Boston College Athletics
Addazio Holds Weekly Press Conference
October 20, 2014 | Football
Chestnut Hill, Mass. - Boston College head football coach Steve Addazio spoke to the media at his weekly press conference on Monday. He talked about the upcoming game at Wake Forest, the improvements on special teams and the Eagles (4-3, 1-2 ACC) working hard and competing before in the next three ACC games.
Opening statement...
So obviously we're coming off of a tough game on Saturday where our kids really competed hard. We needed to make a couple more plays, as I stated after the game and we had opportunities, but we needed a few more.
On Wake Forest...
We're getting ready to play Wake Forest on the road, another road trip. We've had a chance to start watching them, especially on defense and they're really a fine team on defense. People are having a hard time running against them. They've done a great job. Looking at them I feel like their nose guard, [Tylor Harris] is a real good run-stopper interiorly. They put zone pressures and zone blitzes, a lot of eight-man fronts. I think they tackle well and they're stout. As I said, watching the tape, a lot of people are really struggle running the ball against them. I think they have a quality defense.
On offense, they're playing a young quarterback, John Wolford, who I know took a shot in that last game; I'm not sure what his status is. They also have a somewhat young offensive line, so they're looking for their identity. I know Dave [Clawson]. Dave is a great football coach. I think he's one of the better coaches out in the country right now. He's smart, innovative and has attention to detail. I've played against his staff before when I was at Temple and we played Bowling Green. I know Dave personally and I have the utmost respect for him and his staff. You can see what they're doing down there, developing Wake Forest and his team.
They played Florida State really tough and they played Syracuse really, really well. I think defensively they're strong; they're really good against a run. They've got two great corners who I think are NFL-type corners. So when you throw the ball you better know what you're doing because they're good at coverage and I think offensively, they're building because they're young.
They certainly have good playmakers. Where we are, we've got to get ready to play a high-execution game ourselves. We're hungry to get a win here. We have to have a great week of practice. We're playing an ACC team, plus we're playing them on the road, which is never easy. When you're playing against a team that's as well coached as they are, you know you're going to have your hands full. They're going to have a great scheme on both sides of special teams, so we have to have a great week of practice.
On Wake Forest's development...
Dave's doing a makeover. Defensively, it's similar to what he did at Bowling Green and he'll get them to do what he wants on offense. They'll be really good. Every place he's been, he's turned them into a winner and he'll turn Wake Forest into a winner because that's what he does. He'll recruit and go about his business taking a young team and developing them and adding recruits. You'll see, Wake Forest will continue to grow, a lot like BC will continue to grow.
On Clemson's Vic Beasley...
I thought we did a good job with Beasley this weekend. We did a good job with our plan, trying to run at him in the power game and away from him in the spread game. I thought we had a pretty good plan, but I think we could have played better up front. We knew we had to make those plays in the play action game. We had those shots. I thought we had a really good plan, we just need to come up with a couple more plays.
On BC's kicking game...
We made a lot of improvements on the kicking game this week. Our coverage was outstanding; our punting coverage and our kicking coverage improved. I think we did a great job with our punt team, plus our kickoff return team did a great job. Obviously, we missed an extra point. And the minute I saw it I knew it would come back and get us because at the end we couldn't try to kick a field goal to try to get that thing into overtime. So we've had some kicking issues without a doubt. It's a problem. We're trying to deal with it. We had such a phenomenal kicker a year ago and now we're breaking into some young guys. I think they'll all be great players, but right now they're young and we just have to develop them. We have to hang in there and get through all this.
Everybody's got their own belief structures on how they run their team. We had a couple other guys [besides Mike Knoll] who had some plays that they would have liked to have back. They're tough guys and they go about their business. We love them and we move forward. I think Mike's a tough guy and he gets all that. My goal is to not handle everybody differently ... everybody has a job to do. Work real hard and we all understand that it's football and you're a competitor. It doesn't always go exactly the way you want it to go. If you make a mistake mentally or physically, that's part of football. It's time to get ready to roll. It's a new week, a new deal, let's go.
On making plays to close out games...
[Clemson] hit some of those on third down, but for the most part we played pretty strong on defense. We had that drive, and we let up which was a costly drive at the end of the game there. It goes hand-and-hand on both sides of the ball in terms of interceptions and opportunities that we let get away from us. There are x amount of opportunities in those kind of games. You're either going to make them or you're not. We gave ourselves a chance, but we needed to make a couple more plays. It's probably pretty indicative of where we are right now. I'm pretty proud of the fact that when you play Boston College right now we're pretty darn competitive. For a team playing as many freshmen as we do and had as many losses as we did personnel wise last year, we can play with anybody. Now, that has to equate into winning the games that you have to win. Unfortunately, I think it's on both ends of this thing. Sometimes we're playing at a high level when you think that we might struggle and then sometimes we play teams you think you can roll with and you're not. That's all part of this thing when you're young. When you're older, with more maturity and leadership, I would say that you find a way to win those two games that you lost and we're sitting here at 6-1, but we're not. We're 4-3 and we have to go out and get our fifth win. Everybody is real grounded in that. No one here is pie-in-the-sky deal, and that's the truth of it. We just have to find a way to close these games out and win. They're right there. Literally last-plays wins or defeats. We played a really good football team; there's no mystery there.
On the team playing hard...
I think what I like most right now is our kids are playing really hard. Really physical, hard and fast. For who we are and what we have, we're doing it well. Not every game, but a lot of games. We have to sustain this now. We're in a three-game run here with Wake Forest, Virginia Tech and then Louisville until a bye week. We can't dip and drop off here. That's the biggest fear because you go out there, you're at home, you play a nationally-ranked team and you get taken out there in essentially the last play of the game for the second time in a few weeks. We've got to be able to overcome that and come out with the same intensity and same level this week. That will be our challenge.
