Boston College will have just four scholarship players available for Tuesday’s matchup against No. 20 Florida State because of COVID-19 protocols.
Boston College head coach Jim Christian said Monday that he’ll rely on his scout team to fill the spots on his roster.
Steffon Mitchell, CJ Felder, Jay Heath, and Kamari Williams are the four scholarship players who will be available Tuesday, along with walk-ons Andrew Kenny, Sam Holtze, Will Jackowitz, and Quinn Pemberton. Within the latter group, Kenny (11 minutes), Holtze (two) and Jackowitz (two) have combined to log 15 minutes total this season, while. Pemberton has not played.
Christian said Kenny, who has scored five points this season, will start against the Seminoles.
“Our administration made the decision that the game needs to be played,” Christian said. “They know how I feel about it, but once that decision is made my job is to get these guys ready. To let you know, we’ve spent the last two days trying to teach five guys our basic defense and offense so we could play Florida State on Tuesday night. [School administrators] know my opinion. It’s not easy to do. It’s a tough situation. I don’t think anybody in the country has attempted to do that.”
Boston College, 3-10 overall and 1-6 in the ACC, hasn’t played since Jan. 16. The team paused all activities on Jan. 20 due to a round of positive tests, and games against Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh, Clemson and Louisville were all postponed.
But the Eagles recently returned to practice, albeit at less than 100%, to prepare for Tuesday’s game. Additional players could be cleared later this week, according to Christian, who said the ACC’s rules on a minimum number of players are “vague.”
While other leagues have minimum standards for available players for a game to proceed, the ACC’s protocols aren’t as specific. But Christian said his school’s health officials have told him a team needs eight available players to compete in a league game.
Christian said he’s proud of his walk-ons, who’ve helped prepare the team all year, but admitted this is an undertaking that has been difficult to navigate.
“It’s a unique situation that we just have to muddle through and do the best we can,” he said.