Boston College QB Thomas Castellanos Transfers to Florida State

BC’s TC isn’t leaving the ACC

On Thursday morning, former Boston College quarterback Thomas Castellanos confirmed reports that he is set to transfer to Florida State for the 2025 college football season.

Castellanos, originally a transfer from UCF, played for Boston College for 1.5 seasons before he was benched against Syracuse in 2024 and subsequently left the team completely. When he was a surprise starter over Emmett Morehead in 2023, Castellanos performed above expectations in an offense that was designed around his run-first skillset behind an improved offensive line and alongside stud runningback Kye Robichaux. He was third in the country in advanced running metrics for quarterbacks and ranked third in the ACC among all players in rushing yards and rushing TDs. He led the Eagles to a 6-6 regular season record and a victory over SMU in the Fenway Bowl.

2024 was a different story, though. Under new head coach Bill O’Brien, Castellanos struggled to adapt to his new offensive system and even seemed to regress as a passer. His QBR dropped to last in the ACC and his running stats took a huge nosedive from where they were in 2023. He often would run backwards, fail to throw the ball away, and take bad sacks that hamstrung the entire offense. And other teams were able to key in on his lack of passing ability and stacked the box as a result, forcing his runningbacks to run into walls and neutralizing the explosiveness of his own running ability. With those flaws getting more apparent, BC went on a three-game losing streak and he was benched in the middle of the game against Syracuse on November 9th.

Following his benching, Castellanos opted to quit the team instead of staying on the roster to compete to get his starting job back. News broke of his intention to enter the transfer portal before BC could play its next game against SMU. And head coach Bill O’Brien expressed Castellanos’s lack of fit with the team culture in the following weeks:

There were lots of ups and downs during Castellanos’s tenure at Boston College and he was a very fun player to watch when things were clicking. We wish him luck at his next stop in Tallahassee! (Except when he’s playing against BC)