Heading into Season Opener, Hafley Embraces Position Battles

When Jeff Hafley was asked about Boston College’s Week 1 depth chart, the second-year coach smirked and jokingly fired a question back: “Did I put enough ‘OR’s in there for ya?”

Vintage Hafley. Not only because his moxie was on full display with the media but also because he loves position battles—and holding his cards close to his chest.

“I wanted competition,” he said. “And I don’t care if that’s a senior, junior, freshman, sophomore, transfer. I just wanted to see competition. All we did was, we looked at who deserved to be in the two-deep or who deserved to have a role going into game one. And we put them on the depth chart."

He continued: “If a kid deserves to play, we have to find a role for them. If they’re not there yet, it’s our job to try to get them there.”

Hafley noted that BC’s Week 1 depth chart for Saturday’s game against Colgate isn’t really a two-deep. Actually, it’s more like a three-deep at most positions. That’s because the 42-year-old head coach feels all of those players are worthy of seeing the field this weekend.

And that includes 10 true freshmen. Second-year starting quarterback Phil Jurkovec is throwing to a few of them: wide receivers Jaden Williams and Lewis Bond as well as running back Xavier Coleman. Jurkovec sees the potential.

“I think there’s a lot of talent,” Jurkovec said Tuesday. “A lot of freshmen, they can play. So they’re gonna get on the field. But, just looking down the road, I think they’ll continue developing. They have a lot of natural talent.”

Alec Lindstrom, an All-ACC first-team center from a year ago, has noticed the growth of the mid-year enrollees in particular. He remarked how they really took the scheme head on and embraced BC’s “For The Team” culture.

As a fellow Massachusetts native, Lindstrom has taken four-star lineman Drew Kendall under his wing. Kendall, who hails from Norwell, met Lindstrom while working out at Edge Performance Systems in Foxboro. Lindstrom calls Kendall, now his backup at center, a “great kid” and said that the true freshman is very coachable, especially when it comes to blocking technique.

“I kind of see myself in him,” Lindstrom said. “He came in, smaller guy, works hard, and he always finishes to the whistle. Very smart—and you need to be very smart to play center.

“I really take it upon myself to make sure that I can coach him up and make him better any way I can.”

Lindstrom also shouted out the redshirt freshmen, in addition to some of the older backups, namely Ozzy Trapilo (redshirt freshman, second-string left guard), Finn Dirstine (redshirt junior, second-string right guard) and Jack Conley (redshirt sophomore, second-string right tackle). He declared that they’ve made big jumps since last year.

“It’s not like it’s just five guys—we’ve got eight guys that can go,” Lindstrom said.

Hafley believes, the more players with an in-game role in your program, the better. In his eyes, it helps build for the future and increases the team’s chances of winning now. By expanding the depth chart, it effectively creates an incentive for players to get on the field. It’s not just 11, or even 22, guys on both sides of the ball getting all of the reps.

That mindset is reflected across every position group. While Hunter Long ate up most of the targets at tight end last season, those should be distributed more evenly this time around—at least at the start of the year.

“We’re gonna use ’em all,” Hafley said of BC’s tight ends. “You’re gonna see some 11, 12, 13, possibly some 22-personnel. But I’ve always liked to use tight ends. So we want to mix and match them, spread ’em out, put ’em in tight, put ’em in all over the place. You’ll see a lot of tight ends in a lot of different spots on Saturday.”

The same thing goes for BC’s linebackers. No position group took a bigger hit this offseason than Sean Duggan’s unit. Isaiah McDuffie and Max Richardson, who ranked fifth and 11th nationally in total tackles last year, both left for the NFL. Now, it’s Kam Arnold (converted from safety this offseason), Isaiah Graham-Mobley and a collection of weak side linebackers—namely Vinny DePalma and Bryce Steele—vying for the most snaps.

“All of those guys are gonna play,” Hafley said Wednesday. “And, truthfully, that’s why I put the ‘OR’ because they’re all going to play on Saturday. Different packages we have. You might see four linebackers on the field at the same time. You might see three. You might see two.”

DePalma said that’s the cool thing about BC’s defense. For the linebackers, specifically, they’re all coached to play every position, whether that’s "Sam," "Mike" or "Will." The redshirt junior praised Duggan for his ability to help the linebacking corps understand how an opposing offense is attacking BC’s defensive scheme.

The Eagles’ crowded safety room is fluid, too. Hafley sees Jason Maitre and Mike Palmer as starting free safeties. And he sees Jahmin Muse and Jaiden Lars-Woodbey as starting strong safeties. Who goes out with the ones on Saturday will be determined later in the week. But they’re all going to play, and Hafley wants them competing with each other up until game day.

“It’s not like the NFL where a guy’s gotta run out of a tunnel—we’re gonna come out together,” Hafley said. “And then the guy who’s in on the first series might not be in the second series.”

Hafley’s not tipping his hat about special teams, either. There are two “OR”s next to the place kicker position, despite incumbent two-year starter Aaron Boumerhi converting 16-of-20 field goals last year and Hafley voicing his confidence in Boumerhi throughout the offseason.

Hafley talked about how Danny Longman, BC’s designated kickoff man since 2018, impressed in fall camp, both in kicking and punting. He said that true freshman Connor Lytton has also been developing well.

When asked who the starting place kicker will be, Hafley teased.

“Well, I guess we’ll have to wait and see,” he said. “You know, it’s kind of like last year, who was our quarterback gonna be? Phil or Dennis? And then I kept you guys in some cool suspense, and who did it turn out to be? Phil. So now we’ve got ‘Boom’ or Danny?”

It seems like Boumerhi is still going to get the nod, but Hafley did emphasize the importance of having multiple legs ready in the kicking game.

That’s what Hafley’s all about: constant competition and depth. Across the board.