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NEWTON, Mass. -- Though the team fell far short of its goals this season, losing far more than it won, there's still one more game to play for Boston College in 2012. And as competitors, the Eagles say there's no way they give anything less than their all.

What's the difference between a two-win season and a three-win season? It's simple: one win.

Anyone can do that math, with or without a Boston College education. And you better believe the Eagles have run the numbers.

They want this one, badly.

"It doesn't matter how ugly a win is, we've just gotta find a way to win football games," quarterback Chase Rettig said. "Because that's what burns the fire for the next game and the next game, you just wanna keep winning as much as you can as a player and as a coach, obviously."

After each of their wins this season, at home versus Maine and versus Maryland, the Eagles talked about what a boost a victory the previous week gave them. And after losses, they've talked about keeping an even keel.

They've talked about the latter a whole lot more than they would've liked.

"We were close this year a whole bunch of times," Rettig said. "We just gotta find a way to get over the hump. And I don't think there's any magical equation or anything like that; we just gotta keep having a good work ethic. There's only so many things you can do; someone's gotta make a play to win the football game."

BC opened the season with a 14-0 lead on Miami, only to lose that game 41-32 when it couldn't keep up with the Hurricanes in the second half. In the literary world, they would call that foreshadowing.

The Eagles led late at Northwestern and Army, only to lose each game. BC scored late to take a lead on Virginia Tech, only to allow the Hokies to tie the game with just more than a minute left in regulation and win it in overtime.

That last loss came on Senior Day at Alumni Stadium, making the pain last a little longer in the Eagles' minds.

Saturday's matchup with NC State (6-5, 3-4 ACC) represents the last hurrah for the team's seniors, and before a practice this week a few of them talked about what the past four or five years have been like.

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NEWTON, Mass. -- It’s Thanksgiving week, but it’s business as usual at the Heights.

With a few small differences, scheduling-wise, of course.

“I kind of like it better because there’s no class in the morning and stuff like that,” wideout Alex Amidon said before practice Tuesday. “But it’s just another week.”

The Eagles have practice on Thursday, but then players who are local can go home for Thanksgiving dinner with their families. Players who don’t have anywhere to go will be invited to a coach’s house for a meal.

And then the team will fly to Raleigh, N.C., for the season-ending matchup with NC State and former BC coach Tom O’Brien.

Coming off a difficult loss in overtime to Virginia Tech on Senior Day, the Eagles are determined to end the season with a better result.

“I think everyone really wants to end the season on a positive note,” Amidon said. “It’s nice to be able to go into the offseason with something positive to look at.”

Left tackle Emmett Cleary, a cocaptain and fifth-year senior, was blunt about the loss to the Hokies and what a win over the Wolfpack would mean.

“It was a very emotional loss. We put a lot into that and coming up short hurts,” he said. “I’m glad we have one more, I’m glad I don’t have to go out on what happened last week. And I think it would just mean so much to our guys, everybody who’s playing their last college game, the amount of crap that we’ve gone through these last couple years.

“It would [mean] a lot to end everything we struggled through with a win.”

Rettig a record setter

Move over, Matt Ryan. There’s a new record holder, and his name’s Rettig. Chase Rettig.

With his first yards passing on Saturday, Rettig will pass Ryan for the most passing yards in a season by an underclassman in BC history. He has 2,942, with one game left in his junior year.

Ryan, the current Atlanta Falcons signal-caller and former Eagles great, set the record with 2,942 yards in 2006.

With 58 yards, Rettig will become the fourth BC QB to amass 3,000 yards in a season. That list currently consists of Ryan (4,507 in 2007), Doug Flutie (3,454 in 1984) and Glenn Foley (3,397 in 1993).

In his third year as the starter, Rettig has come into his own under first-year offensive coordinator Doug Martin.

“I’ve had the most freedom in being able to make decisions at the line of scrimmage,” Rettig said of his role in Martin’s system. “And I just really get along with Coach Martin pretty well. I’ve definitely enjoyed the offense and he’s put us in a bunch of good situations in order to be successful this year.”

Though rumors have run amok about Frank Spaziani’s future with BC, Rettig said he’d love to be able to build on what the offense has managed this season.

“It’s been nice to have some consistency for one year,” Rettig said. “We’ve done a lot -- me personally and other guys on the team and the offense as a whole -- for just having this offense for a year and a spring. It’d be nice to see what we can do with it for the whole offseason and the spring and another summer camp and the season.”

Amidon too

Another week, another chance for Alex Amidon to set a record.

The Greenfield, Mass., native became BC’s single-season receiving yardage leader against then-No. 4 Notre Dame. He had previously tied the record for 100-yard games in a season with six. And he entered the game against Virginia Tech needing just four catches to break the record for catches in a season (76, by Andre Callendar).

Amidon finished that game with two catches for 18 yards, both lows for the season. He’ll need just one catch against NC State to tie Callendar’s record and two to break it.

If he manages 100 yards against the Wolfpack, Amidon will set the record for 100-yard games with seven. He’ll also tie the BC career record for 100-yard games, currently at eight (Brian Brennan and Rich Gunnell).

Despite the gaudy numbers he’s posted in 2012, Amidon will not win the Biletnikoff Award. The wideout was named to the watch list, but did not make the list of semifinalists.

It’s not the reward he wanted, but Nick Clancy will take it.

