+Emotional Red Bandana crowd on the 25th 9/11 anniversary
+McKenzie flashed dual-threat ability with 78 rushing yards
−Lost by 19 on the road with self-inflicted mistakes
−Starting center and left tackle both banged up entering Friday
This is a rematch nobody drew up in the spring but everybody wants to watch now. Dylan Lonergan started 9 games for Boston College in 2025 before transferring to Rutgers this offseason, and 5 days after his Scarlet Knights debut went sideways, he walks back into Alumni Stadium against the program that once handed him the job. Both teams arrive 0-1, both lost in ways that stung, and both quarterbacks — Lonergan and BC's Mason McKenzie — are trying to answer for it on Friday night.
Lonergan's opener was rough by any measure: 16-for-29, 242 yards and 2 touchdowns, but also 3 interceptions, 2 of them to the same UMass safety, in a 37-21 home loss that snapped UMass's 16-game losing streak. He also left the game with an injury, and Rutgers hasn't given much clarity beyond expecting him to go. McKenzie's first start wasn't clean either — 18-for-35 for 223 yards and a touchdown, plus 78 rushing yards, in a 34-15 loss at Cincinnati marred by false starts, a high snap and a blown non-call at the goal line. BC also has real questions up front: center Michael Crounse and left tackle Veguer Jean-Jumeau both left that game hurt, and Bill O'Brien says he's hopeful, not certain, both are back for Friday.
None of that is just noise heading into this one — it's the whole story of why a game between two teams that just lost by a combined 35 points is drawing this much attention. Friday's kickoff falls on the 25th anniversary of both 9/11 and the death of Welles Crowther, the BC alum known as the Man in the Red Bandana who helped save lives at the World Trade Center, and the Eagles play this game every year in his honor. Add Lonergan lining up across from his old locker room, and Alumni Stadium is going to be a different kind of loud.
For Rutgers, the pressure is external as much as internal — a 16-game FBS losing streak ending at your place is the kind of result that gets a coach's seat discussed out loud, and Greg Schiano has heard plenty of that this week. For BC, the fixes are more within their control: cut the pre-snap penalties, clean up the operation, and trust that a defense that gave up 34 wasn't actually that far off. Both locker rooms are selling the same message — the opener doesn't have to be the season, it just has to not happen again.
Whichever quarterback is sharper Friday probably decides this. Lonergan has the bigger arm and the track record of big plays, when he's not turning the ball over; McKenzie is the one who can still hurt a defense with his legs even when his reads are late. Neither offensive line inspires much confidence right now, which is its own kind of matchup — whoever wins in the trenches probably wins the turnover battle too, and this game has already shown both teams are one bad snap count away from giving it away.
