Louisville Game Week: Addazio Addresses Media
October 19, 2015 | Football
CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. - Head coach Steve Addazio addressed the media in his weekly press conference on Monday to discuss the outcome of the Clemson game, what to expect against Louisville and the development of young quarterback Jeff Smith, among other topics.
On the Clemson game…
"It's the eighth game of the season. It's really rolling by fast. Especially when you don't have a bye week, it keeps coming at you.
"We're coming off a tough game against Clemson. I thought we made some improvements. It seemed like we played faster on offense. We had a lot of young guys in the game. At times, there were five to six true freshmen on the field at the same time. But they played well. We watched the tape and I think they responded well in a tough environment. I think our special teams improved. I'm really excited about our coverage unit. Against a really fast team, we really flipped the field on Saturday night.
"Defensively, we made some big plays that gave the offense an opportunity to get great field position. We had some balls thrown over our head. We had some tough, tough situations, but we're going to be a team that lives on the edge. We're going to continue to bring pressure and play man. But when you play man, you leave yourself open for some of these calls. We just have to roll with it and continue to get better.
"We played a talented team. They are athletic, fast and explosive. There's a reason they're number six in the country. But we were right in the middle of that game, coming out of that half and through the third quarter. There were three drives where it jumped away from us, where we could have gotten off the field, but penalties sustained the drives, which led to scores.
"All in all, I thought we played a physical and hard game. I would say in my three years here—with no disrespect to any of the previous teams—this is a hard-playing football game. Obviously we're a young team, so we're having a hard time making explosive plays and we've made some mistakes along the way. That's a sign of a team that's not very [experienced], especially on the offensive side of the ball. But they play hard, which lays the groundwork for the future, where we know we've got some talent. Now it's about growing that talent and getting experience."
On the matchup against Louisville…
"Louisville's got a tremendous amount of gifted players on the roster. The freshman quarterback Lamar Jackson is 2-2 since being inserted as the starter. He's an athletic guy with great speed. He can run and can be productive throwing the football. Running back Brandon Radcliff is an excellent player. James Quick is a dynamic receiver. He's one of the better receivers in the country, certainly in the country. They've got a good tight end in Micky Crum. So I think their offense is explosive. You saw them last week against Florida State.
"On defense, they return four starters, but they inserted a bunch of players there that are junior college players or transfers. They are very athletic and very fast. Linebacker James Burgess is a great player. Keith Kelsey, their middle linebacker, comes from Gainesville, Florida, and I think he's a heck of a football player. Devonte Fields is the TCU transfer. He was Big 12 Player of the Year in 2012. He's a heck of a football player. Defensive end Sheldon Rankins is another big guy, who's real physical. Then there's safety Josh Harvey-Clemons, the transfer from Georgia. He's a heck of a football player.
"Coach [Bobby] Petrino is a veteran guy. He's been very successful at Louisville, very successful in the pros and now he's back at Louisville. He and his staff do a great job. I think Todd Grantham is an excellent defensive coordinator. I've faced him before. I think they have a great staff that knows what they're doing and puts their kids in a great position. They are young right now and suffering with some of those things. But they have great football players.
"So we're going down on the road again into a tough environment at Louisville. It's a hard place to play. We're going up against a team that has some real gifted players. So I think it will be a really tough game. Once again, we're playing another strong defense and an offense that has big-play capability. So we have our work cut out for us and we're excited to go play our eighth game of the season."
On Louisville being a similar team to Boston College…
"Yes, they are young like us, but I would say the thing that would be different, is that [Louisville] is a very explosive team on both sides of the ball. Quick is a very dynamic receiver for them on offense. On defense, the two transfer players, Fields and Harvey-Clemons, are big time players. So they've got this interesting deal going on.
"There are some other positions where I think they've probably got some youth. That's where it's more mirrored to us. But I think they've got some veteran skill players on both sides of the ball. So it makes them dynamic."
On secondary issues against Clemson…
"I think what Clemson did was that they match protection and they turned it into a two-man route and one guy beat one guy. They got behind us—that happens. But most of the time we were making plays on the ball. One time we made a great play on the ball and they came down with it and a few other times we got called for pass interference.
