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NEWTON, Mass. -- Whenever he’s asked about the young players he shares the running back meeting room with this season, Andre Williams can’t help but smile.

The senior clearly likes what he’s seen so far from Tyler Rouse and Myles Willis.

“I really like the two freshman running backs,” Williams said in an interview in the run-up to Saturday’s Florida State game. “Myles has really pretty feet. I think that in the coming years, he’s going to end up being a force.”

And while his contributions in BC’s 48-34 loss to the No. 8 Seminoles falls short of earning him the label of a force, Willis certainly made his presence known.

The Conyers, Ga., native finished with just three carries for 6 yards but added three catches for 65 yards, including a 52-yard catch-and-run for a TD, and two kick returns for 89 yards, including a 71-yarder to set up a scoring chance just after the half.

Asked after the game about the 5-foot-9, 187-pounder’s impact, Williams laughed.

“Myles is a really great kid,” the senior said. “He’s got sweet feet and he’s fast. So he really gave us a little boost when he got that wheel route for the touchdown.”

On first-and-10 from the BC 48, Florida State leading 38-20, Willis lined up behind fullback Jake Sinkovec in the backfield. Quarterback Chase Rettig faked the handoff, Willis running right and up the BC sideline as Rettig drew the defense’s attention to the left side of the field.

“All week in practice we ran that play and everybody told me it was going to be wide open,” Willis said. “So when we ran the play I was surprised that I was cool, I was numb. I ran through and made the fake, got outside and when the ball was in the air, I didn’t feel any extra emotions. I just knew to catch the ball and go score.

“I was prepared for it, I knew it was going to happen, so there was a play to be made.”

The freshman made the play, coolly bringing in Rettig’s pass, then beating Seminoles senior Lamarcus Joyner to the pylon for the score.

“That guy loves football and he’s really got juice,” coach Steve Addazio said of Willis. “He brings me up. He’s got that look in his eye. I’ve seen that look in guys before. He’s a competitive guy, he loves football and he’s got talent. And I think that’s certainly a bright spot that you’re seeing starting to emerge through special teams and into the offense.”

Emerging was actually almost an issue for Willis on Saturday, as the green kick returner found himself itching to bring back every ball kicked to him -- even when he was standing in the end zone.

On one kick, fellow returner David Dudeck actually got in front of Willis before he could take it out of the paint and reminded him to take a knee.

“He was telling me, ‘Don’t be selfish,’” Willis said of Dudeck’s intervention. “That’s what he kept telling me. When you’re back there, you want to go, you want to make an impact. But field position is the most important thing. I can’t be selfish and then the next thing you know we’re at the 15 with a long field.”

When Willis got a chance to make a return to kick off the third quarter, catching the kick from Roberto Aguayo at about the BC 5-yard line, he didn’t waste it. He broke one tackle and found a hole up the right side, streaming through the mass of would-be tacklers and entering a footrace for the end zone with Joyner.

The FSU defensive back won that race, pushing Willis out of bounds after he’d sprinted 71 yards.

“I knew things like that could really shift momentum,” Willis said. “I knew if there was a play to be made, I’ve got to step up and make it, the blocks were there and it was a great play.”

Unfortunately for BC, the offense wasn’t able to convert the great field position into a touchdown, instead settling for a 24-yard Nate Freese field goal.

But, Williams said, Willis’ explosive plays sent a clear message.

“Now we know that he’s a weapon back there,” he said.

The freshman said scoring his first career touchdown in a BC loss was bittersweet.

“Today I had to give more than I ever have, definitely didn’t have to give that much in high school,” he said. “So to have that production and be able to come out and make some plays and give all you’ve got and still come out with a loss, it really hurts.”

While he knows there’s a lot of work to be done, the true freshman already has come a long way. And based on his contributions Saturday and the opinions his teammates and coaches shared about him, the future seems bright.

Jack McCluskey is an editor for ESPN.com and a frequent contributor to ESPNBoston.com. Follow him on Twitter @jack_mccluskey.

NEWTON, Mass. -- Steve Addazio left no doubt about it: As far as he’s concerned, there are no moral victories in football.

You either win the game, or you don’t.

Silver linings are for outsiders, for fans and media to analyze and debate.

The coach delivered that message in the BC locker room after the Eagles lost 48-34 to No. 8 Florida State. His players heard him loud and clear.

“It always sucks to lose, it doesn’t matter who you’re playing,” defensive end Kasim Edebali said. “I think we learned a lot today. Learned that we’ll fight through adversity, and that’s going to be really important for this football team in the next couple weeks. They hit that play before halftime and we came out and kept fighting.”

The Eagles didn’t lay down after halftime, after a would-be intermission tie turned into a seven-point deficit when FSU QB Jameis Winston just barely got a play off with a miraculous escape act and delivered a 55-yard TD after time expired.

BC’s offense scored 17 points in the second half, matching the total they put up on their first three drives of the game. But the Seminoles were too explosive and the lead proved insurmountable.

“We were right there,” QB Chase Rettig said. “There were a lot of good things to take from this game moving forward, but no moral victories obviously. We’ve just got to move forward and continue to work harder than we did and I’m sure we’ll see some success down the road.”

Rettig threw for a career-high four TDs against the vaunted Noles D, which had allowed an average of only 8.3 points a game coming in. But the senior also turned the ball over twice, including one for a score when he felt pressure and tried to hit Alex Amidon before the wideout was ready.

“There are a couple plays obviously in every game that can determine the outcome,” Rettig said. “We made a lot of them today, but against a team like that you really have to be perfect.”

The Eagles were far from perfect, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t do anything impressive.

BC’s 34 points are the most the school has ever scored in the series with Florida State, and is eight more than the Seminoles had allowed in their first three games combined. When BC scored on its opening drive, the 7-0 lead represented the first time FSU had trailed in a game since the second quarter of the second game (against Nevada). FSU had allowed only seven points in the first quarter all season until BC put up 14 on Saturday.

Andre Williams carried the ball 28 times for 149 yards, the most Florida State has allowed to a single ball carrier since 2010.

“I thought there were times that we had them backing up on the ropes,” senior right tackle Ian White said, “and we had to take advantage of it and get the knockout blow, but we didn’t do it.”

The Seminoles’ 21-point second-quarter rally, which included two 50-plus-yard TD throws by Winston, not only got them off the ropes but put the Eagles on their heels. And by the time they regained their footing, too many points had been scored for them to draw even on the scorecards.

Football is a zero-sum game: You either win or you lose.

But there always are shades of gray if you look hard enough at the scoreboard.

The Eagles weren’t trying to hang with the Seminoles on Saturday at Alumni Stadium. They were trying to beat them.

“You come out of that game and you don’t feel good at all because it’s all about winning,” Addazio said. “That’s all that matters is winning. But you feel like you’ve got the foundation in place of a team that’s going to battle and be tough. We have to have a great day tomorrow and we have to come back next week with the same effort and the same intensity.

