The Fighting Irish are shipping up to Boston this weekend, coming off a bye week of rest and recovery. Five more games remain during the regular season and this is the first of 3 true road venues Notre Dame will be visiting. Not that Alumni Stadium has been a real challenging and scary place to play for anyone this year as we play some football on Halloween weekend.
Notre Dame (-28.5) at Boston College
Alumni Stadium
Chestnut Hill, MA
Date: Saturday, November 1, 2025
Time: 3:30 PM ET
TV: ESPN
The Eagles won their opener against FCS Fordham here in Chestnut Hill but have since dropped the last 3 home games to a group of opponents that included California, Clemson, and UConn.
Vegas Corner
The line for this weekend’s game opened with Notre Dame as a hefty 29.5 point favorite and it didn’t take long for it to drop by a full point to where its remained all week. The total is 56.5 points, so Vegas is expecting a score in favor of the Irish around the 42-14 range.
Weather Report
No rain is in the forecast, so that’s a win for everyone in attendance. Temperatures look like they will settle in the mid 50’s for the afternoon but a steady wind from the west at 15-25 mph with some stronger gusts could potentially be a nuisance.
Series History
Notre Dame leads 18-9-0
This will be Marcus Freeman’s first visit to Chestnut Hill and Notre Dame’s first crack at Boston College under head coach Bill O’Brien. Like a few other rivalries, the past with Boston College developed into an annual contest. From 1992 until 2004 this was a game on the Irish schedule. After a 2-year absence, the series picked up again from 2007 until 2012 where it has ceased to exist as an annual rivalry.
BC tried hiding from the Irish in the last meeting.
That’s not to say things still aren’t familiar as this will be the 6th meeting in the last 11 seasons. However, Notre Dame has won 9 straight in the series with the era of plucky and dangerous Boston College seemingly in the rearview mirror. Since the weird Shamrock Series game at Fenway Park, the Irish have won against the Eagles by an average score of 44-14.
And if the current players on each roster aren’t that committed to this intense rivalry, just remember that the last time Boston College beat Notre Dame our current head coach Marcus Freeman was a senior linebacker at Ohio State.
Fun Fact(s)
Did you know, the school’s official motto Collegium Bostoniense is Latin for Backup College?
Shortly after adopting the nickname “Eagles” the school was gifted 2 live eagles. One escaped and the other cracked its beak trying to escape. Yikes.
New Balance is trying to have a moment in American culture.Â
Boston College signed an apparel deal with Boston-based New Balance ahead of the 2021-22 season but remained outfitted in football by Adidas. That is until this year when the football program officially made the switch and is the first FBS school to wear New Balance.
Coaching Staff
Bill O’Brien is in the middle of his 2nd season with the Eagles after coming back to the college game following a brief one year stint (his second) with the New England Patriots. Last year was solid enough with a season opening win against Florida State (although that win has since been devalued tremendously!) and a 6-1 home record. It was enough to hear some DGTâ„¢ whispers out of Chestnut Hill. However, this season had been full of struggles–their 1-7 start to the season is the worst since 1989 when they’d finish 2-9 overall.
The coordinators are the same as last year. O’Brien is heavily involved in the offense and works with offensive coordinator Will Lawing who joined O’Brien as a grad assistant at Penn State in 2013 and somehow has been with him at every coaching stop along the way through today. Tim Lewis coordinates the defense after being a NFL DC long ago (Steelers 2000-03, Giants 2004-06) and was plucked away from the mighty UFL Arlington Renegades ahead of 2024.
Not much has gone O’Brien’s way in 2025.
The Eagles lost defensive backs coach Ray Brown to the San Francisco 49ers this off-season and brought in Cory Robinson from the Jaguars as a replacement. Defensive line coach Jeff Commisiong was let go as well with Jordan Thomas being hired from the Cleveland Browns.
Portal
Redshirt sophomore quarterback Dylan Lonergan was recruited by O’Brien at Alabama and made the transfer to Chestnut Hill this off-season. He started the first 6 games, played okay, but was benched a couple weeks ago.
