Photo courtesy of Boston College Boston College quarterback Chris Crane took over as QB after Matt Ryan was drafted by the Atlanta Falcons.

By Justin A. Rice, Sept. 25, 2008

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. — Let’s be clear: Chris Crane has not been benched.

Local kid can still make good and be big man on campus at Boston College. The former Trinity High School star might’ve been booed in the first half of Saturday’s game against Central Florida, but the Mechanicsburg native responded in the second half by leading BC’s offense to 31-unanswered points on the way to a 34-7 victory at Alumni Stadium.

With that said, redshirt freshman and fan-favorite Dominique Davis will also have ample opportunity to make the folks down in Lakeland, Fla. proud of their own native son as well. It is, in fact, official: The Eagles (2-1) will quarterback by committee the rest of the way this season.

“At that position, you get more credit than you should, and you get more blame than you should. That just goes along with that position,” BC coach Jeff Jagodzinski said Sunday during his weekly teleconference. “Yes. We’re going to get [Davis] some more playing time. He had about 20 snaps Saturday, and he made some good decisions. I thought he managed the clock well. It’s all a learning process, and we’re going to continue to get him some snaps. As I mentioned before, I’m not going to be in a position next year where the starting quarterback hasn’t had any snaps at all in a game situation.”

The fact is that neither Crane nor Davis is former BC quarterback and current Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan. And Crane is content with that. Crane, who is 46-of-87 passing through three games with two TD passes and five interceptions, is being incredibly mature about the new game plan.

“Coach wanted Dominique to take some of the pressure off so I could step back and see things, not from the first person perspective, just to get an overview,” Crane said Wednesday. “And the coaches have done that all throughout their past and said it usually helps and it did. So it was the game plan going in and it ended up working out by the end of the game. You kind of get to take a look at the defense, you get to see what they’re doing exactly. You can only see so much when you’re in the quarterback position, but when you’re on the sideline you get to see everything that’s happening. It helps in that sense and it just slows the game down. You’re not actually under duress so you get to see how much time you have to throw the ball.

“It helped. We opened it up a little bit more (in the second half). I got, almost, into a groove and a rhythm. It felt good to air it out a lot in the second half and not just short passes, but throw down the field.”

After collecting two touchdowns on short runs in the second half, Crane ripped off a 27-yard third-down scramble. Then he connected with senior Brandon Robinson on a 48-yard score — also on third down for the longest touchdown pass of Crane’s young career to give the Eagles a 24-7 edge.

“I really needed that just to build my confidence,” said Robinson, who also praised Davis’s debut drives in which he managed the game well and was 4-for-7 passing with 30 yards.

Crane finished the game 16-of-34 for 207 yards and three interceptions.

“I told him before the game, ‘Go play this game like you’re playing in your back yard. Just go out and throw the thing around. Just have fun with it,’ “ Jagodzinski said. “I think sometimes he wants to be perfect and there’s no quarterback that’s perfect. You’re going to make mistakes.” All Crane has to do to figure that one out is look down the road at Foxboro, Mass. to Matt Cassel, who was thrust into the New England Patriots’ starting lineup when Tom Brady went down with a knee injury.

“When the year started we had Tom Brady as the other quarterback in New England,” Crane said, referring to himself as the second quarterback in town. “That’s a tough act to be right next to. Matt Ryan did alright with it but I’m a new quarterback. When he went down we had two fresh quarterbacks and our offensive coordinators wanted to go out and just manage the game. And it’s tough. The Patriots have seen how tough it can be. But everyone has to rebound and pick each other up.

“It was a tough game for him last week and I liken that to our Georgia Tech game,” Crane continued, speaking of the Patriots 38-7 loss to Miami and BC’s 19-16 loss to GT. “Even though we only lost by three and we were in the game the whole time, it was heart breaking. It’s the adversity that you experience in the season and it’s the way you bounce back and I’m sure the Patriots will bounce back next week. I’m sure Matt Cassel will do great too. You can’t have too bad weeks in a row. You consciously and subconsciously practice and play so that you don’t have two bad performances in a row.”

And while Crane didn’t necessarily have a bad or a great week against Central Florida, he said most of his family and friends from back home are still holding out for the Virginia Tech (Oct. 18), Clemson (Nov. 1) and Notre Dame (Nov. 8) to ask him for tickets.

“It’s been mostly family that has been up so far but you can bet for the Notre Dame game, Virginia Tech and Clemson I’ve gotten quite a few requests,” Crane said. “Which will be tough but I’ll do my best to help.”

After all, fulfilling a few ticket requests is the least he can do to repay everyone who has supported him throughout his five seasons in Chestnut Hill.

“They realize the situation I’ve been put in being behind Matt for four years,” Crane said. “Now that I’ve gotten my opportunity, my friends, family, supporters, they’ve been there for me and I can’t thank them enough.”

A new Smith starring for SL

AMELIA KUNHARDT/The Patriot Ledger

Dee Smith helped break the game open for Silver Lake against New Bedford on Friday.

By Justin A. Rice

For The Patriot Ledger

Posted Sep 22, 2008 @ 01:21 AM

Last update Sep 22, 2008 @ 01:25 AM

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QUINCY — Dee Smith might’ve started the process of following in his brother Jeff’s footsteps on Friday night, returning the first kickoff of his Silver Lake Regional football career for a touchdown. But the younger Smith wants to be clear that he’s his own man.

