Reflecting on Rutgers: What Did Hafley Say During His Sunday Presser?

When Jeff Hafley watched Rutgers rip through his Boston College defense for a 96-yard, game-winning drive—the entirety of which occurred on the ground—he wondered, in real time, if the Scarlet Knights were doing anything different.

After watching the film back, the third-year Eagles head coach got his answer.

No.

“They ran the same plays that we’d been stopping all day,” Hafley said. “We misfit some stuff, we lost leverage on some stuff. We didn’t execute at a high enough level.”

Hafley conceded that he and his staff could have changed things up schematically amid Rutgers’ march to the end zone, however, he pointed out how BC had been snuffing out the Scarlet Knights’ rushing offense all day.

If you take away that drive, Rutgers averaged just 3.7 yards per carry. The Eagles maintaining that mark could have altered the narrative of Saturday’s season opener, particularly if an improved run defense allowed them to escape the weekend 1-0.

“We punt the ball inside the 4-[yard line], we need to win the game,” Hafley said. “We played good defense all day. We have to coach that better, we have to execute that better and we have to stop them.

“We’ll do better at that.”

BC still could have won the game, even after its defensive implosion. The Eagles got the ball back with 2:43 remaining and two timeouts. But an incomplete pass and back-to-back sacks slid BC into DEFCON-1.

Hafley used one of his two timeouts to stop the clock after the second sack rather than keeping both for the ensuing defensive stand.

“The discussion was, did we want to speed punt it, which is literally getting our punt team out there, not using any clock and basically one step and kicking it,” Hafley said. “Because if you send out your punt team, they sub, the clock’s running, and then you have to make all your adjustments based on are they going to come after us, who’s got who. … We didn’t feel great about that.”

Hafley added: “And then we contemplated whether we wanted to go for it there. There was a play, schematically, that Coach [Matt] Thurin mentioned that he thought maybe we’d have a chance. So we called a timeout.”

Hafley estimates that, by using that timeout then, BC probably lost only seven to 10 seconds and prevented a blocked punt or penalty.

The exact time on the clock ended up being irrelevant because, on the ensuing Rutgers’ possession, BC ran into Scarlet Knights punter Adam Korsak, gifting head coach Greg Schiao’s team with a game-clinching first down.

Hafley explained that, after every game—win or lose—he approaches Sunday’s team meeting and film review the same way.

“I go through offense, defense and special teams, and I’m very real in there,” Hafley said. “I point to myself first. And I talk to the guys about things that I could have done better. Then I asked them to look in the mirror, as well as the coaches. I think they could have done better, and I show them that so they can see it.

“You don’t do that to get after guys in a personal way. You do that to show them what it’s going to take to win games and how they need to get better. We’ve always done it that way.”

As for injuries, Hafley said that he’d have a more detailed report Tuesday, however, he noted that there were some “bumps and bruises.” That said, he hopes there’s nothing too serious.

Hafley did mention that running back Alec Sinkfield, BC’s RB2 option in 2021, was limited against Rutgers because he was banged up most of fall camp. Additionally, tight end Spencer Witter was out with injury.

The loss of Witter and fellow tight end Joey Luchetti—who medically retired from football this offseason—affected what BC did offensively in the opener. Whereas the Eagles were in 12-personnel most of last season, 11-personnel was their most-used package against Rutgers.

“Our job is to get the best players on the field,” Hafley said. “If we feel our best players are three wideouts and one tight end, then we need to put our best players on the field. I love 12-personnel. I love 13-personnel. I love using tight ends. John [McNulty] really loves it. John loves 13–personnel.

“Your lose Joey [Luchetti], and then you lose Spencer for this game—hopefully, Spencer will be back this week—now you don’t really have what you did. Jeremiah [Franklin] played a little bit, the true freshman. But certainly we would like to be more in 12-[personnel].”

One game into the season, BC already finds itself accounting for depth concerns and readdressing issues that haunted the Eagles throughout the 2021 campaign.