Hafley Reflects on First Career Win, BC’s Performance at Duke

About two months ago, Stewart Mandel of The Athletic predicted that Boston College would finish the 2020 season with just one win, tied for 14th in the Notre Dame-inclusive ACC. Flash forward to Sunday, and the Eagles have already reached that mark, in dominant fashion no less, and even received votes in this week’s AP Poll.

BC’s 26-6 victory at Duke caught the national media’s attention. ESPN College Football Studio host Matt Barrie, for instance, awarded Zay Flowers with a helmet sticker following the sophomore wide receiver’s eye-popping, 162-yard performance.

Nothing really changed for first-year head coach Jeff Hafley, though. Promising to deliver each player his own individual game ball, Hafley made Saturday’s win about the team—not him. And when he got home, all he really wanted to do was celebrate with his wife and kids.

“I was very lucky that both of my kids were still up, so I hung out with them,” Hafley told reporters on Sunday. “I hung out with my wife until she fell asleep. And then I got to catch some of the football games that were on TV. That was pretty much it, man. Celebrating with my family is how I like to do it.”

It’s been a whirlwind of nine months for Hafley, but the Eagles are officially in the win column. He reflected on the season-opening victory during a Sunday afternoon press conference.

Here’s a rundown of what was discussed:

Atoning for first game mistakes: BC was at a disadvantage on Saturday, not necessarily because it was playing on the road—after all, there were no fans in Wallace Wade Stadium—but because Duke already got its season-opening jitters out the week before. Hafley pointed out on Sunday that his team’s going to need to improve upon its win at Duke if it’s to continue to compete at a high level against ACC opponents.

“You coach them hard,” Hafley said. “There’s a lot of stuff on the film that we have to clean up. A lot of it. And I told the coaches today. When you win a game, that’s the best time to coach [the players] the hardest. Because they should be locked in, and they shouldn’t take it personal.”

Why Danny Longman got the nod at PK: Going into BC’s season opener, 13 different positions were up in the air on the depth chart. One of those was place kicker. Last year, Temple transfer Aaron Boumerhi shouldered the field goal kicking duties. Albeit far from exceptional, he was an upgrade at the position. Boumerhi converted 12-of-18 field goal attempts, in other words a 66.7% clip (ninth among ACC teams). He hit two 40+ kicks, was automatic from 20-29 yards (5-of-5), and made all 45 extra points. Where he went wrong was from 30-39 yards (5-of-9).

Hafley told reporters on Sunday that Boumerhi was dealing with an injury during camp that limited his participation. Additionally, he explained that Danny Longman was more consistent throughout the preseason. That led to Longman earning the job for the Duke game. The junior drilled a pair of chip-shot field goals (24 and 29 yards) but doinked an extra point off the left upright. Before Saturday, Longman had only attempted one collegiate field goal: a successful 26-yard attempt against Temple back in 2018. He was BC’s kickoff man last year, but booted 11 kicks out of bounds, two more than anyone else in the FBS.

Hafley emphasized that the position battle will continue as the season progresses. He once again proclaimed that competition, across the board, leads to improvement.

Duke’s offense made it difficult to pressure the QB: The Blue Devils were able to move the ball downfield throughout most of Saturday’s game—BC just came up with timely stops and takeaways. Former Clemson backup Chase Brice did a good job of getting the ball out quickly. Hafley said that, in that case, as a defense, you have to attack “based on what you’re getting.”

“They got in a lot of empty sets with no backs in the backfield, and it was really catch, step, throw,” he said. “So we were trying to get into his throwing lanes and trying to get our hands up the best that we could, because a lot of times you’re not going to get there in time.”

Hafley applauded defensive line coach Vince Oghobaase for remaining patient and efficiently cycling in rotations of D-Linemen without any penalties.

Target distribution: Of quarterback Phil Jurkovec’s 17 completions, 12 went to either wide receiver Zay Flowers or tight end Hunter Long. Hafley was asked if he would like to see an expanded passing attack where more playmakers are involved.

“Truthfully, as the head coach and even talking to Coach Cignetti, we’ll design some plays to get some people the ball,” Hafley said. “There’s no doubt about that. But then after that, I don’t think anybody on our team cares who gets it. We’re going to get it to the open guy, and we trust all those guys can make plays.”

Flowers’ 162 receiving yards are the seventh-most by an Eagles player in a single game since 1996. Meanwhile, Long’s seven receptions were a career high (never had more than four catches in a game). It’s worth noting that graduate wideout Kobay White, who led the team with 29 receptions in 2019, missed Saturday’s game with an injury.

Later on, Hafley outlined just how much BC can do with its passing attack.

“We’re gonna throw the ball,” Hafley said. “You guys saw yesterday, we threw it for what, 300 yards? We’re gonna throw the ball, we’re gonna throw it downfield, we’re gonna have a quick game, we’re gonna have screen, we’re gonna do it all.”

During Steve Addazio’s seven-year tenure, there was only one game where a quarterback (Anthony Brown at Wake Forest on Sept. 13, 2018) threw for more than 300 yards. One game into the Hafley era, a quarterback (Jurkovec) has already accomplished that feat.

BC’s blocking downfield made an impression on Hafley: The rookie head coach praised his coaching staff for designing and calling plays that put Flowers in 1-on-1 situations, especially in the second half. Hafley elaborated that, because the speedy wideout has great acceleration, he’s incredibly effective in space. That said, what caught Hafley’s eye the most was his receivers’ ability and desire to block for their teammates.

“To me, that sums up your football team,” Hafley said. “When your corners are running to the ball and tackling and getting off blocks, and your wide receivers are blocking downfield, you know these kids are playing for each other. And they’re not being selfish.”

He said that he and his staff demand that kind of mindset from his players.

Toughness from the Eagles’ DB room: Hafley was proud of the way that defensive backs coach Aazaar Abdul-Rahim prepared the secondary for Saturday’s matchup. He referenced the Josh DeBerry forced fumble and recovery as an example of just how ruthless the Eagles’ DBs were on the back end. Whether it was tackling, swarming the ball, or forcing turnovers, the group seemed to do it all.

He conceded that the 49-yard Mataeo Durant touchdown run should have been a 10-yard gain at most. Safety Mike Palmer missed an open-field tackle before Durant sprinted the rest of the way for Duke’s lone score of the afternoon. Yet Hafley knows plays like that happen every so often. And it didn’t detract from his overall assessment of the secondary’s outing.

“The way they ran and competed and tackled and just fought for the ball—that to me is impressive, and that’s what we want to see out of those guys,” Hafley said.

The six points allowed are the fewest for a BC defense in an ACC road game since the Eagles joined the conference in 2005.