On Monday night, to open up their 2024 season, the BC football team traveled down to Tallahassee to face FSU. Seminoles, the weakened prior, had played a game in Ireland, a loss to Georgia Tech; perhaps the Eagles were introducing their new coach, Bill O’Brien.
A kicker right from the start, when Boston College took an early lead that they never gave up, hammering the Seminoles at the line of scrimmage all night and winning 28-13 down south.
The first half began well as anyone could’ve fancied. In their first 15-minute quarter, the Eagles, headed by Bill O’Brien, had 14 minutes and 9 seconds of possession. They ruled in the trenches and chastened the FSU defense, especially on 3rd and short situations.
In the second quarter, the Seminoles, began to pull things together. Thomas Castellanos and the Eagles offense began to face resistance at the line of scrimmage, preventing them from moving much further down the field. #10 Florida State special teams performed admirably, gaining excellent field position to set up a score. Donovan Ezeiruaku came up with a massive sack to halt that drive, but it only resulted in a field goal, cutting the margin to 14-3. And a big couple of chunk plays helped FSU get down to the goal line once more on their next drive, but they couldn’t complete a couple of fundamental throw-and-catch plays, forcing them to shoot another field goal before halftime.
Florida State, facing a double-digit hole as the fourth quarter began, needed to get things moving. David John Uiagalelei began completing more long throws along the sideline, taking full advantage of a cramped BC secondary. However, an intentional grounding penalty, an unforced error by DJU, drove FSU into a difficult situation and stopped their drive near midfield, resulting in a failed conversion on fourth and 16. After a brief BC effort that went nothing, FSU attempted to rally again. However, a sack by Neto Okpala on the drive’s first play made things even more difficult. The BC defensive line was outstanding compared to their dismal performance last season and forced a fast in crunch time.
When BC’s offense stalled again and FSU had another chance at the struggling Eagles secondary, they failed once more, completing their drive with a horrible, unsportsmanlike penalty when an offensive lineman shoved Neto Okpala to the ground after the play. After FSU had utilized all of its timeouts, Thomas Castellanos led the Eagles to a first down on the next drive. Boston College scored a commanding 28-13 victory over a rated team.