An option QB in high school, Ryan says he has always been more at ease throwing the ball. Damian Strohmeyer/SI

That might change soon, as Jagodzinski, the former Green Bay Packers offensive coordinator, has implemented a wide-open attack to complement his quarterback's considerable skills. BC is scoring 34 points and gaining 483.8 yards per game. Even more telling, Ryan is averaging 45.3 pass attempts, almost 10 more than he did last season. It's a marked contrast to the more conservative, disciplined style favored by Jagodzinski's predecessor, Tom O'Brien, who departed last December to take the job at N.C. State after 10 years in Chestnut Hill. By any measure, O'Brien built the BC program into something just short of a national power. In seven of the previous eight seasons, the Eagles won eight or more games, and they're riding a streak of seven straight bowl victories. But for all the success, they have never earned a BCS bid, something they feel is within their grasp this season. "It's like the best of both worlds," says backup quarterback Chris Crane. "The people who have been here for a few years know what it takes to win. And now they're actually allowed to fly a little bit more."

Ryan commands considerable respect within the BC program, and not just because of his ability to make every throw. As a sophomore against Clemson, in the second start of his career, he missed just one play after taking a hit that sent his helmet flying; the Eagles won in overtime 16-13. Later that season, against Wake Forest, he came on in relief of struggling starter Quinton Porter with less than four minutes left and turned a nine-point deficit into a 35-30 win. Ryan started six of the last seven games of his junior year with a broken metatarsal in his left foot, earned All-ACC honors and went 4-2. His career record as a starter is 18-4. "He's the type of guy Boston College has always gotten," says Jagodzinski, who was the offensive coordinator at BC in 1997 and '98. "He's smart and he's tough, and he sees the big picture."

But nothing Ryan has done has had more of an impact on his team than the work he put in during the off-season. Not only did he have a new offense to learn, but he also was under orders from the coaching staff to bulk up his lower body. So while the Eagles' offensive linemen were cutting weight and running sprints to be better prepared to implement Jagodzinski's zone-blocking scheme, Ryan was in the weight room doing squat presses and power cleans in order to add muscle. "It was just to be a little more durable," he says. "I put on about 10 pounds, and hopefully that can keep me healthy for the length of the season." But the regimen has had an additional dividend: According to his coaches, it has given Ryan more thrust and consistency on his deep passes.

Ryan did so well picking up the retooled offense that Jagodzinski and new offensive coordinator Steve Logan began giving him much more authority at the line of scrimmage. Ryan is freer to audible in the new offense. He's as ready as any quarterback in the country to play on Sunday. "He's a sponge," says Logan. "I can't draw the plays up quick enough."

That sort of evaluation doesn't surprise Bernie. In the Ryan household Matt is the third of four children. (Sister Kate, 26, is a physical therapist, and younger brother John, 17, is a junior quarterback at Penn Charter.) There are also more than 20 cousins living nearby, most of them boys and many of them older. Thus, Matt was always fighting to keep up. "He's always been driven," says Bernie. "And he worked best when he had a lot on the table."

Bernie and husband Mike, who owns a communications cable company, believed that sports were necessary to round out their children's educations. And when the time came -- first for Michael and then for Matt -- to sign up their boys for team sports, the couple agreed that football was the best option. In football, they reasoned, there was less chance of games being dominated by one player, so Michael and Matt would learn the benefits of teamwork. "We didn't think we were raising stars," says Bernie.

But they were. Michael played football and baseball at Malvern Preparatory School, but because he stood just 6-foot, was not recruited by any Division I-A programs. Matt, on the other hand, was courted by a handful of I-A schools, including Iowa, even though at Penn Charter he was a triple-option quarterback. "I knew I wasn't suited to play as an option quarterback," he says. "I was much more comfortable throwing the ball."

In the six years since the car accident, Michael, who now develops vacation properties along the Jersey shore, has undergone five surgeries on his shattered elbow. He still cannot fully straighten his right arm, a condition that prevents him from throwing a football (a metal plate in his upper arm holds his humerus together) but which has also, he claims, helped improve his golf swing. "It could have been worse," he says with a smile.

Like everyone else, Michael is curious to see what's next for Matt, whom Jagodzinski has compared to former BC star Matt Hasselbeck, now a Pro Bowl quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks. The Eagles will be tested in October and November when they play Virginia Tech, Florida State, Clemson and Miami over a five-week stretch. There's no telling if, at the end, a BCS berth will be waiting for them. But this much is certain: They have the offense and the quarterback to finally earn one.