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Week 1 went pretty much the way it was supposed to.

The Minutemen went into their opener at No. 21 Wisconsin with realistic expectations, hoping for a win but knowing they would likely start the 2013 season with a loss.

They did.

“Looking back at the Wisconsin game, they were a superior football team,” coach Charley Molnar said in his weekly conference call with the media. “I knew that going in and our team knew that going in. We felt like we had to play a near perfect game [to win], and in our sport, it's really, really hard to do with any team, especially a young team, such as ours.

“Our guys played hard, we were disciplined for the most part, we had some foolish penalties, but our guys were somewhat assignment-sound. We just weren't able to make any plays, and it really cost us at the end.”

The end was a 45-0 loss, with the Badgers piling up 393 rushing yards and nearly 600 yards of total offense.

But then the Badgers were coming off a Rose Bowl appearance, while the Minutemen were coming off a 1-11 season in Year 1 as an FBS program.

Week 2 brings UMass’ home opener at Gillette Stadium (2 p.m. ET on ESPN3), with a familiar foe on the opposite sideline in the Maine Black Bears.

The UMass-Maine rivalry goes all the way back to 1909 and includes 58 previous meetings at the FCS level. The 59th meeting will be the first time the teams play with UMass at the Division I level.

“I'm sure this game is awfully important to them, and we're going to have to bring our very, very best in order to win the game, there's no doubt about it,” Molnar said.

Maine opened the season with a 23-6 win at Norfolk State. Quarterback Marcus Wasilewski had 209 yards passing -- including an 85-yard TD toss to Zedric Joseph -- and 54 yards rushing in the win.

“As far as their ability to control the football, I think we are going have to make some turnovers, more than we did this past game, in order to upset their rhythm,” Molnar said of the Maine offense.

But the Black Bears’ defense got more attention from the UMass boss.

“I think watching their defense, they run a number of different pressures and coverage schemes. So, they keep your quarterback busy all afternoon,” Molnar said. “I think that they are aggressive on defense with lots of different looks that they like to use. I think it's going be a real challenge for us offensively.”

That means the Minutemen need more from starting QB Mike Wegzyn, who finished 9-for-23 passing for 73 yards and one interception against Wisconsin.

“For the most part, he took what the defense gave him,” Molnar said of Wegzyn’s day in Camp Randall. “There were some plays where I think he would've liked to have had them back. There was some tight coverage and he tried to get the ball in there -- where he had time and could've moved on to his next receiver.

“For the most part, he played poised and I thought he took a step up from some other games that he played last year.”

While the competition won’t be anywhere near as tough as it was in Week 1, the Minutemen will have to step up their game in Week 2 to prove to their fans that they’re ready to make Year 2 better than Year 1.

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

The stats don’t hint at stardom, or anything close to it.

Dan Crimmins is a sophomore wide receiver for Boston College. In 12 career games, he has one catch for 15 yards and two special-teams tackles. The catch came in the 2013 opener against Villanova and the tackles came during his freshman year in 2012.

But Crimmins has that most tantalizing of football packages: height, speed and a decent pair of hands.

The Closter, N.J., native and Demarest High School product stands 6-foot-5 and weighs 222 pounds. As a senior at Demarest, he had 55 receptions for 1,249 yards and 18 touchdowns and was named first-team all-state by the Newark Star-Ledger.

Because Bobby Swigert is out for the year recuperating from a knee injury and Johnathan Coleman decided not to return for his fifth year, the BC wideout corps consists of Biletnikoff Award watch list member Alex Amidon (78 catches for 1,210 yards and 7 touchdowns in 2012) and little else.

BC coach Steve Addazio has called depth a real issue and said this week that to have success the Eagles really need more playmakers to emerge.

“We're trying to develop some young guys to create some balance in our throw game, for sure,” he said on his weekly ACC conference call with reporters. “For me to tell you we have proven guys, that's not the case. 'Proven' means it's been done over and over again in the ACC. We're striving for that.”

Crimmins has all the tools to be a contributor.

“We think that Danny is a guy that we’ve signs of that happening,” Addazio said, “and we’re hoping that he’s gonna start to really emerge as a guy who can make those plays. He’s done it in practice, he’s gotta do it in the game.”

The wideout said he left some plays out on the field against Villanova.

“I definitely had some jitters,” he said after practice in Alumni Stadium on Tuesday. “But we practice really hard so the games will come easy. It was just the first couple plays. I remember had a slant and I knew the ball was gonna come my way and I dropped it.”

That first target came on third-and-4 from the BC 31-yard line in the first quarter. The Eagles had to punt when the ball fell incomplete.

When his second target came, on a third-and-12 from the BC 15 in the second quarter, Crimmins was ready and pulled in a 15-yard reception for a first down.

“It felt great, but at the time I wasn’t really thinking about that, I was just thinking about winning,” he said.

Both Addazio and Rettig pointed to Crimmins as a standout from camp, and as the season progresses the Eagles will need more from him and the other members of the wide receiver corps. Amidon had 13 catches for 146 yards and a score in the opener, but the rest of the BC offense combined had just 10 catches for 139 yards and a score.

And of that total, only two catches and 24 yards were to wideouts (Crimmins’ one catch for 15 yards and one catch by Spiffy Evans for 9 yards).

“I mean, I felt like I could’ve done a lot of things better,” Crimmins said of his performance against Villanova. “Like getting open and stuff like that. There were definitely things we could’ve taken advantage of. I think we should’ve scored a lot more points on that team, but I think that’s just the jitters or Week 1 and being rusty.

“They were not a bad team by any means, but definitely we should’ve put more points up.”

This week’s opponent, Wake Forest, will present a much sterner test. After a shaky opening drive in which Presbyterian tore off a 66-yard run and scored a TD three plays later, the Demon Deacons allowed only one first down the rest of the game.

“They’re a smart group of guys,” Rettig said of Wake Forest. “They’re pretty physical. We’re gonna have to play a really good football game.”

“They’re good,” Crimmins said of the Demon Deacons. “They play a 3-4, they’re athletic. Their DBs are experienced. They’ve got some good speed back there. We’ve just gotta make plays. We’ve just gotta play our game. If we just play our game we’ll be fine. That’s the key.”

The key for Addazio and offensive coordinator Ryan Day is finding someone who can get open if defenses blanket Amidon and bear down on Andre Williams and the run game.

It may take time for young players like Crimmins to develop, but because of the circumstances improvement will have to be via on-the-job training.

“He doesn’t have everything down,” Addazio said of Crimmins. “He’s a young, inexperienced guy. He’s got a great work ethic, he’s tough but he’s a young guy. Young guys have a tendency to make a lot of mistakes.

“There’s potential. Potential’s a dangerous word, though, man. You know what I mean? There’s a lot that goes into the throw game, now it’s gotta be precision, it’s gotta be right. He’s got a big body and he’s gotta be able to make those catches right there and extend his hands and make [catches] away from [his body].”