The fifth-year Boston College senior desperately wanted a win on Senior Day at Alumni Stadium. It’d been a long, hard season, with losses far outnumbering wins, and Clancy and his classmates wanted to leave their final game in Chestnut Hill with a good taste in their mouths.

But Clancy and the defense weren’t able to stop Virginia Tech late in the fourth quarter and in overtime, and the Eagles once again came up short in a winnable game, 30-23.

On Monday, Clancy got a consolation prize when he was named ACC Linebacker of the Week for his performance in the loss, which dropped BC to 2-9 (1-6 in the ACC).

The 6-foot-3, 232-pound senior had a game-high 20 tackles (17 solo, 3 assisted), including 2.5 tackles for a loss, and two passes defended.

It was the second 20-tackle game of Clancy’s career, the first coming in the Plainfield, Ill., native’s semi-homecoming game at Northwestern (he had 24). He also won the ACC LB of the Week award for that performance.

Coming into the season, Clancy’s career high was 7 tackles in a single game, a total he has surpassed in eight of 11 games this season. With 127 stops in 2012, Clancy is the ACC’s leading tackler and ranks fourth in the country.

Clancy and the Eagles have one game left, at NC State on Saturday (3 p.m. ET, ESPN3).

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

After watching the tape of his team’s 30-23 overtime loss to Virginia Tech, there’s nothing about the late-game choices Boston College coach Frank Spaziani would change.

Well, that’s not exactly true.

“Second-guessing? Maybe we would have thrown a screen instead of a draw on the first play,” he said, referring to the team’s final possession of regulation. “But the decision? I would do the same thing.”

With the game tied at 23 and just less than a minute to go, the Eagles had the ball on their own 17. The first play offensive coordinator Doug Martin dialed up was a draw with freshman back David Dudeck, which went for only 2 yards.

After that play didn’t produce, the Eagles decided to play for overtime. If he could go back, Spaziani said, maybe that play call would have been different. But the mindset wouldn’t have been different, because they were prepared for this very thing.

“That exact situation came up in one of our scrimmages,” Spaziani explained in his Sunday conference call with reporters. “That situation came up, we handled it off the cuff as you would in a scrimmage in simulating the game. We made a decision on that day and then we went back in and reviewed it and discussed how we would do this in a game. ‘Was that right?’ We second-guessed ourselves ahead of time.”

Then Spaziani proceeded to run through all the questions he and the BC staff had to consider in order to make the call they did.

“We decided to go to overtime,” he said. “Why would you decide to go to overtime? Well, how was your offense playing? How was the defense playing? How was the flow of the game going? What was the pulse of the players?

“It’s a little bit more than just, ‘Oh, there’s 59 seconds left, let’s make this decision.’ And I do understand [people think] that, but we as coaches have to do a little bit more than that. So is there second-guessing? You better believe it. But under those circumstances, we felt that was our best chance to win. And I’ll tell you what, throwing the ball we were 13-for-something, we were getting sacked, our guys weren’t open. … We were playing some good defense.

“It turned out wrong. Did it turn out wrong because of that? I don’t know. There were a lot of other things.”

There was some bad luck -- the Hokies fumbled three times in the game, but the ball bounced the visitors’ way each time and they recovered each one -- and there were more than a few missed opportunities.

On Sunday, Spaziani wasn’t begrudging anyone their opinion.

“You can disagree. We've got great fans and great students, God love them -- they can disagree, anyone can disagree,” he said. “But 59 seconds on our 17-yard line. And my job is to give our kids the best chance, make a calculated judgment on what our best chance is to win. And we felt going into overtime we could hold them to a field goal and we felt we could score. We felt we would not give up a touchdown. That’s the way we felt.

“It didn’t turn out that way, but not for lack of effort,” Spaziani said with a laugh. Then he paused. “Or thinking about it,” he said, with another short, hard laugh. “A lot of thought went into it.”

And, fairly or not, the thought of this loss likely will linger in the aftermath of a lost season.

“Every loss is tough,” Chase Rettig said Saturday. “We were in position to win the football game. We just have to go back to work.”

And hope that the next decision the BC brain trust makes is the right one, and produces the desired result.

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

NEWTON, Mass. -- A week after sustaining a concussion against No. 3 Notre Dame, Nick Clancy started at his customary middle linebacker spot on senior day.

The Eagles are glad he did, as he made 10 tackles in the first half and finished with a game-high 20 tackles.

Clancy's biggest contribution wasn't a tackle, however. On fourth-and-3 from the BC 40 with just more than a minute to go in the first half, the Hokies decided to roll the dice. Logan Thomas stood alone in the backfield, with five wide receivers spread along the line.

The big quarterback saw Demitri Knowles running free across the middle and delivered the ball on the mark. But Clancy also saw Knowles and threw his shoulder into the wideout just as the ball arrived, jarring it free and causing the incompletion.

"It was one of those times where you have that intuition inside of you that you know what play is coming," Clancy said. "That's what happened there, just kind of felt it given the situation."

After the Eagles came out on the short end of the 30-23 overtime decision, falling to 2-9 (1-6 ACC), the linebacker admitted this one meant more than usual.

"We prepare the same for every game, but there was something about this week," Clancy said. "I wanted this one so bad -- to end on a good note and walk away from BC with my last home game a victory. So this one hurts."

Asked to assess the play of his seniors, specifically Clancy, coach Frank Spaziani said he was happy with the effort, if not the end result.

"Nick made a couple plays," Spaziani said. "I think the seniors came to play and played hard. Now how efficient they played? That remains to be seen."

