Boston College will be playing an SEC opponent for the first time this season when it hosts Missouri on Saturday afternoon. The Golden Eagles are 3-0, but this will be their greatest challenge yet.

To Boston College head coach Jeff Hafley, it doesn’t matter that Mizzou is an SEC team — he just knows the Tigers are a good team.

“They’re really well coached. They’re very talented,” Hafley said when speaking to the media on Tuesday. “It doesn’t matter what conference they play in to us. People will make it a big deal. It’s just not how I handle things. No disrespect to the SEC, but we’re not going to talk about that.”

If Boston College is going to knock off Missouri, it will likely need to find a way to stop Tigers redshirt sophomore quarterback Connor Bazelak. Through 3 games, Bazelak has passed for 897 yards, 9 touchdowns and only 1 interception.

Hafley also had high praise for Bazelak, who he believes ranks highly in the nation.

“Gets the ball out of his hand, keeps the plays alive, can step up in the pocket. He wants to throw the ball down the field. He’s very accurate,” Hafley said. “… I think he’s one of the best quarterbacks in the country.”

This will be the first time that Missouri and Boston College have played, so these programs aren’t familiar with each other. But it’s clear that Hafley has plenty of respect for the Tigers.

Mizzou and Boston College will kick off on Saturday at noon ET on ESPN2.