“I don’t think anybody walked out of that stadium feeling like their team didn’t fight, feeling like they didn’t compete. I don’t think that’s the case.”

The Eagles failed to get the win. But that doesn’t mean they got nothing from the effort.

“We have a coaching staff that told us, ‘We’re going to take the timeouts, we’re going to keep fighting till the very end,’” linebacker Kevin Pierre-Louis said. “It makes me feel good going forward for the rest of our schedule that this is the type of team that we’re becoming. We’re really finding out who we are.”

Jack McCluskey is an editor for ESPN.com and a frequent contributor to ESPNBoston.com. Follow him on Twitter @jack_mccluskey.

NEWTON, Mass. -- If Boston College were to have any chance of upsetting No. 8 Florida State on Saturday, coach Steve Addazio knew they needed to slow the game down.

The Seminoles’ offense was too good, with too many weapons, for the Eagles to win a shootout. To have a shot at the upset, BC needed to turn it into a physical, knock-down, drag-out affair.

And through the end of the first quarter, the home team was successful beyond its fans’ wildest dreams. The Eagles were dominating on both lines of scrimmage, getting great push on offense and breaking into the backfield on defense.

“I talked to you earlier in the week and I said every play works if you execute,” BC right tackle and co-captain Ian White said. “If you look at the first half, we executed our plays and ran the ball physically like we wanted to do. We had the game where we wanted it.”

The defense forced FSU to go three-and-out on its first possession, Kevin Pierre-Louis knocking down a Jameis Winston pass at the line of scrimmage, Spenser Rositano breaking up another pass and Kaleb Ramsey sacking Winston on third-and-10.

Then it was the offense’s turn.

Andre Williams & Co. took great advantage of their first possession, methodically running the ball down the field with power formations often including three tight ends and a fullback. And when they got to the doorstep, with a third-and-2 at the FSU 6-yard line, offensive coordinator Ryan Day dialed up play-action.

Chase Rettig faked the handoff to Williams, then looked for fullback Jake Sinkovec in the right flat. Sinkovec was covered, so Rettig looked back across the field and found tight end C.J. Parsons in the left side of the end zone for a touchdown.

But the Eagles weren’t able to sustain their physical dominance beyond the first quarter, which ended with them up 14-3. Late in the second quarter, the tide turned when FSU scored two touchdowns in the last 1:49.

The big plays, including a 56-yard TD pass from Winston to Rashad Greene and a 55-yard TD pass from Winston to Kenny Shaw, doomed the Eagles.

Asked what he would take away from the 48-34 loss, Addazio was blunt.

“That’s what’s so important in this message: I told them, ‘Don’t walk out of here with a smile on your face, thinking you got some moral victory. Because you didn’t. We lost the game,'" he said. “Bottle the feeling of what it takes to win, with the effort and the intensity and with laying it all on the line and with no guarantee that success is going to follow it. Bottle that, and you’ll win your share of games. That’s what we need to hang on to.

“Don’t let people tell you, ‘Oh boy, you played Florida State nose up.’ Who cares? We didn’t come out there to play them nose up. I heard that crap early in the media. People asking me about, ‘What are you gonna do to keep it close?’ I had all I could do not to explode. What do you think, you coach or play to keep it close? What are you talking about here? You play to win.

“We played that game physically enough to win it. We let up too many big plays and that cost us a football game. And it didn’t have to happen. I don’t care who the heck we played.”

Offense hits high

While it will probably get lost some in the end result, the BC offense had its biggest output of the season on Saturday.

“I thought we executed a great game plan offensively,” Addazio said. “We played a really outstanding team. We played one of the best defenses in the country and we had probably our, really, best offensive day in terms of the whole nine yards.”

The Eagles finished with 397 yards of total offense, 200 yards rushing and 197 passing. A couple of BC players set personal marks in the loss.

Williams had 28 carries for 149 yards, going more than 2,000 rushing yards for his career. His 2,067 yards is good for 13th all-time in BC history.

His quarterback also set a mark, Rettig establishing a career high with four touchdown passes. The senior finished 18-for-28 for 197 yards and the four TDs. He also had two interceptions, including a pass intended for Alex Amidon that instead ended up in the arms of P.J. Williams for a 20-yard pick-six.

Rettig hit C.J. Parsons for 6- and 17-yard TDs -- the first two of Parsons’ career -- both times throwing back across the formation to find the tight end. He also hit fullback Jake Sinkovec for a 3-yard score and found Myles Willis running free up the BC sideline for a 52-yard TD.

The TD catch was the first of Willis’ career. The true freshman finished with three catches for 65 yards, three carries for 6 yards and two kick returns for 89 yards, including a 71-yard return to set up a field goal.

Abdesmad injured

Junior defensive tackle Mehdi Abdesmad suffered a left leg injury early in the third quarter and left the game. He didn’t return, replaced on the line by Brian Mihalik.

“That might be one of the worst things, to see one of your teammates have to leave the field because he’s hurt,” defensive end Kasim Edebali said. “Mehdi just looked at us and said, ‘Let’s go, do this.’ That was another boost. That just got my heart fired up. I had to play for him, everybody had to play for him. We’re the BC defense, that’s what we’re about.”

Prior to the injury, Abdesmad had three tackles and a sack. He also very nearly prevented Winston’s miraculous, 55-yard touchdown as time expired in the first half, just missing the quarterback on a free rush up the middle.

Addazio said he didn’t have an update on Abdesmad after the game but said he was concerned and that losing the 6-foot-7, 278-pounder would be a major hit to the defense.

Jack McCluskey is an editor for ESPN.com and a frequent contributor to ESPNBoston.com. Follow him on Twitter @jack_mccluskey.

NEWTON, Mass. -- Many things go into deciding the outcome of a college football game.

There are carefully crafted game plans going in and in-game adjustments once the rubber hits the turf. There are things the teams can control (effort, execution) and things they can’t (bad bounces, questionable calls by officials).

And sometimes, there are just miraculous plays made by tremendous players.

Unfortunately for the Eagles, Jameis Winston is a tremendous player. And he made a truly miraculous (Eagles fans, read: disastrous) play to put No. 8 Florida State on top for good Saturday afternoon.

“It was devastating giving up that big play before the half,” BC coach Steve Addazio said after the 48-34 loss. “We had that kid on the ground.”

The BC offense, playing it safe, went three-and-out in its final possession of the first half, giving FSU the ball at its own 40 with no timeouts and 50 seconds to go 'til halftime. Winston was sacked on the first play, losing nine yards when Kasim Edebali came around the right end of the line and brought him to the ground.

Devonta Freeman picked up 14 yards on the next play, but the clock was ticking down. Eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two.

It didn’t seem like Winston would be able to get another play off, but somehow he managed to get his offense set and took the shotgun snap with the clock at 1.