Ball State running back Vaughn Pemberton was moved to linebacker and hasn’t made an impact. Kennesaw State wide receiver Bryce Dopson isn’t playing, although Campbell transfer VJ Wilkins made separate 50+ yard receptions in their first 2 games, but has only 2 yards since then.
Tight ends Zeke Moore (FAU) and Ty Lockwood (Alabama) are working in backup roles.
Lonergan was benched recently but could get the start again on Saturday.Â
Merrimack transfer Amir Johnson hasn’t made a start along the offensive line. Princeton 5th-year senior transfer Tommy Matheson has moved into the left guard role and started a couple games ago.
Boston College added 7(!) players along the defensive line this off-season from the transfer portal. Valparaiso edge rusher Onye Nowsisi has picked up one start, Merrimack defensive end Favor Bate has started 2 games, and Wake Forest redshirt sophomore transfer Chris Marable has been a fixture on the interior with a handful of starts. Division 2 Barton College transfer E’Lla Boykin hasn’t started but plays a lot.
Linebacker Jason Hewlett transferred in after 2 years at Michigan, started the first 2 games, but was benched and has not played the last 2 games with an injury.
After 4 years at Yale, punter Shamus Florio has won the job this season for the Eagles.
Top Players
WR Lewis Bond
This 5th year senior from Chicago has put together a nice career for the Eagles. Although he finally got into the end zone for the first time last week against Louisville, Bond has caught 56 passes (tied for 5th nationally and 2nd most among power conference players) and is poised to finish top 5 in many career receiving marks at Boston College once 2025 is complete.
Bond has been a consistent presence on BC’s offense.Â
TE Jeremiah Franklin
Franklin is a true senior with tons of starting experience. He started out hot with 19 receptions in Boston College’s first 3 games, then cooled off with 7 catches in their next 4 games, and made 5 more last week against Louisville. He’s 25 receptions away from 100 in his career and without a bowl game for the Eagles, Franklin probably won’t hit that milestone.
S KP Price
Slim pickings from this defense that has been very poor this season. I’ll pick true junior safety KP Price who was named captain ahead of 2025 and at least has a decent resume of playmaking ability over the last couple years.
Bad Matchup
Rat Poison
This is one of the worst Boston College teams in recent memory. It’s college football so literally anything can happen but Notre Dame would really have to be overconfident and overlooking the opponent to make this a close game.
Good Matchup
Rolling the Ball Out on Offense
Pick a defensive metric and Boston College is pretty woeful in that department. For example:
- 116th in SP+
- 117th in FEI
- 110th in YPP Allowed
- 110th in Yards Allowed
- 100th in Rushing Yards Allowed/Game
- 112th in Passing Yards Allowed/Game
- 126th in Average Points Allowed/Game
Bill O’Brien has some sense on offense and they tried to play keep away from Louisville last week, limiting the Cardinals to just 22 snaps in the first half. The problem was Boston College allowed 246 yards at 11.1 yards per play.
Special Teams
Redshirt junior corner Isaiah Farris is pulling double duty and returning punts for the Eagles. I think their special teams is still holding tryouts for the kick returner job–6 different players have taken at least one kick back in 2025.
In addition to Florio winning the punting job, redshirt junior Luca Lombardo is in his first year as the starting field goal kicker. He’s having a nice year going 11 for 11 with a couple of field goals over 50 yards already. Team MVP perhaps?
Prediction
In this era of college football, if you’re not reloading your roster every year it’s going to be tough to survive at the power conference level. The Eagles came into 2025 with a good secondary but have suffered a bunch of injuries. They had to replace all 4 starters up front on the defensive line from a year ago (including ACC star and 44th overall pick to the Cowboys in Donovan Ezeiruaku), targeted a bunch of guys at smaller schools, and it hasn’t worked out at all.
Anyone care about this trophy?
BC had a good defense last year but I’m guessing coordinator Tim Lewis will be on his way out this off-season. He was a weird pick to begin with (O’Brien has really leaned heavily into the pro ranks for his staff) and someone approaching his mid-60’s probably isn’t going to gin up a ton of excitement to recruit people to the Eagles.