Deuce let loose
For much of the season, circumstances -- in-game and injury-related -- have dictated that the Eagles become a passing team. But with Bud Foster's defense unleashing blitz after blitz Saturday afternoon, it was the running game that got things going for BC.

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NEWTON, Mass. -- It's the ultimate second-guessing situation: The game is tied, just more than a minute to go and a long field between you and paydirt.

Do you take a shot downfield, hoping to pick up a chunk of yardage and give yourself a shot at a game-winning field goal as time expires? Or do you play it safe, make sure you don't give the other team a chance to win the game at the buzzer?

Frank Spaziani faced that situation late Saturday afternoon, BC tied 23-23 with Virginia Tech, and opted to play it safe.

After the game, Spaziani was asked about the decision to play for overtime.

He paused for a long beat before answering, rubbing his face with one hand as he gathered his thoughts.

"You don't want to give the game away there," he said. "We ran the draw, if we were gonna get a good play on first down we were gonna up-tempo it."

Once the draw failed, the decision was made.

"We felt our better chance was to go into overtime," the coach said.

Suffice it to say, things didn't pan out the way Spaziani hoped in the extra session.

The Eagles won the toss, and elected to defend first. But on a third-and-4 from the 7, with the defense desperate to hold the Hokies to a field goal, Logan Thomas found Randall Dunn open in the back of the end zone for a TD to take a 30-23 lead.

That put all the pressure on the Eagles' offense, which, before a late TD drive put them briefly back on top 23-20, had scuffled badly in the second half.

On first down, the Eagles gave it to true freshman David Dudeck, who scored the go-ahead touchdown in the fourth when Rolandan "Deuce" Finch was out with an injury. Dudeck was stuffed.

On second down, Chase Rettig dropped back to pass but couldn't find an open receiver and took his seventh sack of the afternoon for a 1-yard loss.

On third down, Rettig was creamed as he released the ball and it fell incomplete.

That meant it all came down to fourth-and-11, needing a touchdown to tie. Rettig dropped back again, looking for Alex Amidon on an in-cut over the middle. Seeing a crowd in the center of the field, Rettig checked down and hit Dudeck in the left flat, hoping he could get to the first-down marker.

But Dudeck was stood up short of the sticks, and the Hokies celebrated.

"In that situation, even if there's a bazillion guys in the area you still have to throw the football," Rettig said, regretting his decision to throw it short of the first-down distance. "Sometimes in those situations you just have to throw it up, even if there's a better chance of it being incomplete or intercepted. In that situation, that's just what we've gotta do."

In the end, might the Eagles' decision to play not to lose in regulation have cost them a chance to win?

"Every competitor wants the ball," Rettig said, describing his reaction to the call. "But it's a good decision. It's a smart decision to play for overtime.

"I don't think that decision had any impact on the game, really."

The reality of it is, the game never should've come down to overtime. After the Eagles scored to go ahead 23-20, Virginia Tech got the ball back at its own 15-yard line with 4:11 on the clock. If the BC D could get a stop, the offense would have a chance to salt away the victory on senior day.

But the D couldn't do it. On the third play of the drive, Logan Thomas found Marcus Davis deep down the left sideline for a 33-yard gain, all the way to the BC 37, flipping the field position in an instant and setting up the tying field goal.

"We had a couple chances to make plays and we didn't make 'em," Spaziani lamented.

There were more than a couple of plays the Eagles will wish they could take back. There was the 69-yard completion from Thomas to Corey Fuller, with the ball bouncing off one of the two BC defenders bracketing the receiver and then falling into his hands.

There was the strip sack by Kasim Edebali, deep in Hokies territory, when the end came free around the right side and blindsided the big QB only to see him fall on the ball before anyone else could.

There was the pass that sailed over a wide-open Alex Amidon as the wideout sprinted unchecked down the left side.

"In the course of a game there's a lot of plays that can turn the game around," Spaziani said. "Congratulations to Virginia Tech, they made some plays and won the game. We had our chances, we had chances and weren't able to convert. Came up on the short end."

It was a brutal end to the home slate in what's been a consistently frustrating season for the Eagles.

"It doesn't get much worse than that," fifth-year senior Nick Clancy said of the loss. "Being our last home game, fighting so hard until the very end like that and to fall short, it hurts, man. It really does."

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

NEWTON, Mass. -- On Senior Day at the Heights, Boston College lost a wild, back-and-forth game to Virginia Tech, 30-23 in overtime.

How it happened: Virginia Tech made all the right adjustments at halftime, overcoming a 10-point BC lead at the break with two third-quarter TDs to take a 17-13 lead.

Bud Foster’s defense swarmed Chase Rettig and the Eagles in the second half, keeping them out of rhythm and putting the QB on the ground again and again.

With the Eagles backed up in their territory, trailing 17-16 in the fourth, the Hokies brought pressure on third-and-7. Rettig managed to hold out long enough to find Alex Amidon for a first down ... but there was a flag on the play.

Turns out, Rettig had time because left tackle Emmett Cleary was holding. The penalty wiped out the would-be first down, and after an incompletion on third-and-17 the Eagles had to punt.

A good return gave the Hokies a short field, and they converted on a 42-yard field goal to make it a four-point margin.

That meant the Eagles needed a touchdown, which seemed an unlikely proposition based on how the second half had gone to that point.

