Birds Win. We are Back.

Obviously this was a must win, and a game we all knew would win, but it still feels good to actually win after the last 3 weeks. Let's all hope Va Tech wins tonight so we can shock the world against a top 10 team next Saturday night. Birds are so fucking back.

PS Fuck @FireSteveAddazio

Lotta Dudes Week 5 - Central Michigan

After a hard-fought game in Death Valley, the Matts are back and much more civilized than last week's Addazio-fueled arguments. We look at what right and what went wrong for the Birds in their upset bid last Saturday, and look ahead to the always thrilling Central Michigan Chippewas. Segments include Dude or Pooed, Eagles in the Wild, Starting 5 Notable Alumni, and we take a look around the ACC with our newest segment, "Dudeus Corpus". Always a Great Day to Be A Dude.

Throwback Thursday - Manti Teo

Happy Five Year Anniversary to the tragic death of Manti Teo's imaginary girlfriend. RIP Lenny Kekua. Tell you what, this story has everything. You had catfishing before catfishing was a thing, Manti knowing it was a hoax and continuing to keep up the lie in interviews for months afterwards, Marques Tuiasosopo's cousin, the list goes on. Play like your fake girlfriend died today!

Lotta Dudes Episode 3 - Notre Dame Week

It's Notre Dame week, and the boys are back to bring you a jam packed episode. Brief recap of the dumpster fire that was the Wake game, followed by a full slate of segments to get you fired up for Saturday. Hate Week train is rolling along, get on board! #BeatND

Update: We Actually Stink

Not much more to add to here. Yesterday was an abomination. Even if we "right the ship" and play like twice as good the rest of the way I only see 3 or 4 more wins on the schedule. We need to figure out some MAJOR overhauls asap, or else next week might end up being the most embarrassing loss we've had to ND in our long rivalry losing streak. The real shame is that we'll have to change our URL, twitter handle, and podcast name next season once the Dude is out (fingers crossed for the Moorhead jokes though). So much blame to go around, but just sucks to realize that for 3rd straight year the birds are most likely going to actually be really bad and tough to watch, just 2 weeks into what I (naively) thought was going to be a surprising/optimistic year. Road to 10-2 is officially postponed barring a different team wearing maroon and gold next week.

Dudes Choose - Week 2

Quick edition of Dudes Choose this week since I'm running out the door to Deweys - here are a couple of quick hitter thoughts:

• Good thing Wake/BC is not on the board this week, this game is unpickable. My official revised prediction is 26-25 BC in 3OT.
•  I hate to admit it, but I'm such a Kiffin guy. Upset alert in Madison - the Owls win straight up!
• Of course ND is fucking ranked already. That's what a big win over Temple after a 4-8 year will get you, I guess. As difficult as it is to root for them, I want them so badly to come to Chestnut Hill next week undefeated. If they knock off UGA (who by the way is playing their backup QB), they'll probably be top ten.

New Tailgating Restrictions: Not Actually A Big Deal

So I've seen a ton of backlash to the new Brighton tailgating regulations announced by the Flynn Fund this week - namely, that in order to get into the Brighton tailgate lot you now need a game ticket. From what I've seen in a few tweets/comments/posts people seem to be FURIOUS (to be fair this is not necessarily indicative of the full fan base but it was certainly enough to notice). Here at 4th And Dude we like to make our stances as clear as possible with no room to go back on if it turns out to be super wrong, so here is mine: if you are upset about these new rules then you are being a gigantic Pussy. Yes, capital P, deal with it.

Maybe it's because we fought alongside our brothers in the Great USC Wristband Battle at Shea Field, so we know how bad these things can actually get, but being angry about needing a single game ticket in order to tailgate is the biggest unnecessary outrage since the UGBC election scandal of 2012. First off, tickets to literally every game (except ND) cost less than $10 on StubHub right now. At worst, think of this as an incredibly cheap bar cover to allow you to drink for free outside for 3 hours. If literally any place in America offered that deal you would be there in a heartbeat, so why the anger here?

