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**champs** · 12-25-2002, 05:57 PM

Right, from the start

Bessette has been strong safety for BC

By Michael Vega, Globe Staff, 12/25/2002

As a freshman, Doug Bessette always seemed different to his classmates on Boston College's football team. Perhaps it was because he had played in the first game of his freshman year, a 30-29 overtime victory over Baylor Sept. 4, 1999, at Alumni Stadium. From that point, many of BC's underclassmen looked upon Bessette as a grizzled veteran. To them he seemed that much older, that much wiser.

''Doug's always been a rock,'' said linebacker Josh Ott, a fourth-year junior. ''As a true freshman, I looked up to him because he was making plays as a true freshman. We were in the same class and he was out there making plays at a time I couldn't even imagine being on the field.

''There were seven kids from my class who played their freshman year,'' Ott added. ''They're obviously something special if they're able to go right from high school to college and not miss a beat.''

But Bessette had an unmistakable quality. ''He just seemed light years ahead of us,'' said Ott. ''Like I said, I couldn't even picture myself ever being able to play much my freshman year as a 190-pound linebacker, but he was out there and he made amazing plays throughout the year, too.''

''I remember that first game against Baylor, I had no clue,'' Bessette, a strong safety, said. ''I was in nowhere land. I didn't know what to expect. The pace of the game was so much faster, but after a while you got used to it.''

On his first play in that first game, he recovered a punt that had been blocked by Ralph Parent.

''Oh yeah, I almost scored a touchdown,'' Bessette said. ''Ralph blocked a punt and I picked up the ball and I think I stepped out of bounds at the 3. If I hadn't, it would've been a touchdown. That was my first play and I'll never forget it. I don't even know if I stepped on the line. It's debatable.''

What is not open to debate is what Bessette has meant to BC's defense ever since.

''Every year he's been strong,'' Ott said. ''We've always looked up to him for advice and for leadership. He was definitely a rock for our defense.''

While he never officially earned the title of team captain, Bessette emerged as a leader at BC, which will play in the Motor City Bowl tomorrow in Detroit. He earned the respect and admiration of his peers at BC's football awards banquet when he was selected as the 2002 recipient of the Thomas Scanlan Award, the highest honor bestowed upon an Eagles football player.

''I remember when I was a freshman and not knowing what it meant,'' said Bessette, a 5-foot-11-inch, 203-pound senior from Raynham. ''I think Frank Chamberlin won it my freshman year and it was then I realized the implications it had and what it meant in the BC program. When they told me I had won, I was pretty shocked. I'm not sure who votes on it - I think it's the faculty and coaches - but I'm just glad people look at me in that way. It's a good feeling.''

Bessette's presence in BC's secondary was reassuring, too, especially when the Eagles lost two key players - senior defensive end Antonio Garay (broken left tibia) and junior defensive tackle Doug Goodwin (broken right hip) - in a 28-23 loss to Virginia Tech Oct. 10.

''Well, I think if you look at both him and [free safety] Parent, Ralph coming back ended up being huge, too, because it allowed us to solidify things,'' said BC coach Tom O'Brien. ''We've always played pretty good pass defense, but their experience helped stabilize a lot of things.''

From the strong safety spot, where he's started the last two seasons, Bessette helped anchor BC's defense, recording 71 tackles (53 solos) and a team-leading nine tackles for losses. He overcame a concussion at West Virginia and a severely sprained right ankle against Syracuse, which threatened to ruin his personal streak of 41 consecutive games.

Although he didn't start the following week at Temple, O'Brien helped Bessette keep his streak intact by inserting him as a running back for the game's last play, when quarterback Brian St. Pierre took a knee.

''I was just freezing my butt on the sideline,'' Bessette recalled, when he heard O'Brien yelling at him to get in there.

Bessette began peeling off his warmup jacket, when he realized he was being inserted as running back, a position he had not played since high school. When Bessette turned to his coach for any last-second instructions, O'Brien barked, ''Just stand back there and don't mess up!''

