2021 ACC Kickoff Central
July 22, 2021 | Football
Quotes from head coach Jeff Hafley, QB Phil Jurkovec, OL Zion Johnson, and DE Marcus Valdez from the 2021 ACC Kickoff media day
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Below are quotes from the 2021 ACC Kickoff, featuring Boston College head football coach Jeff Hafley, quarterback Phil Jurkovec, offensive lineman Zion Johnson, and defensive end Marcus Valdez.
HEAD COACH JEFF HAFLEY
Q. Your offense obviously is different. What would be the ideal run-pass balance?
JEFF HAFLEY: I don't know if there's any balance. Going into each game you have to look at it, see who you're playing against, what their scheme, who are their DBs, how good is their front seven. I don't think we need to put a number on that.
When I was in the National Football League, one of the biggest things for me was the NFL pass game was really hard to defend, really hard to defend. That's what I wanted our offense to look like. Now, I want to run the ball. I think you have to run the ball. But I think you have to throw the ball to score points.
Frank Cignetti and our offensive staff have done a really good job doing that. I think we have a quarterback that can throw the ball. But we're also going to run. We've got a really good O-line, a lot of experience coming back. We've got some good running backs. To put a number on that's hard. I think you'll see us run the ball a little bit more. We're going to throw the ball down the field. We're definitely going to get better at doing that, as well.
Q. Your first year at BC, pandemic year. A very unique experience for you to say the least. What can you take away from last year and how do you assess a year that was so unique and so different as you're trying to build a new era at Boston College?
JEFF HAFLEY: Yeah, good question. Really unique. I basically get the job and all of a sudden we're all sent home, you don't really get to know your football team, you don't really get to meet them, spend time with them. You get to know them on Zoom, and you do the best you can. You don't know if you're going to play a real football game, you don't have a team meeting room. First time in front of media like this since I've been a head coach. So it was different.
Here's what I took away. We got a bunch of guys who came together and they didn't make excuses. We had over 8,000 tests, and up until the last week of the season, we didn't have one kid test positive. We had a bunch of guys who were told they wouldn't be able to do something, and they proved that they could. When you coach football or you play football, you deal with adversity. Usually it doesn't come right away.
For our guys, it came right away. For our staff, it came right away. Our guys decided to get together and sacrifice. We didn't miss a game, we didn't miss a practice. We were competitive. Our guys started to love each other and believe in each other. That's what I take out of the pandemic.
So it was hard. It was really hard, guys. Like I said, I barely met the team and we were getting ready to play a game. But we didn't make excuses. We got some great men and we got some great coaches. I learned more about myself and more about our football team going forward because of the pandemic than I probably would have in four or five years being the head coach at Boston College.
So I'm grateful for the men, I'm grateful for the leadership, Father Leahy, Pat Kraft, our coaching staff for what they were able to do in year one. There's a lot of excitement right now about Boston College because we got some special, special players that you're going to hear from in a little bit.
Q. Scoring totals last year, BC was bested on average for the year by only six points. BC allowed 312 points, BC scored 306 points. How do you flip those numbers?
JEFF HAFLEY: On defense we got to get off the field on third down. I think that was the biggest takeaway looking back at our film. We didn't give up a lot of explosive plays, which is a good thing. I'm a defensive guy, I think you have to eliminate the explosive plays. We have to play better in the red zone. I think those are going to be keys.
I think what you're going to see from us is with really a limited spring football and limited training camp, we're really vanilla. I think Coach Lukabu is a really good defensive coach and a great coordinator, and we got a great staff. I think you're going to see some new things on defense that are going to help us do that.
But we're going to eliminate explosives, we're going to play better on third down, we're going to get better in the red zone, especially in that low red zone area.
Q. You mentioned third down. Offensively you converted 44% on third down. Was that a good number last year? How did 44% feel with third town conversions on offense?
JEFF HAFLEY: Good starting point. But we'll get better. I think we found ourselves behind the sticks a little too much, meaning there's too many third-and-seven, eight, nine ten. We're going to run the ball better this year. I think we'll have more of an identity, who we are running the football. I think that's what spring ball was all about.
Being able to run the football is going to get us into or manageable situations, third-and-two, third-and-three, third-and-four. Then you have a quarterback who can throw the ball down the field, make the throws, stay in the pocket. What you're also going to see is a quarterback, 225 pounds that can run the ball. When you can do that on third down, it's hard to stop when you get into those third-and-short or third-and-medium situations.
