"Chester" has become a Heisman Trophy candidate.

Boston College quarterback Matt Ryan, whose team visits the Hokies on Thursday night, has emerged as a Heisman candidate by leading the No. 3 Eagles (7-0, 5-0 ACC) to their highest ranking in 65 years. And thanks to South Florida's loss Thursday, the Eagles will likely move up to No. 2 in the Associated Press poll and Bowl Championship Series rankings today.

Ryan is even more of a headache for opposing defenses than he was last season because he is no longer playing hurt.

Last year, when Ryan played with a sprained ankle and then a broken foot, he was called "Chester" by then-BC coach Tom O'Brien. Of course, O'Brien had to explain to Ryan that Chester was the stiff-legged deputy on the old TV show "Gunsmoke."

"That's how he played, with a peg leg," said O'Brien, now in his first year as the coach at North Carolina State. "Now he's playing on two feet, which allows him to throw the ball a heck of a lot better."

Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer said Ryan is probably the best quarterback in the country. The fifth-year senior entered the weekend ranked sixth in Division I-A with 2,148 passing yards.

"The increased mobility helps, but at the same time, I really feel as though I learned a lot from last year, having that taken away from me," said Ryan, whose team was idle Saturday. "You really learn to check the football down and to get it out, and that you have more time than you really think you do.

"I'm better-suited to work through the entire progression of a play than I was in the past."

Ryan earned All-ACC honors last season, when he threw for 2,942 yards. He sprained an ankle in the opener and broke his left foot in an October win over Virginia Tech but missed just one game.

"Last year he played on one leg," O'Brien said. "He had the high ankle sprain all the way until, actually, he broke his foot in the Tech game last year and then couldn't move [around]. ... It's a credit to him last year, what he did in leading that football team."

A lot of quarterbacks, said O'Brien, know who the Nos. 1 and 2 receiving options on a play are and will take off and run if those two targets are covered.

"Last year, the run option was out. You couldn't sprint out with him," said O'Brien, whose Wolfpack lost to BC last month. "We had trouble running nakeds and boots. It forced him to understand -- and he was getting to that process anyway -- who 2 and 3 were.

"If you look at him this year, he goes 1-2-3 as well as any college quarterback in the country. He knows every progression, every read."

Ryan reminds Eagles coach Jeff Jagodzinski -- a former assistant with BC, the Green Bay Packers and Atlanta Falcons -- of some of the quarterbacks he used to be around.

"He's one of those guys that steps in the huddle and everything's OK. He calms everybody down or gets everybody to where they're supposed to be," said Jagodzinski, who was Green Bay's offensive coordinator last year. "Brett Favre had a real, real similar quality about him.

"[Ex-BC quarterback] Matt Hasselback had that, where he raised everybody's play around him."

After meeting with Ryan for the first time, Jagodzinski phoned Steve Logan -- now BC's offensive coordinator -- and told him about Ryan.

"I said, 'He's Matt Hasselback and he's Matt Schaub,' " Jagodzinski said. "And talent-wise, too. If you were to combine those two guys as a quarterback, that's what Matt Ryan is."

Ryan, a 6-foot-5, 215-pound senior from Exton, Penn., has completed 192 of 304 passes (63.2 percent) this season. He has 17 TD passes with six interceptions. He entered the weekend ranked 12th in I-A in total offense (312.3 ypg).

"He's one of the best if not the best quarterback in this senior class," said Georgia Tech coach Chan Gailey, whose team lost to BC last month. "I was very impressed with him and his poise and his accuracy. Those will bode him well in the future."

Jagodzinski and Logan installed a modified West Coast offense and gave Ryan greater responsibility.

"We've given him a lot of leeway as far as running the offense," Jagodzinski said. "Steve gives him some things that he can check to or check out of, and he does a great job with that. He sees the whole field."

"There's definitely situations where there's plenty of freedom for the quarterback to kind of make decisions at the line of scrimmage, so it's been a lot of fun," said Ryan, who is 21-4 as a starter. "It's something I worked really hard on."

Ryan is a traditional drop-back passer. Florida State's Bobby Bowden compares his style to that of a QB he once had, Heisman winner Chris Weinke.

"Of the quarterbacks I've watched this year, Matt Ryan is the best at what he's doing of any that I have seen," Bowden said.

Although he lacks the running talents of some QBs, Ryan takes pride at not being a stationary target in the pocket.

"You still need to be pretty mobile even to be a pocket quarterback," he said. "Maybe you can't break the long runs or make the same type of explosive runs that some of the more mobile quarterbacks can do, but inside the pocket, you need to be able to slide and move your feet around and make people miss. It's something I've worked really hard on."

Ryan threw for 402 yards against Wake Forest last year. This year, he threw for 408 and 435 against Wake and Georgia Tech, respectively, making him only the ninth quarterback in ACC history with at least three 400-yard passing games.

"He's got a really strong arm and very rarely throws a bad ball," Wake coach Jim Grobe said. "But I think the thing you're most impressed with when the game's over is how well he manages a game. He's a pretty cool customer. ... There aren't many things you can show him that he hasn't seen, so he handles pressure well, he handles man coverage well, he handles the zone coverages so well."

Ryan's next test will come Thursday against the Hokies.

"We're going to be excited to come down there and play against a great team and play in a great stadium, a place that has a ton of tradition," Ryan said. "It's going to be a lot of fun."

BC is averaging a league-high 34.6 points, but Tech is allowing a league-low 16 points. What is the key to being prolific on Thursday?

"I don't know. If I figure it out, I think I'd make a ton of money," Ryan said with a laugh. "It's going to be tough, but we'll be ready for the challenge."