But Amidon took a handoff on an end-around 20 yards up the right side, with a 15-yard face mask penalty tacked onto the end of the run, and all of a sudden the Eagles were in business. Six plays later, facing a third-and-4 at the VT 12-yard line, true freshman David Dudeck took a handoff up the middle, found a hole and sprinted into the end zone to put BC back on top 23-20.

Logan Thomas and the Hokies would not be denied, however. The big QB led a 10-play, 62-yard drive to set up Cody Journell for a 41-yard field goal to tie it at 23 and force overtime.

The Hokies got the ball first in overtime, and Thomas led them to the end zone. He found Randall Dunn open in the back of the end zone on third-and-5 from the 6.

And so Rettig and the Eagles got the ball, needing a TD to continue. Dudeck was stuffed on first down. Rettig was sacked on second down. And on third down, Rettig got cleaned out as he threw for an incompletion.

That set up fourth-and-11 from the 26. The Eagles needed a miracle.

It didn’t come.

Rettig hit Dudeck on a screen but he was stopped short of the marker, giving the Hokies the win.

What it means: Virginia Tech’s bowl hopes are still alive. The Hokies have played in a bowl for 19 straight seasons, meaning the last time Frank Beamer’s bunch didn’t play in the postseason, BC starters David Dudeck and Justin Simmons were in diapers.

What’s next? BC will finish out the season on the road, traveling to Raleigh, N.C., for a matchup with NC State at Carter-Finley Stadium. The Wolfpack will be coming off a tough matchup with No. 11 Clemson.

Virginia Tech finishes its season at home with a game against in-state rival Virginia.

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

NEWTON, Mass. -- Before the season started, Boston College head coach Frank Spaziani gave his team a homework assignment.

If you want to be a captain, he told them, write a letter saying why you should be chosen.

The exercise is an important one, because only someone who really wants to lead will take the time to sit down, compose his thoughts, put pen to paper (or, more likely, fingers to keyboard) and produce a cogent argument for himself.

And among the submissions from players like Chris Pantale and Emmett Cleary, the eventual offensive co-captains, was one from an unexpected source. The long-snapper gave it a whirl, too.

“Being a fifth-year senior I just figured I would write a letter, give it a shot and see what happened,” Sean Flaherty said before practice on Wednesday. “I kinda had an idea of who would be captain … but I didn’t think it would hurt to write one.”

On the contrary, the gesture resonated with coaches and teammates.

“After you read it you went, ‘Yeah, he would be a good captain,’ ” Spaziani said.

But really, the long-snapper a captain?

“Sean’s at one of those positions that you can easily take him for granted, but as a coach … I’ve never taken him for granted,” Spaziani said. “He’s been rock solid since the moment he got the job and earned it and got his scholarship till now. Plus he’s a great leader. He really is.

“It’s unusual that someone would say that about a long-snapper on your team, but he’s respected by all the players. He could’ve been a captain,” Spaziani added.

Flaherty said he thought he could serve as an example to players both on and off the field, since he’s been in the program for five years now.

At 6-foot-2 and 223 pounds, he has a career high of two tackles in a game (against Northeastern in 2009) and earned his bachelor’s degree in marketing in May. He’s working on a master’s in management, and enjoying his anonymity.

“Being the long-snapper, if no one knows my name I feel like I’m doing a good job,” he said. “Unless I make a tackle or something, I’m never really gonna get my name called on the loudspeaker.”

But while the common fan doesn’t know his name, Flaherty’s teammates appreciate his contributions.

“He’s not the biggest guy but he’s in the middle of things on field goals and stuff like that,” center Andy Gallik said. “He takes a beating sometimes, and he’s still out there every day. He gets us going before practice.”

Before the Eagles played Notre Dame, Flaherty said, he was talking to Cleary about what it would be like to score the upset. How the sideline would go wild. How the student section would storm the field, delirious with joy.

Tears would be shed. It would be a moment to remember forever.

Flaherty delivered that same message when Spaziani gave him a chance to address the team during the week before the prime-time matchup.

“Coach Spaz, since I’m Irish, gave me an opportunity to break it down against Notre Dame,” Flaherty said. “I just kinda said those things. I said ‘If we focus, we can do it.’ ”

The message was received, and the Eagles had chances to make it happen but ultimately came up short in the 21-6 loss.

It wasn’t for lack of inspiration, however. Spaziani said he likes to see how a player’s teammates react to who he chooses to address them.

When he chose Flaherty, he said, the reaction was a standing ovation. And the reason for the players’ reaction was simple.

“He’s a leader,” Spaziani said. “He’s gonna do very well. We’ll all be working for him someday.”

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

NEWTON, Mass. -- Call it “The Mystery of the Disappearing Tailback.”

Rolandan “Deuce” Finch started the season atop the depth chart at tailback, then stumbled when he kept dropping the ball at inopportune times, fell all the way off the two-deep and landed on the scout team.

Six weeks passed without so much as a glimpse of the 5-foot-10, 211-pound back.

Now that injuries have struck down the next and next-to-next men up (Andre Williams and Tahj Kimble), Finch is back on the two-deep. But he hasn’t regained that top spot yet, landing a line below true freshman (and converted defensive back/wide receiver) David Dudeck.

His teammates are happy to see him back on the field.

“It was really nice to have him back in the huddle,” Chase Rettig said. “He’s a good back and I look forward to the next two games with him.”

Finch, who led the Eagles with 705 yards in 2011, showed some of what he is capable of against the Irish this past Saturday. He broke off a 20-yard run in the second quarter, pumping up his teammates.

