ACC Football: Biggest offseason question for every team
By John Buhler
The ACC may have had the best Power 5 conference top to bottom last year. Here is the biggest offseason question for all 14 ACC football programs.
2016 might have been the best year in ACC football history. 11 of the 14 schools went to bowl games, with two teams playing in the New Year’s Six, the Clemson Tigers and the Florida State Seminoles. Louisville Cardinals quarterback Lamar Jackson won the 2016 Heisman Trophy. Oh and yeah, Clemson beat the Alabama Crimson Tide to win the 2016 National Championship on the last second.
To say that 2016 was kind to the ACC might be an understatement. Needless to say, it’ll be hard for the ACC to top its glorious campaign from a year ago, but the ACC should still be one of the better Power 5 conferences in football for 2017.
As spring ball is coming to a close, let’s take a look at the biggest burning offseason question surrounding all 14 ACC schools and their football programs.
Boston College Eagles: Who replaces Patrick Towles at starting quarterback?
After struggling for most of the season, the Boston College Eagles were able to win six games last regular season to go bowling. Going 4-0 in the non-conference and big road wins against North Carolina State and Wake Forest helped head coach Steve Addazio get to his third bowl game in four tries. Boston College beat the Maryland Terrapins in the Quick Lane Bowl to finish 7-6 (2-6).
Though he was very inconsistent throughout the year, Boston College does have a tall task in replacing graduate transfer quarterback Patrick Towles. He had used his three previous years of eligibility playing for Mark Stoops’ Kentucky Wildcats in the SEC. Towles will likely look to make an NFL roster as an undrafted free agent, possibly as a tight end.
Addazio had delved into the college transfer quarterback before Towles when he landed his former player at the University of Florida in Tyler Murphy in 2014. Now it looks like Addazio will have to trot out the guys he’s got for 2017.
The likeliest candidate to win the starting quarterback job at Boston College would be redshirt junior Darius Wade, who backed up Towles after losing the starting job to him in fall camp. Wade has two years of eligibility after seeing his 2015 true sophomore campaign come to an end due to injury. He should bring a dual-threat ability to the quarterback position for Boston College this fall.