Where Eagles dare againVa. Tech stands in BC's flight to Orange Bowl
Only the baldest of Eagles remember the last time Boston College's football team played in Miami in January. The Orange Bowl was a consolation prize for a perfect 1942 season that was wrecked by Holy Cross, dashing hopes of a second national championship in three years. This time, getting there would be validation for a program that hasn't played in a major postseason contest since Doug Flutie hailed Mary 24 years ago and BC was full of grace.
"Nothing like this has been done around here for a long time," said freshman tailback Josh Haden, whose 18th-ranked teammates will face Virginia Tech tomorrow afternoon in Tampa in a rematch of last year's Atlantic Coast Conference championship game.
If the Eagles win, they'll be guaranteed a date in the Orange (probably against Big East champion Cincinnati), their first appearance in a BCS bowl after nine straight years of holiday sojourns in Tucson, Boise, Detroit, Orlando, Honolulu, and elsewhere.
"Every football player at every school, their goal at the beginning of the year is to win their conference championship and play in a BCS bowl," said BC athletic director Gene DeFilippo. "To get there is a very big thing. It says that your program is among the elite."
Not that the Eagles have been flapping around in the second tier. BC, which was ranked as high as second last year, plays in a major conference, has a couple dozen alums in the NFL, has won 56 games over the last six years, and has the best all-time bowl winning percentage (.684) in the country among BCS conferences.
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