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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.

It’s all about resiliency.

When Boston College goes to Los Angeles to play USC on Saturday (3 p.m. ET on Pac-12 Network), it will be facing a top-tier football program in hostile territory.

Until a shocking 10-7 home loss to Washington State in Week 2, the Trojans (1-1, 0-1 Pac-12) were a Top 25 team (at No. 25). And while they aren’t ranked anymore, losing that status didn’t take away any of the talent Lane Kiffin and his staff have at their disposal.

The Trojans are first in the country in run defense (allowing just 15.0 yards per game) and in sacks (with 11) through two weeks. They have playmakers on both sides of the ball, including reigning Biletnikoff Award winner Marqise Lee at wide receiver and running back Tre Madden (16th nationally with 130 yards a game) on offense and defensive lineman George Uko (three sacks) and linebacker Morgan Breslin (two sacks) on defense.

“They’re just all the best recruits in the country at every position,” BC QB Chase Rettig said, referring to the Trojans’ D. “So they’ve got a lot of talent. The first two teams have kind of struggled moving the ball against them, so we have our game plan and we’re gonna try to execute it the best we can.”

BC doesn’t have the level of talent that USC does, so to overcome that gap the Eagles (2-0, 1-0 ACC) will rely on their hard-nosed approach. On their ability to battle, to bounce back up after getting knocked down and keep pushing forward.

“I think we need to go out and be who we are. Just go play really hard and be really gritty,” Addazio said in his weekly media session on Monday. “I told our team, ‘Let’s go out there are play as hard as we can play, get the game into the fourth quarter and go after the win.’”

The Eagles aren’t getting caught up in their opponent’s circumstances, aren’t concerned with Kiffin’s job security or with the debate over whether Max Wittek or Cody Kessler should be leading the Trojans’ scuffling offense (18.5 PPG in 2013 after 32.1 PPG in 2012). Addazio was asked if he’d rather not be facing a team after a big upset, when it’ll be looking for a bounce-back win.

“You know, you do think about all of those things,” he said. “Like you do, I do. But sometimes then I say to myself, you know what? Who knows? I don’t walk in those shoes. Here’s what I do know, I try to work on the knowns.

“The knowns are they’re as talented a football team as I’ve seen in a long time. … That football team right there? Wow. That’s all I can tell you. Wow.”

After watching the tape of USC’s first two games, Addazio said he thought the Trojans’ opponents really competed.

“I think that you really have to have that mindset,” he said. “To go out there, you’ve gotta just kinda have a resiliency about you and just keep hammering away. You’ve gotta play good on defense and against this great defense that they have you’ve gotta kinda be resilient and realize that you’ve gotta get this thing into the fourth quarter to give yourself a chance to win.”

The Eagles can’t afford to fall behind, because they won’t be able to catch up against the Trojans’ D, and they’ll have to be creative on offense to move the chains.

It’s been just about impossible to run against USC so far this season, with just five first downs allowed rushing in two games. But that doesn’t mean offensive coordinator Ryan Day won’t try to see if Andre Williams can have another big day running the football after he managed 204 yards against Wake Forest.

“We just want to try to consume clock and get our defense off the field and give them a chance to rest,” Rettig said of the Eagles’ power run game. “Obviously Andre running hard and breaking tackles, that’ll be a major factor in it. Hopefully we can pick up a lot of first downs and continue to work the clock.”

The Eagles have put a renewed focus on pass protection this week, after giving up three sacks to Wake Forest in Week 2.

“If we screw something up in the game, we spend a little more time on it out here,” right tackle Ian White said on Shea Field after practice Wednesday. “Running the ball is all about getting looks and then just being nasty. Once you understand the looks, it’s all mental and it’s all toughness. In the pass game, we have to spend a little bit more time.

“A couple of the sacks, we’d have guys engaged and then just in our minds we click, like, ‘That’s a side shot,’ like, ‘We can crush them there,’ and then it knocks them off the block for the sack kind of thing. So it’s kind of finding that balance between you want to hit the guy as hard as you can but also your job is just to keep him off the quarterback so use good technique.”