“To have him back and make an impact was huge not only for him but for us in the offense,” tight end Chris Pantale said. “It’s exciting having him back there. Just to see what he can do, he has the ability to break runs off and break tackles.”

Pantale said there were times during Deuce’s fall from grace that he took the junior aside and offered some words of wisdom.

“Things like this happen in life,” Pantale, an offensive co-captain, said he told Finch. “It’s how we respond to these challenges in life. You’ve just gotta work through it and hopefully things work out for the best. But you can’t put your head down, because nothing good’s gonna come out of that. You work and when you get your opportunity you make the best of it.”

For Finch, the opportunities came midweek. He had to prove himself to the coaching staff first, and worry about getting back in a game later.

“Nobody’s happy with something like that,” left tackle Emmett Cleary said of the demotion from first-string to scout team, “so I’m not gonna say he was that gung-ho about it, but he handled it like a man. And it kinda goes to show how your opportunity will come back around if you just keep working.”

Finch finished with seven carries for 40 yards against the Irish, leading the team in both categories.

This week, the Eagles (2-8, 1-5 ACC) host the Virginia Tech Hokies (4-6, 2-4) at Alumni Stadium (12:30 p.m. ET, ESPN3). Though it’s been a down season for Frank Beamer’s squad, Bud Foster’s defense remains stout.

In the Hokies’ 28-22 loss to No. 10 Florida State last week, Foster’s defense held the Seminoles to minus-15 yards on the ground. For the season, Virginia Tech is sixth in the ACC in rushing defense, allowing 147.9 yards per game.

Part of the unit’s success is due to the unusual 4-2-5 alignment that Foster favors.

“It’s frustrating because you’ll block up the front perfectly and then there’s a support guy coming down and making the tackle after 3 yards,” Cleary said of the front. “It’s a different look than we’re used to and it’s really hard to break long runs because they always seem to have the support guy coming down.”

The Hokies are giving up 3.88 yards per carry this season.

Meanwhile, BC is last in the ACC in rushing offense at a paltry 72.5 yards per game. The Eagles’ 2.68 yards-per-carry average is 11th in the conference, with only Miami producing fewer yards per rush.

Finch, who has averaged 4.66 yards a carry in his limited playing time in 2012, could help them change those numbers.

If, that is, he’s truly back to where he was to start the season.

“He’s had a tough season,” Cleary said. “I hope he can contribute these next two weeks.”

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 different for everyone.

Saturday is Senior Day at Alumni Stadium (12:30 p.m. vs. Virginia Tech), the last go-round in front of the home crowd for 16 Eagles.

The list of players suiting up for the final time in Chestnut Hill includes both offensive tackles (Emmett Cleary and John Wetzel), two backup QBs (Mike Marscovetra and Dave Shinskie), two specialists (long-snapper Sean Flaherty and punter Gerald Levano), all four co-captains (Cleary, Jim Noel, Chris Pantale and Kaleb Ramsey), the team’s leading tackler this season (Nick Clancy, who may not play because of a concussion), two wide receivers (Donte Elliott and Colin Larmond), two walk-ons (Mike Javorski and Joe LaCorte) and one defensive end (Bryan Murray).

Seven of the 16 are starters, and each had a slightly different take on what these last two weeks of the season will mean.

“It’s gonna be a real emotional day on Saturday,” Pantale said. “There’s gonna be excitement, sadness. ... It’s just scary to reflect back on the amount of time I spent here and how fast it went by. I think Saturday will be a lot more enjoyable if we get a win and leave Alumni with a good taste in our mouths.”

For the long-snapper, Flaherty, the fact Saturday will be the last time he gets dressed in the home locker room and runs onto the field in maroon and gold brings up a lot of memories.

“It’s a pretty nostalgic time,” he said. All that’s left to do is to “try to have my best game at home this last one.”

Shinskie, the 28-year-old former minor league pitcher, wasn’t quite ready to admit this game against Virginia Tech could be his last home game as an Eagle.

“Hey, you never know, man, I could still redshirt,” he said with a smile. “These last four years have been probably the most memorable time in my life. This time here, I met a lot of guys. You’re not just with the guys during football practice, you’re with them in the dorm, late nights, going to get something to eat … It’s the friends that, to me, are gonna get to me the most.”

And then there’s the fact the Eagles (2-8, 1-5 ACC) have to deal with the Hokies (4-6, 2-4), who are still fighting to make something of their season.

That Frank Beamer’s squad isn’t having a typical 10-win, Virginia Tech season doesn’t affect how the Eagles think of them at all.

“No. It’s still Virginia Tech,” center Andy Gallik said. “We’re gonna have a little more emotion, being Senior Day … We know that they’re gonna bring everything they’ve got. They gotta win out to make a bowl game, and if they don’t it’ll end their streak.”

The Hokies have played in a bowl for 19 straight seasons, one of the five longest streaks in the nation.

BC head coach Frank Spaziani said there haven’t been glaring differences in Blacksburg, Va., this season.

“It’s subtle. The 10-win Virginia Tech team and this one, there’s not much difference,” Spaziani said. “Except they’re giving up some bigger plays on defense than they have in the past.”

The Hokies have given up four plays of 60-plus yards this season, according to cfbstats.com. The Eagles have given up only two such plays this season.

Virginia Tech has also scuffled when it has left the comforts of Lane Stadium, losing its past seven games away from home dating back to last season.

Yet despite all of that, the Eagles can’t afford to think less of any opponent and they know it.

