Transcript: Matt Ryan Press Conference

Matt Ryan Jersey Retirement Press Event
July 6, 2016
Yawkey Athletics Center | Chestnut Hill, Mass.

Brad Bates: So welcome to this really special day.

On October 22, we will be retiring Luke Kuechly's jersey during our game against Syracuse.

Luke is the most decorated defensive player in BC football history, sweeping every major postseason award in 2012, including the Butkus Award, the Lott IMPACT Trophy, Bronko Nagurski Award, and Rotary Lombardi Award. He is BC's only two-time first team All American, and recorded at least 10 tackles in 34 games. Luke was the ninth overall pick in the 2013 NFL Draft, and is a Pro Bowler and a Super Bowler.

And then on November 19, during our game against Connecticut, we will retire Matt Ryan's jersey.

Matty Ice was selected third overall in the 2008 draft, which continues to be BC's highest draft choice in any sport. As a senior, he led the Eagles to an 8-0 start, a No. 2 national ranking, and our first ACC championship game.

Many will remember what Kirk Herbstreit called Matt's "Heisman Moment" in the comeback win against Virginia Tech. And Matt went on to win the Johnny Unitas Award, the Manning Award, was named ACC Player of the Year, and finished seventh in the Heisman Trophy balloting. And most importantly, Matt's wife was a point guard for the Eagles' basketball team.

These two men are obviously smart; after all, they're BC graduates. They're also obviously extraordinary athletes. They're even better leaders, and they are even better people.

Please join me in welcoming back to campus, Matt Ryan.

Matt Ryan: Thank you guys. Thank you. First off, I just want to thank everybody for coming out. I know that this week, particularly with the holiday, can be extremely busy, but this time of the year we get a little bit of a break so it was a good time for me to get up here. So thank you to everybody from the media and BC for coming out; a lot of familiar faces to see.

As I come back up here, I was telling Chris (Cameron) this on the way up, it's a little bit nostalgic to be back here. It felt like old times, Chris leading the way and me standing behind him, and him telling me what to expect and questions that might come up, etc.

But it's amazing how quickly that time goes. I feel like just yesterday we were playing Miami, and it was my last game here, and we were coming up and celebrating a big win against them. First time we had beat them in a long time, and here we are basically nine years later, and I'm back here.

I don't think I ever would have anticipated coming back for an event like this in 2001 or 2002 when, Jamie (Silva) can attest to, Rhode Island's finest (former assistant coach) Jason Swepson was recruiting me. And, yeah, he was down recruiting a tall, skinny kid from Penn Charter, who ran the triple option and threw the ball probably like five or six times a game. So it took incredible foresight on their part to be able to project me to play up here, but I'm thankful to him and Tom O'Brien and Dana Bible for giving me the opportunity to come here and have a scholarship at Boston College, give me the opportunity to get the education that I got here. Those guys impacted me a lot during my time here, and really changed who I was as a person, as a player.

I learned so much from Tom (O'Brien) in the first four years that I was here. He was incredibly consistent, incredibly disciplined, and I felt like he was always his best when things were the worst. And I think that's the true sign of a great leader, and I've tried to emulate that throughout my entire career in Atlanta; to be that type of way, that type of person, that type of rock for my teammates. And I owe that to him, I really do; I think that was the most important thing I learned from him throughout my entire time here.

The other guy who impacted me a ton was Dana Bible. Dana was my offensive coordinator here for my first four years, and taught me what it meant to be a quarterback, all things that come along with that. He really was a great teacher. He gave you a great mental checklist for what you needed to do when you broke the huddle and were going to the line of scrimmage. He was relentless. I mean, he was tough. There's no question about that, but that's exactly what I needed. And he continued to push me the entire time that he was here with me, and certainly made me the player, the competitor, the quarterback that I am.

And then my last year, obviously we had some change and Jeff Jagodzinski came in and hired Steve Logan as our offensive coordinator. And Steve, Steve really pushed me to another threshold. He kind of challenged me to be more aggressive, and to see how tight of windows you could fit the ball into. And challenged me to be a stronger leader, and I think pushed me to be a better player than I even thought I could be. And he gave me so much confidence, and really boosted my ego and made me feel really good about who I was as a player, who I was as a teammate, who I was as a leader, and I think that really propelled me into my senior year, which was really successful.

So those guys were all really important and really impactful, but none of that compares to my teammates that I had during my time here. I think that football is, without question, the greatest team sport. You are completely dependent on the guys next to you, the guys that you're playing with. And I happen to be surrounded by some of the best in the country, there's no question about it. Great players, great people, great students, fun to be around in the locker room, but none of it would have been possible without them. And I'm very, very fortunate to have been here at the time that I was. I think they're some of the best BC football teams that have been on campus, and some of the best BC football players that have ever been here. I think throughout my life I've always been fortunate to benefit from great timing, and that was certainly the case with my teammates. So, that's it.

I'm really, really honored to have the jersey retired. It looks great. I'm looking forward to November, and everybody coming out here to celebrate that, but I guess with that I'll open it up to any questions that you guys may have.

When you think back onto your career, are there a couple of moments that stand out?

Ryan: I think on the playing field there are so many, but to me two come up. I think one: playing at Virginia Tech. You know a lot gets made of the end of the game, but without our defense playing as well as they did for 55 minutes, and keeping us in that game, without our special teams coming up with a huge onside kick, without all of those things happening, none of that would have happened at the end of the game.

One of the things I'll always remember too is, you know, after that game coming back here and us getting back to the Yawkey Center, and I don't know how many students were here, but it had to be, it felt like four or five thousand kids were like outside and in the Mods. That had to have been for me, one of the coolest experiences during college.

