CHESTNUT HILL - Wednesday had been billed (mostly by me) as head coach Jeff Hafley’s most important day for him and his staff since he took over in December of 2019.After the 3-9 season, Hafley has gone head first into the portal and gotten some big names to commit, but it’s the high school kids that signed NLI’s on National Signing Day that were the most important. This is only Hafley’s second ‘real’ recruiting class after dealing with Covid issues his first and second offseason.

Boston College got 17 commits on Wednesday and there will be a lot more to come in February. Perhaps the biggest win for Hafley is the fact that he was able to get five players from Massachusetts to stick with them even after the 3-9 debacle in 2022. The full list of names is below:

Kahlil Ali (DB) - Pennsauken, NJ

Shawn Battle (DB) - Philadelphia, PA

Michael Crounse (OL) - Schnecksville, PA

Eryx Dugherty (DL) - Troy, MI

Carter Davis (DB) - Baltimore, MD

Palaie Faoa (LB) - Ewa Beach, Hawaii

Josiah Griffin (DL) - Springfield, MA

Reed Harris (ATH) - Great Falls, Montana

Nate Johnson (WR) - St. Petersburg, FL

Darrell Jones (RB) - Hyde Park, MA (Catholic Memorial)

Ryan Mickow (OL) - Ft. Lauderdale, FLKP Price (DB) - Baltimore, MD

Jacobe Robinson (QB) - Henderson, TX

Jaedn Skeete (WR) - Hyde Park, MA (Catholic Memorial)

Holden Symonds (TE) - Melrose, MA (Governor’s Academy)

Max Tucker (CB) - Hyde Park, MA (Catholic Memorial)

Montrell Wade (WR) - Tyler, TX

Hafley spoke to the importance of keeping a fence around the “backyard” while recruiting locally as the college football world gets more and more crazy by the second.

“Massachusetts was important to us,” he said. “I think in this culture and this changing in football, you better hit your backyard hard…when you get the local kid that really wants to be a part of this, the kid that grew up wanting to go to BC and if they’re good enough and if they’re good students, you’ve got to take a strong look at them because they’re probably not going anywhere. I think that’s really important.

“I’m really pleased with the way we recruited locally. When all is said and done, I think Jaedn Skeete, I feel very similar to how I did about Joe Griffin. I think Joe Griffin was the best player in the state last year…I think Jaedn Skeete is going to be the same way. I think he’s the best player in the state.”

Overall, Hafley is pleased with the class but also made sure it was very clear there’s still a lot more names coming. There’s also a lot to be said for the 17 guys that stuck with the program even after the ugly season.

“I think at every point, a lot of these guys were probably hearing it from other schools. There were probably other colleges telling them ‘BC’s only got this amount of wins, you sure you want to go there?’ and this and that, but I credit our staff. It’s about relationships and a lot of these relationships have been for a year-and-a half plus. Part of going through something hard like that is you find out how convicted they are, how loyal they are and how much they want to be here.

“Most of them didn’t waiver and I think that says a lot about them. Maybe there were times when they did, and then they figured out that this was the right place for them.”