McKenzie named QB1 as Lonergan lands at Rutgers
Mason McKenzie heads into September as Boston College's clear No. 1 at quarterback, with the job he won without a fight now on a collision course with Dylan Lonergan and Rutgers in Week 2.
Camp closes with the quarterback question already settled
Dylan Lonergan started nine games at Boston College last season before hitting the transfer portal, and on August 24 Rutgers made it official: he is the Scarlet Knights' starting quarterback, a source told On3's Pete Nakos, with Sports Illustrated's Pete Thamel adding that Lonergan has thrown for 2,060 yards and 12 touchdowns in his career, including a 390-yard, four-touchdown night at Michigan State. The timing could not be sharper — Rutgers comes to Chestnut Hill on September 11 for a Friday night game, which means the quarterback BC developed gets to play spoiler, or get spoiled, against the program he left.
2026 Training Camp is officially in the books t.co/h5Z9TUvm0c
That move handed the job to Mason McKenzie, the Division II transfer who represented BC at ACC Kickoff this summer, and Grayson James' exhausted eligibility cleared out whatever competition remained from the battle that ran right up to two weeks before last year's opener. Unlike a year ago, there is no quarterback fight this camp, but coach Bill O'Brien has made clear that does not mean McKenzie coasts. "Mason's gotten a lot better just in his knowledge of our system obviously, but also some of the things that we ask him to do that maybe was different than what he was asked before," O'Brien said, according to SI's Boston College beat, and McKenzie backed it up on the practice field — hitting tight end Zeke Moore repeatedly in 7-on-7s and throwing touchdowns to Jaedn Skeete and Landon Wright while freshman Femi Babalola pushed him from behind with a touchdown pass of his own.
BCFootball marked the finish line itself this week, posting that "2026 Training Camp is officially in the books" as the Eagles broke camp and turned toward the opener. Whatever uncertainty existed at quarterback back in July is gone by the time that video went up — McKenzie has the job, Lonergan has a new one 200 miles away, and the two will meet again in Week 2.
Last season ended on a high note at Syracuse
Boston College's last four games of last season went the wrong way — a 24-38 loss at Louisville, a 10-25 defeat to Notre Dame, a 13-45 blowout to SMU and a 34-36 heartbreaker against Georgia Tech — before the Eagles closed it out the right way. On November 29, BC beat Syracuse 34-12 on the road to finish last season on a high note, the kind of result a program likes having in its pocket heading into an offseason with a new quarterback and a rewritten depth chart.
That Syracuse win is also the last live look anybody has at this team, since the 2026 schedule opens with nothing played yet this fall. It is not nothing — a 22-point road win to end last season, with McKenzie not yet the guy but most of the pieces around him unchanged, is a reasonable version of the BC that shows up on September 5.
A rebuilding Cincinnati team stands between camp and the Rutgers rematch
Boston College opens the season on September 5 at Cincinnati, and the Eagles are the underdog on that board — Cincinnati opened as a 7.5-point favorite with the total set at 51.5. The Bearcats are mid-rebuild in their own right, breaking in Georgia Southern transfer JC French IV, who threw for 2,929 yards, 20 touchdowns and 315 rushing yards last season, as the replacement for Brendan Sorsby, part of a roster with more than 30 new names under fourth-year coach Scott Satterfield, per Deseret News' Big 12 preview. Cincinnati's last game on record here was a 13-35 loss to Navy last season, so this is not a team walking in with the market's full confidence either.
Win or lose at Nippert Stadium, the calendar turns fast: BC hosts Rutgers on September 11 at Alumni Stadium, a Friday night game and the first time Lonergan sees Chestnut Hill from the other sideline. Two very different Week 1 tests, but for Eagles fans, the second one already has a name attached to it.