For the first time this preseason, Boston College practiced in full pads on an extremely hot and humid Friday morning inside Fish Field House. Due to the excessive heat, the majority of the two-hour practice was held indoors.
BC returns 20 starters from last season's 6-5 squad that finished sixth in the ACC. The five ACC wins for the Eagles last year were the most since 2009 as the league scrapped divisions for one year and every team played 10 conference games.
For the first time since 2010, Boston College was selected to finish third in the ACC's Atlantic Division, according to a preseason poll of 147 media voters.
Expectations and optimism surrounding the program are as high as its been at the Heights since the Eagles ripped off two consecutive trips to the ACC Championship Game in 2007 and 2008.
“I'm glad people were talking about us,” said head coach Jeff Hafley. “I appreciate them being excited. We won six games last year and we just need to get better. I’m not going to put a number on anything, I'm not going to put a ranking on everything. We need to get better every day. We need to play better than we did last year and that's how we're always going to approach things but I appreciate people being excited and I'm grateful for that.”
After seven practices this preseason, Hafley touched on what aspects of practice they focused on today and where the team will be going.
“We're still in installs,” said Hafley. “Today we did high red, low red, we got first, second, third down, and we got some situational work in. At least for the next week and a half will continue to plug away.”
