Eagles visit No. 23 N.C. State
Boston College, having rebounded from its first loss of the season with a win over Temple, has two potential headaches when it travel south to North Carolina this week.
The first is No. 23 North Carolina State, which is 4-0 (with a postponement) after defeating Virginia last week.
The other — and this one is even bigger — is the health of AJ Dillon.
The All-America sophomore running back rolled his left ankle in the win over Temple and was sitting on the bench when his team finished off its 45-35 win over the Owls in the non-conference finale.
Monday, coach Steve Addazio, addressing his regular weekly media gathering, said, “Not really,” when asked if Dillon and wide receiver Jeff Smith would be practicing.
“I don’t know. I just don’t know yet. … I think we’ve got a lot of guys with a lot of dings right now, and that’s the result of being in a lot of tough games.
“So we’ll probably have more information as the week goes on, but right now I’m hoping to have everybody. I’m hoping that we get on the mend pretty quick here.”
Dillon, who had a rough day in the loss at Purdue, ran for 161 yards and two touchdowns in 28 carries against Temple — and is third in the country with 652 yards in five games. He had his 11th 100-yard game (in 18 career games) on Saturday, when he also cleared 150 for the sixth time.
The Eagles fell behind in the first half last week, making a second straight loss a possibility. But they rebounded — and converted receiver Ben Glines replaced Dillon and ran for 120 yards.
“We were practicing extremely hard this past week,” said quarterback Anthony Brown.
“It took great resolve to come back and win this against a tough Temple team. They came in here, they were ready and they wanted to give us everything they got. That’s what they did. The thought of being able to fight back and win, find a way to win this game, it was great and we needed it.”
But that was Temple. Now, it’s N.C. State in a league game on the road, meaning quarterback Ryan Finley throwing to the likes of Emeka Emezie and Kelvin Harmon.
The Wolfpack is favored by 3 1/2 points over the Eagles, who come into the game with 216 points on the season — the most ever by the program through five games. Some of that competition has been soft; N.C. State will be tougher.
“He’s outstanding,” Addazio said of Finley. “He’s got a great receiving corps, so they’re explosive. Defensively, they’re one of the top teams in the country stopping the run and defensive scoring.”