Boston College Athletics
Addazio Addresses Media Heading into Bout with NC State
October 06, 2014 | Football
Chestnut Hill, Mass. - Boston College head football coach Steve Addazio spoke to the media in his weekly press conference on Monday follow the team's bye week. The Eagles (3-2, 0-1 ACC) head to Raleigh, N.C., to face NC State (4-2, 0-2 ACC) on Saturday after having extra time to prepare with the bye week. The game will be broadcast at 3:30 p.m. on the ACC Regional Sports Network.
Opening Statement...
"We are looking forward to playing again. It was great to have a bye week and get the team some rest and get a jump start on NC State, which we needed. We had a great practice this morning; the kids were flying around. It looked like their legs were a little fresher.
"The [NC State] quarterback Jacoby Brissett is a really talented guy, very hard to tackle. He reminds me of Jameis Winston. He's athletic; he's got good feet and agility. He's not a blazer, but he's a strong runner. He does a great job staying alive and looking to make plays down field. I really am impressed with him. I think [Shadrach] Thornton and [Matt] Dayes, the two running backs, are really good players. [Bo] Hines, who is a freshman, is really good and has made a bunch of plays. They're a good offense. This QB has been great for them. Clemson's defense is one of the elite ones in the country and it did a great job on Saturday against them, but [Brissett] still played pretty well.
"On defense they returned six starters. I really think their interior guys are really strong, like [Art] Norman and [Thomas] Teal. They run to the ball well and have a good scheme, so I think they're a strong football team.
"We have to go on the road for the first time this season with a young group. We have to handle the crowd and the noise and just everything that comes with being out of your comfort zone on the road. Our challenges are there for us, but we're looking forward to it and we are excited to play on Saturday."
On graduate offensive linemen Bobby Vardaro's status and the players who stepped in for him...
"[Vardaro's] doing better every day. He should be ready to roll.
"Jon Baker played as a true freshman, and he's getting better every day. He's going to be an outstanding football player. Dave Bowen has been playing throughout the season.
"You're working on your depth. What's hard is that we had a dominant offensive line when we started the season out, and we lost Harris Williams and then we lost Bobby [Vardaro]. And for us, when you lose those two guards like that and you couple with the fact that you lost your two tackles last year, that's four guys out of that line. I don't want to get up here and whine, but it hurts. These two young guys are going to be good players though, it's valuable experience for next year and this year.
On playing the first game away from Massachusetts...
"I think our guys like to play at home. I don't think you ever look forward to going out of town. It's just what you have to do: You have to go on the road and win. It's part of it. When you're at home, you're in your routine and in your element. When you don't have a senior-laden team who has a lot of experience in that, it's hard. You saw us a year ago when we went out to USC, we looked like a deer in the headlights. We've got a lot of work with the crowd noise. There's a whole other element. [Tyler] Murphy is comfortable because he has played in those situations before, but you just have to deal with it."
On freshman kicker Mike Knoll...
"He will take over the field goal duties and extra points. Let it roll. We are going to let Alex [Howell] focus on punting and kicking off. Let's deal with it now as opposed to next year."
On the offensive attack...
"We have to stay two dimensional. We have Tyler [Murphy] and we have Jon [Hilliman] getting more and more experience every day in power run. We also have to keep Tyler alive in the ability and the threat of the power run game, so you see a lot of pistol runs. That way, the defense has to worry about the quarterback and the tailback, not just the tailback. We're really working hard on our personnel and be more dynamic on our play-action game to really match everything. It's trying to find the right combinations. Last year, we kept our offensive line completely intact, so we have the right back and the right o-line and the right sets. We're not quite as focused in one area as we were a year ago, which has its benefits but also its downside. We were really good at what we did last year, now we have more breakdowns because we're more diverse in our run games; we're an elite running football team. A week ago we rushed for over 229 yards, we were moving the football well, but we're different than last year. Andre [Williams] gave us big play strikes, we're not there yet. Now, Tyler has given us big play strikes, but we're just a little different in how we're doing things."
On the team's game plan...
"We didn't get it done at the end of the game [against Colorado State] and we threw an interception on the previous drive, but we didn't have any real possessions in the second half. This is an offense predicated on getting possessions. We are a tied together team. Our plan to win works off of each other. If one side isn't handling their piece it's tough. We're wired to win on defense. That's the philosophy: Win on defense. When you go back a couple weeks, it worked really well - We were off the field, the offense got a couple cracks and we wore them out and broke the rock. I thought we had a chance to do that against Colorado State and we didn't do that. We didn't break that rock. We had a chance to do it and we didn't."
On the diversity of the running backs...
"[Jon Hilliman] is off to what I think will be a great career. I think him and Marcus Outlow are two dynamic guys. It's really fun and exciting. The challenge is to let them both touch the ball as much as you would like. You've also got Myles [Willis] and Tyler [Rouse]. Those are good problems to have."
On the youth of the roster...
"We can't even keep an eight-to-nine offensive line together right now. That's because our roster is out of whack. We've got too many older linemen and nothing in between. There are a lot of voids in there. It will probably take me three full years to get the roster balanced out. It's hard. Next year we will feel the void of the offensive line. It's monumental. The resiliency of our kids is a credit to them that we are still in the winning mode even while we're doing this. It's difficult; I don't think people realize that. If you really evaluated it and looked at that roster you would see the holes.
"We'll get there. It's going great. My opinion: With the last game we played, we're a tired football team. They were fresh today, but we will be worn out again in a couple days. I come in here and say, `Well we had to pull back today, couldn't tackle and it shows up in the game.' I can't solve that. You can't keep banging a team that's all banged up. You can only hope that they'll tackle better but that's not the way to go. We just don't have the numbers to sustain the level of practice that we need to sustain to develop a young football team."
On the state of BC football...
"I don't think anybody can say that we're not looking at a really competitive football team right now that's not capable of playing really well at times. We've been that way even in that Pittsburgh game--the way we came ripping back in that game. There's a lot of exciting things going on. We're sitting here at 3-2 and we're a play away from 4-1. We're on the road playing NC State. Our guys are fired up; our staff is fired up, coaching like lunatics every day and loving it. They are just working at getting better and tweaking things here and there, finding the right combination of guys and continuing to grow the freshmen that we're playing, never mind the true sophomores that we're playing. It's exciting to watch. There's a lot of good football left to play."
On both teams having Florida transfers as starting quarterbacks...
"[Murphy and Brissett are] buddies. They're really good friends. Brissett's a hell of a player. He's making a ton of plays and I have a ton of respect for him. I've watched him a lot; I've watched every snap. He's pretty darn good. It'll be exciting for these guys. He's having success, and I love seeing these guys have success, just not too much on the day we play them."
