Boston College Athletics
Media Day: Addazio Quotes
August 13, 2015 | Football
On the start of preseason camp…
“We are so young that every day is a complete development day. Every day has a new set of challenges that seem to occur. We are challenging ourselves as a coaching staff to teach better and coach better. As a staff we almost have to slow down due to the youth in the program. It’s fun and exciting. As is the BC way, the players have been working very hard, studying and preparing.
“This early in camp we are still looking to forge the team’s personality and toughness of the program. It hasn’t happened yet and isn’t easy. We need more heat and less nice days.”
On the offensive line…
“We are still a work in progress up front. We don’t yet know who the starting five guys will be on the O-Line. We are working on figuring that out. We are waiting on the young guys to figure it out a little bit.”
On the overall depth chart…
“Nothing is as clear as it was for our staff in year one and two. There is more talent on the roster from top to bottom, which makes it tough to decide who plays and who doesn’t. That said, the compete level and higher talent level are good for the program.
“We are trying to figure out what the best combination of players are on an every-day basis. Right now, every day there is a different guy making a big play on the offensive side of the ball. It’s fun to see but makes my job harder.”
On the running back unit…
“They all look good. The challenge will be getting them all on the field together. We are not evaluating that group, the group is good….Getting the offensive line ready to play in front of them will be one of the biggest challenges leading into the season.”
On the kicking game…
“Alex [Howell] looks great. He is probably the best punter in the conference. He is working hard on field goals. He actually looks good kicking them; he has a big leg. Mike [Knoll] is working hard. He showed some improvement but he needs to continue to improve. He worked real hard in the offseason. We also have the freshman [Colton] Lichtenberg. I like him; he pops right in there and kicks it. It doesn’t seem like there is a whole lot of anxiety going on. It’s too early though. How do you know until those guys get into the game and everyone is cheering or booing? I don’t know. I know what I see in practice and if that is valid I don’t know. It’s like the quarterbacks in 7-on-7: they look pretty good. Then all of a sudden they get wacked a few times and the pressures on then they don’t look so good. I hope that you pick the right guy the first time, he goes in there and we don’t have to talk about it again. That would be a good thing but I don’t know. They are all kicking at this point. We need to get some more competitive kicks. I would like to see the field goal kicker be the field goal kicker. And the punter be the punter. I’m really not far along on that right now. I have hunch who that would be right now but I’m not saying who it is.”
On the young talent…
“It’s exciting: we have a bunch of really talented young guys. How long it takes us to develop this is yet to be seen. It’s a totally different situation then what it was two years ago. Though we had some good players, we didn’t have depth. You can see that one day they are going to be really talented, but they are just not ready to go right now. And it’s a foot race and college football is unforgiving. It happens so fast. The conference schedule gets on us quick and we need to just do the best we can, every day, every week and hope that we keep rolling. We need to stay healthy and we will be alright.
“I say that you are going to see a lot of young guys play between freshmen, sophomores, redshirt sophomores. Sixty of our 85 are freshmen and sophomores. You’re going to see a lot of young players, out there which can be maddening and frustrating. But they are all highly competitive, especially up front. You can get a wide out to play, a running back to play, but to getting a freshman offensive lineman to play is really hard. Once in a while if you surround the guy with experienced older guys, it could work. But this is going to be a huge challenge, a huge challenge. The good news is that in that not so distant future we will have one of the best offensive lines in the country. But no one wants to hear about that now - nor do I. They want to hear about what’s going on right now. So we are going to have to make the adjustments now. We used to be able to play a lot of the run game but we can’t do that right now. I can’t sleep right now trying to get that group of front to play at a high level. It’s going to be a mighty job. I saw some encouragement today [at practice], which was nice, but we have a way to go with that group. We have a ways to go.”