Immediately, the pocket collapsed around him. Mehdi Abdesmad came flying up the middle, but Winston saw him and expertly side-stepped the 6-foot-7, 278-pounder.

Backup linebacker Mike Strizak came around the left side and reached for the QB, but Winston slipped him with a shove of his right arm and stepped up and to the right to find space. His eyes darted downfield and found Kenny Shaw running up the right sideline, with a step on Spenser Rositano.

Winston stepped into a throw from the 41, letting it fly just before absorbing a big blow from linebacker Steven Daniels.

Shaw leaped to make the catch over Rositano’s outstretched arms, falling to the ground just inside the right pylon. Florida State’s sideline went berserk, and the air completely went out of an Alumni Stadium crowd that had been hoping for an upset after a two-touchdown first quarter for the hosts established an 11-point lead going into the second quarter.

“It is upsetting, but we’re in a football game and we’re playing a fast, athletic team that hits big plays,” Edebali said. “When that happens, all you gotta do is come back to the sideline or come back to the locker room, make the proper corrections and keep playing. If you get influenced by that, you shouldn’t be playing football. You gotta forget, you gotta keep playing, and you gotta keep staying motivated.”

Some teams would quit when hit with that kind of body blow, coming a second away from going into the locker room tied with an overwhelming favorite only to see a superior athlete make a spectacular play to give his team a seven-point lead.

To their credit, the Eagles didn’t quit.

Myles Willis returned the opening kickoff of the second half 71 yards, leading to a field goal. When Florida State responded with another scoring drive and then another, the Eagles kept fighting even though the results they were hoping for refused to surface.

“I thought our team played with a lot of pride, a lot of toughness and made plays,” Addazio said. “But I also told them that there’s no moral victories in football. And while I’m proud of their effort -- and I really am proud of their effort -- I want them to absorb that feeling of what it takes to compete with a top-eight team in the country.

“That’s what it’s supposed to be. That’s how you play. That what goes into major college football and winning. ... Feel that, bottle that and understand that and move that forward and then those wins will come.”

Florida State ended up with 489 yards of total offense, Winston providing 67 yards on the ground and 330 yards and four touchdowns through the air. Though BC sacked him four times, the redshirt freshman took care of the ball for the most part (his one interception coming on a deflection) and the Seminoles finished plus-one in takeaways.

“He’s an athletic kid. He makes good decisions. He’s fast,” Edebali said of Winston. “But that couldn’t change our game plan. We still tried to pressure him a lot, and we did that. But he got away a couple times, broke a couple tackles and hit the big plays. We’ve gotta make sure as a defense that can’t happen.”

Chase Rettig tried to rally the BC offense, but the senior’s four passing TDs (a career high) were offset by two interceptions, one returned for a touchdown, and the Eagles were never able to get closer than 24-20 in the second half.

There were a lot of things the Eagles didn’t do and a lot of things the Seminoles did do. Ultimately, a careful observer could point to many different plays as the tipping point.

But Winston’s great escape and rocket of a TD throw to Shaw -- the QB, in a veteran move, told reporters afterward his wideout made the play happen -- is sure to stand out.

“It was kinda painful to see,” said linebacker Kevin Pierre-Louis, on the sideline for the play, “because I saw the guys just hustling, grinding and trying to bring him down, and he just used his athleticism on that play and he was able to capitalize on that mistake by us.”

Winston made the play, and FSU delivered the knockout blow.

Jack McCluskey is an editor for ESPN.com and a frequent contributor to ESPNBoston.com. Follow him on Twitter @jack_mccluskey.

NEWTON, Mass. -- Boston College put up a fight but was clearly out of its weight class as it lost 48-34 to visiting No. 8 Florida State at Alumni Stadium on Saturday.

How it happened: BC started strong, using a 14-point first quarter to take an 11-point lead over FSU. But the wheels came off right before the half, as the Seminoles scored two touchdowns in the final two minutes, including a 55-yard TD from Jameis Winston to Kenny Shaw as time expired.

The visitors never trailed again.

The letdown meant the Eagles wasted a 28-carry, 149-yard effort by Andre Williams.

What it means: The Eagles fall to 2-2 with the loss, 1-1 in the ACC. Florida State improves to 4-0, 2-0 in the ACC, and has won eight straight conference games dating to last season.

BC has lost five straight games against top 10 teams and 11 straight against Top 25 teams.

Up next: BC will host the Army Black Knights on Saturday at 1 p.m. Last season, Army won at home 34-31 after quarterback Trent Steelman ran for a 29-yard TD with 45 seconds left.

It was one of only two wins for Army in 2012.

Jack McCluskey is an editor for ESPN.com and a frequent contributor to ESPNBoston.com. Follow him on Twitter @jack_mccluskey.

NEWTON, Mass. -- It’s easy to get lost in the week-to-week scrum that is a college football season.

There are so many games, each one with so many storylines, that it’s easy to lose perspective. And when that happens, all of a sudden every game is in contention for the title of “The. Biggest. Game. Ever.”

Each week’s game is the biggest test, never mind that at the time the previous weekend’s game was also the biggest test.

So with that in mind, just what would it mean if Boston College (2-1, 1-0 ACC) can knock off No. 8 Florida State (3-0, 1-0 ACC) on Saturday (3:30 p.m. ET on ABC/ESPN2) in Chestnut Hill?

For Steve Addazio’s rebuilding program, quite a bit.

The Eagles have lost their past 10 matchups with ranked teams, with their most recent triumph over a Top 25 team coming Nov. 15, 2008, over (coincidentally) No. 20 Florida State. The Eagles haven’t beaten a team ranked in the Top 10 since Oct. 25, 2007, when they beat No. 8 Virginia Tech.

BC has lost four straight, and 17 of its past 20, games against Top 10 teams dating back to 1994.

If Addazio and the Eagles are able to beat the Seminoles (or, in two weeks, No. 3 Clemson) it would be a huge boost to the program.

“I think it means more to beat FSU than it would to beat Villanova or Wake Forest,” senior back Andre Williams said. “A win is a win, but this is a Top 10 team. That’s just going to boost your morale, boost your confidence and it’s just ... if we can pull out a win like this, there’s no reason that we shouldn’t meet our goal of getting to a bowl game because if we can beat FSU we can beat anybody on the schedule.”

The Eagles aren’t being unrealistic. They know where they stand, coming off a 2-10 season in 2012 and a 35-7 loss at USC in Week 3.

“Obviously it’s tough,” Kasim Edebali said. “Losing is always tough. But the coaches talk to us, the players talk to each other, you can’t put your head down. You’ve got to keep working, keep your head up and get better.”

The fifth-year senior co-captain said the Eagles are looking forward to this weekend’s game.

“First and foremost, we’re just excited,” Edebali said. “It’s a perfect opportunity. You’ve got a Top 10 team coming to your house, it can’t get any better than that.”

