posted 289 yards and two touchdowns on 67 carries last season, averaging 4.3 yards per attempt. He appeared in 25 games with three starts over three years for the Terrapins and entered college football on the Doak Walker Award preseason watchlist in 2025, after previously landing on the Shaun Alexander Freshman of the Year Award watchlist in 2024.
Among the returners, sophomore Bo MacCormack III is the name to watch. The Buckingham Browne & Nichols product played in nine games last season as a backup, finishing with 15 carries for 43 yards and a touchdown. Boston College is expecting a jump from year one to year two, and there’s a chance he could even end up sharing work with Dickens.
MacCormack brings a different kind of profile: a downhill runner who lowers his pad level and keeps churning through traffic. He also comes in with serious high school credentials, having finished as Massachusetts’ all-time leading rusher with 6,699 yards and 100 touchdowns.
There are more options behind them, too. Freshman Sedric Addison, from Suwanee, Ga., arrives after a huge high school career at Peachtree Ridge, where he totaled more than 2,100 yards and 29 touchdowns in four years. A three-star prospect ranked the 49th-best running back in the nation in the class of 2026 by 247Sports, Addison also scored 14 touchdowns as a senior, including eight on the ground and six through the air, the most in Region 7 6A in Georgia.
Addison already saw the field in two games last season while preserving his redshirt, finishing with five rushing yards on two carries and one reception for three yards. He was also rated among the top 10 overall recruits from Massachusetts and top 100 nationally among all running backs by 247Sports and On3 after rushing for over 1,000 yards and 17 touchdowns for CM in 2024.
Redshirt freshman Mekhi Dodd, a Catholic Memorial product from West Roxbury, Mass., could also get involved, while another young back, Ferrucci, appeared in one game last year and totaled four carries for 14 yards against Fordham. Ferrucci is from Fishers, Ind., and went to Guerin Catholic.
Boston College also has a position coach with a strong résumé guiding the group. Head coach Bill O’Brien hired former Michigan running backs coach Mike Hart to lead the room this offseason after Hart most recently worked as an offensive analyst at Eastern Michigan.
Hart was a four-year starter at Michigan from 2004-07 and later a sixth-round pick of the Indianapolis Colts in the 2008 NFL Draft. He also brings 14 years of college coaching experience.
Dickens said Hart’s background has already made an impression.
“Obviously, he’s been in the league, which is somewhere I want to go,” Dickens said. “So I spend a lot of time in the meeting room picking his brain about how it is, like what these coaches at the next level are looking for in a running back, and how I can evolve my game to be at that level that he was at. So he’s been a real joy.”
With Dickens leading the way and multiple young backs pushing for snaps, Boston College’s ground game could wind up being the centerpiece of the offense in 2026. This is the first installment in Boston College Eagles On SI’s summer position preview series, with every position group set to be covered through the rest of August.
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