Kuechly and Flutie Press Conference

By Kyle Maslan and Michael Graziano

Tomorrow Boston College will retire Luke Kuechly’s jersey before the 12:30 game against the Syracuse Orange. To celebrate the moment, Boston College brought in Kuechly, and the great Doug Flutie to talk about their experiences at BC and what this means to them.

Kuechly started the conference by stating how much of an honor it was for him to be back at the alma mater dear to his heart. He went into how much it meant to have Flutie next to him. “During summer workouts we all hoped that we would join Flutie in having our jerseys retired,” said Kuechly.

He continued to talk about how he chose BC, as he was looking for a place to provide him with something beyond just football, which he found here with the city of Boston and top-notch academics to go along with ACC football. After first coming to campus, he learned very quickly what was expected of him on the football field – “ playing hard, playing tough.” Veterans Wes Davis and Mark Herzlich made this expectation clear through words and actions. Herzlich came to practice through chemotherapy, while others ran stairs with sandbags on their backs. Going back to a common motto – make practice hard so the game feels easy. Kuechly went on to credit those influences along with coach Bill McGovern for connecting with him on and off the field, for enforcing his motor, that is still shown today in Carolina.

After going to the NFL, Kuechly did return to campus and used two offseasons to complete his degree, “because my mom told me to.” When looking at the current state of BC football, Kuechly lives through Matt Milano and Connor Strachan due to the energy with which they play the game, following the style of play he had at the Heights.

Flutie started by talking about how proud he is to be joined by Kuechly in the rafters at Alumni Stadium. Describing who the Boston College athlete is, and the type of character they should have, “BC should be an important part of who they are” and that they “play tough, and are always here to get their education.”

When asked about his role with Boston College and becoming the face of it, Flutie said he sees himself as one of “the old guys who played here.” But he seemed very grateful about being part of “kick-starting the program”. That bringing the program back to prominence they were just having fun and going out to play ball. The team was never intimidated by the big schools – Alabama, Clemson, Penn State and the like, they were instead “naive” and just absorbed the atmosphere and played the game they loved. “It was a fun time to be at Boston College.”

Asking Flutie about Kuechly specifically and being the quarterback of a defense, Flutie proclaimed that the defense “makes just as many adjustments as the offense does because they have to react to what they see in front of them.” Kuechly, and most middle linebackers, need to adjust from the called play to put their team in the the best position to succeed. He ended with the greatest compliment a New Englander can give another football player: “[Kuechly] carries himself like Tom Brady.”