"But all in all, I think our philosophy is that we're a heavy run stopping team. We're really good against the run. One of the reasons we're really good against the run is because we play man coverage in the back end. We load the box. In passing situations, we try to scheme the protections so we can put pressure on the quarterback. We play man to try and force the ball out of their hands quicker than they want to be. A couple times we got caught in some max protections where there were truly some one-on-one routes.
"[Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson] was on. Sometimes you just get a guy that's on. They've got good players. They've got a lot of fast players, so they were able to get behind us."
On whether Louisville's explosiveness will be comparable to Clemson...
"Well, Quick is an outstanding receiver. Clemson had a few of them and of course, the quarterback put the ball on the money. That's all part of it too. But we're not going to not play man [because of what happened at Clemson]. That's who we are. We're going to keep the pressure on."
On building from Clemson game…
"I think we played our best all-around game. That wasn't our best defensive game. But in terms of special teams, offense and everything put together, I thought—in a very tough environment against a very good football team—I saw more spurts of good things. That's the best way I can see it.
"I like the look in our eyes. I liked the way we competed. I liked all of that. I can't account for the three drives where we were off the field and there was a penalty. That derailed us completely. But I thought we grew as a football team. But I also know it's not necessarily like all of a sudden we're going to be off and running now. You're going to gain some ground and then you're going to lose some ground. Experience is something that takes time. So what I think you're going to see is flashes and hopefully more good flashes as we move forward. But I'm not naïve enough to think that we're not going to have some missed assignments because that goes with it.
"As I told the staff, we just need to steady the boat, calm them down and do what we've got to do to make sure everybody has a chance to fire. And it all starts with the quarterback being able to communicate in the huddle. Those are things you take for granted when you have a little more maturity. When you don't have maturity, little things become big issues."
On the play of freshman QB Jeff Smith…
"I would say he had a good look about him. He played fast. You watched as things broke down, he was out on the edge with his eyes down the field looking to make plays. He did a lot of good things and took a step forward. There were times when there was some confusion. Communications is sometimes a little harder from the sideline in. There are just a lot of things from those arenas that can stun him.
"But I thought he had a better week of practice last week. I thought he operated the offense more confidently. That was all real. I saw all that. I think he took a sizable step last week. But does that mean there'll be another one this week? Those are the things that are really hard to tell."
On the difference between at Louisville and at Clemson…
"I think it makes easier to go into Louisville for the sheer fact that [Jeff Smith] has already played in one of those kinds of environments. Louisville is a pretty tough environment too.
"I just think, when you're looking through the eyes of a freshman, it's just the enormity of the whole thing. Playing in a loud stadium at night and having to use the silence cadence. We'll have the same thing at Louisville, but at least he's done it once. I think [Smith] handled all those firsts really well. We didn't have a ton of operational errors in that large arena. We had a couple of false starts on the offensive line and then we had a couple of communication errors from the sideline that are harder to rectify. When you have a veteran guy, you can get that right quick.
"When you have an older guy you're kind of care-freely calling your plays a little bit. You're not as worried about bad situations. Here, we worry a lot about putting him in bad situations. We try to get the right calls. Sometimes, that's difficult to do. Against Clemson, before the half we were rolling through and then we had a little bit of a wristband issue. Then we saw a no-deep blitz coming, so quickly in a matter of seconds, we're trying to get better protection for him involved and give him fewer decisions to make. So we're trying to figure out what the best call is. You still want to throw it, but you don't want to take a sack and get kicked out of field-goal position. That's the kind of conversation that goes on constantly. The game situations change [with a younger quarterback]. You want to put him in as many favorable situations as you can. I think that's critically important."
On Smith's confidence increasing…
"I think it's not a big galloping stride, but incrementally, I think yes. I certainly felt that way. He's going to get better each week. You want to see that happen and it's going to happen because he's a gifted athlete and he cares. He works really hard at it.
"He's doing that against the very elite defenses in America. I don't know what the numbers are right now, but it's something like, five of the top 15 [defenses in the nation], we've already played or are going to play very shortly. On offense, we've had a lot of issues and we're not where we're supposed to be, but seeing them against the very, very best in the country, we're seeing that young team against great competition. We're much more veteran on defense and we're seen two top offenses—in Florida State and Clemson.
"This offense is really getting their feet wet in a very tough environment. This defense we're playing now isn't ranked as high statistically as a couple of them, but talent wise, they're for real. Florida State had a tough time moving the ball against them last week.
