by Mike Mitchell
12/15/06
12:15 pm est
Boston
College takes a nation's best six-game bowl winning streak into
this year's Meineke Car Care Bowl, but it does so without head
coach Tom O'Brien who took the same position at with conference
rival N.C. State. Defensive
coordinator Frank Spaziani is the Eagles' interim coach while
the search for a permanent replacement is ongoing.
This is the eighth straight season that Boston College has gone
bowling. The Eagles played in this bowl game in 2004 when it
was called the Continental Tires Bowl, defeating North Carolina
37-24.
Navy is appearing in a fourth consecutive bowl game for the first
time in history. In fact, the Midshipmen's previous best string
was two-in-a-row when they appeared in the 1980 Garden State
and 1981 Liberty Bowls.
None of the bowls that Navy has played in during their streak
were even in existence when head coach Paul Johnson took over
the program from Charlie Weatherbie in 2002. Boston College's
last four bowl games, including this year's, didn't exist when
O'Brien became head coach of the Eagles in 1997.
Johnson is 37-24 in 5 years as head coach of Navy, and he is
35-14 over the last four years including victories in last season's
Poinsettia Bowl and 2004's Emerald Bowl. The Midshipmen have
also captured four straight Commander-In-Chief's Trophies as
winners of the annual round-robin scheduling between Navy, Army
and Air Force.
A solid running game has been Navy's forte during Johnson's tenure
and the Middies lead the nation in that team statistical category
this year with 327.4 yards per game. If you don't think that's
a lot of yardage, consider that West Virginia is the only other
school to top the 300-yard per game average and the Mountaineers
averaged 302.3. Only eight schools averaged over 200 yards rushing
per game.
Adam Ballard led the ground troops with 731 yards, Reggie Campbell
tacked on 655, Brian Hampton accounted for 646, Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada
chipped in 480, Shun White produce 462, Matt Hall was good for
224, Eric Kettani registered 189, and Zerbin Singleton added
120 yards.
Kaheaku-Enhada and Hampton each had 10 rushing touchdowns.
Ballard suffered a broken right leg in the season-ending win
over Army, and Kaheaku-Enhada took over signal-calling duties
when Hampton tore his ACL in the 34-0 loss to Rutgers on October
14th.
Navy is the epitome of a one-dimensional offense, throwing the
football only 112 times all season. They may have to go to the
air a little more often against Boston College. The Eagles ranked
third in the ACC in rushing defense allowing just 90 yards per
game, but they gave up over 213 passing yards per game. But BC
also intercepted 21 passes, led by DeJuan Tribble's seven pick-offs,
to rank No. 3 nationally in that statistic.
Boston College's offense starts with seasoned quarterback Matt
Ryan who has, 4,564 career passing yards including an ACC-leading
2,700 yards this year.
The Eagles gained just 113 yards per game on the ground, but
still managed 18 rushing touchdowns, paced by two-way player
Brian Toal with five. Toal is a linebacker who appears in the
Boston College backfield mainly on short-yardage and goal line
situations. Toal's defensive numbers include 28 tackles and 2
interceptions.
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