White, a fifth-year senior co-captain, said the Eagles have had a good week of practice. On Wednesday, they worked with a noise simulator blaring to try to recreate the loud atmosphere they’ll encounter in the Coliseum.

“Already by the end, I was so sick of it,” White said of listening to the USC fight song. “I would rather just hear crowd noise. To listen to their stuff is a little extra motivation.”

Not that they needed that to push them.

“You can definitely see the extra fire from going to play at USC,” White said. “Especially on the offense. I mean, you hear about their offensive struggles but their defense is an NFL defense. I mean, they run an NFL scheme, they have NFL players, they’re gonna look pretty getting off the bus, so you can see the extra fire under us to really get in gear.”

The Eagles will need all the horsepower, and will power, they can muster to come out of the Coliseum with a win.

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

On the 12th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, we resurface one of the most inspiring stories of courage from that day, and one that has a local angle (OTL video above, first aired in 2011).

Former Boston College lacrosse player Welles Crowther -- known by those he saved as the Man in the Red Bandanna -- led people to safety after the south tower of the World Trade Center was struck by a passenger jet. He lost his life that day as he was trying to lead people to safety.

ESPN.com is breaking down the nonconference men's basketball schedules for each team in nine of the country's top leagues, including the Atlantic 10. Here's Myron Medcalf's take on UMass' foes:

MASSACHUSETTS

Toughest: LSU (Nov. 12), Charleston Classic (Nov. 21-24)
Next-toughest: BYU (Dec. 7), Florida State (Dec. 21), Providence (Dec. 28)
The rest: Boston College (Nov. 10), Youngstown State (Nov. 17), at Eastern Michigan (Dec. 3), Northern Illinois (Dec. 14), at Ohio (Dec. 18), Miami-Ohio (Jan. 4), at Elon (Jan. 18)

Toughness scale (1-10): 6 -- With Chaz Williams returning, UMass could make its first appearance in the NCAA tournament in more than a decade. The team’s nonconference slate, possesses a few opportunities for wins that will impress the selection committee. The Minutemen will face LSU in just their second game of the 2013-14. A matchup against New Mexico in the second round of the Charleston Classic is a possibility (have to get past Nebraska first). BYU, Florida State and Providence could be interesting games to look back upon on Selection Sunday.

CLICK HERE for the rest of Medcalf's analysis of the A-10's nonconference schedules.

What do you get when you combine a head cold, a hamstring strain and a week off from practice? If you’re Andre Williams, a career performance on national TV and an ACC Player of the Week honor.

On Monday, the ACC named Williams its offensive back of the week for his performance against Wake Forest, in which the 6-foot-1, 227-pound native of Schnecksville, Penn., carried the ball 35 times for a career-high 204 yards and a touchdown.

Teammate Bryce Jones also received an ACC honor, being tabbed the conference’s defensive back of the week after tallying two tackles, an interception, a fumble recovery and a pass breakup versus the Demon Deacons.

In his postgame chat with the media on Friday, Williams said he’d probably be sore on Saturday but that he welcomed the workload.

“I mean, I’m a running back, I love to run the ball,” he said of the heavy usage. “Put the ball in my hands and there’s nothing I like more than that. Coach Addazio, he’s an offensive guy and he loves to run the ball. It couldn’t have turned out better.”

Asked Monday how Williams was recovering from the pounding, Addazio said he’s responded well.

“I think those 35 carries helped him,” he said. “It’s good.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t have him practice anymore,” a reporter offered.

“Maybe practice is overrated,” Addazio said with a laugh. “I don’t know.”

The 204 yards surpassed Williams’ previous career high of 191 (set at Army last October), and the 100-yard game was his second straight this season and seventh of his career (in 36 games).

Through the season’s first two games, Williams leads the ACC in carries (58), rushing yards (318) and rushing average per game (159.0). He’s third nationally in rushing yards and fourth nationally in attempts and rushing yards per game.

Jones got left out on an island by a breakdown in coverage in the first quarter Friday, the resulting one-on-one matchup with Michael Campanaro ending up in a 30-yard touchdown pass from Tanner Price even though Jones was running stride for stride with the all-ACC wideout.

