With the second bye week in the rearview mirror and No. 3 Florida State looming down the road in Tallahassee, Boston College got back to work on Tuesday.
The Eagles know it won’t be easy, but they have their eyes firmly set on securing another big upset.
First down: Steve Addazio is not exactly in the habit of talking down his team’s opponents.
Like many coaches, the second-year BC boss can make whoever that weekend’s foe is sound an awful lot like Goliath even if it’s more akin to David.
But that said, he may have a point when he says he doesn’t understand the negativity swirling around the Seminoles.
“We’re playing one heck of a football team,” he said after practice Tuesday in Alumni Stadium. “I don’t know what the heck everybody’s talking about.”
Maybe the Seminoles -- who are No. 1 in the AP and USA Today polls but No. 3 in the College Football Playoff rankings behind No. 1 Mississippi State and No. 2 Oregon -- haven’t wowed week-in and week-out, the way many people across the country believe they should. And the numbers don’t scream dominance, with the offense just No. 17 nationally in scoring (37.1 PPG) and the defense just No. 33 nationally in points allowed (22.8 PPG).
But the defending national champions have found a way to win every game they’ve played to date, sitting at a perfect 10-0 (7-0 ACC) ahead of Saturday’s matchup with BC (6-4, 3-3) at Doak Campbell Stadium (3:30 p.m. ET on ABC/ESPN2).
That’s what matters to the BC coach.
“They’re the No. 1 team and they should be the No. 1 team,” Addazio said. “They look like the No. 1 team to me. They look good. Super, super talented.”
Second down: With the final road game of the season this week, the Eagles are attempting to go a perfect 5-0 away from Alumni Stadium.
Asked what he attributes the road success to, senior Brian Mihalik said it’s just one of those things.
“I don’t know if there’s a whole lot to that, I just know we’re always really focused when we go on the road,” he said. “We just go into every game and treat it the same way.”
As they have in the past, the Eagles are practicing with pumped-in crowd noise this week. That meant that on Tuesday the Florida State “war chant” was blasting from the portable speaker systems the Eagles use for the task.
And though it’s more meant for the offense than the defense, the big defensive lineman said he’s enjoyed working through the noise.
“It’s pretty cool,” Mihalik said. “It’s definitely something that excites you to get ready to go down there and experience it in person.”
Third down: Though it hopes one trend ends this weekend, BC has to be hoping another one continues.
Florida State has won 26 straight games, dating back to the final two games of 2012, and is 36-2 overall in the past three seasons (both losses coming in 2012).
That’s the trend the Eagles want to end.
BC has a trend of its own, albeit a much shorter one, going this season. The Eagles are 3-0 after a loss in 2014, outscoring its three opponents 90-62, outrushing them 964-82 and scoring 11 rushing TDs while giving up just three.
They would very much like to keep that streak going on Saturday, perhaps throwing a new wrench into the works for the first College Football Playoff as they go.
Out: After Saturday’s trip to Tallahassee, the Eagles will finish the regular season out at home against Syracuse two days after Thanksgiving. That game will be a 12:30 p.m. ET kickoff, and will be televised on the ACC regional networks.
Jack McCluskey is an editor for ESPN.com and a frequent contributor to ESPNBoston.com. Follow him on Twitter @jack_mccluskey.