BC Eagles: What Is in Store for the Maroon and Gold?

Hepatitis shots, bee stings, getting a backhand to the face—these are all painful things to go through at any point in your life. As a Boston College football fan, take those irritable pains and multiply them by 1,000.

I can't tell you how many games I have been to or watched throughout which I have been genuinely excited, only to have the life ripped out of me in the last few minutes.

Every year my father and I sit down to watch the first game in our double U seats at Alumni Stadium and he says to me, "Matty kid, this year is our year. If we make it to a BCS bowl game we're going!"

Every year...for the past 10 years.

Let me just give you an example of the pain and suffering that I went through when I was a child growing up on BC.

When all hope was lost against Miami, we roared back in the fourth quarter.  But it only seemed like a matter of time before the offensive juggernaut led by Ken Dorsey and Clinton Portis would score and put us out of our misery. 

But wait!

Clinton Portis fumbles, BC ball! The always quiet Boston College crowd gets to their feet, even the 90-year-old men at the 50 yard line sit up straight in their chairs!

Not only did BC get the ball back but they are driving! They are down inside the 10, poised to go into the maroon endzone and upset the No. 1 team in the nation. Brian St. Pierre drops back, he looks like he has got a man on the slant, he throws...it seems like the receiver has a chance...

Off his knee and into the outstretched arms of a Miami defensive lineman. Alumni Stadium immediately deflates, but if this weren't bad enough, the defensive lineman shuffles the ball to Ed Reed who sprints down the field (almost caught by an up and coming running back Derrick Knight) and scores.

This marks the only game where I cried after it was over. Yeah, I'm man enough to admit it. I'm dedicated. This was my chance to see history. My Eagles defeating the tyrannical Miami Hurricane—a team against which we hadn't sniffed victory since Doug Flutie.

Anyway, I told that story to get to this story. Remember when BC was one win away from clinching a Big East title and a BCS berth their last year in the Big East? They could have told the Big East, "Yeah we are ready to get out of the crappy Big East, HEEEELLLLLOOOO ACC." And the team they had to beat was SYRACUSE?!

What happened?

The biggest choke ever in Boston since Bill Buckner.

Guess what? I was there.

I told you that story to get to this story. Remember last year when BC looked better than ever and they had arguably the best QB in the nation in Matt Ryan? Remember when they got all the way to No. 2 in the nation, the highest ranking in program history?

What happened?

They lost to Florida State! Drew Weatherford could barely tie his own shoelaces at that point in his disappointing collegiate career, but he still managed to carve up the BC defense like Thanksgiving had come early.

So where does that leave us? Oh, the 2008 season. I have to be honest, I have had zero expectations this coming season because I know it is a rebuilding year. We do have some promising prospects coming up in Josh Haden and Jeff Smith at running back.

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