With 2020 Season on the Ropes, BC Is ‘Controlling What We Can Control’

More than a dozen FBS teams have already opted out of playing football this fall, The Big Ten and Pac-12 are reportedly on the brink of canceling their 2020 seasons, and student-athletes across the country have banded together to form an unprecedented players movement.

Yet Boston College isn’t letting the outside noise get in the way of its own preparation.

“We’ll just keep controlling what we can control,” head coach Jeff Hafley told reporters after Monday’s practice. “And what is that? It’s listening to the doctors and our medical staff, making sure we’re doing everything the right way, which our players are.”

Earlier that morning, Hafley announced another perfect round of COVID-19 testing—164 players, coaches, and staff members tested, and zero positives. This comes nine days after the program found out that all 154 players, coaches, and staff members tested on July 31 came back negative.

Stadium college football insider Brett McMurphy reported on Aug. 1 that, at the time, BC had tested a total of 366 student-athletes, coaches, and staff, with only one positive result. The lone positive was recorded in the beginning of July, when the football program reported its first wave of testing.

Leading up to the Eagles’ Monday morning practice, right tackle Ben Petrula and tight end Hunter Long joined in on the #WeWantToPlay players movement, spearheaded by Clemson running back Darien Rencher, his Heisman candidate teammate—Trevor Lawrence—and Stanford defensive end Dylan Boles. It was then spread by the likes of Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields, Oklahoma State running back Chuba Hubbard, and Washington State D-Lineman Dallas Hobbs (who designed the graphic for the joint statement).

Similar to the demands of the #WeAreUnited and the #BigTenUnited movements, #WeWantToPlay is centered around finding a fair way to play the 2020 season, with universal health and safety procedures and guaranteed eligibility—regardless if players decide to opt out or not. Most notably, #WeWantToPlay is representative of all the Power Five conferences and strives to “ultimately create a college football players association.”

Hafley said that he didn’t feel it was necessary to address the #WeWantToPlay movement with his players on Monday morning.

“Our players feel safe, and our players want to play,” he said. “My job is to coach them the best that I can, as hard as I can, and make them feel as safe as I can. It all goes back to, I gotta follow the guidelines of our medical people, and they’re telling us we can practice. … Until they tell us otherwise, we’re going full speed ahead.”

BC is gearing up for the ACC’s first-ever 10-game conference slate. The Eagles were scheduled to kick off the season with a home opener against Ohio but now need a new non-conference opponent to complete the 10-plus-one model after the MAC canceled fall sports on Saturday. Hafley acknowledged that there’s a lot going on in the college football world, but he told reporters that he’d be a “complete mess” if he wasn’t taking a day-by-day approach.

“Every day is like a Monday right now,” Hafley said, comparing the grind of training camp to the movie Groundhog Day. “Every day, you wake up, it’s Monday, let’s go play. We can’t worry about everything else that’s going on right now. Because then our practices won’t be any good, our preparation won’t be any good.”

At the moment, Hafley is locked in on staff meetings, practice, and remaining healthy. He mentioned that, because spring ball was cut short, the players on both sides of the ball are still getting a hang of their 3rd Down packages, as well as the simple things, like learning how to hit in practice and establishing a consistent tempo during camp.

The 41-year-old rookie head coach emphasized the importance of positivity throughout the program, not only during the pandemic but in normal times, too. Hafley preached a coaching style void of constant yelling and negativity and made it clear that, in order for his team to maintain a forward-looking mindset, coaches and players must remain zealous.

Since the conclusion of BC’s practice on Monday, the team’s fifth of training camp, other prominent Eagles have followed Petrula and Long’s footsteps by taking to social media to tweet #WeWantToPlay, including transfer quarterback Phil Jurkovec, center Alec Lindstrom, and fifth-year linebacker Max Richardson.

Jurkovec, who transferred from Notre Dame and enrolled at BC as a full-time student in January, is yearning to see the field this fall after waiting seven months to get his immediate-eligibility waiver from the NCAA. But he sees BC’s success with COVID-19 testing as a sign of encouragement.

“It shows me that my teammates really care about our team and what we can do,” the redshirt sophomore said. “It’s hard. It really is hard to go months at a time without seeing anybody outside of our circle. People have made sacrifices, and I thank them for that.”