Can Notre Dame Get The Boston College Monkey Off Its Back?

When I first saw Notre Dame's football schedule, there was one game I didn't like. That was Boston College. The reason was because of the placement of it. It was immediately following the USC game. Notre Dame would either be on an emotional high or low playing a team that has beat them six straight times.

As it turns out, the Irish were disappointed after the USC loss. However, they may not have been as down all week as we might expect. They were supposed to get blown out by the 6th ranked Trojans, but they were a play away from overtime. With Boston College next up, the Irish have no time to lick their wounds.

Coming into the season, Charlie Weis had several monkeys on his back. Winning close games, Beating Michigan State at home, and beating USC are the monkeys the Irish faced so far. They have been successful in getting two of them off their back. I can even say not getting blown out by USC is a step to getting that one off.

Boston College is the next monkey and it may be the most important one. Boston College is the little brother. They shouldn't be winning six straight.

I remember the day this monkey climbed on the back like it was yesterday. It was the season ending game in what should have been a National Championship year for the Irish. That was really a miracle season in alot of ways.

Notre Dame greats Rick Mirer and Jerome Bettis had graduated and Notre Dame was not expected to be very good. They were left with an unknown quarterback in Kevin McDougal. Not only was he unknown, but he was so unimpressive in training camp that true freshman Ron Powlus beat him out for the starting job.

A Powlus injury late in camp gave McDougal the job. Then head coach Lou Holtz had no faith in him and that would certainly filter to the rest of the team. Instead, this team of no-names had one of the most memorable seasons in school history.

They started the year by barely beating Northwestern. Nobody would've expected the Irish to come out the next week and throttle Michigan. The team never slowed down and earned their way up to the No. 2 ranked team in the country with No. 1 Florida State coming to South Bend.

After taking care of business against Florida State, a chance to play for a national championship seemed inevitable. Unfortunately, nobody told Boston College. They came into South Bend for the season finale and shocked now No. 1 Notre Dame. It was when  they built a big lead and the Irish rallied to take the lead late with a minute to go.

Then the Eagles got a game winning field goal as time expired. A dream season went out the window just like that.

Since then, Boston College has been a major thorn in Notre Dame's side, even though the Irish seem to have better teams on paper.

With BC legends like Matt Ryan and BJ Rajii now in the NFL, the Eagles don't really have a big name in college football. I could research them and throw some stats at you, but the truth is I know absolutely nothing about the players for Boston College. To tell you the truth, that scares me.

I know they are 5-2. The two best teams they have played have been Clemson and Virginia Tech and both of those teams throttled them. They did beat Florida State. However, I just watched the Seminoles need a come-from-behind win against North Carolina. They were not impressive.

Once again, Notre Dame looks to be the better team on paper. It seems that getting the BC monkey off its back is a definitely attainable. However, that is the way it has been since 1993.

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