One McManus Tries to Make The Grade for Boston College
It will be a busy weekend for the McManus family.
While linebacker Tom McManus tries to lead No. 20 Boston College to victory over ninth-ranked Penn State, his father and older brother--both former linebackers--will be grading his performance.
Though the undefeated Eagles are sixth nationally in total defense, the McManus clan has not been heaping praise on its youngest member this season.
“I get grades from my brother Mike,” McManus said. “For the Michigan State game he gave me a B--which is pretty good coming from him--and the West Virginia game he gave me a C, which I deserved.”
His father, Gene, was a fullback and linebacker at Rutgers in the 1940s.
“He played with no face mask. He tells me that’s when real men played, that’s when the tough guys played,” McManus said. “I always kid him about when I was in high school, we had these stands and you could always see him standing at the top row. He wouldn’t show any emotion, just watch.
“And then I’d have to go home after every game and hear his critique. I could have had the greatest game ever and he’d find something. But that was good because it would teach you to keep your head on straight and to work on the little things.”
The 6-foot-2, 232-pound McManus also credits his father, a retired financial manager, with convincing him to stay at Boston College when he was upset about his lack of playing time during his first two seasons.
The Eagles are glad McManus stayed. He leads the team with 64 tackles this season and set a school record with 165 tackles last year as a junior. He is one of the major reasons Boston College, which has given up an average of only 243 yards a game, had three straight shutouts earlier this season.
“Tom is a physical football player, he’s very focused, he’s mature,” said Coach Tom Coughlin. “Tom leads by example.”
McManus, a high school star in Illinois, was attracted to Boston College by the excitement of the Doug Flutie years. But he had a more personal reason for leaving the Midwest.
“I was the second one in my family to go to college,” McManus said. “My brother Mike was the first, and he went close to home. I was the youngest of four children and I wanted to see if I could make it out on my own.
“In high school, I remember when I was a sophomore my dad sat me down and said college was going to be tough to pay for. That’s when I made my decision to really try to get financial aid or a scholarship to go to college. I wanted to do that, to try to be a little bit independent.”
It was not the first time McManus had been recruited. When he was in fourth grade, he was urged by the sixth-grade coach to go out for the team and ended up as the third-string quarterback.
By the time he reached sixth grade, McManus was a linebacker.
McManus, who made a fumble recovery against Pittsburgh on his first college play, has been leading the Eagle defense all season. He had 21 tackles in a season-opening win over Rutgers, then 34 tackles as Boston College shut out Northwestern, Navy and Michigan State in succession. He added nine tackles in a 24-24 tie against West Virginia two weeks ago.
After five straight losing seasons, Boston College is aiming for a bowl game this year and trying to defeat Penn State for only the second time. Its lone victory over the Nittany Lions in 19 games was when Flutie led the Eagles to a 27-17 win in 1983.
For McManus, who graduated last May with a degree in marketing and is now taking additional sociology classes, the thrill of a 4-0-1 start helps erase the memories of those losing seasons.
“It’s very fun to win. It’s fun when you play well as a team, and that’s what we’re doing right now,” he said. “We have a big test this week. It’ll be even more fun when we beat Penn State.”