“It’s still about us taking care of ourselves, our business, as always,” Spaziani said.

That’s what has been on one senior’s mind this week.

“In one sense we’re kinda too wrapped up in the day-to-day to really think about that,” Cleary said, when asked about the emotions of Senior Day. “This is just a big conference game against Virginia Tech, who is an opponent we get up for every year.

“But for all the guys who it’s their last game, it’s definitely significant -- you want to play well and you want to obviously get the win. It might get to me on Saturday. We’ll see.”

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

NEWTON, Mass. -- The most important thing is not getting used to this.

For the past couple of seasons, Boston College has done more losing than winning. The Eagles had their string of 12 consecutive seasons with a bowl berth snapped in 2011, and then started a new streak of bowl-less seasons when they clinched a losing season in 2012.

Coming off yet another loss, this time 21-6 to then-No. 4 Notre Dame at home in prime time, before practice on Wednesday the 2-8 Eagles talked about what they need to do to prevent a losing mindset from taking hold in Chestnut Hill.

“I think the biggest thing to establish to the young guys is developing a winning mentality and making sure that you’re not accustomed to losing,” offensive co-captain Chris Pantale said. “Sometimes when you lose one or two games in a row, you start to get accustomed to certain little things that losing provides, ‘Oh, it’s just one bad play,’ or ‘Oh it’s just one game.’

“And then guys start to fall into a funk.”

Pantale said it’s up to the veterans to prevent that mindset from setting in.

“Just put an emphasis on guys that losing is not acceptable, it’s not OK,” he said. “I think that’s important to preach to young guys.”

The Eagles have two games left, beginning with Virginia Tech on Saturday (12:30 ET) and ending with NC State on Nov. 24.

Emmett Cleary, the other offensive co-captain, sees potential in his younger teammates.

“I love our young guys, we’ve got a lot of talent in the program right now,” Cleary said. “And they work. Practice has been great this year, probably as lively as since I’ve been here.”

In order to get back to what BC has been accustomed to, however, Cleary hit the same notes as Pantale.

“The main thing is make sure people don’t get used to this,” the left tackle said. “It can become a mentality where losing is all right. I don’t think that’s the case here, but it’s critical to maintain that. That this is an aberration from what this program does.”

Though the team’s record has gone steadily downhill (from 8 wins to 7 to 4 to the current 2) since Frank Spaziani took the reins from Jeff Jagodzinski in 2009, the Eagles still believe they are the team that went to 12 straight bowl games and not the one currently in the midst of two straight years without a bowl berth.

Spaziani, for one, isn’t concerned about complacency setting in.

“We won’t allow it to happen,” he said. “I don’t think they’re used to losing right now. There’s problems that have impeded our progress. We always have to work through those problems. There’s nothing here that gives any indication that anybody is satisfied with their station.”

Cleary & Co. clearly aren’t.

“You don’t stand for it,” the senior said when asked how to combat the losing mentality. “You can’t treat this stuff as business as usual, because it’s not. And it can’t be if we want to be the program that we think we are.”

Injury updates

While the official injury report isn’t released until Thursdays at BC, Spaziani had updates on the two most notable injuries that occurred in Saturday’s game against No. 3 Notre Dame.

Nick Clancy, who sustained a concussion in the loss, has been cleared to resume activities. Spaziani didn’t say how much he would be doing in practice, and as of now the senior isn’t on the two-deep for the game versus Virginia Tech on Saturday. But it’s possible that Clancy is cleared to play.

Sophomore Sean Duggan stepped in for Clancy against the Irish, and is currently atop the depth chart at middle linebacker.

The news wasn’t as good for Bobby Swigert. The wideout suffered a “severe” injury to his right knee, according to the coach, and will likely have surgery on Friday.

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

That whooshing noise you heard Saturday afternoon? It came from Amherst, and it was a “big sigh of relief from a lot of people.”

That’s how UMass head coach Charley Molnar described the Minutemen’s first win at the FBS level (in their 10th game as a Division I-A team) on his weekly Mid-American Conference call with the media on Monday.

“Not only was it a great day just for the players on the team, but everybody associated with the program and the whole university,” Molnar said of what the 22-14 win at Akron meant for UMass. “I think it was a big step that the university took to really make this into a I-A program and try to increase the visibility of our athletic program and our university across the country.

“It was a good first step for our program.”

The Minutemen defense produced four interceptions against the Zips, leading to 19 points. UMass’ special teams also played a role, with place-kicker Blake Lucas hitting three field goals and an extra point after not being called on in two of the previous three games as the Minutemen offense struggled (getting shut out by Bowling Green 24-0 on Oct. 20 and by Northern Illinois 63-0 on Nov. 3).

Molnar & Co. (1-9, 1-5 MAC) now finish off the season with two home games at Gillette Stadium. They host Buffalo (3-7, 2-4 MAC) on Saturday (3 p.m. ET), and Central Michigan (4-6, 2-4) on the day after Thanksgiving, Friday Nov. 23 (3 p.m. ET).

On Monday, Molnar broke down the Bulls.

“They have two defensive ends that are really as good as any we have played all year,” he said of Steven Means (3.5 sacks) and Colby Way (5.5 sacks). “Being able to control those two and neutralize those two is gonna take a lot of work on our part. It’s gonna take some outstanding work from our offensive tackles.”

Molnar also praised running back Branden Oliver.

“He’s not blazing fast but he has great vision and great cuts,” he said. “It’s gonna be a real challenge for our front seven playing against him.”