While far from a finished product, Crimmins feels he’s developed a good rapport with Rettig and is ready to go for career catch No. 2 against Wake Forest on Friday night (8 ET on ESPN2 and WatchESPN).

“I know how he throws the ball,” Crimmins said. “I know where he wants to get it, and I know how I gotta get there. He’s a real good quarterback and it’s my job to make plays for him.”

It’s Crimmins’ job to turn potential into actual production.

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

NEWTON, Mass. -- In a perfect world, you would have only vanilla.

There would be no chocolate, no strawberry or coffee, and certainly nothing fancy like moose tracks or rocky road.

At least, that’s the sentiment that Boston College coach Steve Addazio expressed as his team prepared for its second game, Friday night against Wake Forest (8 ET on ESPN2 and WatchESPN).

“It’s always a scramble early like this,” he said of preparing for opponents. “Honestly, you’re hoping you’re playing more vanilla teams early. You know, traditional pro-style offense, a standardized defense. That’s what you’d wish. But we’re not getting that. Therefore you’re jumping around trying to get it done quick.”

Jim Grobe’s Demon Deacons take full advantage of quarterback Tanner Price’s arm (2,300 yards passing and 12 TDs in 2012), running back Josh Harris’ legs (608 yards rushing and 5 TDs) and the rapport Price has developed with All-ACC wideout Michael Campanaro (79 catches for 763 yards and 6 TDs in just 10 games).

“They run an interesting offense,” Addazio said. “It’s got a lot of option components to it, and they have great play-action passes off those option components and [Price is] an experienced, veteran guy. He’s a great player.”

BC’s defense, which started slowly against Villanova in the opener, will have its hands full with Price, Campanaro and Harris.

Kasim Edebali, a fifth-year senior defensive lineman and co-captain, said he saw a lot of good in the tape from the game about the Wildcats.

“It was a little rough start, but that didn’t really shake us up,” he said after practice Tuesday. “And we just kept playing hard and aggressive, the way coach wants us to play.”

After giving up 14 points in the first quarter, half of which came on a 47-yard fake punt, Don Brown’s defense buckled down and held the Wildcats scoreless in the second half, forcing three turnovers. The unit hopes to build on that performance against the Demon Deacons.

“It’s a veteran, big, disciplined team,” Edebali said of Wake Forest. “So we’ve just got to be on point with our technique, with our toughness, with our speed and just trying to out-execute that offense.”

“I just think we need a higher level of execution quicker,” Addazio said of what needs to improve from Week 1 to Week 2. “You don’t want to get yourself behind against an ACC opponent; it’s harder to get back. So I would say that we would like to start the game at a much higher level of execution on both sides of the ball.”

That includes on offense, where the Eagles managed just 144 yards of total offense and a score in the first half before running up 269 yards and 17 points in the second half.

“That was just our game plan for Villanova,” quarterback Chase Rettig said of the somewhat vanilla approach on offense in Week 1. “Every week we have a new plan for a different defense. You never know when you’re going to be adding stuff or using some of the same stuff. It just matters on the defense.”

Addazio praised Wake Forest’s defense, starting with nose guard Nikita Whitlock.

“He’s a leader on defense,” Addazio said of the 5-foot-11, 250-pounder. “He’s not a huge guy, but he’s very active and very explosive.”

After giving up a 66-yard run on Presbyterian’s first play from scrimmage and a score three plays later, Wake Forest gave up only one first down the rest of the 31-7 season-opening win.

The Eagles will need another big game from Alex Amidon (13 catches for 146 yards and a TD) and Andre Williams (23 carries for 114 yards and a TD) to beat the Demon Deacons.

Asked about the changes at BC under the new regime in the weekly ACC conference call, Grobe said, “Some of their schemes are different. They're doing a lot of different things defensively, and then they've got some things that are particular to their staff offensively. But I think the thing that Steve and his staff are doing a good job of is they're utilizing the talent they've got.

“They've got a real good mix of knock-you-down and throw-it-over-you kind of stuff.”

The Eagles are 0-2 against Grobe & Co. the past two seasons, and while BC is 5-3 against Wake Forest since entering the ACC in 2005, the series is tied at 5-5 in the past 10 years. And if you believe in statistical oddities, BC may also be getting Wake Forest at a bad time: The Demon Deacons are 10-2 in Week 2 during Grobe’s tenure as head coach, with the only losses coming to Nebraska in 2005 and 2007.

One thing’s for sure, the Eagles will need to step up their game if they want to start the first season of the Addazio era 2-0.

“We know that this is going to be a great challenge for us,” Addazio said, “and we’re certainly looking forward to getting this thing going on Friday night.”

It definitely won’t be vanilla.

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

NEWTON, Mass. -- Kasim Edebali did something this past weekend that (quite possibly) no one had ever done before in 114 seasons of Boston College football.

With 5.5 tackles (three of those for a loss), a sack, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery, the fifth-year senior defensive lineman and BC co-captain had himself quite a day in the 24-14 win over Villanova. It was a performance that earned him a (probably) never-before-given honor from defensive coordinator Don Brown:

The BC Defense's Dude of the Week....#91!

— Don Brown (@FBCoachDBrown) September 1, 2013

Now, granted, the record books don’t have much to say about the “BC Defense Dude of the Week,” but a review of Brown’s Twitter account didn’t reveal another DOTW, though Manuel Asprilla did get a shoutout in camp as “Eagles Defense Dude of the day” on Aug. 14.

Asked about the DOTW “honor” on Tuesday after the team finished practice in Alumni Stadium, Edebali laughed. He found out about it the same way anyone else did, via his coach’s Twitter account.

“Yeah,” he said with a laugh. “I saw it, too. All my friends hit me up and said, ‘Hey, what’s the dude of the week?’

“I was like, ‘I don’t even know, but I think it talks about me, so it’s gotta be a good thing when he calls me a dude.’ ”

Calling someone a dude is the highest honor the 57-year-old Brown bestows. The Eagles’ staff has popularized the “#BeADude” hashtag on Twitter, using it as part of their recruiting push on social media.

As for what earned him the plaudit from Brown, Edebali said he was just doing his job.

“Coach just tries to put everyone in a position where they can make plays,” he said. “I was just in a position to make a play, I was in the right scheme at the right time and I just executed what was expected of me. The entire defense just has to do that when their number is called.”

The next chance for the Eagles’ D to be dudes come in just three days, as Wake Forest visits Chestnut Hill for the teams’ Atlantic Coast Conference opener on Friday night (8 ET on ESPN2 and WatchESPN).

Little depth-chart juggling

There were only two notable changes on BC’s depth chart from Week 1 to Week 2, with junior Brian Mihalik listed as a starter at defensive end for Wake Forest after being listed as the backup to senior Kaleb Ramsey for Villanova and defensive back Al Louis-Jean replacing James McCaffrey as the second backup at left corner after being suspended for the first game.