But the 6-foot-1, 166-pound sophomore from University Heights, Ohio, didn’t let it throw him off his game. He came up with a Price fumble to end the first quarter, setting up BC’s second touchdown, and later picked off Price when he tried to find Campanaro one too many times.

Jones’ two interceptions, the first two of his career, have him tied for third nationally through the first two games.

“I think Bryce just rallied up -- he played a heck of a football game -- and came right back,” Addazio said.

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

NEWTON, Mass. -- In big-time college football, wins are precious. Coming off a miserable 2012 season, Boston College and its fans know that firsthand.

So after every BC win this season, head coach Steve Addazio and the Eagles will hold a victory dinner for the team.

The reward for winning their ACC opener against Wake Forest on Friday night came Sunday evening. On the menu? Prime rib, roasted chicken and stuffed fillet of sole.

“It wasn’t like, lasagna and ravioli, but it was good,” Addazio joked in his meeting with the media Monday. “The guys liked it. What we do is we sit down as a team, we watch the TV copy of the game -- I think the kids enjoy watching the TV copy of the game -- laugh a little bit, have a great meal, celebrate a great victory and put it to bed and get ready to roll.

“A guy told me a long time ago, when I was coaching high school football, ‘You need to learn how to enjoy the wins, they’re hard to get. You don’t sit on them forever, but you need to enjoy them. Don’t not enjoy those wins,’ ” he said. “Because when you’re a little compulsive sometimes you have that mindset, as soon as it’s over you get that pit in your stomach and you want to get rolling again. I think you try to really fight that. Never take that for granted, the thrill and what went into winning a football game, and just roll by it.”

A lot went into the 24-10 win over the Demon Deacons, including two goal-line stands by the defense and a massive performance by Andre Williams in the run game (204 yards). Addazio was particularly impressed by the fact the run game allowed BC’s defense to play only six snaps in the fourth quarter, with the offense controlling the ball and running out the clock on Wake Forest.

Addazio gave the team Monday off, after meetings, film study and some light on-field work Sunday.

“I didn’t want to wait till Monday to see the team from Friday night,” he said, explaining the decision. “So I thought, let’s get the players in. And then I said, ‘You know, I think this will be a good thing. We’re traveling six hours on Thursday, we’re gonna come in Sunday, we’re gonna watch the tape, we’re gonna put that game to bed, we’re gonna go on the field, we’re gonna start the implementation of USC, who are they, what are they all about, blah blah blah blah blah.’

“Monday, get a day off, really get fresh, let’s come back Tuesday and it’s gonna be one hell of a day Tuesday and Wednesday and then we board the plane and go [Thursday].”

While USC (1-1, 0-1 Pac-12) has lost a bit of its luster after a surprising 10-7 home loss to Washington State in Week 2, dropping out of the AP Top 25, the Eagles (2-0, 1-0 ACC) haven’t changed their opinions on just how good a team they’ll be facing on Saturday afternoon (3 ET on Pac-12 Network).

“We’ve spent a lot of time right now watching them on tape on both sides of the ball,” Addazio said. “They’re an extremely talented football team. I mean, they’ve got great-looking players. They’re big and they’re fast and they’re physical. I think their defense is exceptional. So we’ll really have a pretty significant challenge here.”

Divitto, Patchan banged up

Addazio said he anticipates having both linebacker Steele Divitto (elbow injury) and left tackle Matt Patchan (hip injury) for Week 3 after both had to leave the Wake Forest game with injuries.

“I think they’ll be fine, a little banged up but I don’t think there’s anything huge there,” he said.

Kimble working way back

When senior tailback Andre Williams had to leave the Eagles’ opener against Villanova, and Addazio wanted someone to share the load with backup David Dudeck, he called on true freshman Tyler Rouse instead of junior Tahj Kimble.

In fact, Kimble wasn’t seen at all in either of BC’s first two games, as he continues to recuperate from knee surgery last season.

“I think Tahj is working really hard,” Addazio said. “He got all the way through camp. I think he’s sore, a lot. I think he’s, without question, not 100 percent. These things have a tendency to take about a year, sometimes a little less and sometimes a little more.

“But he’s working hard and I like the fact that he has a great attitude and he’s working at it. When he feels good you can see that little bit of burst in him. He’s pushing through it and I hope that he can keep coming, and he will.”