Second, look at this from BC's perspective - this is an absolute no brainer. If you have no interest in supporting the Eagles why do you believe they have to just give you the unalienable right to tailgate? Think about it this way: if you were throwing a Project X style BYOB house party for your birthday - you hired the band, security, cleaned the whole place up, spent literally months sweet talking your neighbors into not caring about the noise for 8 hours, dumped a ton of money into alcohol permitting - and some friend of a friend who you've never met walks in, starts eating your finger sandwiches, peeing on your toilet seat, waking the neighbors, doesn't bring a gift, and leaves before singing Happy Birthday? You'd say "Fuck that guy, who's friend was that? What an asshole". Kind of the same thing here. What on earth does BC get by allowing you to just do whatever the hell you want on campus for 6 hours with zero intention of supporting the birds in any capacity? I'll admit this metaphor went kind of off the rails but I like it.

Look, if you don't care about the Eagles then quite frankly you don't deserve Brighton. Yes that's a hot take but honestly, what makes Brighton so awesome (and college football tailgating in general) is that you're surrounded by other people who give a shit about your squad, the collective optimism/excitement you feel pregame, hoping for the payoff of a post-win post-tailgate, or praying that just once we'll have that big game energy leading up to a top 25 showdown later in the year. You can't only take the good, it's a package deal and that's what will always make football tailgates special.

At the end of the day, this is such a nothing controversy that has people getting upset because they have nothing else to get upset about. The wristbands were a bad policy - that said "hey you paid a bunch of money for the spot but only 6 people can come". This says "hey you spent a bunch of money for the spot and literally 44,500 people can come if they have any (even fake) intention of coming to the game afterwards". This is not the Brad Bates era anymore, thank God, so we need to stop assuming the worst. This is a win win for both BC and fans. I don't know about you, but I'm taking the trade of "you can drink and grill outside for 3 to 5 hours and play cornhole and shotgun etc, and in return you have to watch the school your tailgating at's football game afterwards" any day of the week, and twice on Saturday (literally, ha!).

And if this is the hill you choose to die on, pay a ton more (much more than season tickets, by the way) and go to the Mod lot next year. Unlike college, you don't need to know someone to get in there.

Go birds. It's tailgate season, and it'll be over before you know it. Just try to enjoy it.

Throwback Thursday – When BC/Wake Mattered

I know, I know, it’s Friday. In my defense, I had an electric Coach P blog yesterday, and I was a little busy dealing with the Pats’ meltdown last night. Plus I was late on 90% of school assignments at BC, so this was bound to happen eventually.

Today’s special edition #TBT throws us back to November 4, 2006. #22 Wake Forest hosting #16 Boston College. Take a look at that those bizarro-ACC standings up there, and let it sink in for a second. BC and Wake not only playing a meaningful football game, but playing in primetime Saturday night under the lights, with first place in the ACC on the line. BC is absolutely stacked on D with future NFLers like Raji, Brace, Toal, Herzlich, Albright and Jamie Silva. They have Brandon Robinson and Rich Gunnell at receiver. You have LV Whitworth and Callendar in the backfield. And oh yeah, you got Matty Ice slinging the rock.

(WARNING: DO NOT CLICK PLAY UNLESS YOU HAVE A HALF HOUR TO KILL, YOU WILL GET SUCKED IN)

Ryan outduels Riley Skinner, who I believe was in Year 1 of his 14-year collegiate career, going 40 for 57 and torching the Wake D for 402 yards. But turnovers kill the Eagles and the Deacs steal this one 21-14 on a couple of big plays. Wake would go on to win the conference that year, defeating GTech 6-9 in the ugliest/nicest ACC championship in history. The Eagles meanwhile, go 9-3, and head coach Tom O’Brien gets run out of town. Highly-regarded D-Coordinator Frank Spaziani gets the nod as interim head coach for the bowl game, and pulls off a last-second, comeback win in the Meineke Car Care Bowl against Navy. I remember jumping for joy as Aponavicius’ go-ahead FG sailed through the uprights as time expired. Little did I know, however, that that kick would plant the seeds that would doom all four of my football seasons as a Boston College student, as Spaz became head coach for good two years later.