Jaryd Rudolph, listed as a backup to left defensive tackle Mehdi Abdesmad in both Week 1 and Week 2, is also listed as a possible backup at that defensive end spot with Mihalik and Ramsey.

The 6-foot-9, 283-pound Mihalik got credit for two assisted tackles in the game against Villanova, while the 6-foot-3, 285-pound Ramsey got credit for one assisted tackle.

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

Boston College coach Steve Addazio held his weekly session with the media on Monday after practice on the turf in Alumni Stadium, revealing that the Eagles spent more time than usual reviewing the tape of their 24-14 season-opening win over Villanova.

And while he’d rather not have to deal with a short week, with Wake Forest coming to Chestnut Hill for the teams’ ACC opener on Friday night (8 ET on ESPN2, WatchESPN), the coach wasn’t making excuses.

“It’s Week 2 and you’re trying to grow, that’s why I get aggravated at a short week like this,” he told reporters. “Because you’d like to have your real sequence right now. You’re trying to grow, you’re trying to get better. And sometimes you get chopped up like this a little bit. I want to be careful. I don’t want this to bring it back a little bit because you get out of that teaching sequence.

“This team needs it. We had to spend a lot of time on that Villanova tape because that was too valuable a teaching tape for the natural evolution of a new, young program.”

Addazio knows that at the end of the day, he and his staff have to get the players ready for Friday night. But he wasn’t willing to cut corners, so he said they’ll just have to squeeze the same amount of work into one fewer day.

“Some people say, like, ‘Well, get going,’” he said. “Well, we are getting going, but you’ve got to learn from [last week]. You’ve got to see the mistakes that were made, otherwise you’ll repeat ‘em. But you’re robbing Peter to pay Paul, that’s just the way it is. That’s why I keep saying you’ve only got X amount of time.”

When it came to the details of the Eagles’ first game, Addazio was pleased with much of what he saw.

“On the film, it was much like I thought it was postgame,” he said. “I thought the kids did a great job in the second half. On defense, we had some scheme change, we had some assignment shore-ups. We played a little bit more confidently. That showed. We increased our pressure and our sacks.”

After giving up 234 total yards and 14 points in the first half against Villanova, the BC defense gave up only 121 yards and no points in the second half. Don Brown’s boys also produced three turnovers and two sacks in the last 30 minutes.

“On offense, we found where the play-actions could strike them effectively,” Addazio said. “I thought we did a good job doing that.”

Play-action helped quarterback Chase Rettig (23-for-30 for 285 yards and two TDs) find Alex Amidon open down the right hash marks for a 49-yard TD to tie the score at 14.

Addazio also praised the offensive line’s effort, saying the group played really hard and that he believes if it continues to improve it could be one of the better units in the ACC. Overall, he was pleased with the effort level, especially in the second half.

“I wanted to see us be physical and we certainly were,” he said. “I was impressed with that. And now we have to work on execution.”

The Eagles know they’re facing a tougher test this week, with Jim Grobe’s Demon Deacons coming to town. Wake Forest won its opener 31-7 over FCS Presbyterian.

“I think they’re really well coached,” Addazio said. “I think they know how to get the most out of their players and their option-style offense, and I think that they’ll pose a lot of issues for us in a short week, to be honest with you.

“We’ve got to turn this thing around pretty quickly. I thought the kids battled today pretty hard, considering, and I thought we got something done. Tomorrow’s going to be a really big day for us.”

Williams injury not too worrisome

Depth is a big concern for Addazio and his staff, and in the fourth quarter against Nova that depth was tested at a key position when senior tailback Andre Williams left the game with a hamstring strain.

“Our enemy, if you will, is going to be staying healthy, and with our lack of numbers not getting into a situation where it can dip our play too much,” Addazio said Monday.

Sophomore David Dudeck and true freshman Tyler Rouse filled in for Williams as the Eagles finished out the win over the Wildcats, with Rouse handling most of the ball-carrying duties in the fourth quarter (eight carries for 14 yards).

Asked for an update on Williams, Addazio didn’t seem to be too worried.

“Andre’s just nursing a little, small strain,” he said. “He’ll be fine.”

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

If most Boston College fans were asked to predict who would be the surprise offensive star for the Eagles against Villanova, few would have said linebacker-turned-fullback Bobby Wolford.

In fact, many people probably didn’t even know his name. And no one could blame them, after the 6-foot-2, 233-pounder redshirted his freshman season in 2012.

“He’s a heavy run-set guy for us,” BC coach Steve Addazio said. “We moved him from linebacker over to fullback [in camp]. He’s been a great camp surprise for us, he’s done a wonderful job. And then of course he was able to get open because of the play-action looks.

“Because they were so heavy forcing the run -- I mean, they had nine guys in the box at times. We had to be able to take advantage of that, and we did.”

Wolford was a big part of that, coming out of the backfield to catch six passes from quarterback Chase Rettig for 84 yards and a touchdown.

“When Jake Sinkovec got injured, we knew we had an issue there,” Addazio said of the fullback position. “So we put [Wolford] over there, and we knew from day one that’s his natural position.”

Asked if it was hard to give up linebacker, Wolford said it was a little. But he trusted the coaches’ decision.

“Coach Addazio, he’s been around the game a long time and he knows what’s best,” he said. “Give the credit to him for making the change.”

Wolford’s touchdown came in the first quarter. The Eagles used a heavy dose of Andre Williams and a number of short passes from Rettig to Alex Amidon and Spiffy Evans to get down to the 1-yard line. On third and goal from the doorstep and with the Wildcats reading run, Rettig faked the handoff and found Wolford wide open in the right flat for the 1-yard score.

It was Wolford’s first career catch for his first career touchdown.

“I think it just kind of came naturally, with a lot of our run game,” Wolford said of his involvement in the offense. “If you only run the ball and you don’t really have any play-action passing, you can’t really be successful. So it kind of just advanced out of the natural workings of our offense.”

The redshirt freshman from Jacksonville, Fla., also helped set up the go-ahead score. Rettig hit him with a short pass and the big back barreled down the right sideline for 34 yards.

“Chase threw a great pass,” Wolford said. “Honestly I wasn’t really thinking, I was just running and making sure I didn’t fumble the ball.”

Wolford managed to hang onto the ball just fine, and on the next play Williams thundered up the right sideline into the end zone to give BC a lead it wouldn’t relinquish.

After Saturday, chances are Eagles fans know who Bobby Wolford is now.

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

Boston College football coach Steve Addazio is not one to beat around the bush.

So when he was asked if he’s concerned about the short week ahead -- BC will host Wake Forest for both teams’ ACC opener in a nationally televised matchup on Friday night (8 ET on ESPN2 and WatchESPN) -- and how it might affect the availability of Andre Williams (hamstring), Addazio said yes.

