The Best Year: Boston College

Boston College has played college football for 130 years, and there have certainly been a fair bit of moments for the Eagles faithful to celebrate. From Matt Ryan's heroics in 2007, to beating #1 Notre Dame, and Doug Flutie's Heisman campaign. All of these are important, historic moments to reflect on, but one of the best overall seasons has to be the 1984 season.

In 1983, Boston College finished the season 9-3, ranked #19 after losing in the Liberty Bowl to Notre Dame. They would be bringing back the quarterback from that '83 campaign, a junior from Manchester, Maryland named Doug Flutie. He had a quarterback coach named Tom Coughlin, who helped him to throw for over 2,700 yards and reach 3rd in Heisman voting. The Eagles would have to face the '83 national champs, the Miami Hurricanes next year, as well as Alabama, Penn State and West Virginia.

When the 1984 seasons rolled around, the Eagles started the year at #19, the same ranking that they ended with the year before. Doug Flutie was seen as a good returning quarterback, and if he improved upon last year the Eagles could be even better this year. The first week was a bit of a tune-up game, as Boston College cruised to a 20 point victory over Western Carolina. This set up #18 Boston College to travel to #9 Alabama for a week 2 showdown on ABC.

The Tide quickly got up on the Eagles, and extended the margin to 17 by the second half, but Flutie refused to quit. Aided by 3 interceptions by Boston College's Tony Thurman, the Eagles came back to beat the tide 38-31, giving them a huge road win, and giving a little clout to Flutie's Heisman hopes. The next two games would be at home against North Carolina and Temple, both of whom couldn't keep pace with the Eagles. This meant that Boston College would be pulling into Mountaineer Field 4-0, and holding the #4 ranking against the #20 Mountaineers.

The Eagles quickly raced out to a lead, and after a Doug Flutie pass that resulted in a 42 yard touchdown, Boston College went into the locker room up 20-6. However, this time it would be the Eagles who blew a lead. After 2 fourth quarter touchdowns, they got the ball back with 4:50 left in the game and down one point. Flutie could not lead them to a field goal, as they fell to WVU 21-20. The loss hurt, but the Eagles only fell to 11th, and they had the option to redeem themselves the upcoming weekend when Rutgers came to town. They would dismiss the Scarlet Knights to improve to 5-1 and set up an important matchup with Penn State.

The Nittany Lions weren't having their best year in 1984, but they had beaten a top 5 team in Iowa, and they were a tough team nonetheless. Boston College climbed to #9 prior to the game, and needed to win out to win a national championship. Boston College certainly had their hands full, as Penn State raced out to a 17-10 lead at halftime. Doug Flutie had to play hero ball again as he ended up breaking Jim McMahon's record for total yardage in a career, but he ultimately didn't have enough time to make a full comeback as Boston College lost 37-30. This would be the last time that Boston College would lose this year.

The next two games would be at home against Army and Syracuse. Both are solid teams, but they couldn't stop Boston College and ultimately fell. This made the Eagles 7-2, and their ranking rose back to #10 as they were preparing to travel to Miami to play the Hurricanes. Miami wasn't en route to repeat as national champs, but they were 8-3, ranked #12 and had beat a number 1 team earlier in the year.

Once again, the Eagles trailed and it was on the shoulders of Doug Flutie to be the hero. Miami had scored on their last drive to take a 45-41 lead over Boston College and Doug Flutie would get the ball at his own 22 with only 28 seconds to go. They needed a touchdown to take the lead. Flutie was able to complete 2 quick passes that got the Eagles 30 needed yards, but with only 6 seconds left, it was time for a hail mary. In what is one of the most iconic plays in college football history, Doug Flutie scrambled to his right and launched a pass into the endzone that was caught by Gerard Phelan to give Boston College a 47-45 win. After this dramatic finish, Boston College ended their regular season by destroying Holy Cross, and moving to 9-2 on the year. To finish the season, the Eagles would play SWC champion Houston in the Cotton Bowl, where they won 45-28.

For his performance during the year, Doug Flutie won the Heisman, Maxwell, and O'Brien Trophies, as well as being named an All-American and owning the NCAA record for passing yards. His team ended the year ranked #5, which is incredible. It makes you wonder what could have been if the Eagles had finished their comeback at Penn State; BYU won the title that year, but most of their conference opponents were weaker teams who BYU destroyed. Maybe Boston College could have been BYU's Kryptonite.

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