Q. Place kicking has been kind of a spotty thing at Boston College. This year you have one of the ACC's most accurate kickers in Aaron Boumerhi. Talk about Aaron, what he means to your team, offense.
JEFF HAFLEY: I'm glad you brought up Boum. I appreciate you asking that question. A lot of times it's about the quarterback, the guys who protect the quarterback or about the guys who sack the quarterback. To bring up a kicker in Boum, I appreciate that.
I'm really grateful he came back. I wasn't sure if he was going to. He had a game-winning kick for us last year, had some big ones in some really big games. I think he only missed two. Truthfully, I think I put him in bad positions on those kicks. I'll take the blame for those. I told him that.
Boum is a guy I trust. Boum is a guy that I'm going to be able to go to this year and say: Hey, what do you think, man? Ball is on the 36, third-and-nine, want to go for it?
Because I trust him and I believe in him. I'm really excited that he's back. I'll tell you this much. I've been a defensive guy my whole life, so usually I didn't pay much attention to the kickers. You don't pay much attention to the kickers until you become a head coach and you realize how important that kicker is. Now that guy's one of the my best friends on the team. I'm going to make sure I treat him well.
Q. Can you talk a little bit about Phil's development and comfortability in your system. Touch on one aspect of his game that you're looking for him to improve on this season.
JEFF HAFLEY: Confidence. He's so talented. He can throw the ball all over the field. He's big, he's strong, he's hard to sack. He sees it, he can process. Here is what I saw of him in spring this year. All right? You can ask him, because obviously he's here. He'll probably do a better job answering this question than I will.
I saw confidence and I saw leadership coming in and out of the huddle as each practice went on. I told him. I mean, there were some days I was like, Man. I was like, This guy is getting better every day.
Just by the way he called the plays in the huddle. Because we still huddle. We're kind of different. We don't sit there and signal everything. We actually get in the huddle. The way this guy breaks the huddle and walks through the line and approaches it, you can see the confidence building, the leadership coming out of him, which is what excites me.
Then the other thing with Phil, think about this. The guy hadn't played since his senior year in high school. He comes to a new team, doesn't know the team -- harder than me, guys, and I'm the head coach trying to figure this out. Imagine you're the guy playing quarterback, guys from Clemson are trying to knock you out. I didn't have to get hit.
Here this guy comes in really without a spring ball, training camp was kind of every other day we were practicing. So does he know the offense well enough to do it in his sleep? Probably not. He goes out and plays the way he did. I mean, that's why I'm so excited about him, how hard he works, the leadership, the confidence. But confidence and leadership is what I see. I'm really excited about it.
Q. You've obviously coached with crowds. You have now coached without crowds. Is coaching affected whether or not you have a crowd?
JEFF HAFLEY: Well, I've never been a head coach with really a crowd before. So that will be interesting (smiling).
I'll tell you, every game, this is where my mind would kind of play tricks on me. Every game I've run out of the tunnel, right, I'd get so worked up, so excited. The smoke would clear, my mind would play tricks on me. I would look for people. There were the damn cardboard fans every single time. I swear, the smoke would be there, here they are. Then it was the cardboard again.
I don't know. When you put on the headsets, you kind of forget. The only part that was weird is after the game, there's no traffic on the way home. So it will probably be a lot more fun knowing that my wife and kids and family and parents, all their parents, can come to the games. I'm excited about that again.
But once the helmet is on, it's football. But for the fans, for the families, I can't wait. I honestly can't wait to run out of the tunnel, whether I'm getting booed by another crowd or applauded by ours, it's one of the reasons I want to come back to college football, just the atmosphere. I'm really excited to be a part of again.
Q. Boston College women's lacrosse won their first national title earlier this year. What does that national championship do not athletics department and the side benefits for football?
JEFF HAFLEY: I think it means so much to the university, what Acacia was able to do. I found myself going to a lot of those games, bringing my kids and wife to a lot of those games, seeing Charlotte North just tear it up. Want to see maybe if she has any interest in playing for us. She's incredible.
But it means so much. It shows what we can accomplish at such a great university. So congratulations to them, all that they've done, all the notoriety they brought. I think our guys got behind them. The cool thing about Boston College is this: it's such a good community feel. All the teams kind of get together, coaches go to games, the players go to the games. It was a lot of fun for me to get to experience and be part of that.