Then he elaborated.

“It worries me on every front, to be honest with you,” Addazio said after the game Saturday of the short week. “It is what it is. Wake Forest, they played two nights ago. But you know what? That’s life. We come in tomorrow, we watch the tape tomorrow. Monday’s a Tuesday, Tuesday’s a Wednesday. And we roll.”

The Demon Deacons kicked off their 2013 season with a 31-7 home win over FCS foe Presbyterian. Jim Grobe’s team gave up a 66-yard run on the Blue Hose’s first offensive touch, setting up their only score of the day three plays later.

After that, the Demon Deacons’ D buckled down, forcing six turnovers (three fumbles and three interceptions), and Tanner Price and the offense scored 31 unanswered points.

Considering how uneven the Eagles’ performance was in their 24-14 win over Villanova in the opener, there is a lot of work to do between now and Friday night.

“All in all, Game 1, we’ve got a lot of work to do but some of the important things that you’d like to see, in terms of the character of your team, you saw,” Addazio said. “The toughness of your team, you saw. Finding a way to win, you saw. Sloppy? Yes. Need to be cleaned up? Yes.

“And we’ll move from here.”

At least having one fewer day to recover from Week 1 and prepare for Week 2 isn’t coming as a surprise. The Eagles’ coaching staff knew this was coming, and they have done what they could to be ready for it.

“We tried to really take care of our kids in camp, so that we could kind of make a run right here, as opposed to being just so tired,” Addazio said. “I thought we managed camp pretty well. I’m hoping that pays off for us now so that the short week doesn’t really grab us.”

He's hoping instead to grab win No. 2 in Week 2.

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

NEWTON, Mass. -- If there was one thing that gave Boston College coach Steve Addazio agita in the run-up to the 2013 season, it was the lack of depth at key positions.

Though BC has some veteran players on its roster, including at the skill positions, there’s just not much experienced depth behind those veterans.

So when senior tailback Andre Williams had to leave the Eagles’ season-opening 24-14 win against Villanova in the third quarter with a hamstring injury, the alarm bells were ringing pretty loudly.

“I don’t have an all-the-way update, other than to say that I think Andre just got a little bit of a hamstring strain,” Addazio said in his postgame news conference. “Is it dehydration? Is it ... ? I don’t know that yet. We wanted to be real careful there. We didn’t want to make that situation worse.”

Before he left the game, Williams had carried 23 times for 114 yards, including a 26-yard touchdown to put Boston College ahead 21-14 in the third quarter. The Eagles wouldn’t trail again.

With Williams on the sideline, still in full pads but carrying his helmet instead of wearing it, true freshman Tyler Rouse shared carries with sophomore David Dudeck the rest of the way.

“We felt like, let’s see if we can hang in there,” Addazio said. “We played Tyler Rouse in there, the freshman. I think he’s gonna be a heck of a player. ... That’s just one more little bit of odds, you know? You’re trying to close a game out right now and now you’ve got a true freshman handling the ball, right? Nothing’s easy.

“But you know what, he came out of that thing and that situation, he’ll really grow from that now. He’s got real innate toughness and he’s got speed.”

Rouse carried the ball eight times for 14 yards, while Dudeck had four carries for 5 yards.

With Wake Forest coming to Chestnut Hill for a Week 2 ACC matchup on Friday night, the Eagles may have to rely on Dudeck, Rouse and fellow true freshman Myles Willis if Williams isn’t ready to go.

“That’s just the way it’s gonna be,” Addazio said. “Hopefully Andre will be fine and we’ll roll.”

Amidon making plays



After the year he had in 2012, BC fans shouldn’t be surprised by anything Alex Amidon does anymore.

And aside from an unusual fumble that stunted one BC drive, nothing the Greenfield, Mass., native did on Saturday qualifies as a shock.

The senior wideout picked up where he left off, catching a career-high 13 passes for 146 yards and a TD on Saturday. It’s the eighth career game with 100-plus yards receiving for Amidon, tying Brian Brennan and Rich Gunnell for most in BC history.

His 49-yard TD haul from QB Chase Rettig turned the momentum in the game, as the speedy Amidon got behind the Nova defense and ran free down the right hash marks to bring BC back even on the opening drive of the second half.

“You’ve gotta have your big-time players, they’ve gotta make plays,” Addazio said. “For us to be successful, Nate Freese has gotta be the kicker he was today, Alex Amidon has gotta be the pass-catcher -- unfortunately we put that one on the ground there -- and Chase has gotta make his plays. Those guys did a pretty good job with that.

“Our guys have to make their plays. We don’t have an abundance of playmakers, so the ones we have have gotta make their plays.”

With the Wildcats attempting to stop the run by stacking the box, perhaps the Eagles’ best playmaker often found himself in one-on-one coverage.

“I wasn’t surprised at all,” Amidon said. “We go into this big personnel, and they stack the box and it was just one-on-one with me and the guy outside. We kind of anticipated that happening, so I wasn’t surprised.”

His quarterback was, though.

“I was definitely surprised that they had single coverage,” Rettig said. “On film they played a lot of man coverage, sometimes press, sometimes off. So that was part of our game plan, that we would go in and when they would clog the box up with eight or nine guys, we’d be able to hopefully have that guy eight or nine yards off him, just quick throw to Alex and pick up six or seven yards.

“And it has a chance to be a big play if he breaks one tackle.”

Feathered friend

For the first time in 47 years, the Eagles will have an actual eagle at their games this season, through a partnership with Zoo New England. The 9-year-old male eagle was on the field for the national anthem Saturday, tethered to his handler’s arm (which was in a protective sleeve). BC is holding a social media contest to choose a name for the bird.

The Eagles held a similar contest for the last live eagle to be at BC athletic events, with students selecting the name “Margo” -- a combination of the school’s colors, maroon and gold.

Bringing back the live eagle mascot is just one of a handful of changes to the game-day experience in Chestnut Hill this season, along with new tailgating options, a new hospitality tent outside Alumni Stadium and a new route for the team’s traditional “Eagle Walk,” which now starts at Gasson Hall in BC’s Middle Campus, comes down the stairs adjacent to Conte Forum and then winds its way along Campanella Way to Alumni’s Gate E.

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 just one game. It’s just Week 1 of a 12-week season. So how much could a win in the opener really mean to Boston College and its new head coach, Steve Addazio?

The 24-14 win over FCS foe Villanova meant a lot more than 8.3 percent of the schedule.

It meant a goal the Eagles had set since they first started preparing for the season -- to win the opener -- had been accomplished. It meant that for the first time in what feels like a long time, the Eagles have a winning record.

They had lost the opener in each of the past two seasons, starting each season playing catch-up from the get-go.

They even started Saturday’s matchup that way, losing the opening coin toss before quickly falling behind 14-7 in the first quarter and ending the first half that way.