"What would be nice for Jeff Smith is if we had a lesser defense come in that he could gain a little confidence from. That's what would be nice. Where we would get a chance to get your feet in the ground, but Smith didn't get to have that advantage. He got thrusted into this in Week 4. So he's trying to get traction right now in some really tough scenarios. And he's doing it. So that really tells you something. It's happening, but obviously you wish all of this was happening a lot quicker."
On giving the younger players more experience…
"You saw that Saturday night when we played Aaron Monteiro, for example, at left tackle. He came out. He's a true freshman tackle. Sam Schmal, he redshirted last year, he played; James Hendren, who was redshirted last year, played; Chris Lindstrom, who is a true freshman, has played and has been playing since the beginning. Jon Baker is a sophomore who has played a handful of snaps last year who has really come into his own right now. I just rattled off four or five guys that are freshmen or redshirt freshmen or who are true sophomores with limited experience who we think have great upside. Not to mention some of the guys we haven't broken out yet on the offensive line that we are very excited about. In addition, we have other guys like Ben Glines, who we haven't taken him off yet. I'm not going to say that yet. It's getting late: it's game eight. But you've seen Thaddeus [Smith] play very few snaps last year. He is a sophomore, but he really played very minimally last year and you are seeing him emerge. Elijah [Robinson] is a true freshman. You are starting to see what is happening with him. These are the things that are going on in the flank. You are seeing [Michael] Walker. You saw him on the kickoff return. He is very dynamic guy. Then you saw [us] throw one ball to him down the sidelines and he got behind [the defense]. He has real speed. He is legitimately a fast guy. And you've seen him now. He is playing a dozen offensive snaps plus 10 special teams. He is probably playing 25 snaps per game. Then of course, Jeff [Smith] and of course, you saw Jordan Gowins. I don't remember his exact tally of snaps but he probably touched the ball 10 times or whatever in there. So there are a lot of guys I'm talking about right now. There are an awful lot of guys that are either true freshmen or redshirt freshmen [or] sophomores. Those guys are pretty much the same because almost every sophomore we have out there had almost no snaps last year. And Jake Burt now, the freshman tight end. He has played anywhere between five and 12 snaps a game. Tom Sweeney, who is a redshirt freshman, is playing 60 snaps per game. He is a guy who is really starting to come into his own right now. He is playing a ton of football right now. Those guys are all out there. On defense, you're seeing a lot of [Wyatt] Ray and Ray Smith. Zach Allen. Will Harris. Those are guys that you are seeing. Then you have that sophomore brigade that played last year. Isaac [Yiadom] and Kam [Moore] and Connor [Strachan] and Ty [Schwab].
"That is why I am so excited. We're very talented. We are very young, but we are very talented. I knew this was going to happen. I didn't account for the injuries that we received early, and that is what has really kicked us in the ribs really hard. Because when you take that on when you are as young as we are, that is hard to overcome. If you are a little more veteran, you might be able to overcome that a little bit. But I knew this year, we had 63 or 64 of the 85 [scholarship players] who are freshmen or sophomores. I knew this was that year. I knew we had to do it. Our quarterbacks had no experience. No backup experience. I knew that too. Sometimes you go into those years and you hope you get into a good fortune and you stay healthy. We have managed to do that in the past. It caught up with us this year a little bit in this rebuilding process.
"We will still be a young team next year, obviously, but we will have so many more guys who will have had meaningful snaps. They'll still be young. Just think about it. All those guys I rattled off. Next year, they'll still have three more years to play. That's a long time. That's exciting. We're recruiting well. Things are going well and we just have to develop and do the right things and develop our team. It's never going to please everybody and I understand that. If you're a football person, and I know a lot of you guys are, and you follow it close – which you do – you can see what is going on and you can understand it. There are some frustrating things along the way. We're not there. Obviously, we would like to be 5-2 right now. No doubt. Nobody feels good about that. There are some decisions that have to be made on the field in the heat of the battle that are a byproduct of a lot going on. That's all a part of this. The kids have a great attitude. This is a great group of guys. I think they see the big picture. They like football a lot. Our job is to continue to develop this team to get as many wins as we can each week for this season and also, you have to understand that we are building something really good here. I have all the confidence in the world in that."
