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Nine Eagles Receive All-ACC Honors

BCEagles.com
BCEagles.com

For the second year in a row, nine Boston College players received All-ACC honors on Tuesday.

Wide receiver Zay Flowers, tight end Hunter Long, and center Alec Lindstrom landed on the league’s First Team, while right guard Ben Petrula and linebacker Isaiah McDuffie were tabbed for the Second Team, and linebacker Max Richardson and left tackle Zion Johnson found spots on the Third Team. Meanwhile, right tackle Tyler Vrabel and cornerback Josh DeBerry were honorable mentions.

BC is tied for the third-most First, Second, and Third-Team All-ACC selections this year alongside Miami, North Carolina, and Pittsburgh. Clemson and Notre Dame—who make up half the 2020 College Football Playoff—led the conference with 12 apiece.

Flowers, Long, and Lindstrom are just the second wide receiver, tight end, and center, respectively, in BC history to earn All-ACC First-Team honors. The only other Eagles to do so at those positions are Alex Amidon (2012), Ryan Purvis (2007), and Andy Gallik (2014).

Flowers became the first BC player to ever win ACC Wide Receiver of the Week twice in the same season. He also finished with nine touchdown receptions, the second most in single-season program history. The speedy sophomore routinely blew the top off defenses, piling up seven catches of 40-plus yards, tied for the fourth most in the country.

Long still leads all FBS tight ends with 57 receptions this season and is second in receiving yards (685) behind Florida’s Kyle Pitts. A John Mackey Award semifinalist, Long registered six or more catches in five games this year. He declared for the 2021 NFL Draft last week and is fifth on ESPN Insider Mel Kiper Jr.’s tight end prospect ranking list.

Lindstrom was one of the highest-graded BC offensive linemen this season. Not only that, but he was also one of three Eagles to be on the field for all 785 offensive snaps. Last year, as a first-time starter, he only missed one snap when starters were in the game during the regular season. He’s now started 24 games in his BC career. Lindstrom, an All-ACC Third Team member in 2019, was the only returning starter up front who didn’t change positions before the season.

Here’s a brief rundown of the rest of the Eagles’ honorees:

RG Ben Petrula (Second Team): Petrula shifted from right tackle, where he was awarded Second-Team honors last season, to right guard. A team captain in 2020, the senior rounded out his Eagles career having started at every position (tackle, guard, center) on the offensive line.

LB Isaiah McDuffie (Second Team): McDuffie played just four games in 2019—after offseason knee surgery cost him most of the season—but was in full force this season. He led the team with 107 total tackles, good for fourth nationally, and tallied 10 or more in seven games this year.

LT Zion Johnson (Third Team): Johnson made the move from left guard to left tackle, but it was far from seamless. Following a standout junior campaign in which he was named ACC Offensive Lineman of the Week three times and didn’t allow a single sack or quarterback hit during the regular season, he struggled to produce the same results while protecting the blind side. Johnson certainly improved as the season progressed, however, Kiper Jr. projects him as the seventh-best guard in the 2021 Draft.

LB Max Richardson (Third Team): Richardson was one tackle shy of reaching the century mark for the second straight year. Similar to McDuffie, he had his fair share of lapses in coverage. That said, Richardson once again showed that he could take over games, most notably BC’s road contest at Syracuse, where he had two sacks and nine solo tackles. The fifth-year linebacker and team captain was also the heart and soul of the locker room.

RT Tyler Vrabel (Honorable Mention): As was the case last year, Vrabel was named an All-ACC Honorable Mention. He slid across the line from left tackle to right tackle amid the Eagles’ shakeup in the trenches. Vrabel, like Lindstrom, took all 785 offensive snaps this season.

CB Josh DeBerry (Honorable Mention): DeBerry was one of BC’s most improved players this season. The sophomore played 76.7% of the Eagles’ defensive snaps, lining up at either cornerback or nickel. DeBerry clocked out second on the team in pass break-ups (six) and third in total tackles (44). He also picked off a pass and forced two fumbles, the first of which he wrestled away from Duke wide receiver Damon Philyaw-Johnson in BC’s season opener.

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