If ever a team needed to flip the script, it was these Eagles. And luckily for them, whatever was said in the newly renovated home locker room at Alumni Stadium worked.

The proverbial coin landed in their favor from the third quarter on. And that led to an actual coin landing in Addazio’s possession after the game.

But before we get to the happy scrum on the field after the horn sounded, let’s go to the locker room at halftime.

“We had to make some adjustments at halftime on both sides of the ball,” Addazio said. “We had to shore some things up. We had far and away too many missed assignments on defense in the first half of the game, guys not in the right place. We had a good opening drive on offense and then they started really coming at us with a lot loaded in the box.”

The Eagles were outgained in the first half, 234 to 144. They allowed the Wildcats 160 rushing yards in the first two quarters, while managing only 45 yards of their own on the ground.

The Wildcats scored on a 47-yard fake punt, with Jamal Abdur-Rahman ducking as a BC player barreled by to chase a fake and then sprinting the other way to paydirt. And BC’s new defense was burned by dual-threat quarterback John Robertson for long runs and by his receivers for long runs after the catch.

It seemed like the Eagles finally had bottomed out when they produced a 2-10 record in 2012, their worst showing since the 1978 team went 0-11, and their coach was fired. But maybe, just maybe, the true bottoming-out moment was walking back into the locker room after 30 minutes of action trailing an FCS opponent at home.

“In the first half we just started off a little slow,” junior cornerback Manny Asprilla said. “When we went into the locker room before the second half we just, like, told each other to calm down and relax and we’ll get things rolling, we’ll get it together.

“So when we came out in the second half we had a mindset that we were just going to come out and play as hard as we could, and we did.”

The Eagles got the ball first to start the third quarter, and Chase Rettig and the offense made certain to make it count. The senior signal-caller moved the chains with short passes to running back David Dudeck and fullback Bobby Wolford, then used the threat of play-action to hit a big play.

With the Wildcats concerned about the run, wideout Alex Amidon got open behind the defense on a post pattern and Rettig hit him for a 49-yard TD that tied the game at 14. That swung the momentum, which had been favoring the visitors, back the Eagles’ way.

And after the defense forced the Wildcats to punt on their next two drives, Rettig and the offense put BC on top to stay. Wolford caught a short pass out of the backfield and found open field, running around the right side for 34 yards. And on the next play, Andre Williams hit an opening and rumbled down the right sideline for a 26-yard, game-winning TD.

Senior linebacker Kevin Pierre-Louis, who led all BC players with 10 tackles and added one of three BC sacks on the day, said the way the Eagles rallied to win meant a lot.

“It’s very encouraging,” he said. “To face a little adversity in the beginning and overcome that proves that we can do that game in and game out. Pretty much we just got that out of the way. Now it’s time to correct the mistakes, which is a lot easier to correct after a win, and then move on from there.”

To Asprilla, an Everett, Mass., product, the win meant a return to normalcy.

“I’ve already been here for two years; this is my third year here and we started off every year 0-1,” he said. “When I first got here I had never been 0-1 in my life, so now that we’re 1-0 in my third year it actually feels great. I’m not trying to have another 2-10 year, but it’s just the start.”

Asked what it meant to win his first game as coach of the Eagles, Addazio put the focus on his players.



“It was special for our kids,” he said. “I’ve been coaching a long time -- I just want to have some good moments happen for these players. They came off a very, very disappointing season. They haven’t had a ton of things to be excited about.

“They worked really hard. They had total belief in what we were doing. It was total buy-in. Never one time, did we ever, ever have anybody that gave anything less than 100 percent commitment, buy-in. All you do is you hope and you pray that that will result in some positive feedback.”

It took a while, but they finally got some in the second half.

The defense settled down and allowed Robertson & Co. to gain only 121 yards of offense in the second half. Don Brown’s bunch also forced three turnovers, including interceptions by Asprilla and Sean Sylvia and a fumble recovery by Kasim Edebali. Meanwhile, Rettig and the offense piled up 269 yards and scored 17 unanswered points.

While it was just Week 1 and they were facing Villanova, a potential top FCS team but not Clemson or Florida State by any stretch of the imagination, there were things to take away from the performance. The team showed a measure of resolve to battle back after the break. Players like Wolford (six catches for 84 yards and a TD) and Josh Keyes (forced fumble) made plays that suggest they could be important contributors this season.

Of course, that’s not to suggest the Eagles think Saturday’s performance was anywhere close to good enough going forward.

“Hey, we know what we’ve got ahead of us,” Addazio said. “No one here’s delusional. But we’re gonna take that start. And that’s really important. For me, what was special was I just watched our team sing the fight song and I just saw smiles on guys’ faces. And that’s what makes it all worthwhile.”

And in the postgame scrum on the Alumni Stadium turf, Addazio got something to take home with him, too.

The Eagles lost the opening coin flip, fell behind and then rallied to win. Afterward, referee Ron Cherry found Addazio in the mass of bodies and pressed something into his hand.

It was the ceremonial coin he used for the pregame toss, resting on a square of felt in a small plastic box.

“I really appreciated that,” Addazio said of the gesture, the memento from his first win as Eagles coach. “It meant a lot.”

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

NEWTON, Mass. -- The Steve Addazio era is officially underway at Boston College, and while it didn’t start exactly the way they drew it up, the Eagles will take it as they used a strong second half to beat visiting Villanova 24-14.

How it happened: The visitors seized the momentum immediately on Saturday.

Villanova won the coin toss and elected to receive, quickly moving the ball to midfield after a touchback on the opening kickoff. After the BC defense stopped the Wildcats on a third-and-short, with linebacker Kevin Pierre-Louis shooting the gap and hitting the back in the backfield, longtime Nova head coach Andy Talley pulled a fast one.

The Wildcats lined up to punt on fourth down but it was a fake, the handoff going to junior Jamal Abdur-Rahman, who took it 47 yards to the end zone for a 7-0 lead.

While the BC offense answered with a TD drive of its own, the defense struggled to contain Nova’s dual-threat QB, John Robertson. Making plays with his arm and his legs, Robertson led the Wildcats to another TD and a 14-7 lead at the half.

Addazio must’ve said something right during the intermission, as the Eagles took control with the first drive of the third quarter. Chase Rettig moved the offense with short passes to David Dudeck and Bobby Wolford out of the backfield, then hit a big play on the Nova D.

Alex Amidon got behind the Wildcats’ D, running free up the right hash marks. Rettig hit him and Amidon sprinted to paydirt for a 49-yard TD.

The play tied the game at 14 and swung the momentum to the home team. After the defense forced Nova to punt on its next two possessions, Rettig hit Wolford out of the backfield for a 34-yard catch-and-run up the right sideline and on the next play Andre Williams found daylight to the same side and rumbled down the sideline for a 26-yard TD and a 21-14 lead.

BC wouldn’t trail again.

