Boston College Athletics
O'Brien's Last Word - Baylor Game
September 01, 1999 | Football
Sept. 1, 1999
Q: What do you see as the keys for Saturday's opener vs. Baylor?
A: Obviously Baylor presents some problems to us in that they have a
senior-laden defense with a lot of lettermen, a lot of people who
played and started last year, so it will be a big challenge for us.
Defensively, we're not sure what we're going to get from Baylor on
offense, so it's like defending ghosts right now. I think the key is
that we have to be the best we can be, to play our game, not turn the
ball over, be sound in the kicking game and play hard for 60 minutes.
Q: Could you assess the play of your offensive line so far?
A: We're concerned that Baylor is bringing in four starters on the
line. We have three guys who have played a lot of football in Cook and
Zukauskas and Alford up front. Zukauskas has made the move to guard,
and I think he'll be fine there. Palaza and LaQuerre move up. Right
now, our biggest concern is their coordination together when things
happen fast, which they do. In an opener like this, with a new coach,
we're grasping at straws a little bit about what defense we're going to
see. It's going to be some version of the 4-3, from what we expect.
They're going to have to be on their toes enough to identify
linebackers and blitz situations. Palaza's got to get us into the
right situations in line calls for the running game. That's the
concern right now, in that it's not as cohesive as it was a year ago.
We won't know until Saturday.
Q: Is it cohesive vs. what you expected at this point?
A: No, I expected that we would be further along, but Palaza has
missed some playing time with injury and has been unsettled at the
center spot. He's back now full-go, so he needs to give us some good
practice days now and get ready to go.
Q: How much time did Palaza miss and what was the nature of his injury?
A: In the middle of the two-a-day sessions, he missed some time. In
the spring, he fractured the fifth metatarsal in his left foot. It was
just a question of soreness with the two-a-days. What we tried to do
was have him practice only once during the two-a-days, and a couple of
those times he couldn't make either practice because of the sore foot.
There's nothing he can do right now. He just needs to learn to play
with some pain.
Q: Given that you don't know what to expect Saturday, how much weight
can you put on this game?
A: It's important for our program. We've been here two years and
turned around the situation after the gambling problem that brought me
and my staff to this school. Being that we're in the third year of our
program, it took us one year to get things turned around and one year
to get the program started last year. Hopefully this could be a good
year for us. As I said in our initial press conference, I think this
is the first legitimate chance we've had to have a winning football
team since I've been at Boston College. I think Baylor, in particular,
is a good matchup for us because of the speed they bring. Texas
football still has a place in everyone's mind here in the East, we know
how important football is in Texas, and they have a roster made up
almost entirely of Texas kids. It should be a very important game for
us and should be a good measuring stick for us.
Q: Could you talk about Chris Hovan, what he brings to the defense and
what you're expecting of him this year.
A: Chris is a four-year player here. He played as a true freshman.
He's gone from around 230 pounds to 280-plus now. He's a
high-intensity player. He's a motor player in that he goes all out
every play. And he's become a leader on this football team.
Q: You lost a lot of talent on offense. Talk about replacing those guys. A: We lost two guys who will end up starting in the NFL from the offensive line. We're going with a different quarterback than a year ago, and we've had to replace Mike Cloud at tailback, which doesn't just happen. We have a couple of backs who we think will do a good job of carrying the football. The concern is that they hang on to the ball and don't turn it over. We lost three wide receivers, so it's a young bunch there. But I don't think we've lost anything talent-wise. We just need experience. And the only way we'll get experience is for those guys to get into a game and play.
Q: Do you expect William Green to play Saturday?
A: He'll get in the football game, it's just a question of when or
where. He's the third tailback, and in my experience, the third
tailback always ends up playing. Somebody will get banged up a little
bit, and the third tailback will play.
