Scouting: Notre Dame @ Boston College

Notre Dame (1-3) at Boston College (2-1)

When: 7 p.m. Saturday at Alumni Stadium, Chestnut Hill, MA

TV: Channel 7; Radio: WLS 890-AM

Series: Notre Dame leads 10-9

Coaches: Brian Kelly (1-3, first year at Notre Dame, 172-60-2 overall); Frank Spaziani (2-1, second year at Boston College, 11-6 overall)

ND players to watch: Thanks to his career-high 21 stops last week against Stanford, Notre Dame sophomore LB Manti Te'o leads the Football Bowl Subdivision with 54 tackles. QB Dayne Crist, meanwhile, ranks among the top 10 in passing attempts. Crist has flung the ball 99 times in the last two weeks as the Irish have tried in vain to hang with Michigan State and Stanford. RB Armando Allen (302 yards) owns just 1 touchdown in his last 9 games.

BC players to watch: Boston College will unveil a new QB this week in either sophomore Mike Marscovetra or true frosh Chase Rettig. Marscovetra, in a relief role, hit 8 of 13 passes this season for 92 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT. Rettig has yet to play. Junior Montel Harris carries the offense with 306 yards and 1 TD. He has seven 100-yard games in his last eight games, but managed just 38 yards in 22 carries when the Irish won 20-16 last year in South Bend. LB Mark Herzlich, who triumphed over bone cancer, intercepted a pass last week and split a sack.

The skinny: If the Irish lose this one, they'll be stuck with their fourth four-game losing streak in the last four seasons. That's not what anyone means by the Rule of Fours. In Notre Dame's defense, LSU and Brian Kelly's bunch are the only BCS schools that have played nothing but BCS schools to date. It's probably fair to say the Irish could have taken Weber State and Kent State at home (as Boston College did). The Eagles boast the nation's sixth-best rushing defense, which shouldn't bother the Irish because they don't bother to run the ball anyway.

He said it: Brian Kelly on Notre Dame's inability to run the ball: "I think if you look at the Stanford game, there were times that we got beat up front. And there were times that we probably should have run the football when we tried to throw it, because of, you know, so much drop eight (into coverage). So I took some of the responsibility last week for not being more effective in the running game. I think Stanford needs a little credit on that as well. We expect to get back to a better balance this week."