What it means: BC now holds a two-to-one edge in the all-time series with Villanova, the Eagles going 30-15-1 in 46 games against the Wildcats.

The Eagles also managed to realize the first of their two stated goals -- to win the opener and get bowl eligible -- from preseason.

Williams tweaks hamstring: Williams carried 23 times for 104 yards and the go-ahead 26-yard TD, but had just one carry after that and left the game with a hamstring injury. He was spotted on the sideline in full pads in the fourth quarter.

Up next: It’s a short turnaround for BC, as the Eagles host Wake Forest on Friday night (8 ET on ESPN2, WatchESPN) in both teams’ ACC opener.

The Demon Deacons opened their 2013 season with a 31-7 win over Presbyterian. Tanner Price, Wake’s fourth-year starter at QB, led the charge against the Blue Hose, completing 14 of 25 throws for 219 yards and a TD and rushing 14 times for 31 yards and another TD.

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

The odds are against them. Heavily.

When the Minutemen kick off the 2013 season, Year 2 at the FBS level for coach Charley Molnar & Co., it will be as a massive underdog to No. 23 Wisconsin.

Most betting lines have the Badgers pegged as about a 45-point favorite, playing at home Saturday (noon ET) in Camp Randall Stadium. And considering the Minutemen got throttled by 50 the last time they played a top-tier Big Ten team (a 63-13 loss to Michigan at the Big House in Week 3 last season), that doesn’t seem an outlandish number.

But that won’t stop Molnar from spreading an optimistic message about the upcoming season.

“Going into our first game, we are a more confident team than we were a year ago,” he said Monday, according to a transcript of his weekly MAC conference call. ”We are playing harder and playing together. We are still young in several spots and will play a lot of true freshmen again this year just like last season, but I see good things coming up.”

The Minutemen return 17 starters from last season, including quarterback Mike Wegzyn, tight end Rob Blanchflower (the team’s captain) and left tackle Anthony Dima (an Outland Trophy watch list member) on offense.

However, Blanchflower and would-be starting running back Jordan Broadnax will miss the Wisconsin game with injuries. Michigan transfer Ricardo Miller will step in for Blanchflower, with Stacey Bedell taking the place of Broadnax.

Perhaps the biggest challenge the Minutemen face will be on defense, where in 2012 they struggled to stop the run (ranking 117th out of 124 FBS schools in rushing yards allowed per game at 224.75). That just so happens to be Wisconsin’s greatest strength, as the Badgers finished 13th in the country in rushing yardage per game at 236.36.

So while it’s a long shot at best, Molnar isn’t setting his sights on anything but a win in Week 1.

“It's to go out there to win a football game,” he said of the team’s mindset against Wisconsin. “We're certainly not going out there with any other thought in mind. We are going out there to play our very best and play as close to perfect football as we can.

“They are awfully good -- they’ve been to the last three Rose Bowls, so it's certainly a great program. We're going to give them our best shot and I certainly think that our guys are going to step up to that challenge.”

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

The Eagles have quite an appetite.

Coming off the misery that was the 2-10 2012 season, Boston College’s fewest wins since 1989 (when it went 2-9 under Jack Bicknell) and only the second time in school history the football team lost double-digit games, the Eagles are craving the sweet taste of victory.

“We’re hungry,” fifth-year senior co-captain Kasim Edebali said. “We say all the time, every time we break it down, ‘You’ve got to be a hungry dog.’ You’ve got to come out and You’ve got to want it. That’s how we’re going to approach it.”

BC begins the Steve Addazio era on Saturday at Alumni Stadium versus Villanova (noon ET, ESPNEWS, WatchESPN).

And while the Wildcats play in the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly known as I-AA), they were picked to win the Colonial Athletic Association and are ranked fifth in the Sports Network poll and No. 9 in the FCS coaches’ poll.

In other words, Andy Talley’s Wildcats are no pushovers.

Talley returns 16 starters from last season’s 8-4 team, including tailback Kevin Monangai (212 rushes for 1,210 yards and 11 TDs in 2012) and dual-threat QB John Robertson (189 rushes for 1,021 yards and 14 TDs, 152 completions for 1,965 yards and 14 TDs).

Addazio, who played (and beat) Villanova in each of his two seasons at the helm at Temple, has great respect for Talley’s team.

“They’re an explosive team, they’re a veteran team,” Addazio said in his weekly ACC conference call. “And when they’ve had this kind of talent and experience, they’ve had outstanding seasons.

“They’re coming off an outstanding season, so this will be a tremendous challenge for us and tremendous day of football here in Chestnut Hill.”

Edebali said defensive coordinator Don Brown has been drilling the Eagles on containing Robertson.

“We watch him on film and he’s looking pretty fast, pretty shifty guy,” he said. “And we’re just trying to execute, trying to play our assignment and be really proper with our technique and trying to keep him in the pocket and just pressure him.”

Meanwhile, offensive coordinator Ryan Day knows Talley very well. Day played against Talley’s teams while he was at New Hampshire and served as Addazio’s offensive coordinator against the Wildcats last season.

“They’ve done a great job of developing some of those young players,” Day said. “We played those guys last year when we were at Temple, they were younger and now they’ve grown up. And they really came on at the end of last season. We’ve got our hands full with those guys because they’ve been in the system now for a few years and they know that defense well.”

Addazio singled out strong safety Joe Sarnese (Nova’s leading tackler with 81 stops), nose tackle Antoine Lewis and defensive end Rakim Cox (sack leader, with 5.5) as potential impact players for the Wildcats.

“I think they've got some really good players on defense,” Addazio said. “They run to the ball well. They play hard. You can tell they're really well coached and going to be an excellent football team, a veteran football team.”

For wideout Alex Amidon, that means the Eagles have to be extra sure to stick to the basics.

“It always works to your advantage when people don’t know what you’re going to do,” he said, referring to the Eagles’ new offense. “But I think we just need to execute what we do the best. We’ve got our core plays and we just need to come into the game and just do ‘em like we know how.”

On Monday, Addazio wasn’t happy with the Eagles’ performance in practice. He said they’d need to be better the rest of the week if they wanted to be ready for Saturday.

“I think in Game 1 what you’re concerned most about is how well will you execute with new schemes. But we’ve got to set forth that platform and we’ve got to do that,” he said. “First games sometimes aren’t real clean, they’re not executed at a real high level sometimes. But you know what, you better play real hard and you’ve got to find a way to win.”

Whatever they do, the Eagles need to avoid taking Villanova lightly.

“All I know is they’re our next opponent and we’re going to do everything to win that game,” Edebali said. “It doesn’t matter if they’re I-AA or I-A, it’s our next opponent and we want to win that game.

“You can never sleep on anyone. You’ve got to prepare right, you’ve got to practice right and then come out and execute right and win.”

When it comes down to it, that’s the only way to begin to satisfy that hunger.

