CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. - The Boston College football team will open its 2009 campaign on Saturday, September 5 at 2 p.m. when the Eagles host Northeastern at Alumni Stadium.

BC, which has represented the Atlantic Division in the ACC Championship Game the last two seasons, will take the field with a bunch of new faces this weekend. The Eagles have a total of 26 sophomores and freshmen listed on the two-deep that was released on Sunday.

There are 12 sophomores, 10 redshirt freshmen and four true freshmen listed among those 26 student-athletes. One of the first-year faces is LB Luke Kuechly, who has been forced into the starting middle linebacker spot due to an injury to sophomore Will Thompson.

Kuechly was impressive in BC's four scrimmages as he led the defense in tackles twice. He registered seven tackles on August 19 and then came up with nine on August 23.

"I'm trying to do my best right now," Kuechly said. "As far as our defense, it's still pretty complicated. I'm trying to pick up on the general things before I get the more specific things down. It's definitely been a jump (to the starting middle linebacker spot) but a lot of the upperclassmen have been pointing me in the right direction. It's been an easier transition. If they weren't helping me it would be a lot more difficult."

Kuechly is one of the three new starting linebackers - along with sophomore Dominick LeGrande and Alexander DiSanzo - that will get their shot on Saturday. The linebackers will also be looking at two new defensive tackles in senior Austin Giles and junior Damik Scafe.

The Huskies will start junior Alex Dulski with redshirt freshman Matt Carroll backing him up.

The two Beantown programs have met four times before on the gridiron with the last meeting coming in 1999 when Boston College won 33-22. The Eagles took the other three meetings as well in 1936, 1937 and 1938.

For video of an interview with Mark Herzlich by WEEI's Mike Petraglia, click on the "Video" tab on the front page of bceagles.com.