Asked whether that means Eagles fans shouldn’t expect to see Kimble in the next few weeks, Addazio said that wasn’t necessarily the case.

“Could see him in a week, God forbid we get a couple injuries you’ll see them all,” he said. “He’s just not 100 percent right now. I don’t have the clock on that. I just don’t know.”

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

There are going to be times this season when BC’s aggressive style on D gets it burned.

But when Wake Forest QB Tanner Price found Michael Campanaro running up the middle of the field, down the left hash marks, for a 30-yard touchdown, it wasn’t because the Eagles had been too aggressive. Campanaro, an all-ACC wideout, simply beat Bryce Jones on the route and got inside position in the one-on-one matchup.

“We’ll go back to the film and see what happened, what I could’ve done better,” Jones said of the play after the game, “but it was a good ball and he made a good catch. … He’s a good player, so things are gonna happen.”

“We’ve got some things we want to tighten up on defense,” Eagles coach Steve Addazio said after the 24-10 win over Wake Forest on Friday night. “So every once in awhile, because we’re so multiple, we have some blown assignments and some guys all of a sudden get behind us deep. So we’re a work in progress with that too, now.

“I told you that from day one: When you do what we do, you’re gonna have some guys that are gonna hit you deep sometimes. We’ve had that happen. And we just roll. Just roll with it.”

Jones certainly rolled with it on Friday night. The Campanaro touchdown pulled Wake Forest even on the scoreboard, at 7-all. But after Chase Rettig and the offense drove for a Nate Freese field goal, Jones got a shot at redeeming himself.

“We had to make a play, especially after the catch that Campanaro had on me,” Jones said.

With time ticking down in the first quarter, Price tried a pitch around the left side of the line but the ball bounced away. Jones dove into the fray, and came up with the ball -- but without his helmet -- to give BC possession at the Wake 22-yard line.

Rettig converted the turnover into points immediately, stepping up in the pocket to elude the Wake rush and finding Spiffy Evans running across the field from left to right for the 22-yard TD.

And when Price tried to bring his team back later in the quarter, hitting Campanaro for 16 and 19 yards on consecutive plays, Jones made his presence known again. Price tried to hit Campanaro again on the next play, but the 6-foot-1, 166-pound sophomore from University Heights, Ohio, stepped in front of the pass for the interception, his second in two games this season.

“One of the things of playing defensive back and that the coaches always say, ‘You’ve gotta play the next play,’” Jones said. “So that’s what I did. I just put it behind me and was fortunate enough to have the fumble recovery, come back and on Campanaro have an interception and just make a tackle for a loss.

“It’s just the coaches putting me in the right place at the right time to be able to make a play for the team.”

Through two weeks, the BC defense has allowed only two scores in five opponent trips into the red zone. Villanova managed one touchdown in three red zone trips, while Wake Forest could produce only a field goal in two red zone trips.

With two fumble recoveries and an interception against Wake Forest as opposed to one interception (on a failed flea-flicker) for the Eagles, BC continued its strong start in turnover margin. Addazio’s crew has produced seven turnovers (three fumbles and four interceptions) and committed only two (a fumble in the Villanova game and the INT in the Wake game), for a turnover margin of 2.50 per game.

That’s tied for seventh nationally and second in the ACC (behind Georgia Tech, which has played only one game).

And with six sacks through their first two games in 2013, the Eagles have already tied their season total from 2012. The half-dozen quarterback drops are good for a tie for 15th nationally and fourth in the ACC.

Jones said the aggressive mentality brought in by Addazio and defensive coordinator Don Brown and the attention to detail paid by all the coaches has really helped the Eagles.

“One thing we talk about is organized chaos,” Jones said. “We’re moving fast and we’re all buying into it, so it all works out. We’re a lot more aggressive, as you can see with these games.”

“Our program, we have a philosophy,” Addazio said. “We start with defense, we try to put our best players on defense, and that is the starting point of the peg of our program. And then we build it. … That’s our philosophy. It’s by design.”

Of course, it helps when players like Jones -- who played in all 12 games as a freshman last season, with just 15 tackles to show for it -- show they’re capable of both making plays and, maybe more importantly, rolling with the consequences of that philosophy.

