Boston College Athletics
Q And A With Tom O'Brien
September 20, 1999 | Football
Sept. 20, 1999
Q: Were you pleased with your team's performance this past Saturday vs. Navy?
A: After looking at the tapes and doing some studying on my own, I think we did an excellent job on defense. Individually, Frank Chamberlin had a great game. I thought Pedro Cirino really played well at the safety position. We limited their fullback (Raheem Lambert) from what we had seen their previous two games. He got a couple on us in the third period when they changed blocking schemes, but we caught up to it and then we limited them in passing and didn't give up any big plays like we did a year ago. Offensively, they committed a lot of people to the run, which we knew they were going to do. We knew we had to throw the ball better. Our protection broke down a little too much for my liking, but I thought our quarterbacks did a much better job throwing the football and we did a much better job in our route running and came at the right times when we needed to throw the ball.
Q: What are your concerns about Rutgers?
A: Looking at a couple of tapes of Rutgers, I'd say they are a much improved football team over the team that we played a year ago. Their quarterback (Mike McMahon) is obviously a good player who makes a lot of plays for them. Their halfback (Jacki) Crooks is a shifty guy who looks like he's got some power and can run over you and run around you. They've always had good receivers, which they have again. Defensively, they look like they fit into the scheme well. Their coordinator (Dennis Creehan) is there for his second year now and (Wayne) Hampton seems to be making a lot of plays, so we have our work cut out for us.
Q: You mentioned your concerns about pass protection breaking down. What led you to those concerns?
A: I thought that we just broke down. It was more assignment than anything else and it was things that we practiced against, so that's a concern. You practice against it and you know what's coming and then you don't execute what you know is coming, that is a mental part of the pass protection scheme that we have to get worked out.
Q: Safe to say after DuJuan's (Daniels) debut, that his days on defense are over?
A: They were over even before that. He's going to be a wide receiver.
Q: Is there a chance he can become a two-way player there?
A: Well, not as long as we don't have anyone injured on defense. I think he'll stay on offense.
Q: Can you talk about the impact of the true freshmen in Saturday's game?
A: They're learning a little more. There's a lot for them to learn. There's a lot for them to assimilate. The advantage to having a week off is that after we threw them into the fire in the first game we had another chance to go back and practice them a little more. In fact, on Thursday of the off week we practiced the first team on both sides of the football and sent them in after 45 minutes and kept everybody else out so that we could concentrate a little bit more on the freshmen, even the freshmen kids that we are planning to redshirt. You can't get experience without playing, so the more they play, the better they get. They're good athletes and they just have to be able to learn. The more they play, the better they'll be.
Q: Can you talk about finally getting into league play this week and what that means?
A: Well, it's good for us. You always have to start off somewhere. It's nice to play a couple of out-of-conference games first, but going into the league we want to do a better job than we've done the past couple years. I think we've won three league games in each of the past two years. This is a start now and we've got to start climbing into that upper echelon. It starts when we go to Rutgers on Saturday.
Q: In your evaluation of the defense, what's the aspect of Frank Chamberlin's play you admired most?
A: I think he played from sideline to sideline, he was all over the field. Initially, they came out and we had to catch up to the speed of their offense. Once we caught up to it he was tackling the dive, the quarterback and running into the pitch. He was all over the field. He came on some blitzes there at the end and got into the quarterback's (Brian Broadwater) face and made him midsdirect and throw the ball and not throw it the way he wanted to throw it or where he wanted to throw it. I think he just played an outstanding game and his reads were much better and he was much more comfortable in his role as a middle linebacker.
Q: When you came in he (Chamberlain) had been in between positions, as a fullback and a linebacker. Did you see him as a better linebacker in terms of what he brought to the team?
A: Well, it was a desperation move for us a year ago. We didn't have anybody else to move there and at that point we thought we could move him over to linebacker. We had to upgrade the defense and upgrade that position in particular. A year ago, we were playing with four linebackers, so we needed more numbers. I think it took him a year to learn. He was a fish out of water for the first couple weeks but after looking at the effort he gave, if you remember when the kid intercepted the screen at Georgia Tech and he just ran him down. There are just some things like that that stood out in our minds, so we decided to try him on defense. He goes hard every day in practice, he's that kind of person. He works at it off the field, he studies football. We knew that sooner or later with experience and playing time that he would be a good player and that's proven true right now.
Q: After the Baylor game there might have been some questions whether the BC passing game could lead the team to a comeback in the fourth quarter. How much confidence does it give Tim (Hasselbeck) and the wide receivers that they basically brought this game back for them in a drive that was maintained by the pass?
A: I think it should give them a lot of confidence. As I said after the game, we kind of banged around and blew five, six opportunities to gain a sizable lead and maybe in essence put the game away but maybe it's meant to be that way. I think it's a big boost to them to come back. We threw the ball effectively, pass protected well and got the ball down there and ended up scoring with our run. Everything worked out well, they should take and build upon that.
Q: Cedric (Washington) had the bulk of the carries Saturday. It was mostly a three-pronged attack at least at times against Baylor. Do you think it's going to be a little more mixed up against Rutgers? Are we going to see a little more of the two other running backs (Will Green, Carlton Rowe)?
A: I don't know, we'll have to wait to see. Our intent is to get all three of them in the game. When we got to the point where we had to throw the football and have pass pickup, that kind of negated Will's playing time in that situation. Cedric is doing a good job, he hasn't been fumbling the ball and that's one of the things we were concerned with. We wanted to make sure we were protecting the ball so we kept him in there most of the second half except when he needed a blow.
Q: Any concern with the run blocking Saturday?
A: No, I think we did a good enough job there. We just got outnumbered a few times and they took some chances and that's why we were able to throw the ball more effectively.