Wake Predictions

I'll be honest I have a bad feeling about this weekend. Baker is out, which means we're plugging in a 260lb freshmen at Center into a line that looked weak against a MAC team last Friday night. The defense was underwhelming and never got any pressure in the backfield all game. Obviously both of these are especially concerning as I think we all agree this is going to come down to the trenches when both teams have the ball (as discussed on Lotta Dudes episode 2, listen now!). On offense, loved our tempo and AB showed some nice flashes, but we still only found the end zone two times despite 92 plays (shoutout to Colton Lichtenberg, my official Week 1 Dude Of The Week).

But with all of that said, this is a new era for the Birds. As mediocre as we looked on Friday I think we'd all agree that there is a TON of potential. Coming back to the Heights and a normal game week calendar should be all we need to keep that progression going. Beautiful day, ACC opener in front of a large (rowdy?), home crowd (reports are nearly 40k tickets purchased, hopefully beer helps with noise and retaining people throughout), and most importantly, the chance to go 2-0. Should be all the Maroon and Gold need to come out of the gates firing, build on last week, and get a huge early win to start the ACC slate.

Official predictions:
Matt: 17-16
Matt: 17-13

Road To 10-2 Rolls On!!

Film Room - Northern Illinois

This is Paul Pasqualoni, BC’s defensive line coach. Why is he so confused? Well, Coach P turns 69 next August. He’s seen a lot. He’s been coaching football since 1972. He was the head coach of Syracuse for 13 years. He had a brief stint as the D-Coordinator for the Miami Dolphins. Coach P even volunteered to coach an intramural team (UConn) between 2011 and 2013. Needless to say, he has seen his share of bad football. But Coach P has never seen a defensive breakdown like the one that BC put on display on national television last Friday night.

There’s not a heck of a lot to even analyze here. I don’t know if we have tapped into the youth football coach market yet, but all you have to do is show your team this and tell them to do the opposite. In fact, I retired from football in middle school (after leading the league in fumbles), but I can still tell you that the sole job of the defensive end, if you do nothing else, is to not lose contain on the outside. You CANNOT get duped by the play-action and wander inside here if you’re Zach Allen. But if you do, you ABSOLUTELY CANNOT allow yourself to get stiff-armed by Ryan Graham, one of the worst QBs in the MAC. This isn’t Jordan Lynch. This is a below-average, 5.2-40, ginger, Northern Illinois QB that is shoving your face into the Dekalb turf.

And I’m not just going to pick on Allen here. Take a look at the bottom left corner after the ball is snapped. What in the FUCK are these guys doing? You have Yiadom and Strachan who shifted over to press coverage on the twins-right formation, who are looking in the exact opposite direction of the ball as soon as it’s snapped. The NIU receivers look like they are legitimately confused as these guys are clearing out the entire left side of the field for their loser QB to run through.

My last bone to pick is with D-Coordinator Jim Reid (who actually coached with Pasqualoni in Miami back in the day, small world). In what universe does this play call make sense? Colt Lichtenberg just nailed a huge 42-yarder to tie the ballgame. This is the Huskies first play from scrimmage after the kickoff. There is 9 seconds to go in the first quarter. And we’re going to call an all-out blitz? Like the suicide blitz play call in NFL Blitz 1999 where you send the house and if you don’t get the sack it’s an automatic TD? Actually, you do have the safety 50 yards away, is this a punt block?

Bottom line, this cannot happen again. This play ended the first quarter, and on the very next play, NIU scored their first TD to go up by 7. Both of Wake’s QBs are dual-threats, so we’ll find out this weekend if the boys learned their lesson. If not, almost-69-year-old Coach P might run out there and form tackle the guy himself.

Bring Natty to Alumni

So 3 days from now Alumni will start selling beer and wine for the first time ever (outside of the luxury boxes). As someone who’s had the pleasure of knocking down a few suite colas a few years back, let me say there is something tremendously special about drinking in a place you’re not used to drinking in, especially while watching your college football team. Very exciting times ahead, and great job by the new AD right outta the gate. Anyways, there are a few things I’ll be pretty interested to hear about come Saturday’s beer rollout – prices, locations (definitely far away from student/young alumni is my guess, unfortunately), how long the lines are, and actual selection. No, I don’t even remotely care about what local craft or fall IPA they go with (there is another BC Blogger out there for that intel). Instead, I’ll be watching closely with my fingers crossed to see if Marty J respects the values of Boston College enough to include Natty Light on the menu.

