The Boston College football program might have brought in over 20 players in the transfer portal, a new defensive coordinator, and several new position coaches to change its team dynamic following an utterly disastrous 2-10 campaign.

But many of the same problems that pitted the Eagles in 2025 were present in Saturday’s season opener at Cincinnati.

There were promising moments in the game, and the way that transfer quarterback Mason McKenzie played in his first-ever FBS start was commendable, as he never showed any quit — even after some brutal collisions that could have ended much worse than the way they did.

But faults such as pre-snap penalties, lack of special-teams execution, and a costly no-touchdown call at the end of the first half were ultimately too difficult to overcome for the Eagles in their 34-15 loss to the Bearcats (1-0).

Cincinnati didn’t play flawlessly by any means, either, but BC (0-1) just could not stimulate enough positives to outweigh the negatives.

The Bearcats took the first lead of the game on Stephen Rusnak’s 54-yard field goal, the longest of his career, after a short first drive of the game for BC, which received the opening kickoff.

The two plays prior to the field goal consisted of a Kris Jones tackle for loss and a combined sack for Christian Hudson and E’LIa Boykin to set up the long fourth down.

While the Eagles remained stagnant offensively into the second quarter, Cincinnati capitalized on a converted fake punt on 4th-and-5 from its own 39-yard line with a 13-play, 80-yard touchdown drive to extend its lead to 10-0 with 7:48 left in the half.

JC French IV tossed his first touchdown pass of the year to cap off the scoring drive, dotting up JV Gibson on a four-yard slant with Ashton Cunningham in coverage. Gibson bobbled the ball initially but came down with it before making contact with the ground.

BC finally had some momentum in the waning minutes of the half and entered redzone territory with a 15-yard McKenzie run. 

After a timeout with 33 seconds left, however, McKenzie threw three incompletions in a row, the second of which appeared to have been caught by Danny Edgehille, who proceeded to fumble the ball and recover it in the endzone.

But the call on the field was an incompletion, and it stayed that way after a lengthy review by the officials — even though FOX’s rules analyst said on the broadcast it was a catch and fumble, recovered for a touchdown.

Then, Luca Lombardo, who knocked in 16 of 17 field-goal attempts for the Eagles last year, missed a 35-yarder to leave the Eagles scoreless entering halftime.

In the third, the Bearcats started to move the ball more efficiently, especially on the ground.

Nine of Cincinnati’s first 11 plays of the second half were runs, and the offense averaged 7.8 yards per carry on its first drive, which concluded with a four-yard rushing score for French to make it 17-0 Bearcats with 10:36 left in the quarter.

French registered his second rushing touchdown on the very next drive in similar fashion, as Cincinnati collected runs of eight, five, two, four, and 20 yards to march down the field into the redzone.

Following a quick pass of 12 yards to Gibson, the Georgia Southern transfer ran it in himself from four yards once again to increase his team’s lead to 24-0 after another successful Rusnak PAT.

The Eagles finally got on the scoreboard on the very next drive, as running back Evan Dickens, who totaled 47 rushing yards on 11 attempts in the game, trounced into the endzone from four yards as well to cut BC’s deficit down to 16 following a successful two-point conversion via McKenzie’s legs.

The Eagles then got the ball back at the start of the fourth quarter after forcing a three-and-out.

But after advancing all the way down to the Bearcats’ three-yard line, Dickens was swallowed up for a loss of two yards on second down, McKenzie threw an incompletion on third, and he was sacked for a loss of seven on 4th-and-5, resulting in a turnover on downs that took BC out of contention.

Rusnak nailed a 44-yarder with 5:00 left in the game and Cincinnati found the endzone once again with 1:59 remaining, as French garnered his third rushing score of the night.

With a minute left, McKenzie connected with Jonathan Montague Jr. for a 23-yard touchdown to make it a 34-15 final.

In the second half, BC starting center Michael Crounse and left tackle Veguer Jean-Jumeau exited the game with injuries, but BC head coach Bill O'Brien is hopeful they both will be fine.

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