Saturday’s first-ever Atlantic Coast Conference meeting between Boston College and Cal in Chestnut Hill, Mass., will be a major bounce-back opportunity for both teams.
Boston College (1-2, 0-1 ACC) had a long wait to get back on the field, carrying a league-opening, 30-20 loss at Stanford into a bye week. Now, second-year coach Bill O’Brien’s Eagles begin a stretch of eight straight game weeks against the Golden Bears (3-1, 0-0).
While Alabama transfer Dylan Lonergan has thrown a nation-leading 90 total completions and a conference-best 330.3 passing yards per game, turnovers hurt the Eagles in both losses. All three at Stanford led to opposing scores.
Bucking that trend was a major focus of the bye week.
“We’ve got to take care of the ball,” O’Brien said. “Look at the pro games and look at the college games (from this past weekend). The majority of those games, the turnover margin is the difference in the game.”
Lonergan has formed a quick connection with Lewis Bond (9.67 receptions, 91.7 yards per game) and tight end Jeremiah Franklin as part of the nation’s leading passing attack. At Stanford, Reed Harris also had a career-high seven catches for 141 yards.
Cal had allowed just 32 points in three games — all double-digit wins — before last Saturday’s 34-0 loss at San Diego State, which was a 14-point underdog.
In describing what kind of practice he hoped to see from his team coming off that defeat, Cal coach Justin Wilcox put it bluntly.
“Urgent,” he said. “Edge. There needs to be an edge in practice. There needs to be urgency in practice. That’s what it felt like the last few days.”
Wilcox sees room for open competitions, especially at wide receiver and offensive line, but true freshman Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele has run with the opportunity to lead at quarterback.
The two-time ACC Rookie of the Week has already racked up 980 passing yards, including 208 last week, but three turnovers against the Aztecs had a major impact on the loss.
“It really starts with me. I didn’t come out firing,” Sagapolutele said last week. “This is going to be a big one for us to learn from.”