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

Two weeks into the Steve Addazio era, and already Boston College has matched its win total (two) from the last year of the Frank Spaziani era.

And while he was careful to caution that there’s still a long way to go, Addazio couldn’t help but be pleased with what he’s seen so far from his Eagles (2-0, 1-0 ACC).

“The kids are playing hard, the kids are playing together like a team, they’re fighting hard. They’re doing a lot of good things for Week 2,” he said after the 24-10 win over Wake Forest on Friday night. “I thought our team really progressed from Week 1, and that’s ultimately the goal is to get better each week. We’ve got a lot of football ahead of us.

“We’ve got a big game this week and we’ve got a chance to fight to be 3-0, and that’s all you can ask for.”

Week 3 brings the first road trip of the season for BC, with the Eagles flying to Southern California to take on USC (1-1, 0-1 Pac-12).

The Trojans fell out of the AP Top 25 after an unsightly 10-7 home loss to Washington State on Saturday, but Lane Kiffin & Co. remain the toughest test to date for BC.

“We’re not naive, we’ve got a lot ahead of us right now,” Addazio said. “We’ve got a really awfully tough game. We’re flying out to California on Thursday, we’re playing a great football program on the road. And that’s another learning opportunity for our team -- we’ve gotta go on the road together for the first time. And not just on the road, but across the country.”

Going from the sometimes-shaky 24-14 win over FCS Villanova to the at-times-dominant 24-10 win over Wake Forest, the Eagles’ new head coach saw a lot he liked.

“I thought we took a step forward from learning how to prepare like a big-time football team,” Addazio said. “I thought we took a step forward [because] we came out with more confidence and [didn’t] wait for someone else to make a play. And guys had to stand up and be accountable. Those are all really important pieces in the building of everything right now.”

The Trojans’ defense has produced 11 sacks through two games, best in the nation. Junior defensive lineman George Uko leads USC with three sacks, and linebacker Morgan Breslin and defensive lineman Leonard Williams each have two sacks.

With that in mind, protecting quarterback Chase Rettig will likely be a key topic in Chestnut Hill this week. Especially after the offensive line had a few hiccups against Wake Forest in Week 2, giving up three sacks and losing left tackle Matt Patchan to a hip injury in the second half.

“Are there things we need to get better at?” Addazio said postgame. “Yeah, absolutely. I don’t know why our protection buckled today, but it did. I thought we had great play-action but I thought our drop-back game … we just didn’t look clean in there. That’s something I want to continue to work on.”

Rettig threw only 14 passes on Friday night, going 7-for-14 for 123 yards with two touchdowns and an interception, as the Eagles focused on running the ball in an attempt to control the clock and wear down the Demon Deacons’ defense. Andre Williams, coming off a week without practice as he nursed a hamstring injury and a cold, carried the ball 35 times for a career-high 204 yards and a touchdown in the win.

It was the fewest passing attempts for Rettig since 2011, when he had 13 against NC State and 12 against Maryland. In 2012, Rettig never had fewer than 29 passing attempts.

But the senior didn’t mind ceding the spotlight to Williams, choosing to instead focus on the result for BC.

“It’s awesome to be 2-0,” Rettig said. “It just is a credit to our hard work. We’ve just gotta continue to work really hard. We’re gonna get out of it what we put in.

“The best thing about being 2-0, our coaches always tell us, is we’ve got a chance to be 3-0.”

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

NEWTON, Mass. -- Andre Williams was in the open field, rumbling up the right sideline late in the third quarter with the Eagles up 17-7 when he saw a Wake Forest defensive back cutting off his path to the end zone.

He could’ve veered out of bounds, content to take his 15-plus yards and a first down inside the red zone. Instead, Williams lowered his shoulder and delivered a big blow.

“It was intentional,” Williams said of the hit he dished out on the play. “I never want to be the type of back that is gonna run out of bounds. I always want to punish the DBs because the next play, it could be play-action and that DB is a little fazed and [Alex] Amidon will make a big play.

“I’m a big running back, I’m 230 pounds, and I just have to be true to myself and realize that I can punish people, I can wear down the defense, and that’s just the role I’m gonna embrace.”