Maybe I’m in the minority here (I’m definitely in the minority here), but I’m a firm believer in that a school’s consensus cheap cola is woven into the fabric of the institution. We are, without a doubt, a Natty school. I don’t know why, I don’t know how, but it is what it is and I couldn’t be prouder. Busch and Keystone taste the same, cost the same, but the only way you’re carrying one of their 30’s out of the Res beer fridge (heaven on earth by the way, if Res was smart they would rent it out for birthday parties or something) is if they’re all out of the red silver and blue (or if you went to Umass, Uconn, Framingham State, Notre Dame, UNH, or about 1000 other Busch/Keystone schools. Gross. No Offense.). I like to think this has been passed down from many generations before us (maybe that Gordie Howe ad went viral in the mods?), and will continue on the Heights long after we’re gone. Natural Light is truly a Boston College institution, right alongside Lower Steak & Cheeses, Mary Anne’s, and freshmen guys never getting into Mod parties. So with all of that said, please, Martin, add Natty to the list this weekend. I’m sure the menu will have one of the big 3 lights*, probably something to make the beer snobs happy too, but I really don’t care about any of that; Just give us the sweet Natty nectar 6 Saturday’s each fall, and allow Eagle alumni from near and far to truly feel back home.

*Let me say loud and clear that I do not remotely care about which “big 3” light beer we go with, and if you say you do because of taste you are a liar/bad guy. Yes gun to my head I’d pick Bud Light, but that’s just cause they have the best ads of the 3, I like the color blue, and everyone knows I’m a follower when it comes to big brands. But if you say even for a second “damn, this place only has Coors?” or start talking about which one tastes the best then you go right to hell, because I’m here to chew bubblegum and tell liars to go to hell, and I’m all out of bubblegum. They are, quite literally, all the exact same thing in different cans, and saying they’re not is just a weak attempt to try to act like you’re smarter than the rest of us. I’m not buying it.

Anyways, that was talking bro sodas and missing college. Thank you for your time.

Lotta Dudes, Week 2 (Wake Forest)

Fresh off a nail-biting season opening win over Northern Illinois, Lotta Dudes (presented by 4th And Dude and Bus Productions) is back to recap Friday night in Dekalb and look ahead to the ACC opener with Wake Forest. Segments include Dude of the Week (21:00), Starting 5 Opponent Alumni (27:40), Tailgateability Rankings (35:00), and everyone's favorite new game "Dude or Pooed" is back (24:00)! Everything's better when the Birds are undefeated, the Road to 10-2 rolls on!

Dudes Choose - Week 1

College football is back baby! Looking forward to 12 hours on the couch today after the emotional roller coaster last night. Turns out I am actually electric when it comes to gambling (132-115 last year), so I figured I would offer up my trade secrets:

·       Texas has a new sheriff in town and will be desperate for a W – unfortunately, they lost one of my all-time favorite players, Tyrone “18 Wheeler” Swoopes. Give me UMD and the points. MARYLAND

·       Even with DeShaun Watson, Clemson started slow last year, almost losing to Troy in Week 2. New QB Kelly Bryant may need a game to work out the kinks. KENT STATE

·       See Texas – Dantonio needs a good showing out of the gate, MSU by a million. MICHIGAN STATE

·       Cal apparently stinks? I don’t expect much from UNC this year, but when in doubt #goACC NORTH CAROLINA

·       NC State is historically pretty good against the spread (9-4 last year), but that’s mostly because they play the big dogs close. Gamecocks win outright, and everyone immediately changes their mind about NC State as their ACC dark horse for the tenth year in a row. SOUTH CAROLINA

·       I don’t think my bookie updated the line after the Gators suspended half the team over the past two weeks. MICHIGAN

·       The Sooners have a roadtrip to Columbus next week, so they’re get out to a quick lead and let the backups take over in the second half. The Miners gets the backdoor cover. UTEP

·       TEMPLE

·       The PJ Fleck-less Broncos not only lost their head coach, but also star QB Terell and WR Corey Davis. Not a big Darnold guy, but the Trojans take care of business. USC

·       This is a popular upset pick, seemingly because of a game that happened 10 years ago. You know how you get ahead in these pick’em pools? You take the favorite when everyone else takes the dog. GEORGIA