On how the Clemson game helped the team…
"I think we came out of the game kind of energized,even given the fact that we are in eight week without a bye week. Teams get very tired. You hear all these coaches out there saying, 'Thank God for the bye week.' That was last week or two weeks ago. Everybody has had a bye week. We haven't had that and we need that. Especially here because the academic workload [at Boston College] is really hard. That's where it becomes a load on these kids. We're not going to get it until week 10 and by then, you're into the home stretch and you have two games left at that point. All that being considered, our team has a great look in their eye and on the field, there was a lock-jaw look in that locker room of disappointment over losing that game. And some real resolve about continuing to improve and coming out to get a win this week. That's all good stuff.
"The reality of it is, we still have to go on the road and have to go to an away site. We have to play a talented football team and all that goes along with that. Those are the things we are working on. The other thing is today, you sit here and you game plan. You sit there and you see some things that you would really like to do. You try to digest whether it is worth it or it's not. Every time you have some ideas that you would like to look at and you go, then you say to yourself, 'Oh gosh. But can we operate it?' It looks good and sounds good, but can we operate it. Or, are we better off just backing off even more and just operate the best we can and let these kids feel most confident as opposed to trying to put some wrinkles and put some things in that you would like to do. We did that a lot last year. We had some wrinkles vs. USC. We had some stuff going on. That's football. I just don't know if we can do that right now."
On the play of senior WR Bobby Swigert looked to throw the ball…
"We were throwing that down the field. We felt great about that too. What happened was it was all set up. The middle backer just didn't track hard enough on Thaddeus [Smith] on the reverse. He didn't track. He fell off of it and fell right in so Bobby couldn't set up. If the blocker had tracked that reverse a little bit harder, we had a play going. But those are called shot plays. You take a shot. Bobby throws the ball so well. We go on the plus side of the field and we take a shot. We are going to do that. We have to do that. We are not the most explosive team in the world so when you can get a little deception and get those things going, you are going to do those things. So we are going to always have those. That's why they are called shots. We have a hard time checking. On the road – the communication issues – sometimes it's not worth it right now. You're better off just calling a play that you've called 9,000 times since training camp, even though this defense does present some things to you. We have to weigh that off to whether or not that is going to have any functionality or not. That's the stuff we are into right now that I don't know if people really understand or can get their arms around right now and I get it."
On senior TE Louie Addazio's close completion near the end zone…
"He had that deep ball coming at him. He got down the field pretty good. He was trying to adjust to the ball. He probably needed to keep running through that ball. He has the two braces on his shoulder and he can't really extend like that. He competed hard in the game. I think he was real upset about it. He thought that was a play he could make. But he competed hard in the game. He is playing on that ankle right now. He has been out there for a couple weeks on that thing, but he doing okay. But as I told him – as I have told every other player in the locker room - that's the Teddy Roosevelt quote. It's the man in the arena. You go as hard as you can. You make a play. Sometimes you make it, sometimes you don't. Everybody has an opinion and everybody has a criticism. You put yourself out there… You don't always get it the way you want it. It happens all the time on the football field. It happens as a football coach."
On the play of freshman QB Jeff Smith…
"He threw the ball well in times in that game. That thing came out with some velocity. That was one of those drills where he put that down there pretty good. There were some exciting points in that game. We went after that blocked punt. We were close."
On the return of junior RB Myles Willis…
"That was great. I loved having him back. He brought some real energy and juice. He had some speed and I thought he might go in [on the 45-yard run]. He hit overdrive on that thing pretty good. Those are some of the plays we need to get back. Those things where there is a seam and he has that speed and he can hit it right. He is just great to be back. He had that presence. He is a veteran guy now. He is one of those few guys who have been through a lot of those heated contests now. That was an added bonus. I think that helped us. I think that sparked us a little bit on offense. It was a good addition. It just goes to show you what a guy who has been around a bit can do. He has a little presence. He has been there before; he is not fazed. He had a lot of energy in that game."
On making a decision to play freshman WR Ben Glines, who has been hurt…
"That's the huge question is where you plug him in right now. There are guys who are busting their tail right now to play. If you had a real injury issue at that position, I think you do it. But you don't, at least not today. Unless something changes, I don't know if that is going to happen. I've been stuck before here and at different places where you've burned a redshirt and you didn't get much snaps from the guy and you look back and you're like, 'what a shame.' You don't realize it until that fourth year and you're like 'wow. It's a shame.' I am [gearing towards redshirting him] but unless something were to dramatically change here, which can happen in a blink. You get a couple of key injuries. Then I would put him out there. It would happen fast. We would activate him quick."
