College Football Preview: B cont'd

Boston College - The Eagles are coming off an 8-5 season under first-year coach Frank Spaziani. The team lost an Emerald Bowl battle with USC 24-13.

Offense - The offense returns eight starters from a team that averaged nearly 25 points. The team scored on 89 percent of its red-zone attempts, including 27 touchdowns.

For the first time since Matt Ryan was quarterback, the Eagles have their starting quarterback returning for the next season. Dave Shinskie comes off a freshman season in which he threw for 2,049 yards and 15 touchdowns.

Luckily for the Eagles, two of the top three rushing leaders from last year , including top rusher Montel Harris. Harris led the team with 1,457 yards and 14 touchdowns. He averaged 112 yards per game and nearly five yards per carry.

Back to help Shinskie out are his second and third favorite receivers from last year. Second leading receiver Colin Larmond Jr. returns after catching 29 balls for 596 yards and five touchdowns. His 29 catches for 596 yards comes out to a 20.6 yards per catch average. The next highest receiver is Chris Pantale, who had 25 catches for 223 yards. The team is bringing in three wide receivers in their recruiting class, some of whom may be looked upon to help right away.

Defense - The Eagle defense returns six starters from last year's squad which gave up only 19.8 points per game. It returns seven of the top 10 tacklers from last year's squad.

The linebacker corps comes back as possibly the strongest unit on the team. Luke Kuechly comes back for his sophomore year after putting up monster stats in his first year of college football. He was named ACC Defensive Rookie of the Year after posting a stat line of 158 tackles, 13 tackles for loss, and one interception, sack and fumble recovery each. A second starter, Mike Morrissey also returns after being in on 37 tackles last season.

Three of last year's top six tacklers are defensive backs and each returns for another season with the Eagles. Donnie Fletcher returns at one cornerback spot after being in on 51 tackles and one interception. DeLeon Glause will be looking to lock up the other corner position after he had 49 tackles last year. Free safety Wes Davis returns after leading the team in interceptions with three and tackling 46 opponents.

The defensive line returns two starters from last season. Alex Albright and Brad Newman both saw time starting at the left end spot and the thought is that Newman will either slide over to the tackle position or take over the right end spot. Newman led all defensive line players in tackles with 45. Tackle Damik Scafe added 35 tackles, six and a half tackles for loss and two sacks, wile Albright had 32 tackles and eight and a half tackles for loss.

Recruiting - The Eagles bring in two Gatorade Players of the Year, as well as the No.21 pro-style quarterback. CJ Jones was named Delaware's Gatorade Player of the Year after starring as both a QB and CB. He was more known for his feet than his arm after rushing for more than 1,000 yards and averaging 13.7 yards per carry. Kevin Pierre-Louis comes to Boston College as Connecticut's reigning Gatorade Player of the Year. He had 88 tackles and averaged 17.3 tackles on his way to being rated the tenth-best outside linebacker by rivals.com. Chase Rettig comes to the Eagles after being ranked the No.21 pro-style QB by rivals.com. He threw for 1,740 yards and 18 touchdowns as a senior.

Schedule - The Eagles start with two winnable games, Weber State and Kent State, both at home. Their next two games, also at home, will be a little more challenging as they welcome Virginia Tech and Notre Dame to Chestnut Hill. The Irish will be re-tooling after firing Charlie Weis. After the four non-con games, they start their road conference schedule with two ACC away games against N.C. State and Florida State, both of which are winnable. FSU is bringing in a new coach, Jimbo Fisher, who although has been at the school for what seems forever, is in his first season as a head coach. After hosting their next two opponents, Maryland and Clemson, which could be a tough match up, the Eagles go on the road for three of their final four games of the year. They finish at Wake Forest, Duke and Syracuse on the road, with a home game with Virginia in between the Duke and Syracuse games.

Bowling Green -Bowling Green is coming off of what has to be one of the craziest endings to a bowl game seen in a long time. The Falcons scored a touchdown with 32 seconds remaining to take a 42-35 lead and thought they had won the game. The Idaho Vandals, however, had other thoughts as they went 66 yards in three plays before converting a two-point conversion to take the 43-42 Humanitarian Bowl victory.

Offense - This year's offense will look very very different from last year's as only four offensive starters return. Unfortunately, wide receiver Freddie Barnes, who set an NCAA record with 155 catches in a season, graduated and has gone on to the NFL. They'll also have to replace the starting quarterback. Aaron Pankratz returns as the only quarterback who has seen any college football action and has only played in one game in his career, throwing for 52 yards on five completions.

One bright spot for the offense is that it returns starting running back Willie Geter who had 705 yards and none touchdowns last year, both career highs. He had 92 yards and two TD's in the bowl loss. John Pettigrew, Erique Geiger and Mark Mays return to back Geter up. Of the three only Pettigrew has collegiate experience after he rushed for 24 yards in 11 games as a freshman last season.

Losing a record-setting player can be an extremely tough task to overcome, but when that player had 109 more catches and 17 more touchdowns than the leading returning receiver, it will be harder than most people expect. Adrian Hodges returns after catching 46 passes for 417 yards and two touchdowns. In fact, other than Barnes who had 19 touchdowns, no other receiver had more than two. Ray Hutson, Justus Jones and Tyrone Pronty all return after seeing significant time, while the Falcons will look to four redshirt freshman to provide depth.

Defense - The defense also has four starters returning, but that may be a blessing in disguise for the young squad, as last year it could rely on the offense to keep them in a shootout, but with a young offense with many new starters, much is unknown.

The strength of the defense will be the defensive line, where the Falcons return three starters. The line will rely heavily on two seniors, Angelo Magnone and Darius Smith, while two sophomores and juniors return as well. Magnone collected 43 tackles, four tackles for loss and two and a half sacks, while Smith added 36 tackles.

The linebacker corps will be all new, as all three starters graduated from last year's squad. Eugene Fells is the top returning tackler amongst the linebackers, after totaling 44 tackles and three and a half sacks. Dwayne Woods also returns after coming up with 24 tackles.

The defensive backfield will also be replacing three starters and Adrien Spencer is the lone returning starter. Spencer made 42 stops and had one interception last season. Coming back to fight for a chance to start is Keith Morgan who led the DB returnees with 68 tackles and five passes broken up last year. He also had an interception.

Recruiting - The Falcons hit it big with replacements at defensive back and wide receiver in this year's 25-man class. Devon McKoy comes to Bowling Green as a safety from in-state Reynoldsburg High and had quite an impressive senior season. His 2009 season consisted of 75 tackles, three interceptions and eight pass breakups. Ryland Ward, another safety recruit, had seven interceptions in 2009. Marcus Beaurem comes to the Falcons from Michigan. Beaurem comes in after catching 74 balls for 1,100 yards and 11 touchdowns as a senior.

Schedule - Bowling Green starts the season with five of their first seven games on the road, including the first two at Troy and Tulsa. Marshall comes to Perry Stadium before the Falcons go to Michigan to play their biggest non-conference game of the year, against the Wolverines. After a home game against Buffalo and road games at Ohio and Temple, the Falcons finish with three of their last five at home. Kent State, Miami (Ohio) and Western Michigan come to Bowling Green, while the team travels to Central Michigan and Toledo.