While the hit was impressive, that’s only a part of what he produced in BC’s 24-10 win on Friday night. Williams carried the ball 35 times for a career-high 204 yards and a touchdown (which he produced two plays after delivering that blow in the third quarter).

And he did it all after not practicing during the short week.

As if it wasn’t bad enough that the senior tailback had to leave last week’s game against Villanova with a hamstring strain, as the preparation for Wake Forest got underway, the 6-foot, 227-pounder found himself under the weather with a chest cold, too.

Boston College coach Steve Addazio revealed after the game that the Eagles held him out of practice this week, in hopes that the hamstring would heal and the cold would dissipate enough to allow him to play against the Demon Deacons.

They’re glad now that they did.

“Andre ran really hard,” Addazio said. “And that was important. Andre knew that it was important for him to come to this game and get on that field and overcome the hamstring strain that he had and have the night that he had. He needed to do that. And he did it, to his credit, he did it. That was important, because the team was counting on him.”

The Eagles finished with 314 yards of total offense, meaning Williams alone accounted for almost two-thirds of the total.

“I thought our offense really punched hard and really wore down their defense and had a really great, critical last drive to just keep moving the chains,” Addazio said.

With BC leading 24-10 and just more than five minutes to go in the game, the Eagles got the ball back. Their strategy wasn’t hard to figure out on that final drive, as Williams got the ball eight straight plays, grinding out yards and letting time tick off the clock.

“That’s the beautiful thing about having a run game, is that you can do that,” Addazio said. “The run game is a funny thing. It’s not something that you can just all of a sudden show up and think you’re gonna have a run game. Sometimes it can be a little maddening. When you’re not hitting it when you want to hit it right. But you keep pounding at the rock, pounding at the rock and the rock cracked.”

After it was over and the Eagles had moved to 2-0 for the first time since 2010 and matched their win total from all of 2012, Williams was asked if this was his most satisfying game.

The tailback hesitated before answering.

“I don’t know if it’s the most satisfying game, because I’m sure there’s a lot of football left to be played,” he said. “And the next one is gonna be sweeter when we’re 3-0.”

True to form, Williams wasn’t thinking that enough’s enough. He wants more.

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

NEWTON, Mass. -- It was a pivotal moment.

The Eagles were pinned deep in their own territory after Wake Forest nose guard Nikita Whitlock blocked a Nate Freese punt and Brandon Chubb recovered the ball at the BC 3-yard line with 52 seconds to go in the half.

The Eagles had built a 17-7 lead, mostly by taking advantage of Wake Forest's mistakes. Now the defense had to keep Tanner Price & Co. out of the end zone and hold them to three points to try to regain some of the momentum that they’d built earlier in the evening.

As Wake Forest lined up, the noise level in Alumni Stadium built up higher and higher.

Don Brown’s defense stopped Josh Harris at the 1 on first down, then stood him up for no gain on second down. On third down, Price looked to pass and had a wideout open in the back of the end zone but wasn’t able to get it to him, skipping it in as Kasim Edebali came flying at him in the backfield.

That made it fourth-and-goal from the 1, and Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe had a decision to make. Take the field goal and make it a one-score game, or go for the touchdown. He decided to go for the end zone.

BC stacked the line of scrimmage and dug in. The fans got loud. And while Wake Forest had been full of tricks all night, there were none coming on this play. Price handed it off to Harris, who tried to stuff it up the middle. But Mehdi Abdesmad met him in the backfield and slowed him down enough for his teammates to join in and stand him up for no gain.

The Eagles took over on downs, preserved the lead and took back momentum for the second half.

“I was proud of the way our defense played,” BC head coach Steve Addazio said after the 24-10 win. “They held that unbelievable goal-line stand, which was really incredibly important for us, obviously. Played real strong all night.”

Edebali said the pumped-up crowd, announced at 32,465, helped fuel the defense for that critical series.

“It was amazing,” the fifth-year senior captain said. “It was a Friday night game, and the student section was wild. I think the energy that was going on in the stadium went over us. We were creating energy the whole game, we played really tough and physical. And then got after them.