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On the Clemson game…
"It's the eighth game of the season. It's really rolling by fast. Especially when you don't have a bye week, it keeps coming at you.
"We're coming off a tough game against Clemson. I thought we made some improvements. It seemed like we played faster on offense. We had a lot of young guys in the game. At times, there were five to six true freshmen on the field at the same time. But they played well. We watched the tape and I think they responded well in a tough environment. I think our special teams improved. I'm really excited about our coverage unit. Against a really fast team, we really flipped the field on Saturday night.
"Defensively, we made some big plays that gave the offense an opportunity to get great field position. We had some balls thrown over our head. We had some tough, tough situations, but we're going to be a team that lives on the edge. We're going to continue to bring pressure and play man. But when you play man, you leave yourself open for some of these calls. We just have to roll with it and continue to get better.
"We played a talented team. They are athletic, fast and explosive. There's a reason they're number six in the country. But we were right in the middle of that game, coming out of that half and through the third quarter. There were three drives where it jumped away from us, where we could have gotten off the field, but penalties sustained the drives, which led to scores.
"All in all, I thought we played a physical and hard game. I would say in my three years here—with no disrespect to any of the previous teams—this is a hard-playing football game. Obviously we're a young team, so we're having a hard time making explosive plays and we've made some mistakes along the way. That's a sign of a team that's not very [experienced], especially on the offensive side of the ball. But they play hard, which lays the groundwork for the future, where we know we've got some talent. Now it's about growing that talent and getting experience."
On the matchup against Louisville…
"Louisville's got a tremendous amount of gifted players on the roster. The freshman quarterback Lamar Jackson is 2-2 since being inserted as the starter. He's an athletic guy with great speed. He can run and can be productive throwing the football. Running back Brandon Radcliff is an excellent player. James Quick is a dynamic receiver. He's one of the better receivers in the country, certainly in the country. They've got a good tight end in Micky Crum. So I think their offense is explosive. You saw them last week against Florida State.
"On defense, they return four starters, but they inserted a bunch of players there that are junior college players or transfers. They are very athletic and very fast. Linebacker James Burgess is a great player. Keith Kelsey, their middle linebacker, comes from Gainesville, Florida, and I think he's a heck of a football player. Devonte Fields is the TCU transfer. He was Big 12 Player of the Year in 2012. He's a heck of a football player. Defensive end Sheldon Rankins is another big guy, who's real physical. Then there's safety Josh Harvey-Clemons, the transfer from Georgia. He's a heck of a football player.
"Coach [Bobby] Petrino is a veteran guy. He's been very successful at Louisville, very successful in the pros and now he's back at Louisville. He and his staff do a great job. I think Todd Grantham is an excellent defensive coordinator. I've faced him before. I think they have a great staff that knows what they're doing and puts their kids in a great position. They are young right now and suffering with some of those things. But they have great football players.
"So we're going down on the road again into a tough environment at Louisville. It's a hard place to play. We're going up against a team that has some real gifted players. So I think it will be a really tough game. Once again, we're playing another strong defense and an offense that has big-play capability. So we have our work cut out for us and we're excited to go play our eighth game of the season."
On Louisville being a similar team to Boston College…
"Yes, they are young like us, but I would say the thing that would be different, is that [Louisville] is a very explosive team on both sides of the ball. Quick is a very dynamic receiver for them on offense. On defense, the two transfer players, Fields and Harvey-Clemons, are big time players. So they've got this interesting deal going on.
"There are some other positions where I think they've probably got some youth. That's where it's more mirrored to us. But I think they've got some veteran skill players on both sides of the ball. So it makes them dynamic."
On secondary issues against Clemson…
"I think what Clemson did was that they match protection and they turned it into a two-man route and one guy beat one guy. They got behind us—that happens. But most of the time we were making plays on the ball. One time we made a great play on the ball and they came down with it and a few other times we got called for pass interference.
"But all in all, I think our philosophy is that we're a heavy run stopping team. We're really good against the run. One of the reasons we're really good against the run is because we play man coverage in the back end. We load the box. In passing situations, we try to scheme the protections so we can put pressure on the quarterback. We play man to try and force the ball out of their hands quicker than they want to be. A couple times we got caught in some max protections where there were truly some one-on-one routes.