The Minutemen are still battling for legitimacy, hoping to build on what they accomplished last weekend.

“Obviously we have a long way to go,” Molnar said. “I was hoping that we’d be further along than we are right now, but nevertheless I think everybody feels pretty good and it was a big sigh of relief from a lot of people.”

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

AMHERST, Mass. -- With the bulk of its key contributors back from an NIT Final Four season, the University of Massachusetts men’s basketball team enters this season with more anticipation and greater expectations than it has in more than a decade.

Yet with 1:21 remaining in its season opener against a Harvard team that lost two of its mainstays during an offseason cheating scandal, the Minutemen trailed by five, their fans bracing for a letdown they’ve felt before in the 14 years since their last NCAA tournament appearance.

So with the game on the line in the closing seconds, UMass turned to -- who else? -- a kid who missed the bulk of last season with a hip injury and hadn’t scored a point all game.

But to hear the Minutemen and coach Derek Kellogg tell it, having Sampson Carter hit a winning 3-pointer with one second to play -- giving UMass a 67-64 victory -- was just how they drew it up.

With game tied at 64 with 28 seconds to play, the Minutemen took possession after Chaz Williams and the UMass pressure defense forced a Harvard turnover along the sideline. Williams let the clock run down before making his move, driving the lane. As Crimson defenders converged, Williams dished the ball to an open Carter in front of the UMass bench, and Carter calmly drained the shot with 1.5 seconds to go.

“Once I saw Chaz go baseline and my man came off, I knew I was getting it because it’s something we work on,” Carter said. “I knew to slide to the corner.”

With time winding down, Carter said he didn’t have to think about whether or not to shoot.

“I heard the bench behind me saying, ‘Knockdown’ so I knew it was a knockdown and I was totally confident.”

Williams, UMass’ slippery point guard, also said he saw it all coming.

“As the play was setting up, I was already looking at the secondary defenders,” Williams said. “I saw Sampson creeping in early, real early. I just knew once I get to the rim if he (the defender on Carter) comes all the way to commit, I was going to pass it out to Sampson and I knew it was going in.”

Kellogg pledged his confidence as the play unfolded as well.

“When Chaz drove, I thought he was going to shoot it,” Kellogg said, “but they converged, they did what they were supposed to do with a point guard who can score like him. They ran five guys to the paint.

“It was funny. When I saw Sampson open, I instantly knew he was going to make that shot. He’s made that shot the last three days in practice every time. So if he didn’t make it, I was going to be thoroughly disappointed.”

At least Harvard coach Tommy Amaker admitted to being surprised by the hero who was unexpected to the rest of us.

“Chaz is an outstanding player. He’s quick, he’s crafty, it’s hard to keep in front of him,” Amaker said. “I was kind of excited honestly when he threw it out because he’s a great finisher at the rim and he’s also crafty enough to get fouled. So I thought it played into our hands.

“But as it turned out, obviously the kid made a big shot. He was in the right spot and Williams can find people.”

Kellogg admitted he had “kind of a weird lineup out there” at the end in response to how Harvard had been matching up, with Carter, Williams, Jesse Morgan, Freddie Riley and Raphiael Putney on the floor, a unit that has seen very little practice time together.

Harvard’s Wesley Saunders hit a pair of free throws to give the Crimson a 64-59 lead, but Jesse Morgan (a game-high 19 points) answered with a jumper in the lane to make it a 3-point game.

UMass, showing defensive intensity that had been lacking much of the second half, forced a five-second violation with 44.9 seconds left, and Morgan tied it with a three-ball with 37 seconds to go.

The Minutemen cranked up their full-court pressure again, and after Williams forced a turnover, hitting the ball off Webster’s foot, saying the ball “went the right way,” Kellogg declined to call timeout, letting the game play out.

“I put it in the players’ hands,” Kellogg said. “I learned that many years ago from the guy I played for, (John Calipari). In those situations, let’s have our stuff already in and we’re going to go and let the guys play.”

He was confident the result would be a good one.

“I think I have one of the best floor generals in the country and the other guys feed off him,” Kellogg said. “If we have the ball in his hands with some semblance of a set or a play, I’m usually confident that he’s going to make a good basketball decision.”

Even if it’s a decision that takes everyone else by surprise.

AMHERST, Mass. -- The Harvard men’s basketball team, coming off its first NCAA tournament appearance since 1946, was dealt a serious blow before the season even started when a pair of would-be seniors, forward Kyle Casey and point guard Brandyn Curry, left the school in the wake of a cheating scandal.

That left the keys to the Crimson offense to freshman Siyani Chambers, and while there surely will be some growing pains, Chambers impressed with his poise in Harvard’s near-upset of UMass, 67-64, Tuesday morning at the Mullins Center.

The Minutemen like to press on defense as much as any team in the country, normally a recipe for disaster with such an inexperienced point guard, but Chambers more than held his own, committing just one turnover, to go with seven assists and 14 points, while playing all 40 minutes.

“For him to play as well as he did the whole game and go against an outstanding guard and the kind of pressure that UMass brings to have just one turnover, I thought that was a magnificent performance,” Harvard coach Tommy Amaker said, referencing Chambers.

“In his first road game as a college player, to play the way he did with his energy and his spirit, I think he’s shown he’s going to be an outstanding player. It’s just too bad we couldn’t cap it off with a victory to make it that much sweeter for him.