Ian White, the other co-captain, said he thinks the bye week the Eagles enjoyed in Week 4 helped.

“It’s a great thing,” he said. “It’s an extra week to prepare, an extra week to watch film and see their tendencies and for the coaches to get the very best game plan that they can together for us and for us to learn that game plan and give us that little bit of extra time to see what we like and what works. It gives us a little bit better opportunity to win the game.”

As a former assistant at Florida, Addazio is very familiar with Florida State from the in-state rivals’ yearly matchups. He said after practice Monday that this might just be the best FSU team he’s seen since he was at Florida.

“I’ve seen defense like this but maybe the offense wasn’t quite like this, but now [it’s] the whole package,” he said. “I think this is the most talented whole package that I’ve seen.”

Coming into the matchup, Florida State is first in the ACC in scoring average (52.3 PPG) and total offense (547.3 YPG), and first in points allowed (8.7 PPG) and second in total defense (allowing 251.0 yards per game). Meanwhile, BC is last in the ACC in scoring average (18.3 PPG) and total offense (303.0 YPG), seventh in points allowed (19.7 PPG) and 11th in total defense (374.0 YPG).

“Obviously we’ve got to play at a high level here at home and we’ve got to continue to improve,” Addazio said. “We’ve got to play with a better rate of execution. That’s what we’re working on right now. We’re really working on our execution, limiting mistakes and being crisp.

“Obviously we’re not looking to speed this game up, we’re really looking to slow this game down.”

To do that, the Eagles may lean heavily on Williams. In three games so far this season, Williams has carried the ball 23, 35 and 17 times. Coming into Saturday, the 6-foot, 228-pounder ranks first in the ACC in rushing yards (356), yards per game (118.67) and attempts per game (25.0).

If Williams can produce more on the ground against FSU than he did against USC (17 carries for just 38 yards), the Eagles may be able to control the clock and limit the chances for the explosive Seminoles offense and redshirt freshman quarterback Jameis Winston.

Quarterback Chase Rettig wasn’t interested in talking about what a win over FSU would mean. He’s just worried about getting one.

“The big thing is just executing and your guys doing the right thing,” he said. “That’s my job right now. I’m just trying to get us in the best play for each situation against their defense and try to have some success.”

For his part, Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher said all the right things in his weekly ACC conference call. He praised the Eagles’ tenacity and called Alumni Stadium a tough place to play.

“Any time you have to play in this league on the road it's very tough, and we're going to have to bring our A-game, be ready to play,” Fisher said. “I know they will. They've had an off week and two weeks to prepare. We'll definitely have to bring our A-game to play, and it should be one heck of a ballgame.”

Linebacker Kevin Pierre-Louis, BC’s leading tackler with 28 stops (good for eighth in the ACC), tried to put the matchup in perspective.

“We understand that they’re a good team,” the senior said. “But they’re very beatable. They’re guys just like us, they’re practicing like we do, they’re working just like us. They’re regular guys out there, they’re not some powerhouse that no one can touch.

“And we’re going to bring it to them on Saturday.”

Jack McCluskey is an editor for ESPN.com and a frequent contributor to ESPNBoston.com. Follow him on Twitter @jack_mccluskey.

NEWTON, Mass. -- They used to laugh at him.

Josh Keyes had so much adrenaline on the football field, he didn’t know what to do with it all.

“He just had so much energy, we used to call him the Tasmanian Devil,” fellow linebacker Kevin Pierre-Louis said after practice Wednesday. “Because he’s flying around but he’s in all the wrong spots.”

Now a junior, Keyes is no longer a whirling dervish.

“Now he’s flying around and he’s in the right spots, making plays,” Pierre-Louis said. “I’m really proud of him.”

As the Eagles prepare to host No. 8 Florida State on Saturday (3:30 p.m. ET on ABC/ESPN2), Keyes leads the team and is tied for 10th in the ACC in sacks with 2.5.

The 6-foot-2, 216-pound backup strongside linebacker had appeared in 19 games his first two seasons, totaling 28 tackles. With help from defensive coordinator Don Brown and Pierre-Louis, whom Keyes calls a mentor, he’s begun to harness some of his energy and convert it into plays on the field.

“The defense is playing very well, we’re playing as a team,” Keyes said. “We’re getting after the ball and everything. So it’s going pretty well.”

Playing running back and corner in Chatham Central High School in upstate New York, Keyes was named New York State Class C Player of the Year after rushing for 1,721 yards and 21 touchdowns and making 79 tackles and four interceptions as a senior. He looked at BC, Connecticut, Syracuse and Temple in the recruiting process.

“I was looking at Syracuse because I’m from upstate New York, but BC was always my top school,” he said.

Keyes said he fell in love with the campus on his official visit, and he hasn’t looked back since committing.

He admitted that switching positions was tough at first.

“I played a pretty physical role as a running back, so coming in and playing safety wasn’t really a challenge because I have a bigger body for a safety and I can hit and everything,” he said. “The first few days of linebacker were pretty tough, but after that it was fine. I put on some weight over the summer and now it’s fine.”

BC coach Steve Addazio has been impressed by the flashes Keyes has shown so far this season.

“He’s an explosive guy, like KPL,” he said. “Those two guys are really explosive and you notice those are guys that can make plays for us. They can close the distance really quickly, that’s why you can get them involved in blitzes that can sack the quarterback. They have that ability. Call it quick-twitch. They hit a pass-rush move and they can beat you inside really quick.

“I think he’s very suited to play where he’s playing. I think he’s more suited to play there than in the back end because he’s a physical guy and he’s got that explosiveness. I think he’s in a perfect spot for him, as a nickel, as a SAM [strongside linebacker]. Those kind of guys that are hybrid guys, who can cover but can also come off the edge.”

Pierre-Louis, the starter at the SAM position, sees a lot of progress from his backup.

“He’s grown a lot. He’s come a long way, honestly,” he said. “Pretty much I just told him to slow down. And once he started slowing down, he started making plays out there. I keep telling him every day, if he’s able to control his body he’ll be the best player on the team, hands down.

“And I mean that from the bottom of my heart. If he was able to slow down, keep the game where he needs it to be, he’s so athletic. Most athletic guy on the team. He just doesn’t know what to do with it.”

Middle linebacker Steele Divitto called Keyes “a dynamic player.”

“He’s a great athlete and he competes his tail off,” he said. “Football means a lot to him too. He’s always willing to throw it on the line, and that’s something you really want.”

Addazio and Brown have installed an aggressive philosophy on defense, bringing pressure from all levels including the linebacker corps. After hitting a low of six sacks in 2012, change was certainly needed.

Through three games, the Eagles already have eight sacks. Keyes has more than a quarter of that total in a limited role.