They’ve been a little better on offense but not by much. They haven’t scored more than 27 points in regulation against anyone since the opener against Fordham and there are question marks about who will be starting at quarterback against the Irish. Grayson James looked a little banged up during the Louisville game last week, although O’Brien played things off cagey this week in the media and implied they were waiting to make a decision because why give Notre Dame that info ahead of time, right? James is by far the more experience quarterback (676 attempts, he played quite a bit at FIU and saw several starts late last year with BC) while Lonergan (205 attempts) is still developing. I don’t think it’ll matter too much who gets the call, the Eagles’ offensive line has been so banged up, injured, and re-shuffled this year that either quarterback could be in for a long day.
Thanks again, Eric. Gotta confess, I still get kinda spooked when it comes to BC, having been at the ’93 very spooky moment, and then there in Willingham’s first season when that bubble burst, like blooie.
Having said that, I appreciate the measured tone in this preview. I’m thinking that our O-line may have a decent chance to develop the newer guys (what are we, down to our summertime projected 3rd string?) And I’m hoping that this game plays into MF’s mantra on being on every play the best version of oneself.
Does Christian Gray get limited snaps, to keep him on the path of recovering from his fatigue and from as yet never named injuries?
The biggest challenge in this game is keeping everyone focused on the task at hand. Challenge the defense to pitch a shutout, challenge the offense to put up a record number of rushing TD’s, execute on every play and keep improving your craft.
Should meet or exceed season high score of 56, hoping for the shutout, but I think O’Brien finds a way to get a few points. BC = 6.
God that 2002 BC game was my worst experience in ND stadium by far. Ugly ugly ugly ugly game.
Yep! My boys and I were right behind the ND sideline at (for once 🙂 at the 50 yard line. And then that fumble right into the BC guy’s hands — like a handoff to him actually. Yuck.
It feels nice to have a level of confidence in Marcus Freeman and this team that they know they can’t afford any slip up and need to be 100% locked in. I’m feeling good about this one being v comfortable.
Now don’t make me regret saying that, guys •knocks on wood•
https://nb.scene7.com/is/content/NB/video/2025/Q3/BCFOOTBALL_40_16x9_FINAL_sfra.mp4 New Balance
It’s funny how much that video focuses on making the jersey. Seems like that is the easiest part. Maybe focus on learning how to make cleats (they don’t have football cleats on their website) or the overall design.
That said, love me some new balance.
Living in Mass, the worst part of this “rivalry” is, BC loses, “I’m not a fan, who cares?” BC wins, “For Boston For Boston” at the top of their lungs.
Reminder to everyone that BC also likes playing Shipping Up to Boston, and that it’s absolutely ridiculous that we play that song at all of our games. All the fantastic Irish music in the world, and that’s what we pick. I want someone fired for lack of creativity.
The song sucks, IMO.
Mmmmm no. It’s an unequivocally good song. They should add death to my hometown by Springsteen and the intro to boondock saints.
Let me elaborate…
*I don’t think it’s a good ‘stadium’ song in any general sense. An intro featuring banjo!?? No thanks.
*Celtic punk is weird and not a popular enough musical style.
*The song is used by BC!
Maybe I’m in the minority. Trying for Celtic/Irish sea shanty songs with bagpipes flutes, and violins isn’t a real thrilling decision.
Here’s an idea, let’s play Sweet Caroline before the 4th quarter! Everyone loves singing Sweet Caroline!
I personally think the transition from Here Come the Irish into Shipping Up to Boston is well done and serves as a good intro, but I’m curious what others would like!
What would be your top selections for Irish intro music?
Personally, my thoughts would be:
My screw it, full Celtic bastardization honorable mentions are Bagpipe Freebird or this Thunderstruck/Long Way to the Top mashup
All the anti Shipping Up comments are duly noted, and reasonable. Indeed, my old rhythm guitar player in our ND first ever r&b band went on to win awards in Ireland playing the hammered dulcimer (!) and he was completely in agreement with Eric.
But I will just say that IllinIrish20’s point in that the song serves as a good intro to amp up the crowd is true. We struggled for many years to get to a good mix to get everyone frenzied at kickoff, so i guess I’m saying, if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.