“We executed a little bit better on the goal line. We took a lot of energy and momentum that was created throughout the whole game [and used it] on that goal-line stand.”

No one-trick birds of prey, the Eagles made another goal-line stand later in the game, holding the Demon Deacons to a field goal after they had first-and-goal from the BC 4 in the fourth quarter.

But it was that first stand that was most crucial.

“When we blocked the punt at the end of the half, we’ve got to get that in,” Grobe told reporters after the game. “We’ve got to have a better mentality when we’re down there -- and that’s us as coaches, that’s not the kids. We’ve just got to do the things that we need to do down in the red zone, especially short-yardage stuff.”

For the game, the Eagles held the Demon Deacons to just 246 yards of total offense and 10 points. They forced three turnovers (though Price helped, with two of them coming on fumbles from wayward pitches) and produced two sacks (allowing them to tie their season total of six from 2012 in the first two weeks of 2013).

“Our plan to win starts with playing great defense,” Addazio said. “You want to win, you want to build your program, you’ve gotta play great defense. You’ve gotta play great defense and you’ve gotta have a run game.”

The Eagles did that, too, on Friday night. Senior tailback Andre Williams had a career-high 204 yards rushing on 35 carries.

“You play great defense when you complement your defense,” Addazio said. “One of the good things I think that we’re doing, people say ‘Oh, you run the ball.’ Don Brown’s sitting there at the end of the game saying, ‘I love what we do.’ Because our offense complements your defense.”

With the win, BC starts the season 2-0 for the first time since 2010, when the Eagles opened with wins over Weber State and Kent State. It’s also the first time the Eagles have won their ACC opener since 2007, when they beat Wake Forest to open the season.

While they’ll celebrate the win this weekend, the Eagles aren’t close to overconfident. They know it’s early. They know they have a stiff test awaiting them next week, when they fly to Southern California to take on No. 25 USC.

“I’m proud of the fact of where we are,” Addazio said. “We’re 2-0 and that’s great. That’s great. We’re fighting, we’re scratching, we’re clawing. And that’s fantastic, but we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

But after matching their win total from 2012 in the first two weeks of the 2013 season, fighting through adversity to come out on top in both weeks, the Eagles seem to be taking on the personality of their new coaching staff, led by Addazio. They’re fighting hard.

And that can only be a good sign for the rest of the season, when the level of play and caliber of opponent picks up.

“I thought the resounding thing here was that we played hard, we played physical, we played like a team,” Addazio said. “When one was down, the other was up. We complemented each other. Our kids had great resilience and great will, which I think is critically important. As important as anything right now.”

In the pivotal moments of this young season, Addazio’s Eagles have passed their tests with flying colors.

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 improved to 2-0 on the young season with a 24-10 win in its Atlantic Coast Conference opener against visiting Wake Forest.

How it happened: It would be hard to imagine a better start for the Eagles.

After winning the coin toss, head coach Steve Addazio decided to defer to the second half. Then on Wake Forest’s second play from scrimmage Josh Harris couldn’t handle Tanner Price’s pitch and the ball squirted away, and Spenser Rositano fell on it.

That gave BC the ball at the Wake Forest 27-yard line. Andre Williams got the ball on first down, picking up a yard. On second down, Chase Rettig faked the handoff to Williams, spun quickly and hit Alex Amidon on the left side of the line on a wide receiver screen.

Amidon used blocks from Dan Crimmins and Spiffy Evans to scamper around the left end and up the sideline for a 26-yard score. The drive took all of 29 seconds.

And while Wake Forest came back to tie the score at 7, the BC defense made two big goal-line stands and its offense scored the next 17 points to open up a lead the Eagles wouldn’t relinquish.

What it means: BC has won its first two games for the first time since 2010, when it started 2-0 with wins against Weber State and Kent State.

The Eagles won their ACC opener for the first time since 2007, that win also coming against Wake Forest.

Up next: The Eagles hit the road for the first time in 2013, traveling across the country to play No. 25 USC (3 p.m. ET on Pac-12 Network) in the Los Angeles Coliseum in Week 3.

Lane Kiffin and the Trojans opened the season with a 30-13 win at Hawaii, and play Washington State at home on Saturday.

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