“[He’s] making plays,” Addazio said. “Now, he makes mistakes too and it’s experience. But you can put him in a situation and he can make a play. He’s made plays for us. I’d like to get [Pierre-Louis and Keyes] both on the field, to be honest with you.”

Keyes has been having fun harassing quarterbacks.

“I love rushing the passer,” he said. “Speed is one of my things. When I rush the passer, it’s a great feeling. It’s something that I can do well and I really enjoy it.”

Chances are that if Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston sees Keyes sprinting around the end of the line on Saturday, a blur of maroon and gold, he won’t be laughing.

Jack McCluskey is an editor for ESPN.com and a frequent contributor to ESPNBoston.com. Follow him on Twitter @jack_mccluskey.

NEWTON, Mass. -- In a way, Florida State’s redshirt freshman sensation reminds Steve Addazio of a player he used to coach.

A very famous player, one who until the end of NFL training camp was attempting to latch on with the New England Patriots.

“He’s big, strong, he can run and he can throw it,” Addazio said of FSU QB Jameis Winston. “He’s a real dual-threat guy. You’ve got to tackle that guy. That guy will break tackles and keep the chains moving and then give ’em another loaded set of downs.

“It’s hard to get off the field against a guy like that. I remember at Florida we had [Tim] Tebow, it was hard to get off the field for defenses with Tebow. He could find a way on third-and-4 to move the chains and then you get another set of downs.”

Though his career is still in its infancy, Winston could do worse than be compared to Tebow, a Heisman winner and two-time national champion at Florida under Urban Meyer.

Addazio was on Meyer’s staff with the Gators, and since taking over at BC has often been asked about his former signal-caller. On Monday, though, the comparison came unprompted.

Winston, a 6-foot-4, 228-pound Alabama native, had an incredible collegiate debut as FSU demolished Pitt 41-13 in the season opener, Winston completing 25 of 27 passes for 356 yards and four touchdowns and adding eight carries for 25 yards and another touchdown.

And while he hasn’t been quite as dominant in his past two starts, it’s safe to say Winston has hit the ground running (and throwing) as he takes over for EJ Manuel, a first-round pick in the 2013 NFL draft by the Buffalo Bills.

So when the eighth-ranked Seminoles take the field in Alumni Stadium on Saturday (3:30 p.m. ET on ABC/ESPN2), the Eagles will be focused on containing the redshirt freshman.

“He’s a strong, fast kid,” junior linebacker Josh Keyes said. “He’s only a freshman, though, so if we get in his face and get on him he might be able to hold off a little bit and make some mistakes and we might be able to get some picks or some sacks.”

Kasim Edebali doesn’t care what year Winston is in. He just wants to make things hard on him this weekend.

“You’ve got to prepare for everybody the same,” the fifth-year senior co-captain said. “You can’t say ‘Oh, he’s a freshman, he’s a senior’ and all that. It’s just really important that we see his strengths and try to see his weaknesses and try to get after him.

“We’re going to keep playing aggressive, we’re not going to play any softer. So we’ve just got to get after him.”

After his first three games, Winston ranks first in the ACC in passer rating (210.39), completion percentage (78.1) and yards per attempt (11.2), second in passing touchdowns (eight), tied for third with just one interception and fourth in passing yards per game (239.3). With Winston under center and Devonta Freeman, James Wilder and Karlos Williams all running the ball effectively, the Seminoles rank first in the ACC in scoring average (52.3 PPG) and total offense (547.3 yards per game).

“They’re very productive on offense,” Addazio said. “You get a lot of productivity, that quarterback is playing at a high level. And he’s playing at a high level. They’re rolling in here with a lot of confidence, ranked No. 8 in the country. It’ll be a great challenge for us. We’re looking forward to the challenge.”

Add everything up, and one can’t help but be impressed by Winston’s performance to date. Addazio clearly is.

“Extremely,” he said. “I’m telling you, the guy is a really good football player. He throws it, he sees it, he can break tackles, he’s a competitor, he seems completely unfazed by whatever stage he’s on. I’m very impressed by him.”

Jack McCluskey is an editor for ESPN.com and a frequent contributor to ESPNBoston.com. Follow him on Twitter @jack_mccluskey.

NEWTON, Mass. -- Though they’ve played only a fourth of their 2013 schedule, members of the Boston College football team were glad to have a bye this past week. They flew home from Southern California, licked their wounds from the 35-7 beatdown that dropped their record to 2-1 and began to prep for the next test.

With No. 8 Florida State coming to Chestnut Hill (3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, ABC/ESPN2), it’ll be a big one.

“It’s huge to get our legs back,” co-captain Ian White said after practice in Alumni Stadium on Monday. “It’s just three weeks into the season but it’s still nice -- [after] coming through camp and into the first three weeks -- to get our legs back, feel fresh, get out here and bounce around a little bit.

“We got to work on all the mistakes we made in the USC game and find our weaknesses and work on them. It was a good work week. We came out and played hard, played fast all week and I think we got a lot better.”

Fellow captain Kasim Edebali echoed that sentiment, saying he thought the game week got off to “a great start” with the session Monday.

“The bye week was definitely helpful,” the fifth-year senior said. “The young guys could get better during that week, the older guys could recover their body a little bit. So we’re just fresh. We’ve got a good motor going on.”

Without a game to play, BC coach Steve Addazio said he spent a lot of time in front of the TV on Saturday, flipping back and forth among multiple matchups. Then he watched some of the coaches’ copy, to get more detail.

“We’re anxious to get playing,” he said. “You have a bye week, you try to capitalize on the bye week but you miss playing. You watch everyone else play and you’re anxious to get back at it.”

While the Eagles did use the off week to work on themselves some, stressing fundamentals and cleaning up mistakes in execution, they looked ahead too.

“I wanted to get a big jump on Florida State, so that I could back off this week,” Addazio said. “As this week goes by, I want to back off because I want to make this a very physical football game. So I felt like we need to get a lot of our work done early so that we can prepare for a real physical game. We’ve got to make it a physical game.”

Addazio said the bye week has allowed the Eagles to be a day ahead of where they’d usually be in their prep, and he was pleased with the work his team put in Monday.

“I thought we had a really good day today on defense and offense,” he said. “I thought the kids came out today really sharp and hard. And that has to happen. But make no mistake about the fact that we have to play at the highest level that we’ve played at. We have to do that.

“What I mean by that is we can’t make a bunch of mistakes. [The mistakes] just show up really awkwardly against really talented teams. Where sometimes you don’t see them against some of the matchup teams, but teams like this expose it really quickly.”

The Seminoles (3-0, 1-0 ACC) hammered FCS foe Bethune-Cookman 54-6 on Saturday, flexing their muscles a bit as they prepare for ACC play to commence in earnest with the trip to Chestnut Hill.

Led by redshirt freshman sensation Jameis Winston at QB, the Noles are averaging 52.3 points per game, good for first in the ACC and fifth nationally. They are allowing only 8.7 points per game, first in the ACC and tied for third nationally.