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

There’s a long layoff between the end of the one college football season and the beginning of the next one. First you have to wait out the winter, then survive the spring and summer before fall brings football back.

So by the time the last week of August and the first week of September roll around, most college football players and fans are starving for some real action.

Imagine, then, how it must feel to be Matt Patchan.

A former five-star recruit at Florida, the 6-foot-6, 300-pounder played in just 27 games over five years for the Gators because of injuries, including a torn ACL and a strained pectoral muscle.

He played in 12 games, starting the last seven, in 2011 before injuring the pec and missing the entire 2012 season. He graduated from Florida in December, and with playing time unlikely in Gainesville, Fla., this season, he decided to take advantage of an NCAA rule allowing graduates with eligibility remaining to transfer and play immediately.

“Excited about playing the game on Saturday,” Patchan said after practice Monday. “It’s been a long time for me.”

***

Boston College has never been the kind of school that attracts five-star recruits.

While the Eagles have had success on the field, producing a string of 12 straight bowl appearances from 1999 to 2010, it has mostly been built on taking underappreciated assets (read two- and three-star recruits) and developing them into functional teams strong on defense and in the run game.

There is little glitz and almost no glamour at a place nicknamed “O-line U” for its ability to churn out NFL-caliber offensive linemen.

But for Matt Patchan, it was a perfect fit.

Turns out new Eagles head coach Steve Addazio played a big role in recruiting Patchan to Florida originally. The All-American recruit out of Armwood High School in Seffner, Fla., was ranked as high as fifth at his position and 18th nationally by Rivals.com, and reportedly had a pile of offers 60 high from top schools across the country.

But he chose Florida in part because of Addazio, so when he decided to transfer from Florida after finishing his degree it was only natural to follow his former coach to his new locale.

“Coach Addazio was the biggest factor,” Patchan said. “He’s a great coach and I have a ton of respect for him. He’s like a second father to me. So coming up here was almost an easy decision for me.”

For his part, Addazio raves about both Patchan’s ability and dependability.

“Well, with him I know exactly what I’m going to get on game day,” the coach said. “He’s going to be at competitive excellence. What you call competitive excellence is when your number is called, you’re going to make your play.

“Everyone is different. Some guys can do it on Monday but sometimes under the bright lights on Saturday they find a way to cave under the pressure of the whole thing. With Patchan I know exactly what I’m going to get -- a hard, physical-playing guy. That’s what I’m going to get.”

And when he steps on the field for the Eagles against Villanova on Saturday at Alumni Stadium (noon ET on ESPNEWS, WatchESPN), BC will get something else, too: Patchan will be just the second five-star recruit to play for BC (after former linebacker Brian Toal).

***

After not playing for more than a year, Patchan has immediately been entrusted with a great responsibility in 2013: protecting Chase Rettig’s blind side.

Entering his fourth year as the starter under center, Rettig is a proven talent who in 2012 became the fourth BC QB to throw for more than 3,000 yards in a single season. He’s also proven to be fairly immobile, which means that the O-line has its work cut out keeping him upright in the pocket.

In 2012, the offensive line struggled with that task, ranking tied for 102nd in the country and 10th in the ACC in sacks allowed with 34.0.

“The whole O-line’s trying to take steps forward here and get better,” Patchan said of the unit’s performance in training camp. “You’re never as good as you think you are on film and you’re never as bad as you think you are, either. Every day you’ve just gotta get better.

“Nobody’s perfect. Even the best teams in the NFL, they’re not perfect. They can still get better at things.”

His mates on the line believe Patchan will be a big help if he stays healthy.

“He’s a great kid, he works really hard,” fifth-year senior co-captain Ian White, the bookend tackle with Patchan, said. “Real focused on what he needs to do to make this team better. He just got here, and he’s already leading, he’s already calling guys out and making sure the young guys are coming along. You can tell it’s really important to him.”

It has to be important to put up with as much aggravation and deal with as much pain as Patchan has just to get onto the field. Dogged by injuries throughout his career in the SEC, the big man hasn’t gone untouched so far at BC.

This week in practice, Patchan sported a cast on his right thumb. But it would take a lot more than that to stop him from playing this weekend.

He’s waited too long to get back on the field.

“It’s been a different ride for me than for a lot of guys, but I think right now my goal is just to make it to Saturday and play as good as I can,” he said. “I’m excited to get back on the field, to be back in game day.

“It’s been a long time coming for me. So I’m excited, I’m ready to go.”

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

Brad Bates had that feeling. You know the one: the feeling that something is missing, but you’re not sure what exactly.

When he got to his first home football games as Boston College’s new athletic director, it became clear quickly.

“Well, yeah, what was missing were people in the seats,” he said with a laugh.

Bates knew before he took the job in October there were game-day deficiencies on and off the field, and once he settled into his office overlooking Alumni Stadium he set to work on them. He fired Frank Spaziani after a 2-10 finish, hired Steve Addazio and a new staff to work with him and then started working on off-the-field issues.

The Eagles held town-hall-style meetings with season-ticket holders to find out what they could do to improve the game-day experience (beyond, you know, winning more games), starting with football but touching on all other sports, as well.

BC has announced expanded tailgating options, new hospitality tents outside Alumni Stadium before football games and a new student ticketing plan.

“A big part of this is designed around, we need to create a waiting list,” he said. “We need to sell out our events. There’s a resource side to that, clearly. But it can’t be exclusively focused on the money and resources. It’s gotta be focused on giving the people that are supporting our students by coming to our games the greatest experience of a college game day we can possibly provide.

“We’re competing against a lot. Not only are we competing against the local professional teams and our ACC counterparts, but there are a lot of ways you can spend your entertainment dollar in the city of Boston. If people are going to invest in us, there oughta be a return on investment to them where they leave our stadium saying ‘Wow, I can’t wait for the next game.’”

***

The garage off Beacon Street, usually packed with cars, was sparse. The vast majority of the offices in the Yawkey Center were dark, doors closed.

It was midmorning on a Friday, and the Boston College campus was unusually quiet.

But Brad Bates, his schedule full, was in his office.

So what if it was Good Friday at a Jesuit school? The work doesn’t take days off for holidays, even if most people do.

The Eagles’ new athletic director hit the ground running in Chestnut Hill. He didn’t really have a choice in the matter.

He knew that there was a lot of work to be done behind the scenes, upgrading facilities and building in processes to ensure the department moves in the direction the university wants. And he knew there was one more thing to do, one thing that might be most important.

“On top of all that, you gotta meet people and develop relationships,” Bates said. “It’s very difficult to develop relationships with people when you need them or during a crisis. And so a lot of my focus has been on getting to know people within the BC community, whether they’re on campus or off campus.”

And so Bates has become a common sight around campus, showing up at practices and games, and has met with people from all over the university and from the general Boston community.

The early reviews have been glowing.