"[Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson] was on. Sometimes you just get a guy that's on. They've got good players. They've got a lot of fast players, so they were able to get behind us."
On whether Louisville's explosiveness will be comparable to Clemson...
"Well, Quick is an outstanding receiver. Clemson had a few of them and of course, the quarterback put the ball on the money. That's all part of it too. But we're not going to not play man [because of what happened at Clemson]. That's who we are. We're going to keep the pressure on."
On building from Clemson game…
"I think we played our best all-around game. That wasn't our best defensive game. But in terms of special teams, offense and everything put together, I thought—in a very tough environment against a very good football team—I saw more spurts of good things. That's the best way I can see it.
"I like the look in our eyes. I liked the way we competed. I liked all of that. I can't account for the three drives where we were off the field and there was a penalty. That derailed us completely. But I thought we grew as a football team. But I also know it's not necessarily like all of a sudden we're going to be off and running now. You're going to gain some ground and then you're going to lose some ground. Experience is something that takes time. So what I think you're going to see is flashes and hopefully more good flashes as we move forward. But I'm not naïve enough to think that we're not going to have some missed assignments because that goes with it.
"As I told the staff, we just need to steady the boat, calm them down and do what we've got to do to make sure everybody has a chance to fire. And it all starts with the quarterback being able to communicate in the huddle. Those are things you take for granted when you have a little more maturity. When you don't have maturity, little things become big issues."
On the play of freshman QB Jeff Smith…
"I would say he had a good look about him. He played fast. You watched as things broke down, he was out on the edge with his eyes down the field looking to make plays. He did a lot of good things and took a step forward. There were times when there was some confusion. Communications is sometimes a little harder from the sideline in. There are just a lot of things from those arenas that can stun him.
"But I thought he had a better week of practice last week. I thought he operated the offense more confidently. That was all real. I saw all that. I think he took a sizable step last week. But does that mean there'll be another one this week? Those are the things that are really hard to tell."
On the difference between at Louisville and at Clemson…
"I think it makes easier to go into Louisville for the sheer fact that [Jeff Smith] has already played in one of those kinds of environments. Louisville is a pretty tough environment too.
"I just think, when you're looking through the eyes of a freshman, it's just the enormity of the whole thing. Playing in a loud stadium at night and having to use the silence cadence. We'll have the same thing at Louisville, but at least he's done it once. I think [Smith] handled all those firsts really well. We didn't have a ton of operational errors in that large arena. We had a couple of false starts on the offensive line and then we had a couple of communication errors from the sideline that are harder to rectify. When you have a veteran guy, you can get that right quick.
"When you have an older guy you're kind of care-freely calling your plays a little bit. You're not as worried about bad situations. Here, we worry a lot about putting him in bad situations. We try to get the right calls. Sometimes, that's difficult to do. Against Clemson, before the half we were rolling through and then we had a little bit of a wristband issue. Then we saw a no-deep blitz coming, so quickly in a matter of seconds, we're trying to get better protection for him involved and give him fewer decisions to make. So we're trying to figure out what the best call is. You still want to throw it, but you don't want to take a sack and get kicked out of field-goal position. That's the kind of conversation that goes on constantly. The game situations change [with a younger quarterback]. You want to put him in as many favorable situations as you can. I think that's critically important."
On Smith's confidence increasing…
"I think it's not a big galloping stride, but incrementally, I think yes. I certainly felt that way. He's going to get better each week. You want to see that happen and it's going to happen because he's a gifted athlete and he cares. He works really hard at it.
"He's doing that against the very elite defenses in America. I don't know what the numbers are right now, but it's something like, five of the top 15 [defenses in the nation], we've already played or are going to play very shortly. On offense, we've had a lot of issues and we're not where we're supposed to be, but seeing them against the very, very best in the country, we're seeing that young team against great competition. We're much more veteran on defense and we're seen two top offenses—in Florida State and Clemson.
"This offense is really getting their feet wet in a very tough environment. This defense we're playing now isn't ranked as high statistically as a couple of them, but talent wise, they're for real. Florida State had a tough time moving the ball against them last week.