“It’ll be a great challenge for us and our kids are looking forward to it,” Addazio said. “We’ve got a great attitude. We had a great bye week, very physical. We’re anxious to get going.”

Injury report
Addazio said that defensive lineman Nick Lifka and fullback Jake Sinkovec are both making progress in their recovery from injury.

“Those are two good guys,” he said. “Sinkovec will be ready to go this week. I think Lifka might still be one week away but almost ready to roll, which is great.”

The time off also helped backup strongside linebacker Josh Keyes recover from an injury suffered in the USC game, a muscle spasm in his neck.

“The bye week allowed us to shut him down a little bit and get him ready,” Addazio said, “because had we had to turn that thing back around that would’ve been hard.”

Jack McCluskey is an editor for ESPN.com and a frequent contributor to ESPNBoston.com. Follow him on Twitter @jack_mccluskey.

His team banged up, the momentum of a 2-0 start blunted by a 35-7 loss to USC in Los Angeles this past weekend, Boston College coach Steve Addazio said this bye week couldn’t have come at a better time for the Eagles.

“We're disappointed,” Addazio said Wednesday, according to a transcript of his weekly ACC conference call with reporters. “We felt like we could have played better for sure, and our focus right now in the bye week is to concentrate on fundamentals, concentrate on really being exact in our execution and really fitting exactly to our personnel the best that we can, maximizing ourselves on both sides of the ball.

“We're getting ready to play a great Florida State team that's very, very talented and will be a great challenge for us. But certainly those challenges are what drive you.”

BC (2-1, 1-0 ACC) struggled on both sides of the ball against the Trojans, giving up 521 yards of total offense while mustering only 184. With only 7 points against USC, BC’s scoring average fell from 24 points per game after Week 2 to 18.3 PPG, which is good for 106th nationally.

“We didn't really have a great opportunity to get going offensively,” Addazio said. “We had some moments, but we really only had 21 snaps in the first half, and our average starting position for the game was around the 21-yard line, so it was quite a bit of the long field.

“On defense we struggled getting off the field and didn't feel like we played great as a team, complementing each other, but there were moments there that you saw some more of the progress. But when you play a good team, you have to play much more consistently and execute at a much higher level against a very, very talented team, especially on the road in California.”

The Eagles weren’t able to do that, and now that they have picked through the USC game film their job is to find a way to turn negatives into positives in the future.

With the first of two open dates this season on Saturday, Addazio and the Eagles can spend extra time preparing for their next opponent, No. 8 Florida State. The 2-0 Seminoles host FCS foe Bethune-Cookman at Doak Campbell Stadium on Saturday (6 p.m. ET).

The Eagles’ plan for the week is designed to give the team a head start on prepping for the Seminoles’ visit.

“We started today,” Addazio said Wednesday. “We'll be working tomorrow, and then Friday is like a game-week Tuesday for us. We wanted to have a really good, physical, hard-nosed, first-second down, full-padded, go-get-it deal on Friday, so that puts us one day up.”

And while he said the Eagles will have an added focus on fundamentals this week, Addazio made it clear they won’t only be working on themselves.

“We're working on Florida State,” Addazio said, “but what we're paying attention to is our fundamentals and our execution level in practice, and really getting a higher level of attention to detail in practice because I am just a big believer that what you see on that practice field is ultimately what you'll see on Saturday.

“When you play really talented teams, the mistakes that you make get magnified, and they get hidden sometimes when a team is a matchup team. But when a team has got great talent, those same mistakes, they come at you like gangbusters. We've got to eliminate those errors, whether they be mental or whether they be physical. We've got to play at a much higher level of execution because the margin for error is very, very small.”

Jack McCluskey is an editor for ESPN.com and a frequent contributor to ESPNBoston.com. Follow him on Twitter @jack_mccluskey.

The phone call went something like this:

“Hello?”

“Hi, do you know who this is?”

“Your voice sounds familiar, but I don’t really know ... ”

“It’s Charley Molnar, the new coach at UMass. I just wanted to let you know that you’re the first recruit I’ve called since taking over, and that our offer still stands.”

That’s how A.J. Doyle, the Minutemen’s new starting quarterback, remembers the call that ultimately led him to switch his commitment and pledge allegiance to the home-state school making the big leap to the FBS level.

Coach and quarterback first met at a camp in South Bend, Ind., when Molnar was still at Notre Dame.

“It was just a lot of fun,” Doyle said of the Notre Dame camp. “I could tell [Molnar] had a great knowledge of the game and was a guy I could learn a lot from.”

“I looked at him and watched him work and I thought he was a [Division] I-A quarterback,” Molnar said in his weekly MAC conference call. “He just wasn't the guy we were looking for at the time where I was. Certainly, it was a name that resonated with me.”

It resonated enough that Molnar followed up that initial call with an in-home visit, sitting down with Doyle and his parents to discuss the future at UMass.

The coach was convincing.

“I just decided it was the right place for me,” said Doyle, who finished his career at Catholic Memorial by throwing for 11 TDs and only two interceptions as a senior in 2011.

The 6-foot-3, 226-pound Lakeville, Mass., resident said UMass had a lot to offer.

“The opportunity to play quarterback,” he said, ticking off a few things. “The opportunity to stay in-state, where I’ve been my entire life. The opportunity to join a program making the move from Division I-AA to I-A.”

It all added up to reconsidering his previous commitment to NC State, which was bringing him in as a linebacker after filling its need at QB.

Molnar is glad he was able to keep Doyle home. He’s been needed, the coach estimating that Doyle played approximately a quarter of UMass’ snaps in 2012, including a start in the season finale. He finished 55-for-97 for 415 yards, three touchdowns and eight interceptions in eight games as a true freshman.

“He made progress through the year, but had an injury that hampered him through spring ball and the summer,” Molnar said. “Only over the last several weeks has he been able to hit his stride. He was able to get in shape and throw the football better.”

That, combined with a sputtering offense through the first one and a half games in 2013, led to the coach calling on Doyle at halftime of the loss to Maine in Week 2. He led a late scoring drive against the Black Bears, then got the start against Kansas State in Week 3.

When the Minutemen (0-3, 0-0 MAC) host Vanderbilt (1-2, 0-2 SEC) on Saturday (noon ET on ESPNEWS and WatchESPN), the first time UMass has hosted an SEC opponent, Doyle will be under center again.

Though the stats still are far from pretty, with Doyle finishing the 37-7 loss to K-State 21-for-31 passing for 186 yards and two interceptions (one a pick-six), Molnar believes the offense is taking positive steps.

“We had 17 first downs with pretty good balance, with seven rushing and 10 passing,” Molnar said. “We threw the ball better from an efficiency standpoint.”

The head coach was quick to point out that the two interceptions weren’t all Doyle’s fault.