After all, the day after the younger Smith went 85 yards for a touchdown to lift Silver Lake to a 28-16 victory against New Bedford, the elder Smith, a renowned Boston College returner, could only muster a 56-yard return on Saturday to set up the Eagles’ go-ahead score – and eventual win – against Central Florida.

“It’s hard: a lot of people expect me to be like him, but I’m my own person,” the Silver Lake senior from Plympton said of his brother, who surprisingly returned to the Eagles’ lineup this season after suffering several concussions as a sophomore. “But I still look up to a lot of the things he does. I was actually really impressed (with Jeff’s return). I thought he was gonna go all the way. I thought it was a good motivational boost for the team.”

Dee’s kickoff return on Friday was a motivational boost in its own right. After New Bedford scored three points on the opening drive, Silver Lake (2-0) responded with Smith’s touchdown that came off a brand new blocking scheme. More impressive than scoring on that first time was that Dee had missed several practices with strep throat-like symptoms.

“I was pretty sick,” Dee said. “I came back and this is what they came up with. It was good. It worked; the blocking was perfect. Coach (Dana Battista) decided it would be a good change. Instead of a wedge up middle he saw an opportunity to get to 50-yard line on the return. He had everyone run over to sidelines make a wall.”

The younger Smith, who is keeping his options open about college, said even though he doesn’t like to be compared to his brother, he still takes his advice about kick returning. In 2006, the elder Smith returned 23 kicks for 645 yards (28.0 average), placing him first in the Atlantic Coast Conference and eighth in the nation in kickoff returns.

“He usually tells me to try to use my instincts and not to overthink it,” Dee said, “because otherwise you could freeze up and he just wants me to use my speed.”

Boston College's Donnie Fletcher, right, tackles UCF's Ronnie Weaver in the first quarter. (AP)

September 21, 2008

Greco injured in UCF's loss to Boston College

BY JUSTIN A. RICE
FOR FLORIDA TODAY

In a season known more for flip-flopping politicians than quarterback controversies, UCF and Boston College changed their minds on the QB position so many times that fans of both parties had a hard time voting for one signal caller over the other.

But the 41,267 on hand Saturday afternoon for the 34-7 BC victory at Alumni Stadium didn't need a recount to declare the game sloppy on all counts, from missed field goals (three overall), botched punts (two for BC) and a seemingly infinite number of interceptions (seven total).

More than anything, however, the first meeting between the two programs was marked by quarterback questions. While Chris Crane and Dominique Davis rotated drives in the shadow of legendary Eagles quarterback Matt Ryan, redshirt junior Michael Greco split time with freshman Rob Calabrese after injuring his knee during the Knights' fourth drive of the afternoon.

Despite throwing an interception on his first career pass, Calabrese kept the Knights on the move, engineering a 49-yard drive that ended with a missed field goal.

"I wanted to get him in," UCF coach George O'Leary said of Calabrese, not explaining why he leapfrogged redshirt freshman Joe Weatherford on the depth chart. "I put him in and he did some good things, probably not enough good things.

"(Greco) got hit and his knee blew up and he wasn't as mobile as he was in the first half. But I thought he did some good things."

Greco returned in the final moments of the first half to lead the Knights (1-2) to their only scoring drive of the day. With 32 seconds remaining in the first stanza, he kept the ball on 3-and-4 from the 45. Then the lefty cut to midfield, slipped a tackle at the 20 and scampered to the 1-yard line where he dove for the end zone and was knocked out at the one. Three plays later, Greco rolled 10-yards backwards before regaining ground to set up a goal-line collision that ended in a 1-yard TD.

UCF players were unavailable for comment after the game. While Greco's score gave the Knights a 7-3 lead at the break, BC (2-1) started the second half with Jeff Smith's 56-yard kick return to set up Crane's 1-yard touchdown run.

Down 10-7, Calabrese returned to the game after Greco threw another INT but the freshman couldn't muster much. Then Crane collected another 1-yard TD run to cap a 6-play, 59-yard drive to go up 17-7. Calabrese, -- who finished the day 4-for-8 passing with 37 yards and an interception -- led another short-lived drive before punter Blake Clingan pinned the ball at the 1-yard line.

A few plays later, Crane threw the ball into the hands of UCF sophomore linebacker Lawrence Young at the 10, but senior kicker Darin Daly eventually missed his second field goal of the day within 25 yards. He hit the left upright just as BC kicker Steve Aponavicius did in the first half.

Finally hitting his stride in the fourth quarter, Crane ripped off a 27-yard third-down scramble before connecting with senior Brandon Robinson on a 48-yard score again, on third down. The longest touchdown pass of Crane's young career gave the Eagles a 24-7 edge and the game.

Greco rounded out the game, but his completion to Rocky Ross on 4th and 9 from the BC 31 was overturned on an illegal touching penalty. As BC tacked on 10 more points, Greco threw his third interception and finished 12-of-24 passing for 92 yards. He added 54 yards rushing.

The loss snapped a three-game road winning streak for the Knights, but didn't waiver O'Leary's confidence in his quarterbacks.

"I'll look at the film and stuff, but I think I'm gonna play two quarterbacks," he said. "I have no problem with that. There's no quarterback controversy."

After Saturday's game, it looked like BC would also continue to go with two quarterbacks. Crane finished the game 16-of-34 passing for 207 yards and three INTs while Davis, who fans have been itching to see play all season, was 4-of-7 for 30 yards in his debut.

Maybe both teams will have the quarterback question figured out by Nov. 4.