AMHERST — For three days, Jake Byczko was trading trash talk with some of his former high school teammates from Lawrence Academy.
The UMass sophomore defensive end is the only representative of the Massachusetts prep school on the Minutemen’s roster, but Boston College has eight former Spartans. He spent late Saturday, Sunday and Monday talking with friends like Eddy Fish and A.J. Dillon about Saturday’s 1 p.m. matchup between UMass and Boston College at Alumni Stadium in Chestnut Hill, but by Tuesday, business interests took over.
“It’s kind of died down right now,” Byczko said. “We’re just trying to focus on our own thing, we’re not really in contact from Tuesday all the way through game day so we can just focus on the game and try to get this win.”
UMass’ biggest goal is figuring out how to slow down Dillon, the Eagles’ workhorse running back who has appeared as a preseason All-American in several national publications. The sophomore finished just shy of 1,600 yards in his first year of college football, and he’s only gotten better according to BC coach Steve Addazio.
The sixth-year coach said Dillon has become more of an every-down back this season, and will be on the field for more snaps this year. Addazio said Boston College is going to try to get Dillon into space more by using him in the passing game after Dillon didn’t have a single reception last season.
UMass coach Mark Whipple said his team’s goal isn’t necessarily to stop Dillon, but limit the damage he inflicts.
“The running back makes the whole thing,” Whipple said. “They don’t have to block all seven or eight (defenders) and he’s still going to make yards. He’s special.”
Dillon has garnered so much national attention because of his unique skillset. He’s listed at 6 feet, 245 pounds, but runs with the strength of a back that size and the quickness of a 200-pounder. He’s patient enough to let the play develop and fast enough to explode through the holes Boston College’s offensive line opens for him.
Going against a player in the national spotlight is a fun challenge for the UMass defensive line, but the group also isn’t exaggerating the situation for themselves, either.
“It gives you extra juice because it sets the stage higher and you know it’s going to be a big game and a big game to do good in,” defensive tackle Mario Patton said. “But at the same time, I don’t let anybody else’s stats get to my head. I just play football. He’s just another person who puts pads on just like me.”
That has become the common idea expressed whenever any of the UMass defenders talk about Dillon. All of them praise Dillon for being one of the best running backs in the nation, but they also aren’t going to make a big deal about facing him Saturday.
“The key for us is to not make the competition bigger than what it is,” senior safety Tyler Hayes said. “We have scholarships just like them, we tie our cleats and our pads just like them. When we start making a monster Goliath when we’re really Goliath, too, things can go not the way we want. In preparation for A.J. Dillon or the rest of the BC offense, we just need to come hard and come fast and be physical this week.”
UMass’ plan to stop Dillon is predicated on the defense working together as one unit to corral the running back. Linebacker Chinedu Ogbonna said he saw a few times on film where one player didn’t want to tackle Dillon last year and didn’t do a good enough job containing him.
The sophomore said the Minutemen will combat that by making sure they swarm Dillon every time he gets the ball in order to stop his progress and not let him use his strength as a weapon.
“He’s not a crazy back, he just runs hard,” Ogbonna said. “We just need 11 hats to the ball, it’s as simple as that.”
The positive for UMass is that it already has a game under its belt in which it effectively shut down an opponent’s running game. The Minutemen missed one gap assignment that led to a 21-yard run by A.J. Hines, but still bottled up him and the rest of the Duquesne running game for 49 yards on 15 carries in the first half.
Whipple said he was pleased with how well the unit fit against the Dukes, although he admitted Boston College’s offensive line will pose a much tougher challenge Saturday. However, Patton said the first win injected the defense with the confidence that it understands the scheme and can trust their teammates to do their jobs.
“Once you get to the point where assignment football is easy,” Patton said, “and you know where everything is, you know all the gaps, you know where you’re supposed to be, then you can just be a football player; go hard through your gap and just play football.”
Josh Walfish can be reached at jwalfish@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshWalfishDHG. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage.