Boston College quarterback Thomas Castellanos was on the receiving end of a BIG hit during Saturday’s college football game against the United States Military Academy. Except it wasn’t the Black Knights who laid the lumber…
It was the official.
Castellanos, who did not begin the year as the starter, took over for the Eagles after a loss in Week 1. He navigated a win over Holy Cross while being heckled by a rowdy crowd that withstood a massive thunderstorm during his first-career start, but lost back-to-back games to Florida State and Louisville.
Although Boston College got back on track with a close win over Virginia last week, its path to a bowl game is not easy. A win over Army on Saturday would go a long way.
Unfortunately, Castellanos and the Eagles were not only playing against the future servicemen of America. They also had to navigate the officiating crew — in a literal sense.
It was not that Boston College struggled with penalties during the first half. It was that the Umpire standing at midfield served as an extra defender for Army.
The Eagles ran an RPO and Castellanos kept the ball for a draw up the middle on 2nd-and-9 during the second quarter. He had a ton of space in front of him.
As Castellanos tried to break toward the far sideline, he had just one Black Knight to beat. However, the Umpire also posed a problem and did not get out of the way in time.
Castellanos ran directly into the official, who is built like a brick wall. The 5-foot-10, 196-pound quarterback got lit up.
He was absolutely trucked after an 8.5-yard gain and was stopped just shy of a first down.
Boston College ultimately moved the chains and put points on the board, so it was no big deal. Things could have gone a lot worse.
The saying “get out of the way or get run over” usually applies to college football officials. In this instance, it was more like “can’t get out of the way and run somebody over!”