Boston College’s quarterback room looks nothing like it did a year ago, and that alone tells you how much changed around Chestnut Hill this offseason.
Dylan Lonergan, who opened 2025 as the Eagles’ starter and made nine starts as a redshirt sophomore, is gone after transferring to Rutgers. Grayson James has also moved on after running out of eligibility. So when BC opened 2026 fall camp, Bill O’Brien was working with a completely rebuilt group - one he had to piece together through the transfer portal and a highly regarded freshman arrival.
The new headliner is Mason McKenzie, the dual-threat transfer from Saginaw Valley State who arrives after a monster season in Division II’s GLIAC. McKenzie won GLIAC Player of the Year honors after throwing for more than 2,000 yards with 17 touchdowns and adding 942 rushing yards and 10 more scores. He was also the GLIAC Freshman of the Year in 2024.
O’Brien didn’t stop there. He also brought in Grayson Wilson from Arkansas, a former four-star recruit who is expected to back up McKenzie, at least to begin the season.
Wilson didn’t play in a game as a true freshman for the Razorbacks in 2025, but he came to Fayetteville with plenty of pedigree: he was ranked the No. 2 overall prospect in Arkansas by 247Sports, earned an invitation to the 2024 U.S. Army All-American Bowl, and passed for more than 1,500 yards and 17 touchdowns as a senior at Conway High School.
Then there’s Femi Babalola, the true freshman who has already made a real impression. ESPN ranked him among the top 25 quarterbacks nationally in the class of 2026, and he enrolled in the winter after a senior year at Ravenwood High School in which he threw for over 2,100 yards and 26 touchdowns - 15 passing and 11 rushing - on the way to First-Team All-Region honors.
O’Brien said Babalola has taken noticeable steps since spring practice, especially with the mental side of the position.
“They’ve really improved,” O’Brien said after the first day of fall camp. “They really have.
They put a lot of work in, Grayson too. Grayson’s really improved.
Mason’s gotten a lot better just in his knowledge of our system, obviously, but also kind of some of the things that we asked him to do that maybe was different than what he was asked before.”
“Femi, for being a freshman, has got good poise, smart, and has definitely improved. That has to keep going, though.
They have to keep getting better because, you know, defensively, we’re seeing a lot, even on day one. We got pressures today that usually are reserved for day five.
But because we’ve been here all summer, we can kind of get going on those things, and so they have to keep getting better at those things.”
For all the turnover in the room, the starter is already set. McKenzie has been named QB1 and even represented BC at the 2026 ACC Football Kickoff, which made clear where the staff stands on him. Still, O’Brien made it just as clear that the job doesn’t come with any free passes.
“That’s an interesting deal,” O’Brien said. “Obviously, when I was at the Patriots, we didn’t have any quarterback competitions.
Alabama, we didn’t have any quarterback competitions. But there was always competition.
There’s always competition. So for someone like Mason, he knows he’s got to come out here every day and perform.
Nothing’s just going to be given to him, you know what I mean?”
“If he comes out here and has five poor days in a row, which I don’t believe he will. If he does, then we got to… I’m just saying, like, you got to earn it every day.
So the whole thing about not having this or not, it’s all about competition, and you have to earn it every single day, whether you’re a coach or a player. And I think these guys, they really understand that because we preach that in a positive way every day.”
McKenzie’s production at SVSU explains why BC went after him so aggressively. Over 25 career games there, he threw for more than 4,300 yards and 31 touchdowns while also piling up over 1,600 rushing yards and 18 scores on the ground. Before college, he was a two-time All-State and All-Region selection and led Caledonia High School to the Michigan State Championship as a senior against Bryce Underwood’s Belleville in 2023.
Wilson brings a different kind of resume, but one that still fits the room’s overall talent level. At Conway High School, he passed for more than 1,500 yards and 17 touchdowns as a senior, helping his team reach the 7A State Semifinals.
Babalola, meanwhile, may not open the season in the spotlight, but BC clearly sees a path for him. He arrived as a mid-year enrollee after starring at Ravenwood, where he spent three years as the starter and totaled over 4,800 passing yards and 35 touchdowns. O’Brien views him highly, and he could see the field in special packages or in garbage time this fall.
The depth doesn’t stop there. Former Northern Highlands quarterback Coellner is also in the mix after transferring to BC last year from Marist, where he made three starts before a season-ending injury.
He previously spent two seasons at Monmouth and enters this year with 5,298 career passing yards, 51 touchdown passes and 16 rushing scores. Like Babalola, Coellner joined the Eagles this winter after a decorated high school career, becoming Carmel High School’s all-time leading passer with more than 4,500 passing yards, 900 rushing yards and 56 total touchdowns.
247Sports ranked him the No. 2 quarterback in Indiana in the 2026 class.
Coniglio, an IMG Academy product, rounds out the group after joining the program in summer 2025.
With McKenzie locked in, Wilson waiting behind him and Babalola already pushing for more responsibility, BC’s quarterback room has gone from uncertainty to a clear hierarchy fast. That’s the starting point for O’Brien as the Eagles begin their 2026 camp.
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