"What would be nice for Jeff Smith is if we had a lesser defense come in that he could gain a little confidence from. That's what would be nice. Where we would get a chance to get your feet in the ground, but Smith didn't get to have that advantage. He got thrusted into this in Week 4. So he's trying to get traction right now in some really tough scenarios. And he's doing it. So that really tells you something. It's happening, but obviously you wish all of this was happening a lot quicker."
On giving the younger players more experience…
"You saw that Saturday night when we played Aaron Monteiro, for example, at left tackle. He came out. He's a true freshman tackle. Sam Schmal, he redshirted last year, he played; James Hendren, who was redshirted last year, played; Chris Lindstrom, who is a true freshman, has played and has been playing since the beginning. Jon Baker is a sophomore who has played a handful of snaps last year who has really come into his own right now. I just rattled off four or five guys that are freshmen or redshirt freshmen or who are true sophomores with limited experience who we think have great upside. Not to mention some of the guys we haven't broken out yet on the offensive line that we are very excited about. In addition, we have other guys like Ben Glines, who we haven't taken him off yet. I'm not going to say that yet. It's getting late: it's game eight. But you've seen Thaddeus [Smith] play very few snaps last year. He is a sophomore, but he really played very minimally last year and you are seeing him emerge. Elijah [Robinson] is a true freshman. You are starting to see what is happening with him. These are the things that are going on in the flank. You are seeing [Michael] Walker. You saw him on the kickoff return. He is very dynamic guy. Then you saw [us] throw one ball to him down the sidelines and he got behind [the defense]. He has real speed. He is legitimately a fast guy. And you've seen him now. He is playing a dozen offensive snaps plus 10 special teams. He is probably playing 25 snaps per game. Then of course, Jeff [Smith] and of course, you saw Jordan Gowins. I don't remember his exact tally of snaps but he probably touched the ball 10 times or whatever in there. So there are a lot of guys I'm talking about right now. There are an awful lot of guys that are either true freshmen or redshirt freshmen [or] sophomores. Those guys are pretty much the same because almost every sophomore we have out there had almost no snaps last year. And Jake Burt now, the freshman tight end. He has played anywhere between five and 12 snaps a game. Tom Sweeney, who is a redshirt freshman, is playing 60 snaps per game. He is a guy who is really starting to come into his own right now. He is playing a ton of football right now. Those guys are all out there. On defense, you're seeing a lot of [Wyatt] Ray and Ray Smith. Zach Allen. Will Harris. Those are guys that you are seeing. Then you have that sophomore brigade that played last year. Isaac [Yiadom] and Kam [Moore] and Connor [Strachan] and Ty [Schwab].
"That is why I am so excited. We're very talented. We are very young, but we are very talented. I knew this was going to happen. I didn't account for the injuries that we received early, and that is what has really kicked us in the ribs really hard. Because when you take that on when you are as young as we are, that is hard to overcome. If you are a little more veteran, you might be able to overcome that a little bit. But I knew this year, we had 63 or 64 of the 85 [scholarship players] who are freshmen or sophomores. I knew this was that year. I knew we had to do it. Our quarterbacks had no experience. No backup experience. I knew that too. Sometimes you go into those years and you hope you get into a good fortune and you stay healthy. We have managed to do that in the past. It caught up with us this year a little bit in this rebuilding process.
"We will still be a young team next year, obviously, but we will have so many more guys who will have had meaningful snaps. They'll still be young. Just think about it. All those guys I rattled off. Next year, they'll still have three more years to play. That's a long time. That's exciting. We're recruiting well. Things are going well and we just have to develop and do the right things and develop our team. It's never going to please everybody and I understand that. If you're a football person, and I know a lot of you guys are, and you follow it close – which you do – you can see what is going on and you can understand it. There are some frustrating things along the way. We're not there. Obviously, we would like to be 5-2 right now. No doubt. Nobody feels good about that. There are some decisions that have to be made on the field in the heat of the battle that are a byproduct of a lot going on. That's all a part of this. The kids have a great attitude. This is a great group of guys. I think they see the big picture. They like football a lot. Our job is to continue to develop this team to get as many wins as we can each week for this season and also, you have to understand that we are building something really good here. I have all the confidence in the world in that."