As a freshman, after being named Massachusetts Gatorade Player of the Year and having chosen the Eagles over Stanford and the Ivy League, Bessette never imagined he'd have the career he's had.

''I thought I'd be redshirted, sit out my first year, and play the next four years,'' he said. But a spot at strong safety behind George White opened up when RaMon Johnson was moved to cornerback. ''And when I played OK in camp, I guess they figured, `OK, he can back up George,''' said Bessette.

Bessette has played in soaring victories and deflating defeats. There have been bowl games to destinations ''some exotic, and some not,'' he said with a chuckle, referring to BC's trip to Hawaii two years ago for the Aloha Bowl, followed by a trip last year to not-so-tropical Nashville for the Music City Bowl. And, oh yes, there's been the Who's Who of opponents. Which players would he rank as the Top 5 on his list?

''Vick, he's No. 1,'' Bessette said without hesitation, referring to Michael Vick, the Virginia Tech quarterback who now weaves his magic for the Atlanta Falcons. ''[No.] 2 would be Santana Moss. Three, probably [Jeremy] Shockey. Then [Lee] Suggs and ...'' Here Bessette paused.

''Antonio Bryant,'' he then said, referring to the former Pittsburgh wideout and Biletnikoff Award winner who torched BC with a 200-yard effort in a 42-26 romp over the Eagles two years ago.

''But Vick, ugh, he was the worst,'' Bessette added with a laugh, recalling the sensational serpentine touchdown run Vick made on a third-and-12 play in a 48-34 romp over the Eagles Sept. 30, 2000. ''I mean, he's sooo good it's not even funny. It makes me feel better, though, because he's doing the same thing in the NFL. He's making people there look stupid, so it doesn't make me feel so bad.''

If there was one twinge of disappointment, it was that the Eagles failed to meet the expectations they had at season's start, when there were hopes of a 10-win season, a Big East title, and, possibly, a BCS bowl.

''A couple of plays here, a couple of plays there, and we might've been 10-2,'' Bessette said. ''But we made ourselves 8-4 and we have to live with that. The expectations might've been a little high for us, but we felt 10-2 was very feasible. If you look at the games, the Pittsburgh game [a 19-16 loss in overtime] was a heartbreaker. Virginia Tech, we shot ourselves in the foot. Miami and West Virginia, they beat us.''

But the absolute kicker was that BC probably would have wound up in San Francisco, and not Detroit, had it not beaten Notre Dame, then undefeated and No. 4 in the country. It set into motion a chain of events in which the Irish were denied an at-large BCS berth, thus forcing a squeeze play in the Big East bowl mix in which Notre Dame took the Gator Bowl slot from West Virginia.

''I was talking to my dad about that the other night,'' Bessette said, when asked if he'd trade the win over Notre Dame for a bowl trip to San Francisco. ''But the memories of going out there and beating them when they were ranked No. 4 or whatever they were ... the green shirts ... I don't know, but I don't think I'd trade it.''

And so Bessette and his BC teammates will make their last stand of the 2002 season in Detroit, paired with the Toledo Rockets of the Mid-American Conference. ''It's the last hurrah,'' he said. ''And it's gone by quick, a lot quicker than I thought it would.''

After that? ''I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to do,'' said Bessette, who will graduate in May with his bachelor's degree in finance from the Carroll School of Management. He also will look to complete his coursework for a master's degree in accounting. Bessette already has lined up a job with KPMG, but the accounting firm won't stand in his way if he chooses to first take a shot at the NFL.

''I'll take a few weeks off after the bowl game and think about it,'' he said. ''You need a break after the season, but I know I'm going to miss it at some point.''

''When I walk away, I know there's going to be a lot of memories,'' Bessette added. ''It'll be fun to talk about 10-15 years down the road. There'll be a real sense of accomplishment, too. We came in and BC was 4-7 the previous two years. We've been to three straight bowl games and it's going to be four in a row now. So this class of seniors has a sense of accomplishment, because we came in here to do something and we've done something special.''

This story ran on page F7 of the Boston Globe on 12/25/2002.

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