Andy Boynton, dean of BC’s Carroll School of Management and part of the search committee responsible for hiring Bates, called him “high energy” and a “natural leader.” Former colleagues of Bates at Miami (Ohio) have said they believe BC is “very fortunate to have him,” and that BC “couldn’t have found a better person to run their athletic department.”

If Bates can take BC athletics where the school wants it to go, it’ll be because of where he’s been.

***

BC’s new athletic director started from the ground level. Below ground level, even.

Lightly recruited out of high school, Bates thought he would probably land at a small in-state college. But he didn’t want to have to ask himself “What if?” So he and his parents went on a visit to Michigan, with the younger Bates hoping to meet with an assistant football coach. Maybe.

To his great surprise, legendary Wolverines coach Bo Schembechler took time out of his schedule to meet with Bates and his parents personally. That sealed the deal, and Bates enrolled and joined the team as a walk-on.

After his playing career, he moved into a job as a graduate assistant. Then he became strength coach at Colorado, then Vanderbilt. At Vanderbilt, Bates moved from coaching to an assistant athletic director post.

That set the son of two school teachers on a path toward a leadership position in athletic administration, as he ultimately made his way to senior associate athletic director at Vanderbilt before leaving to become Miami’s AD.

During his decade with the RedHawks, Bates oversaw a fundraising campaign to help renovate the football stadium and build a new ice hockey arena and softball field. Of Miami’s 18 teams, 14 won at least one conference title in his time there.

Approaching the one-year anniversary of his hiring at BC, Bates has already made a potentially tenure-defining hire in Addazio and is developing a strategic plan for the department that he hopes will both outline the BC athletics vision and define how to achieve it.

“Essentially we can make every policy decision based on two overarching questions,” he said. “The first one is, how does this help our students grow? And how does this help us win championships? Because I think the two are somewhat redundant. Winning championships I think [is] developmental and formational. That will be the overarching focus.”

Bates knows that if his teams are winning championships, it’s not only good for the teams and the department.

“Sports in our society are highly valued. They inherently have a marketing aspect to them,” he said. “And if you’re having success and your students are leaders in the community it’s a very effective and successful marketing vehicle for the entire university.

“If there are scandals, if you’re not having success, that can be a negative marketing vehicle. So the way the entire institution is branded, whether this is right or wrong, often is how their athletic programs perform, both on and off the field.”

Others acknowledge that fact, as well.

Boynton, the Carroll School dean and a renowned strategy expert, has gotten to know Bates very well since his hiring. When the new AD set out to develop his strategic plan, he didn’t hunker down to draft it himself -- he reached out to anyone he thought might be able to help, including Boynton.

“I think that there’s not a person on this campus that hasn’t been impressed,” Boynton said of Bates. “There’s no one from the leadership team on down that hasn’t been impressed.

“He really fits well at BC, where we need to win and develop student-athletes. … He understands the context of BC -- it’s not gonna be win at any cost. But we can win, we have great assets.

“Brad is someone we all believe can lead athletics into the future.”

***

For BC football, the future is underway.

Addazio and his staff have re-energized the program, pumping up recruiting and working to establish a winning mindset among the holdovers on the roster.

During the offseason, Addazio wanted to redo his office and the Eagles’ locker room in Alumni Stadium and to give the football offices in the Yawkey Center a facelift with new carpeting and paint. He also wanted to upgrade the video system the team uses, which he called antiquated.

All those requests were met.

“That’s pretty expensive stuff,” Addazio said of the new video system. “We upgraded all that. That’s great -- we’re right where we need to be there. So the administration is real committed to going about the business. ... They totally understand the fact that we’re gonna upgrade where we need to upgrade.”

The money for the new video system came from the department’s deferred maintenance and equipment budget, Bates said, money set aside last fall in anticipation of the transition.

When Saturday’s opener against Villanova rolls around, a number of other changes will be apparent to fans in Chestnut Hill -- including expanded tailgating options and new hospitality tents outside Alumni.

Bates said students have responded well to BC’s new “Gold Pass,” student ticketing initiative. The passes cost $175 and include entry to all BC’s ticketed athletic events, including football, men’s and women’s basketball and men’s ice hockey, on a first-come, first-served basis until student seating reaches capacity.

Coming off the 2-10 finish in 2012, ticket sales are down. Bates is undeterred.

“We traditionally experience a slight decline when Notre Dame is off the schedule and that has been perpetuated again this year,” Bates said. “Our gauge is a sold-out Alumni Stadium and we therefore will not be satisfied until we have a waiting list.

“We are continuing to implement new initiatives to attract fans regardless of the outcome of the games, but it is fair to say we have continued work ahead.”

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

It’s not quite September yet, but fall is in the air.

Students are streaming back onto campuses across the region and the football season is about to kick off.

Need another sign of the changing seasons? The college basketball schedules for 2013-14 are being released.

Boston College announced its schedule this past Thursday -- with highlights including a matchup with UMass at TD Garden (part of a tripleheader that also includes Harvard-Holy Cross and Boston University-Northeastern) and two games at Madison Square Garden in the 2K Sports Classic (the first versus New England rival UConn) -- and Harvard followed on Monday.

Highlights for the Crimson include the program’s first trip to the Great Alaska Shootout (which they’ll likely be favored to win) and a nationally televised trip to Storrs, Conn., to take on UConn.

There is one game that stands out on both schedules: Wed., Jan. 1, Boston College at Harvard.

Wait, BC at Harvard?

After his Crimson won their fifth straight game against the Eagles at Conte Forum in Chestnut Hill in December, Tommy Amaker talked about what the matchup means for his team:

“It’s been very meaningful for us,” he said. “We’re thankful for the opportunity to play Boston College. We’ve been fortunate. But the outcome is not indicative of us wanting to maintain this game. It’s about us having an opportunity to play an ACC team -- it’s always gonna be a road game, they’re not gonna, I’m sure, come over to play us, which certainly I understand that.”

Oh, how things change.

While BC has endured a downswing since the switch from former coach Al Skinner to current coach Steve Donahue, Harvard has been ascendant. Amaker has stocked the program with talented, hard-working players like Wesley Saunders and Siyani Chambers, taken the Ivy League by storm (winning at least a share of the title in three straight seasons, going to the NCAA tournament in two straight seasons and winning the program’s first NCAA game in 2012) and made Harvard into a potential Top 25 team to start 2013-14.

And so the ACC team (Conte Forum capacity: 8,606) will go to the Ivy League team (Lavietes Pavilion capacity: 2,050) and play as a likely underdog (though ACC Rookie of the Year Olivier Hanlan and players like Joe Rahon, Ryan Anderson and Dennis Clifford give the Eagles hope that good times are just around the bend). It’ll be the Eagles’ first visit to Cambridge in more than 20 years, with the last such trip coming in 1991.

Won’t that be a sight to see?

The college hoops season can’t get here quickly enough.

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