And then another great one was playing down at Clemson my senior year. We had set out to play in that ACC Championship game and this was to clinch to go, and again, we were really resilient, and kept battling and competing, and came up with a big play at the end to win in a great place, in a great venue, and that was a lot of fun.

And then, my last home game here, too. I think it had been 20-something years that we hadn't beaten Miami, and to play them at home in my last game with the seniors, the guys that I had been here with for five years, and to be able to accomplish that, to be able to beat that particular team, that was really important.

Do you ever think of the one that got away, the Florida State game?

Ryan: I do. Yeah. Thank you for reminding me. Unfortunately, not only here at BC, but in Atlanta there are a few that got away. Such is life. Such is being an athlete. You know? You learn a lot from it, not only athletically but personally, too. And I think during those tough situations you see the character of the guys you are around. I think the character of our teams was always first-class and that was something that made being here at BC so special.

When you heard that your jersey was going to be retired, did it come as a surprise to you or what were the emotions with it?

Matt: I would sound very cocky if I said I did expect it. No, I certainly didn't expect it. Barry Gallup came down (to Atlanta). Barry was one of the first people I met here at BC, taking us on the tour of Boston during our recruiting visit. He had known my uncle who had played here at BC, so the Gallup name came up a lot in our household. So Barry came down this past spring and just said he was going to be in town randomly. So, alright, that's cool. It will be good to catch up. So my wife Sarah and I went and had lunch with Barry and caught up for about 55 minutes on all things, family etc. And unexpectedly the conversation turned and he let me know that this was going to happen. I was beyond overwhelmed. Again, I never thought this would happen. I always had a goal in front of me. I want to do this. Get stronger during winter workouts or whatever it was and just wanted to play. And for it to shake out the way it has and for this to happen it's really special. It really is. I always feel really good coming back to campus but this is a little bit different and I hope to be able to share that with my family and a lot of people in November.

You mentioned the people that influenced you and the things you learned. Is there one thing or one lesson that you learned at BC that has helped you the most?

Ryan: Oh man. It's probably impossible to pick just one thing. I probably think the thing that I learned here was that the best teams I have been on were the tightest teams. And I think some of the tightest teams that I have been a part of were here at BC. And you have relationships with guys that last a lifetime. And you share experiences with guys of things that you will never forget. And that's it. I think that one thing, creating chemistry, the relationships, and the accountability.

I think that our senior class, the class of 2007, I think Barry was telling me, was the largest fifth-year senior class that BC ever had. I think we had 17 fifth-years? And these were guys that had been together for five years. We had worked out together. We had been here all summer together. We played Xbox in the dorms together; we had done all kinds of things together. We went to Roggies one time. That was only one time. Maybe MaryAnn's once. I can't remember. Gos(der Cherilus) use to drive us in his old taxi. He had an old taxi. The back would scrape the ground when we drove in it.

Jamie Silva: They used to put me in the trunk!

Ryan: Jamie (Silva) would hop in the trunk. Dumpster dive and find some different stuff. But anyhow, we had a class that was together for so long and so many guys here. And everyone wasn't best friends, but you were friends and you were tight in your own way with each guy. And the coolest thing about it was that everyone held everyone else accountable. When it came time to perform, to work out, to do all those types of things, I mean we had relentless competitors. I mean really tough, tough competitors across the board. And to me that is what made our teams unique and our class unique. I'm thankful that 23 kids in 2002 or 2003 decided to come here.

Matt when you see some of these guys like Gosder or Jaime here, you played against them also in the NFL. Gos is still playing. Some of the other guys are still playing that you played with. What's it like going against those guys knowing that they are family?

Ryan: Yeah luckily I'm never on the field at the same time as Gos. It's weird. It's like in-division, we see these guys twice a year. And I'm so happy for Luke as well. It's an incredible honor for him and certainly well deserved. I mean he is as good as it gets. But I hate playing against him. He's that good. It's tough. He's really, really good to go against. You know it's weird. It really is.

There is a bond and connection you have in college that in some ways you never replicate in the NFL. It just doesn't happen. And you get close with a lot of your teammates there's no question, but there is so much turnover in the NFL that you just don't have as much time with the same group of guys. So from that perspective, I think as I look back now at 31, it was unique. You don't realize any different as you're going through it, but it's unique looking back on it. It's fun. To me playing against guys, and you get to see them on the field before and after the game, it's really good. It makes you reminisce about times that we were in this building and doing the things that we did and going to Roggies.

You were part of a group that got this team back to a level that hadn't been seen since the Flutie days in the 80's. In your mind, what is it going to take for this program to get back to the level you had there in that 2007 season?

Ryan: I think they're off to a good start. I think it takes time to rebuild things in the direction that you want to go. And patience doesn't happen to be everybody from the outside's best virtue. People want things done quickly, and there is no quick solution to trying to turn things around.

I think Steve's done a great job of moving things in the right direction. I know he's really excited about the football team coming up this year. They're going to be solid on the offensive line, a little bit more mature, a little bit more experienced on that side of the ball. I think the defense has been outstanding, and they're going to continue to be outstanding, so I don't think it's as far away. I think the difference between, I think it was maybe 5 or 6 games last year that were three points or less. The difference is that.

And I think the difference is going to come when those kids get a little more experience; they get a little bit more grit, a little bit more comfortable in being in those uncomfortable situations. I think that's when they're going to hit their stride, and I'm looking forward to that. Because there are a lot of bets that go on in those locker rooms that you want to be on the right side of them, you want to be on the right end of them, and I really think we're going to be as we move forward.

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