“Things happen on the field that were beyond his control,” he said. “Obviously at the end of the day, the interceptions go against him, but there were other people involved in those. I feel like we took a step forward at the quarterback position and, all in all, our team is going to be in a good place going forward.”

Doyle’s first turnover was taken back 38 yards for a TD, putting the Minutemen in an early hole on the road in Manhattan, Kan. But the sophomore wasn’t deterred. He led the team on a 46-yard scoring drive to end the first quarter with a 7-6 lead.

Unfortunately, that was the end of the scoring for the UMass offense.

With just 21 points in their first three games, the Minutemen rank dead last nationally (No. 125) in scoring average at 7.0 points per game. They are No. 104 in passing yards per game (166.3) and No. 110 in rushing yards per game (95.67).

Clearly, there is room for improvement.

“I felt like there were some throws that I made that were pretty good,” Doyle said, “but there were a lot of things I can improve upon heading into this Vanderbilt game.”

Things like making his protection checks better, being tighter with his footwork and hitting open receivers more consistently.

“This is all stuff I can work on through the entire week in practice,” Doyle said, “so that when I get in the game I can say, ‘Now I’ve seen this in practice the entire week, here’s what I have to do,’ and just go out and do that.”

Molnar likes to say the Minutemen are pounding at a rock as they continue to work in Year 2 of the transition, and that eventually that rock is going to break.

“I honestly feel we’re just a play away from this exploding where we’re putting up 30, 35, 40 points a game,” Doyle said. “When that rock explodes it’s gonna be a scary thing and we’re gonna be a scary team to play against.”

That day may not arrive this weekend against a Vanderbilt team that has held its own in losses to two teams currently in the Top 25, but the Minutemen believe it’s coming.

Only time will tell if Doyle will lead them there, but Molnar believes he’s just scratched the surface so far.

“The best football for A.J.,” Molnar said, “is in his future.”

Jack McCluskey is an editor for ESPN.com and a frequent contributor to ESPNBoston.com. Follow him on Twitter @jack_mccluskey.

In the week leading up to Boston College’s visit to Southern California to take on USC, Eagles coach Steve Addazio said his team would need to scrap and claw and keep the game close into the fourth quarter to have any chance at improving to 3-0.

The Eagles had to avoid giving up big plays to the Trojans offense, and they needed to get creative on offense to beat the tough Trojans defense.

While BC battled USC on Saturday, it didn’t get either of those things done and fell to 2-1 with a 35-7 loss.

“I'm obviously disappointed in the outcome,” Addazio told reporters after the game, according to a transcript on BC’s website. “I don't think we executed well at all. ... We didn't do much on either side of the ball.

“Collectively as a team we didn't play like we have to. We have to get off the field on defense and get good field position on offense, try to control the ball and get the thing in the fourth quarter and that didn’t happen.”

A few plays sum up the Eagles’ day.

On USC’s second offensive possession, the Trojans drove upfield and into the red zone to set up a goal-to-go situation. The BC defense had been excellent in the red zone so far this season, and if they could stall the Trojans’ attack the Eagles might be able to shift the momentum at least a little.

On second-and-goal from the BC 5, the Eagles blitzed quarterback Cody Kessler. As Sean Sylvia and Mehdi Abdesmad collapsed the pocket, Kessler alertly tossed over the on-rushing Sylvia to a wide open Tre Madden for an easy touchdown.

It was a play decided by seconds, one in which BC’s attack just wasn’t fast enough.

After going to the locker room at halftime down 14-0 -- it would have been 21-0, but USC had a blocked punt that Marqise Lee returned for a TD nullified by a penalty -- BC had a chance to fight back within a score on its second drive of the third quarter. The Eagles pushed the ball into USC territory but faced a fourth-and-inches at the 46 with just less than seven minutes to go in the quarter.

Addazio decided to go for it, something he’s done before this season and will probably do again if the situation arises. The coach wants to establish a hard-nosed, physical approach, and believes the Eagles have to be able to get a yard when they need it if they’re going to be successful.

It’s an aggressive play call, which meshes perfectly with Addazio’s philosophy.

Workhorse back Andre Williams got the call on the play, but the 6-foot, 227-pounder was stuffed for a 1-yard loss and the ball was turned over on downs.

Again, the Eagles just weren’t quite good enough. And they ultimately paid the price.

“They did everything we thought they would do,” quarterback Chase Rettig told reporters. “They just played better than us today. That’s about it.”

To be fair, there’s no shame in losing to a Top 25-caliber team, which USC is despite its struggles through the first two weeks. With their backs to the wall after a 10-7 loss to Washington State in Week 2, the defense remained stout -- giving up only 184 yards of total offense and seven points -- and Lane Kiffin’s offense rebounded in a big way.

Kessler showed Saturday he can handle the starting QB duties, finishing 15-for-17 passing for 237 yards and two touchdowns, and Madden again had a big day on the ground with 16 carries for 102 yards and a touchdown.

All told, USC piled up 521 yards of total offense, just 80 fewer yards than BC allowed to its first two opponents combined. The Trojans’ 35 points are 11 more than the Eagles’ first two opponents mustered between them.

“They’re good,” Kasim Edebali told reporters. “They executed better than we did and hit a couple big plays, which was frustrating.”

The bottom line is this: While the two wins to open the season were great for the morale of a rebuilding program, the Eagles still have a lot of work to do on and off the field to truly compete with teams such as the Trojans.

Jack McCluskey is an editor for ESPN.com and a frequent contributor to ESPNBoston.com. Follow him on Twitter @jack_mccluskey.

Samantha Ponder and David Pollock preview the matchup between USC and Boston College (Saturday, 3 p.m. ET).

There’s been a change at the top of the UMass depth chart. Time will tell what difference it makes on the field.

A.J. Doyle will be the starter at quarterback for the Minutemen against Kansas State on Saturday (7 p.m. ET), replacing Mike Wegzyn. Doyle, a 6-foot-3, 226-pound Lakeville, Mass., native and former Catholic Memorial star, came into UMass’ 24-14 loss to Maine after halftime this past weekend and finished 7-for-17 passing for 67 yards and a touchdown.

The scoring strike came in the fourth quarter and pulled the Minutemen back to within 10 points after Maine had reeled off 24 unanswered. But it wasn’t enough to rally the team in its home opener at Gillette Stadium, as the Minutemen fell to their longtime FCS rival.

“We started off fast and went right down the field and scored in four plays,” UMass coach Charley Molnar said during his weekly MAC conference call. “We had a lot of confidence and what typically happens with teams who haven't won a lot of football games with a lot of young players is we just had small, individual breakdowns.

“It certainly hurt us offensively. It could have been anything from an errant throw to a misread by the quarterback to an offensive lineman oversetting on a defensive end. All those small accumulation of errors added up to a very poor offensive performance.

