Clemson continues to be the one that got away for Jeff Hafley and his Boston College team.
Following a close game last season, where the Eagles led for more than half of the contest, but ultimately came up short, Hafley is ready for his team to have another go at the Tigers.
Despite the disappointing loss in 2020, the second-year ACC head coach hopes to change the narrative this time around when they make the trip to Death Valley for the second year in a row this fall.
“We were 35-point underdogs going into that game,” Hafley said. “I think they [Boston College] lost by 50-something points two years back-to-back. I just want my guys to go down and play as hard as they can and compete as hard as they can and not worry about the scoreboard and just be confident.”
“Kids from Georgia turned the game on, kids from the Carolinas turned the game on and it opened up a lot of new doors,” he added. “But we lost, right, we still lost. I’m still pissed about it.”
While the loss to Clemson still hurts, the Eagles’ head coach couldn’t help but but praise the performance freshman quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei put on when he was called upon late in the week to be the starter at quarterback for the Tigers.
“What impressed me so much about D.J. was that he didn’t look like a freshman,” Hafley said. “He made some really big throws, one on third and 17. The timing, the rhythm, the processing, the way he stood in the pocket, he’s faster than I thought he was, not that I thought he was slow, he’s just a big guy.”
Now with one season at Boston College under his belt, Hafley is ready for his second go at Clemson and while playing at Memorial Stadium two years in a row would be frustrating for most, Hafley and his team are more than ready for the challenge.
“It is what it is, right. They put the schedule down and we go play. I haven’t made a big deal [about it]. It’s just, they gave us the schedule, we’re gonna go play it, we’re not going to make excuses, we’re not going to say, ‘Oh, why are we…’ No, like it’s fine,” Hafley said. “Whoever they want us to play, wherever they want us to play them, we are gonna go compete to the best that we can and see what happens.”
The Tigers play host to the Eagles once again on October 2 in Clemson.
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