Emmett Morehead will start at quarterback when Boston College opens the 2023 season against Northern Illinois on Saturday (noon) at Alumni Stadium.
Not exactly a news flash.
Morehead had the benefit of incumbency and being the only quarterback of the roster with Power-5 game experience. Morehead took over the BC offense last season when Phil Jurkovec went down with a season-ending right knee injury in a 13-3 loss at UConn on Oct. 29.
He threw for 330 yards and four touchdowns in his first career start against Duke and powered the Eagles to a 21-20 upset victory over No. 17 North Carolina State at Carter-Finley Stadium.
Morehead completed 29-of-48 passes for 330-yards and three touchdowns with two picks against the Wolfpack. He finished the season with 1,257 yards on 115 completions with 10 touchdowns and six picks.
“Emmett will start and I thought had a good camp,” said BC coach Jeff Hafley during his weekly news briefing on Monday at the Yawkey Center.
Despite all his qualifications, the 6-5, 235-pound, redshirt sophomore from Woodside, Calif., did not claim the starting job by default. Thomas Castellanos, a 5-10, 195-pound sophomore transfer from Central Florida, displayed his formidable dual-threat capabilities to be a serious contender in the run-up to the season opener.
The word out of training camp was that Castellanos ran some plays better than Morehead and was viewed as a situational football option more than a conventional back-up, despite seeing limited playing time at UCF. Castellanos appeared in five games and completed 9-of-16 passes for 75 yards.
“Thomas came in and in a short amount of time learned the offense,” said Hafley. “He didn’t really get here until after spring ball so he had a shorter period of time to know the players and getting to know the playbook.
“It was a lot different offense than he was used to running. He did do a great job getting to know his teammates and showing some leadership. But, at the same time, he was able to grasp the playbook and the concepts. He’s a very talented quarterback with a very big future.”
Castellanos was a phenom at Ware County High School in Waycross, GA. A four-year starter, Castellanos threw for 7,710 career yards, rushed for 3,681 and doubled down as a cornerback on defense.
SAM linebacker Bryce Steele was a big contributor in 12 games for BC last season. The 6-1, 232-pound, junior from Raleigh, N.C., registered 51 tackles, 5.5 tackles for a loss, two sacks, a forced fumble, and a fumble recovery.
Steele, Kam Arnold, and Vinny DePalma made for a solid trio at the back end of the front seven. But Steele has been out of the picture in training camp with an undisclosed ailment. Hafley said a healthy competition developed between redshirt sophomores Jaylen Blackwell and Owen McGowan of Canton for the open position.
“Right now, Vinny and Kam will be the two (primary) guys going out with JB and Owen,” said Hafley. “Whether we go base or have two linebackers or there in a substitute package, we have four guys there that we feel really good about. That will be the two deep as we are going forward.”
Hafley announced the four captains voted into leadership positions by the team. Junior defensive end Donovan Ezeiruaku and graduate MIKE linebacker Vinny DePalma were the defensive duo while redshirt senior running back Pat Garwo and graduate right guard Christian Mahogany will represent the offense.
“We had the team vote and those were the top vote-getters which is a good mixture,” said Hafley. “You have a younger player in Donovan and then you have some older vets.
“With Christian getting voted it kind of shows his maturity as a football player and a leader. Those are four really good football players, great people and great leaders that will represent us in a positive way.”
Hafley made several additions and upgrades to his coaching staff in the offseason and he provided an insight on how they will be deployed against NIU. Hafley has elected to split his co-offensive and co-defensive coordinators between the sidelines and the coaches’ booth six floors up in the press box.
Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Steve Shimko will report up top while associate head coach for offense Rob Chudzinski will work the sidelines. On the other side of the ball, co-defensive coordinator/linebackers coach Sean Duggan will observe from the box while co-defensive coordinator/defensive backs coach Aazaar Abdul-Rahim will be on the field.
“We have some new coaches and we are sending some guys up in the booth this year on defense that we haven’t in the past,” said Hafley. “We worked on all that in scrimmages and I’m excited for it because I trust the staff, they have done a good job.”