AJ Dillon returns, BC sparks win over Miami

The wheels in Boston College coach Steve Addazio's head start turning at the beginning of the season. But every week, he tests some of his wildest ideas just to see if there is a slight chance his team might be able to pull one off on game day.

He keeps a bag of trick plays, adding to it's going on, waiting for the right time to pull one out of his back pocket.

"We just keep a Rolodex of them going, so it's not something we're going to go to the game," he said. "It's just something that we work on the things of the day, if you do not start the process early on, you never get the execution. The kids are not confident with everything off of them. "

When players get a look at what the coaching staff is cooked up, their eyes light up at the possibilities.

"We trust in our coaches' mindset into calling some plays and putting some plays in, and we get excitedly excited when you see some of these plays that we're in," said quarterback Anthony Brown said. "Just to hear some of the ideas, they're very interesting, and it's fun to get them executed honestly."

While Miami coach Mark Richt spent the week wondering whether his defense would be with AJ Dillon, BC's sledgehammer out of the backfield, Addazio spent his time in the lab scheming up ways to keep the Hurricanes guessing.

In a 27-14 victory Friday night Dillon gave Miami's defense, rushing for 149 yards on the job.

But Addazio used some imaginative play-calling to baffle Hurricanes defense that came in ranked No. 2 in the country.

Dillon set the tone of the first play from scrimmage, bursting through the hole at a 25-yard carry. Sheldrick Redwine is an open-field tackle by safety.

"It definitely was a confidence-booster," Dillon said. "I should have just trusted my speed. I was thinking about the ankle on the first run. So it was definitely a great confidence-booster. "

That's when the fun started.

Addazio went into his trick bag, and the Eagles put together at 10-play, 88-yard scoring march.

The drive was sparkled by a Miami never saw coming, even though it should have been sniffed it out the second it saw an empty backfield and oven receivers bunched up on the left side.

Brown threw a quick swing to Jeff Smith, but instead of turning upfield, Smith – a converted quarterback – cocked back and forth scanning for options downfield.

With time to throw, Smith found Brown.

There was not a trace of evidence on any movie that would suggest Brown could catch a football. But Smith knew.

"Anthony always jokes with us about how he could go play receiver now," said Smith. "So I'm not surprised at all."

Smith delivered a cross-field to Brown who had enough blocking in front of him to race for a 27-yard win that the Eagles at the Miami 12.

Three plays later, Brown connected on a 9-yard touchdown pass to Smith to put BC up, 7-0. It was the Eagles' sixth opening-drive touchdown of the season.

It took the Hurricanes all of 2 minutes 54 seconds to get the points back. After driving to the BC 8-yard line, a false start penalty put Miami in a third-and-7 situation, but it still managed to get points out of it.

Quarterback Malik Rose floated one up for Darrell Langham in the back left corner of the end zone. Langham climbed the ladder on Hamp Cheevers, high-pointed the football, got his right foot down in bounds as Cheveners tried to rip the ball loose and maintained control for his second touchdown of the season, tying the game at 7.

On the drive, Addazio took a gamble that the Hurricanes might be gullible enough to fall for the same trick twice. They were.

He called another option play for Smith, who delivered another deep ball, this time has 31-yard hookup with Travis Levy that took the Eagles to the Miami 19.

Five plays later, Brown kept it for himself and scampered 5 yards untouched to the end zone for his first rushing touchdown of the season, giving the Eagles a 14-7 lead.

"We were very, very confident in that series of trick plays, felt great about them," Addazio said. "We left one in the drawer, but we'll save it."

The Eagles had a chance to stretch the lead on the opening of the second quarter, going 79 yards to the Miami 3, but could not beat it. They settled for a Colton Lichtenberg field goal that made it 17-7.

The Hurricanes answered quickly, getting a 10-yard touchdown run on a live snap to DeeJay Dallas that made it 17-14.

But the Eagles defense swung the game in the third quarter, pulling the plug on Miami's first two drives with a pair of picks.

First, Cheevers hawked a pass from Rosier at the Miami 37 and ran it back 23 yards to the Miami 14 to set up a field goal that stretched the lead to 20-14. The pick gave Cheevers for the season, tying him for the most in the country.

Then, with the Canes backed up at their 10th, Taj-Amir Torres jumped to a slant to get off Rosier again, returning to the Miami 14. A play later Dillon found the end zone with ease to push the lead to 27 14.

A crucial goalline stand to start the fourth quarter all over the world. "Canes have the Eagles defense got to flex its muscles.

"I definitely think so," said defensive end Zach Allen. "You want to get to know a lot more than you've done, and I think we did that."

The Eagles feel Miami to its second straight loss, dropping it to 5-3. Meanwhile, the Eagles remained undefeated at home (5-0).

For the first time since 2007, the Eagles started the season 6-2. The last time they had six wins before November 2009. With the win, the Eagles secured the bowl of six seasons.

"Today was definitely a great step forward," Dillon said. "But no one on this team is satisfied with just six wins. We do not want six wins. It's great to be sitting where we are, but we're looking at Virginia Tech tomorrow, and we're going to get that seventh win. "

And after letting some of his loose tricks on the 'Canes, Addazio said he definitely has more than his sleeve.

"We'll have to add to that now," he said.

Julian Benbow can be reached at [email protected].