Training Camp Notes: Learning the Offense

Throughout the Steve Addazio era, there wasn’t much of a question about what Boston College’s offense was going to look like. It was 12 personnel power football, with one running back, two tight ends, and two wide receivers. A war in the trenches, week in and week out.

With Jeff Hafley at the helm and longtime NFL assistant Frank Cignetti Jr. in the building, Eagles fans are itching for something new. Cignetti made it clear on Wednesday, however, that running the ball effectively and expanding the playbook aren’t mutually exclusive.

“We don’t ever want to lose the physicality of being able to play power football,” Cignetti told reporters after practice. “But we also want to be able to play wide open and put guys in a position to be successful.”

Cignetti said that he’s built BC’s offense around its players and their skill sets rather than specific plays. He expressed how much the unit has already grown in just six days of training camp, following months of Zoom meetings. In that span, position battles have blossomed and camaraderie has formed amid the most uncertain of times.

The offense will have all kinds of weapons lining up on the outside: Cignetti used the word “perimeter players” a couple times during Wednesday’s presser, and he made sure to clarify that he groups wide receivers, tight ends, and running backs in that category. At one point, he discussed David Bailey’s “very good hands” and the tailback’s ability to complement his pass blocking and bulldozing running style with playmaking attributes outside of the backfield.

Quarterback Dennis Grosel, who started the final seven games last season, said after Monday’s practice that the most difficult aspect of the system occurs pre-snap.

“Coach Cignetti has a good way of moving pieces around,” Grosel said, “and it may be that it’s five different guys running the same route in five different ways.”

Grosel explained that, as far as the quarterbacks are concerned, it actually makes things easier on their part, because there are fewer offensive concepts to memorize. Yet the redshirt junior conceded that, for those perimeter players, remembering where to line up each play can be tricky early on in camp, particularly after spring ball was cut short in March.

Cignetti has designed the scheme to get his playmakers touches: It was truly a tale of two freshman seasons for Zay Flowers in 2019. The speedy wideout racked up 395 yards from scrimmage through the first six weeks of action, only to record just 141 the rest of the way. Over the course of the final seven games of the year, he logged just 10.8 yards per reception—8.6 fewer yards per catch than he averaged in the first six contests of the season. With the exception of a 50-yard deep ball at Syracuse, his offensive footprint was practically reduced to underneath routes, screen passes, and jet sweeps.

Cignetti knows that when you have dynamic players on offense, like Flowers and Ohio State transfer Jaelen Gill, you have to tailor the system to their individual strengths.

“You look at your players,” Cignetti said. “You think players first, not plays. And then you’ve gotta make sure you design touches for them. Whether it’s in the running game or the passing game.”

That’s what Cignetti did when he was the offensive coordinator with the then-St. Louis Rams back in 2015. That season, Tavon Austin reeled in 52 passes, averaged 9.1 yards per catch, carried the ball 52 times for 434 yards (8.3 yards per rush), and tallied a career-high 10 total touchdowns (including one punt return score). The West Virginia product had 907 scrimmage yards—239 more than any other year of his NFL career.

Over the weekend, Flowers told reporters that the new offense allows him to “show off different skills,” namely his route running and speed downfield.

“Last year, I caught two that were deep,” Flowers said, “but this year I’m planning on catching way more deep passes.”

Likewise, finding a role for Gill, a former top-50 recruit who caught seven balls in two years with the Buckeyes, will be equally important for Cignetti—that is, if BC’s passing attack is to compete with the best secondaries in the ACC.

The quarterback room is much deeper and improved: Three former Eagles signal callers from the team’s 2017-18 rosters started a game in 2019: Johnny Langan (Rutgers), EJ Perry (Brown), and Darius Wade (Bowling Green). Another, Matt McDonald (Bowling Green)—who, like Wade, transferred to reunite with former Eagles offensive coordinator Scot Loeffler—had to sit out last season because the NCAA denied his request for an immediate-eligibility waiver. Most recently, of course, three-year starting gunslinger Anthony Brown transferred to Oregon after recovering from his second ACL tear.

That’s five quarterback transfers in the past two and a half years. There was a revolving door in the Eagles’ quarterback room. But not anymore.

“The room’s come a long way,” Grosel, who’s been with the team since January 2017, said on Monday. “It’s definitely seen its fair share of guys in the past couple of years. I’ve been through it all, seen it all. I think this room is really coming together to be something special.”

Hafley agrees. The first-year head coach heaped praise following Monday’s practice, and it had to do with all seven quarterbacks on the roster.

“There’s a big improvement, and I’m talking about top-to-bottom,” Hafley said. “The last period I think it was Sam Johnson who was running the group, and he looks like a complete different guy, getting up to the line, taking charge, letting one rip across the middle, and first down. Whether it’s him, Daelen [Menard], [Matt] Valecce, Dennis [Grosel], Phil [Jurkovec], I just see improvement.”

Cignetti, who also serves as the team’s quarterbacks coach, mentioned on Wednesday morning that he and the room have a ton of fun together, whether it’s in the classroom, over Zoom, on the field, or in the team’s free time.

It’s pretty clear that the feeling is mutual.

“His mind’s always churning,” Notre Dame transfer quarterback Phil Jurkovec said of Cignetti while grinning after Monday’s practice. “All us quarterbacks, we laugh about him. We’ll just randomly be walking, and he’ll blurt out that he just thought of another play.”

The solution at right guard might be different than you think: Last week, Hafley talked about how the right guard battle was shaping up between Finn Dirstine, Nate Emer, and Christian Mahogany. On Wednesday, center Alec Lindstrom threw another name into the mix: Jack Conley. The redshirt freshman was injured during last year’s training camp, so he’s had limited reps but stands 6-foot-7 and weighs 317 pounds. Dirstine is the most heralded recruit of the bunch, as the Lawrence Academy alum is just one of seven Eagles to earn a Rivals Rating of 5.8 or above in the past five years (including the 2021 recruiting class).

That said, it seems to be anyone’s game at this point.Lindstrom told the media on Wednesday that offensive line coach Matt Applebaum has experimented with playing Ben Petrula, BC’s All-ACC right tackle, at right guard to see if Conley, Dirstine, Emer, or Mahogany would plug in better at the tackle position. It’s important to note that Petrula is as versatile as O-Linemen come. Back in 2017, when starting center Jon Baker went down with a season-ending knee injury, Petrula filled in the middle of the trenches, despite having never played center before.

“We’re going to play the best five guys, no matter what position,” Lindstrom said. “We can all move around. Everyone wants [the open spot], and everyone’s battling for it.

Lindstrom, who received All-ACC Third Team honors last season, is extremely enthusiastic about the Eagles’ offense, a unit he believes to be “explosive.” He especially didn’t shy away from lauding his teammates competing for the right guard job.

“Nate [Emer], this is the best I’ve seen him play,” Lindstrom said. Jack [Conley], I know he was hurt last camp so he hasn’t really had a lot of time to practice, but his improvement is great. Christian [Mahogany], he’s just a big monster. He mauls guys. He needs to work on his technique, but he’s working on it. And you can see, every practice, everybody is getting better.”