On how the Clemson game helped the team…
"I think we came out of the game kind of energized,even given the fact that we are in eight week without a bye week. Teams get very tired. You hear all these coaches out there saying, 'Thank God for the bye week.' That was last week or two weeks ago. Everybody has had a bye week. We haven't had that and we need that. Especially here because the academic workload [at Boston College] is really hard. That's where it becomes a load on these kids. We're not going to get it until week 10 and by then, you're into the home stretch and you have two games left at that point. All that being considered, our team has a great look in their eye and on the field, there was a lock-jaw look in that locker room of disappointment over losing that game. And some real resolve about continuing to improve and coming out to get a win this week. That's all good stuff.
"The reality of it is, we still have to go on the road and have to go to an away site. We have to play a talented football team and all that goes along with that. Those are the things we are working on. The other thing is today, you sit here and you game plan. You sit there and you see some things that you would really like to do. You try to digest whether it is worth it or it's not. Every time you have some ideas that you would like to look at and you go, then you say to yourself, 'Oh gosh. But can we operate it?' It looks good and sounds good, but can we operate it. Or, are we better off just backing off even more and just operate the best we can and let these kids feel most confident as opposed to trying to put some wrinkles and put some things in that you would like to do. We did that a lot last year. We had some wrinkles vs. USC. We had some stuff going on. That's football. I just don't know if we can do that right now."
On the play of senior WR Bobby Swigert looked to throw the ball…
"We were throwing that down the field. We felt great about that too. What happened was it was all set up. The middle backer just didn't track hard enough on Thaddeus [Smith] on the reverse. He didn't track. He fell off of it and fell right in so Bobby couldn't set up. If the blocker had tracked that reverse a little bit harder, we had a play going. But those are called shot plays. You take a shot. Bobby throws the ball so well. We go on the plus side of the field and we take a shot. We are going to do that. We have to do that. We are not the most explosive team in the world so when you can get a little deception and get those things going, you are going to do those things. So we are going to always have those. That's why they are called shots. We have a hard time checking. On the road – the communication issues – sometimes it's not worth it right now. You're better off just calling a play that you've called 9,000 times since training camp, even though this defense does present some things to you. We have to weigh that off to whether or not that is going to have any functionality or not. That's the stuff we are into right now that I don't know if people really understand or can get their arms around right now and I get it."
On senior TE Louie Addazio's close completion near the end zone…
"He had that deep ball coming at him. He got down the field pretty good. He was trying to adjust to the ball. He probably needed to keep running through that ball. He has the two braces on his shoulder and he can't really extend like that. He competed hard in the game. I think he was real upset about it. He thought that was a play he could make. But he competed hard in the game. He is playing on that ankle right now. He has been out there for a couple weeks on that thing, but he doing okay. But as I told him – as I have told every other player in the locker room - that's the Teddy Roosevelt quote. It's the man in the arena. You go as hard as you can. You make a play. Sometimes you make it, sometimes you don't. Everybody has an opinion and everybody has a criticism. You put yourself out there… You don't always get it the way you want it. It happens all the time on the football field. It happens as a football coach."
On the play of freshman QB Jeff Smith…
"He threw the ball well in times in that game. That thing came out with some velocity. That was one of those drills where he put that down there pretty good. There were some exciting points in that game. We went after that blocked punt. We were close."
On the return of junior RB Myles Willis…
"That was great. I loved having him back. He brought some real energy and juice. He had some speed and I thought he might go in [on the 45-yard run]. He hit overdrive on that thing pretty good. Those are some of the plays we need to get back. Those things where there is a seam and he has that speed and he can hit it right. He is just great to be back. He had that presence. He is a veteran guy now. He is one of those few guys who have been through a lot of those heated contests now. That was an added bonus. I think that helped us. I think that sparked us a little bit on offense. It was a good addition. It just goes to show you what a guy who has been around a bit can do. He has a little presence. He has been there before; he is not fazed. He had a lot of energy in that game."
On making a decision to play freshman WR Ben Glines, who has been hurt…
"That's the huge question is where you plug him in right now. There are guys who are busting their tail right now to play. If you had a real injury issue at that position, I think you do it. But you don't, at least not today. Unless something changes, I don't know if that is going to happen. I've been stuck before here and at different places where you've burned a redshirt and you didn't get much snaps from the guy and you look back and you're like, 'what a shame.' You don't realize it until that fourth year and you're like 'wow. It's a shame.' I am [gearing towards redshirting him] but unless something were to dramatically change here, which can happen in a blink. You get a couple of key injuries. Then I would put him out there. It would happen fast. We would activate him quick."
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