“We knew for us to have a chance against their pressure and how they would normally play, we knew how critical our ball-handling would be. Siyani and Wesley [Saunders] were going to do the bulk of the ball-handling and I thought they did as well as you could possibly ask.”

UMass guard Chaz Williams said of Chambers: “He played really good, he was solid. The kid has a lot of heart.”

Although Amaker cited UMass’ 29 points off turnovers as the difference in the game, particularly two critical miscues in the last minute and a half, UMass coach Derek Kellogg thought the Crimson did a good job dealing with the Minutemen’s pressure and backed off somewhat in the second half.

“We talked a lot about maintaining composure,” Amaker said. “The keys for us were concentration, composure and confidence coming in here. I thought we did that as best as we possibly could. That’s what makes it tough, when you do those things and come up on the short end.”

LALANNE BACK IN THE LANE: UMass got a significant boost with the return of sophomore forward/center Cady Lalanne, who was limited to just 14 games last season because of a foot injury. Lalanne’s presence was felt from the get-go, as he was active on the boards (eight of his 13 rebounds came in his first half) and under the hoop (four blocks).

Lalanne slowed down some in the second half, but showed enough to get his coach excited and not worry about easing him back.

“He’ll play as many minutes as he can,” Kellogg said. “If he’s still playing hard and competing, I think he gives us a weapon that you just saw a little bit of. I think he’s got a chance to be a really, really good player. If you see him get in little bit better shape, I think he’s going to become a big-time player.

WILD START TO THE SEASON: The Minutemen as a team certainly aren’t easing in. After a 10 a.m. start Tuesday, the team was scheduled to catch a 2:30 p.m. bus for a 5:10 flight for the Puerto Rico Tip-Off tournament. UMass opens against Providence on Thursday night.

Kellogg said he doesn’t mind the whirlwind start.

“I’m not one for sitting around much, so I think it’s pretty good for the kids. There’s no more easing into the season. Everybody’s playing, teams are ready to play. With the summer and the longer preseason, I think you see teams that are a little further along. Harvard looked like they were in midseason form. I thought they played really well.”

AMHERST, Mass. -- Rapid reaction from a scintillating 67-64 win by the University of Massachusetts over Harvard:

BACK AND FORTH: Although UMass came in as the favorite, the Minutemen couldn’t pull away with the teams battling within a few points of each other the entire second half. Steve Moundou-Missi hit a pair of free throws with three minutes to go to give Harvard a 62-59 lead. After the teams traded blocked shots, a Freddie Riley 3-point try rolled around the rim and out. Harvard’s Wesley Saunders then hit a pair from the line for a 64-59 lead, but Jesse Morgan answered with a jumper in the lane to make it a 3-point game.

UMass, showing defensive intensity that had been lacking much of the second half, forced a five-second violation with 44.9 seconds left, and Morgan tied it with a three-ball with 37 seconds to go. The Minutemen cranked up their full-court pressure again and Chaz Williams forced a turnover on the sideline as Harvard lost the ball out of bounds.

The Minutemen took over with 28 seconds left. As time wound down, Williams drove the lane, dished to an open Sampson Carter in front of the UMass bench and he drilled the trey for the win -- and his only points of the game -- with 1.5 ticks remaining.

LOOKING FOR LEADERS: With forward Kyle Casey and point guard Brandyn Curry, expected to be seniors and two of Harvard’s main men this season, no longer with the team in the wake of a cheating scandal, Harvard struggled at times in the first half to find its way on offense. The Crimson repeatedly plunged inside with spotty results thanks in part to the defense underneath by Cady Lalanne and Raphiael Putney. Harvard’s first 25 points came either in the paint or at the line. But a 3-pointer by Siyani Chambers with 2:40 left in the first half changed that, pulling the Crimson within 5 at 33-28, and a three at the first-half buzzer by Christian Webster made it a 1-point game at intermission. In the second half, Harvard got more comfortable, particularly Chambers, a freshman at the point. Chambers got the Crimson moving and Harvard played with more energy than UMass in keeping the game close the rest of the way. The Minutemen’s defense got a little soft and the Crimson took advantage.

LALANNE UP AND RUNNING: After being limited to just 14 games last season because of a foot injury, sophomore big man Cady Lalanne was back and in the starting lineup for UMass. Lalanne’s presence was felt from the get-go, as he was active on the boards (eight rebounds in his first 10 minutes) and aggressive under the hoop (he missed a couple of shots from close in but blocked three in the first half on the other end). The 6-foot-9 Lalanne will need to get up to speed to keep up with a lightning-quick point guard like Chaz Williams though, as he wasn’t prepared for a fast-break alley-oop from Williams midway through the first half.

EARLY WAKE-UP CALL: When John Calipari was trying to get some attention to a moribund UMass program in the 1990s, one of his slogans was "Any team, any time, any place," and he never turned down a chance to appear on TV, even if it meant playing at midnight, which it literally did several times during his tenure. So in a season in which the Minutemen enter with as much anticipation since Coach Cal's days, it seemed appropriate to open at the unusual time of 10 a.m. ET, as part of ESPN's Tip-Off Marathon. The start time made for a late-arriving crowd (if any game could be excused for having a late-arriving crowd, this was it), but eventually business picked up and the noise level reached higher levels.

UP NEXT: The Minutemen are scheduled to fly to Puerto Rico later Tuesday for the Puerto Rico Tip-Off tournament. Their first game is Thursday at 7:30 (p.m., not a.m. this time) against Providence. The Crimson play next Friday at home against Manhattan.