Let’s ride, Grayson James
It’s been an eventful week for Boston College Football. The team took down 6-2 Syracuse at home (in front of 44,500 fans — when was the last sell-out at Alumni?). Despite the win, QB Thomas Castellanos continued to struggle — eventually getting benched early in the second quarter. This is Grayson James’ team now — Castellanos is reportedly not even traveling with the team to Dallas — ahead of the toughest matchup left on the Eagle’s schedule. The line currently sits at SMU -18.5 with the O/U at 53.5. Let’s break it down:
After a couple early-season hiccups (needing a 4th-quarter comeback to beat Nevada and losing to BYU) SMU benched starting QB Preston Stone and replaced him with last year’s Fenway Bowl starter Kevin Jennings. The Mustangs haven’t looked back since, rolling through the ACC in their first year in the league. They just hung 48 points on Pitt and have yet to lose a conference game. This will be a very difficult matchup for the Eagles; Jennings is a dual-threat QB with impressive athleticism and arm talent. He’s thrown for 1,900 yards on the season, to go with 12 TDs and 5 INTs. He’s also second on the team in rush yards at 317 and 3 TDs. In Rhett Lashlee’s Air Raid-esque scheme, Jennings does not really have clear go-to guy. The three top receivers on this team are TE RJ Maryland (359 yards, 4 TDs) and WRs Key’Shawn Smith (354 yards, 3 TDs) and Roderick Daniels Jr. (323 yards, 1 TD). The Eagles won’t be able to just focus on one target because each of these guys can do damage; Maryland in particular worries me because of his unique size-speed combination that he brings to the offense. Bigger, more physical receivers have given BC problems this season because most of our DBs are not the biggest guys in the room. How Lewis tries to contain this passing attack will be interesting — he’s shown a propensity for bend-don’t-break but I’m not sure how long that will be achievable against this SMU team. On the ground, the Mustangs feature four rushers with at least 100 yards. The clear bell-cow back is clearly Brashard Smith, who’s got 140 carries for 906 yards and 11 TDs. BC’s defensive line is going to be tested all night.
Defensively, SMU creates a good amount of splash and negative plays — 13 interceptions and 20 sacks — but don’t really have any clear standout stars. DEs Isaiah Smith and Jahfari Harvey both have at least four sacks, while S Ahmaad Moses leads the team with three picks. For those of you who think TC’s benching will fix the offense, think again. BC’s ability to move the ball at will last week was a positive sign for the Eagle’s O-line. The Syracuse line that attempted to stop them has struggled with stopping the run all year long; the Orange’s defensive unit as a whole is not very strong. SMU just held Pitt to 25 points; they held Jeff Brohm’s Cardinals to 27 and have only given up more than 27 once this season (44 to TCU). This defense is not going to let BC run all over them, which means James will have to make some big-time throws. We’ll see if he steps up to the plate, but I think Boston College loses this one in a blowout.
Picks: SMU -18.5, O 53.5