Eagles bracing for Clemson attack

CHESTNUT HILL — "We've played three hard football games. We haven't played one low team. Every team we've played is a quality team."

Those words by Boston College head coach Steve Addazio may be true, but the best the Boston College football team will face this year lies directly in front of them.

Clemson, the defending national champions, are heavy favorites to beat the Eagles Saturday, but optimism is the only choice for the underdogs.

"You keep going. You keep grinding," said Addazio. "We're going into the fourth game of the season. Our schedule is a little front-end loaded right now and that's fine. And what's important is get better every day, get better every week and improve."

Clemson, a 47-21 winner over Louisville last week, is ranked #2 in the country. Despite losing star quarterback Deshaun Watson, the Tigers offense has picked up right where it left off last season, scoring 56, 14 and 47 points in their first three games.

Addazio, however, is even more impressed with the Clemson defense.

"Their front is big and athletic. Their linebackers run well. Their secondary I think is one of the better secondaries I've seen," said Addazio. "They rally to the ball as good as any defense I have ever seen. They have makeup speed, and what's amazing is people -- every once in a while pop a play and the next thing you know, vroom, it closes on it really fast. So we're playing an outstanding football team, in a tough environment, on the road, arguably maybe one of the -- if not the best team in the country, certainly one of the top three teams in the country. Tough challenge, tough environment."

BC will once again be without Connor Strachan, a top-tier linebacker whose absence last week certainly contributed to the Eagles struggles on defense against Notre Dame.  Elijah Johnson and Shane Leonard were also ruled out on the injury report, as was Jon Baker, who is expected to miss the season with a bad knee.

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