Predicting ceiling, floor for Boston College in 2024 season

It’s a new era for the Boston College Eagles with Bill O’Brien taking over as the head coach in Chestnut Hill. With that, the Eagles are going to become one of the more interesting ACC teams to follow in 2024.

As the Eagles move onto a new era, Andy Staples and Roddy Jones of the ACC Network broke down what to expect from Boston College during an episode of Andy Staples On3. That included offering their thoughts on the potential win ceiling and win floor for the Eagles this season.

Ultimately, Roddy Jones believes that Boston College has the chance to be as good as 8-4 this season. However, on the flipside of that, their floor is missing a bowl game this year.

Ceiling: 8-4

Former head coach Jeff Hafley, while sitting on a seemingly hot seat, chose to leave for the NFL on his own accord over the offseason. In his place, Bill O’Brien has taken over and brings plenty of experience to the role while inheriting a roster full of interesting pieces. That starts with quarterback Thomas Castellanos.

“Crazy, fun to watch, like especially when you see him on a Friday night and he’s got the stage to himself,” Andy Staples said. “Quarterback in the ACC, Thomas Castellanos at Boston College… It’s interesting because we think of Bill O’Brien as former Penn State head coach, former Texans head coach, then he obviously went back to the Patriots and was the Patriots OC last year, but he’s not been away from college football all that long. He was Bryce Young‘s OC at Alabama. So, it’s not like he’s coming in cold to the NIL/Transfer Portal era. What do you see Bill O’Brien doing in his second stint as a college head coach?”

For Roddy Jones, Boston College made a good hire by bringing in Bill O’Brien. On top of that, he inherits a decently talented roster with the Eagles. The question is just how good can they be in year one under a new coaching staff?

“I think the first thing we need to recognize and give Bill O’Brien his flowers for is he’s been a hell of a head coach. He might still be in the NFL if he wasn’t a terrible GM when he was with the Houston Texans. They were good until he had both responsibilities…but he’s been a hell of a football coach everywhere he’s been. So, I expect big things from Bill O’Brien and Boston College in the long term,” Jones said.

“Now, what does it look like in the short term? I think a lot of it is going to depend on the consistency of the play of Thomas Castellanos. He has been incredibly exciting, but there were also some of those moments where there were negative plays that were taken. There were some turnovers, not a ton, there were some turnovers last year. So, I think the development of Thomas Castellanos in the environment that Bill O’Brien wants to construct is going to be really, really interesting to see how those two things mesh. Here’s the other thing. I don’t think Jeff Hafley left the cupboard completely bare…some of those offensive linemen, with some of the performance of the defense. Like, I think there’s talent there.”

Ultimately, for Roddy Jones, with the talent that’s still there, he puts the Boston College win ceiling at around eight wins this season.

Floor: 5-7

On the bottom side of what is possible for Boston College, Roddy Jones offered a 5-7 record that would see the Eagles miss out on a bowl game.

One of the biggest questions for Boston College is going to be the non-conference schedule. It’s an interesting and potentially difficult one, as Andy Staples broke down.

“At Missouri is not an ideal out-of-conference game but it’s one of those that if you can win that it’s huge for the league because Missouri is an SEC team that has designs on a College Football Playoff berth. If there was a 12-team, they would have made it last year and they bring back Brady Cook and Luther Burden. They’ve got to revamp their defense but if you can go in there and score a bunch on that revamped defense, you steal a win there, you’ve done a huge service for the entire conference if you’re Boston College,” Staples said.

“They also have Michigan State. That’s a fascinating one because we don’t know what Jonathan Smith is gonna be at Michigan State. I think long-term, they’re gonna be really good, but it really feels like Jonathan Smith flushed out every aspect of the Mel Tucker era and that roster purge may cause them to be not so great, which would be great for Boston College getting them this year in Chestnut Hill because I don’t know that you want Michigan State after Jonathan Smith has had a few years.”

Ultimately, for Jones, Boston College’s success this season will likely hinge on the non-conference slate.

“Their non-conference schedule, there’s a lot of variance that could happen. Obviously, Duquesne is Duquesne and they shoot beat them, but Missouri is better than Boston College,” Jones said. “Michigan State I agree, the purge probably buys them a year where they can catch Michigan State. Western Kentucky is an interesting one because that is a team that has been phenomenal on offense really since Tyson Helton has been there…But I don’t bet against them putting up points.”