“Defensively, we played OK. At the end of the game, I think we were a little bit gassed and couldn't get the stop that we needed to get off the field and get the ball back to the offense to give us a chance.”

The Minutemen finished just 5-for-16 on third-down conversions, produced only 265 yards of total offense -- including just 64 rushing -- and turned the ball over twice. Certainly not the performance they were hoping for in the home opener, especially considering that the schedule doesn’t get any easier.

In Week 3, the Minutemen (0-2, 0-0 MAC) travel to Manhattan, Kan., to face Bill Snyder’s Wildcats (1-1, 0-0 Big 12). In Week 4, they host Vanderbilt (1-1, 0-1 SEC).

Then after a week off, conference play begins with a road trip to Bowling Green.

After watching tape of the Minutemen allowing Black Bears QB Marcus Wasilewski to outgain them by himself -- the senior going 20-for-28 passing for 267 yards and adding 10 carries for 76 yards and a touchdown -- the Wildcats may be licking their chops.

Through two games, the Minutemen have allowed 16 plays of more than 20 yards -- including six TDs from more than 30 yards out.

Molnar, ever optimistic despite the dreary results to date in UMass’ transition to the FBS level, said his message to his team this week remains a positive one.

“First off, it doesn't matter if we are playing Maine, Kansas State or anybody else; we go into each and every game with the objective to win,” he said. “Also, each and every player is trying to be a better player this week than they were a week ago. If we can get 11 players on offense and 11 players on defense to be better players, we will be better units and ultimately a better team.

“Our guys are in a good place and I think it would be real easy to get down, but our guys know their best football is ahead of them. Our trajectory is going up and they really believe that we are not too far off.”

Jack McCluskey is an editor for ESPN.com and a frequent contributor to ESPNBoston.com. Follow him on Twitter @jack_mccluskey.

The Eagles’ wake-up call for Tuesday’s practice was early -- before 6 a.m. early.

But at least one Boston College (2-0, 1-0 ACC) player was up before then, ready to get out onto the practice field to prepare for USC (1-1, 0-1 Pac-12).

Ian White could tell Chase Rettig is fired up for this week, a homecoming for the Sierra Madre, Calif., native, when he looked at his phone and saw a message from the quarterback.

“Wake-up was at like 5:45 or something like that and at 5:20 I get a text from Chase, ‘Let’s go boys, this is our week. This is when we’ve really gotta show ourselves,’” White said after practice on Wednesday. “He’s really excited for this game. He’s always that type of leader, he’ll shoot texts and stuff like that. But this was 40 minutes before wake-up at 5 in the morning.

“He was ready to go.”

While he didn’t display much emotion in his post-practice huddle with reporters Wednesday, Rettig said he’s looking forward to playing in Los Angeles.

“It’ll be fun,” he said. “I grew up going to USC games and UCLA games. So it’ll be fun to go back home and see some family and my family will be able to see me play live.”

BC coach Steve Addazio said there’s no doubt Rettig has “a burn inside” this week.

“Who wouldn't?” the coach said on his weekly ACC conference call. “You're going home to play. I think any competitor has that feeling. So I know he does, and, yes, I can see it in his eyes. He's still going to keep his personality, [so] he's not over the top. But I can't imagine there is a more excited guy getting on that plane tomorrow.”

Though some players going home to play might find themselves facing a favorite team from childhood, that’s not the case with Rettig.

“I was just an Oregon State fan growing up,” the 6-foot-3, 206-pound signal-caller said. “My mom was a Beaver, so that’s who I rooted for.”

Rettig said USC coach Lane Kiffin recruited him while he was at Tennessee, but soon after the offer came from the Volunteers the QB committed to BC. He hasn’t spent much time on it since, and wasn’t interested in reminiscing about the recruiting process on Wednesday.

There’s too much work to do.

USC fell out of the AP Top 25 after a shocking 10-7 home loss to Washington State, but the Trojans gave up only 222 yards of total offense and didn’t allow an offensive touchdown (the Cougars kicked a field goal and scored on a 70-yard interception return for a TD).

Meanwhile, new coordinator Clancy Pendergast’s D leads the nation in rushing defense by allowing just 15 yards per game. The Trojans gave up only 7 yards on 22 attempts to the Cougars.

Coming off a week when lead back Andre Williams piled up 35 carries for 204 yards, BC will no doubt attempt to test that strength. But Ryan Day won’t be stubborn, and if he needs to call more on Rettig he’s shown he will do so.

In the opener against Villanova, Rettig threw 30 times, completing 23 passes for 285 yards and two TDs. He threw just 14 passes in Week 2, with the run game hammering away at the Wake Forest defense.

While USC has been dominant against the run game, it has been just OK against the passing game. The Trojans rank 60th in the country in passing defense, giving up 211.5 yards a game through the first two weeks.

Addazio expects Rettig to play well versus USC.

“Obviously he has to play a great game on Saturday,” he said. “He knows it. Your quarterback is the guy. He's got to play a great game. He's got to get the ball out of his hands and be efficient, and on top of what he's doing and be a leader. I think he'll be all of those things.”

One thing USC does very well is pressure the quarterback. The Trojans lead the country with 11 sacks in their first two games, with three players with two or more sacks already (George Uko with three, and Morgan Breslin and Leonard Williams with two).

If Rettig is able to find Alex Amidon, Spiffy Evans or Dan Crimmins for big gains through the air Saturday, some USC fans -- already grumbling because of the unsettled QB situation, though Kiffin did name Cody Kessler the starter this week, and unusually meek offensive output (18.5 PPG, down from 32.1 PPG in 2012) to date -- might wonder aloud why the Trojans can’t get guys like the San Clemente High grad.

Of course, if the hometown teams had put on a full-court press in recruiting back when Rettig was a four-star prospect ranked the No. 10 pocket passer in the Class of 2010, they might have been able to keep him home. But they didn’t, and he didn’t. The rest, as they say, is history.

Rettig comes home as a four-year starter at BC, and perhaps with a bit of a chip on his shoulder.

“It’s exciting to go back,” Rettig said. “I was kind of an under-recruited kid back home. It’s not like I wanted to go to school in California, per se, but obviously when you don’t get seen [during recruiting] and then you come back you just want good things to happen.”

The senior would like nothing better than to help his team win this game, on the road, against a top-tier college football program. And he swears that’s what he’s focused on, even though he’s going to play just 20-odd minutes from home.

“You can’t really look at it like, ‘Oh, you’re going back home. Oh, your whole family’s gonna be there,’” he said. “It’s all about the team and trying to put our team in the best position to be successful on the field.

“It’ll be fun to just be back, but the most important thing is just singing our fight song at the end of the game.”

For Rettig, clearly there’s no wake-up call required for this matchup.

Jack McCluskey is an editor for ESPN.com and a frequent contributor to ESPNBoston.com. Follow him on Twitter @jack_mccluskey.