·       Lamar loves running up the score, he wants that Heisman again. LOUISVILLE

·       Saban is 10-0 against former assistants (average margin of victory of 30 points). The FSU OL can’t protect Francois, Derwin James is overrated and shouldn’t be mentioned in the same sentence as Harold Landry, and I don’t think this is as close as everyone thinks. ALABAMA

·       BYU already played last week, and barely escaped with a win against Portland State. Coach O ain’t losing to a bunch of Mormons. LSU

·       VT lost a ton from last year’s team – is Fuente the real deal, or was last year a fluke with Beamer’s top guys? This will be a close one, I’m taking the points. WEST VIRGINIA

·       Josh Rosen reminds me of my buddy Matt’s junior year drunk alter ego. TEXAS A&M

·       Everyone in the ACC Coastal is garbage this year, and GT is no different. They were in a rebuilding year to begin with and just dismissed top RB Dederick Mills – could be a long year for the Yellow Jackets. TENNESSEE

A Win is a Win

It was not pretty, but they don't have to be. A win is a win is a win. Definitely closer than we wanted/guessed, but a lot of positives to take out of Dekalb. AB looked pretty good for first career action (also disregard every one of our predictions since all of our eggs were in the Wade basket), and  more importantly, holy shit we can actually kick this year? Tons of reaction coming up in the blog and Lotta Dudes episode 2 (release Wednesday morning) so stay tuned. Road to 10 and 2 is still on!

Northern Illinois LIVE BLOG

Another season in the trenches. Time to get it started it on a high note. Reports are Brown is getting the nod so hold onto your butts (and also there goes my Dude of the Week). Let's go Birds! #DuedOrPooed

Northern Illinois Preview and Predictions

Little over 7 hours till Gametime, so let’s hit with you some previews and predictions. We’re both in agreement that this should (big time fingers crossed) be an easy road for the birds, so we’ll keep this short and sweet. We win handedly tonight for 3 reasons:

1) The Huskies sport a relatively weak/inexperienced defense (even by MAC standards), which should make for an easy introduction for our inexperienced QB. Additionally, our O-Line (which has made GAINS in the offseason) should get all the push they want and open up plenty of holes for our stable of running backs. I’m expecting us to virtually move the ball at will, barring overly conservative playcalling.

2) On the offensive side of the ball, their “strength” is their run game and O-line. I put strength in quotes because again this is all relative to the MAC. Our front 7 should be able to stop some of the better rushing attacks in the ACC this year, so I do not expect the Huskies ground game to be any match for Dirty Harry and the Boys.

3) The last time we played NIU was in the nightmare of a year that was 2015. Wade got hurt the previous game, so it was the start of the always exciting Flutie/Fadule/Smith experiment era. That was a pretty good NIU team by their standards (MAC division champions that year). We had Chase Herbstreit picking against us live on SportsCenter. And with all of that, we still managed to beat them 17-14, with both of their TD’s coming from defense/special teams. This is a much less experienced NIU team we play tonight, and I think we’d agree our offense should be much stronger. If we could beat them at our absolute worst, I just can’t see any scenario in which they hang with us tonight.

So there you have it. Should be a smooth start to the year for the Eagles tonight, this one is never in doubt from the kickoff. Official predictions are:

Matt (me): 31-13 BC

Matt (the other one): 20-3 BC

And we feel good about our squad going into ACC play next week. If you’re in NYC we’ll see you at Dewey’s pub tonight (the new BC gamewatch bar) – get there at 9 for a half hour of free Bud Light before kickoff. Great Day to be a Dude!

Eddie Odio - Off the Market

I know it's Gameday but just wanted to give a quick congrats to friend of the program and king of vowels Eddie Odio on his engagement yesterday. Despite our record over the past 8 years we've had no shortage of massive fan favorites, and I think El Nariz belongs right at the top of the list. The guy could flat out sky, and his alley oop against Duke was without a doubt the loudest Conte ever got in our years on the Heights. Plus anyone on the team that beat Cuse will always have a special place in my heart (looking at you KC Caudill). It also doesn't hurt that he accepted my Ice Bucket Challenge in 2014 (humble brag), so you can add "humanitarian" to his resume too. Anyways congrats to Eddie and his new fiancé!