Along with some lemon juice into the open sores of BC. Possibly the best quote from a losing coach trying to explain what happened. BC Coach Tom O’Brien talking about how his BC defense — formerly #19 in the country against the run — could allow 309 rushing yards by Syracuse:

“I never suspected that we wouldn’t be able to stop them the way we didn’t.”

Remember sentence diagrams from English class? I would hate to see how that sentence would look.

Guess what? BC feels it has suffered a lot in its last year in the Big East — unfairly, no less — so it will not schedule any games against Big East opponents in the future. Man, that’s rough.

You know, I mentioned it last year, that BC got no love or attention from the Boston media. And when they noticed after Pitt beat them for the 3rd straight time it wasn’t very positive. But now, as they had a chance for the BCS, both the Boston Globe and Herald were paying attention. This meant sending their top columnists. The Herald sent Steve Buckley (paid subscription), and the Globe sent the venerable Bob Ryan. Odds are, that maybe they’ll return for their first ACC home game, but not for much else.

There may have been gloomier, more depressing, and costlier days for a Boston College athletic team in the past 40 years, but I can’t think of one.

“Not a good day for BC football,” sighed an embarrassed Tom O’Brien. “We did not perform up to our expectations.”

Translation: “I never saw these kids before in my life.”

All BC had to do to get into a lucrative BCS Bowl — their first such game since the days of Flutie — was defeat a Syracuse team that wasn’t good enough to beat Temple, a team the league has decreed is not good enough to remain a member. The Eagles even had the added motivation of revenge, since all they seemed to be talking about this past week was how much they wanted to make amends for a 39-14 defeat at the Carrier Dome last year.

It was all there: revenge, the chance to make serious money for the school, and the prestige attached to playing in a BCS Bowl as the Big East champion in their farewell season before defecting to the Atlantic Coast Conference.

So how bad was this fiasco at The Heights yesterday? The 43-17 final score only hints at the true discrepancy between the teams. Syracuse, loser of 10 straight Big East road games, was admirable and efficient. Boston College, playing before a sellout Alumni Stadium crowd of 44,500, was lifeless and sloppy. Syracuse deserved this glorious victory. The BC players should have been sent to bed without their suppers.
…
With this game, BC is done with the Big East. There will be no future nostalgic friendlies, at least as long as O’Brien is around. “I am not going to play anybody in the Big East, for what we went through,” O’Brien hissed.

Obviously, there are scars from this regrettable conference switch that never will heal.

“I’m just glad it’s over with the Big East,” O’Brien continued. “It’s been a tough year and a half. It didn’t have to end this way . . . But, for whatever reason, there’s a lot of animosity toward Boston College.”

There sure is, but you’d like to think that no one this morning could loathe BC more than BC itself. A performance like this in a game like this is inexplicable. And inexcusable.

Heh. The coverage wasn’t very flattering from the regular reporters, either. Oh, and BC may need to find a bowl outside of the Big East tie-ins.