Boston College Eagles: CFN College Football Preview 2021

College Football News Preview 2021: Previewing, predicting, and looking ahead to the Boston College season with what you need to know.

Boston College Eagles College Football Preview 2021: Defense

– Eight starters are expected to be back for a defense that didn’t use a lot of bells and whistles, and it showed. The Eagles didn’t come up with enough tackles for loss, but it generated enough sacks to be okay and wasn’t bad at generating third down stops and taking the ball away.

Now is when defensive coordinator Team Lukabu brings the funk. A high-end linebacker coach, he wasn’t able to do too much in his first year, but now he’s about to get creative, and it starts with getting more out of …

The defensive line. It wasn’t awful, but again, there weren’t enough tackles for loss – and they came mostly from the linebackers – with end Maximilian, Roberts the top pass rusher. He’s gone, and it doesn’t help to lose tackle Luc Bequette and three other linemen to the transfer portal.

Chibueze Onwuka is a smallish, stumpy defensive tackle who came up with 19 tackles, and the hope is for more disruption from Marcus Valdez at one end while getting something out of the transfers coming in.

The linebacking corps is all but starting over with leading tackler Isaiah McDuffie a Green Bay Packer and second-leading tackler Max Richardson also done. Nick DiLucci is the leading returning linebacker and he came up with just 18 stops. That’s why …

The Eagles are almost certainly going with five defensive backs more often than not. That’s where the talent and the experience is with corner Josh DeBerry a solid tackler – he finished third on the team with 44 stops – and safety Jahmin Muse leading the way with three picks. There will be some shuffling, but there are plenty of options to play around with.

– What You Need To Know: Offense
Top Players | Keys To The Season
What Will Happen, Win Total Prediction
Boston College Schedule Analysis

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