Addazio Media Availability: Oct. 17

Talk about Kurt Benkert and what you've noticed about him.
He's a precision thrower. He's very accurate. He's got leadership and experience. He's playing at a high level. He was a tremendous infusion into their football program, obviously. He's a very talented guy.

He seems like a very efficient passer.
He is. He's got arm talent. He's got pocket presence. He's a legitimate throwing quarterback. I haven't seen him in person. They say he's about 6'4. He's got some size too. He's very impressive.

All year you've been looking at Lamar Jackson's and Kelly Bryant's. How does he compare?
He's more of a pocket guy, less of a QB run guy – not that he can't run it because he can. We got to crank back up that pass rush and get ready to get after it a little bit. Like you said, it's another long line of really talented quarterbacks that we have faced and will continue to face. That's the strength of who we're playing right now.

Talk a little bit about Thadd Smith.
I think Thadd's worked really hard. He really dedicated himself and had a phenomenal off-season. He went through a real transformation. He's one of our tougher veteran players. He's accountable and he's in his last year and wants to make an impact. I'm proud of what he's done. He's found a role and doing a great job trying to increase that role.

Do you think Thadd has separated himself from the other receivers?
He's found a little niche for himself. It started off in the run game and it's expanded. He's earned the right for more playing time, simple as that. Thadd has great speed now. He's one of the fastest guys on the team. He's got quickness, speed and changing direction. He's done a great job with that and it's really benefitted us.

Last week we talked about third down conversions. In the second half last week against Louisville, you were seven of 11 on third down. What is the difference?
We're on schedule. We were efficient on first and second down, not putting us in as many third and longs. I think any time you lower your distance on third down, you increase your opportunity for success. You can look at third down as an overall percentage or you can break it down into third and long, third and medium. We had many more third and mediums and we converted on them for a host of reasons. It keeps the chains moving. And when the chains move, you have another set of downs and it starts to wear down the defense. That's why we ran 87 plays. We were at 82 and Notre Dame, we were at 85. Then we got back up to 87. We'd like to get back up into 90 if we could. But that is hinged upon staying on schedule and converting on third downs.

Talk about Phillips. You put him in at guard. What gave you the confidence to do that?
We wanted to put the best five in there. He's been steadily improving, him and Sam Schmal. We shuffle the deck sometimes, move Chris in, put Marcell at tackle. He and Sam are starting to gel a little bit and settle in together, so it's been a good thing.

At the beginning of the year with Chris still at right guard and John still healthy, do you see this as like an Elijah Johnson situation where he didn't expect any play time coming in?
We expected him to play. John's been in the program for a few years. Elijah was a true freshman last year. With losing Elijah, John and Shane Leonard, it created more opportunity. John has prepared himself and has stepped up and is doing a really nice job. Played his best game last week. First time he graded out a champion since he's been here. He and Sam Schmal both. Those two guys played their best game against a really fine opponent. That's growth and that's good.

What does graded out a champion mean?
We grade them out and you get a champion award if you're graded a certain percentage. You have to have a minimum amount of plays and be graded a certain percentage. It's hard to do and they both did it. We had three offensive linemen grade out champions and that's all good stuff. It's not shocking, we ran the ball for 370 yards. Your line is playing pretty good when that happens. We had great performances in our backs, but the line is playing really good too.

So when Lindstrom got the ACC lineman, it was really a group award?
Yeah. He played exceptionally well. It sure was reflected in the front, but he deserved the award that he got. He played at a very high level.

Boston College Athletics

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Players Mentioned

Elijah Johnson

Shane Leonard

Sam Schmal

Thadd Smith

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