So congrats to them.
PHIL JURKOVEC
Q. Offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti, what can you say about what he's done with this offense, how you kind of describe his leadership and the plan that he's putting forward?
PHIL JURKOVEC: Coach Cignetti has been great. He's had so much experience in both college and the NFL. What he brings to us is NFL scheme, really an NFL style, which I think makes us a little bit different than every other team in the ACC.
With that comes a learning process, so that's taken some time for us. But now that we're in year two, he's really guiding us, and we're feeling a lot more comfortable with it.
Q. You have one of the more dynamic play-makers in the country on the outside in Zay Flowers. Can you talk about how your relationship continues to blossom, what your expectations are for you guys this year?
PHIL JURKOVEC: Yeah, Zay has been my locker room mate since I came to BC. I've known him from the start. Just being able to talk to him every day, he's driven and just such an exceptional talent. I've really never seen somebody be able to stop on a dime like he does, how fast and explosive at the same time.
He's so impressive.
Q. Hunter Long made a lot of clutch catches for you. He's gone on to the next level. You said you have Zay coming back, Jaelen coming back. Talk about the receivers you have, the options you have in this wide-open passing game, and what the extra year of preparation will mean to building the chemistry?
PHIL JURKOVEC: We have so many weapons. Kobay White didn't play last year, but he was the most productive receiver for BC the years prior. We have him back, CJ Lewis, Jaelen Gill, Zay Flowers. We have transfers, Trae Barry from Jacksonville State and Alec Sinkfield from West Virginia to go along with our other running backs.
I don't know. We just have so many options. I know everybody's going to want to ball, but it's going to be fun just to see the different personnel groupings we can go with, just all the different options that we have.
Q. Take us into the mind of a quarterback. You had five interceptions last year. How do you process an interception? What do you do with it? How do you move on?
PHIL JURKOVEC: Really have to start with the coaches. Coach Cignetti and Coach Hafley, I remember a threw a terrible pick just into double coverage against Duke first game. I come off, and Coach Hafley just like, Hey, forget about it. On to the next one.
That's kind of their view on it. Like we're just going to let it loose and go out there and play, have fun, play free, don't be worried about making mistakes, don't be afraid to lose. That's the mindset that we try to keep.
Q. You played behind a couple of great offensive lines at Notre Dame, now Boston College. What have you noticed at those two spots? More of the coaches there or more of the intangibles with the players and the coaches on the recruiting trail?
PHIL JURKOVEC: The O-line, they're kind of like a cult on the team the way they stick together, but it's awesome. They're so tight. You can tell they care so much about each other. It's a little different position than anywhere else because of how you have to work together.
But the O-linemen, I love 'em. They're really close at BC. They're all veterans. I mean, Zion up here. To go along with the four other guys, they're all veterans. They're nasty guys (smiling). I'm just excited to see what they can do now that it's year two under this new scheme.
ZION JOHNSON
Q. You just heard Coach speak about the team, the situation, going through the pandemic year. What was the craziest part for you to go through this past year? What was cardboard -- how did you take the cardboard fans? What are you looking forward to the most?
ZION JOHNSON: I mean, I would have to say for me, my family usually goes to every game. I mean, they did in 2019. With the pandemic, last season, they weren't really able to go to as many games, we had the cardboard fans. That can actually affect you.
But I also think that our team did a great job of handling that and making the sacrifices necessary to go out and win when we needed to.
Even with the cardboard fans, I think our guys did a great job of sparking that inner fire to go out and play to their maximum potential, so...
Q. In your practices with Phil behind you, what is it like blocking for him? What is the dynamic nature of Phil being a leader? How well do you guys jibe with each other?
ZION JOHNSON: It's awesome. Phil is a great leader, a great player. He's talented. He's a great guy. It's really awesome blocking for someone you know, even if everything is not perfect, he can scramble out the pocket, make something work, throw a bomb down the field.
Especially as a leader, he's grown as a leader. Just coming here last year. Now he's a big voice in our locker room. We love having him.
Q. Your offensive line has 126 aggregate starts. You went through some unusual situations in the pandemic. Last year Phil was under heat a little bit. How will the extra experience help you keep this guy over here standing up?
ZION JOHNSON: Oh, the experience will definitely help us. I think last season with the new offense, the new scheme, we weren't really masters of our scheme yet. We're still learning. We had guys moving positions.
But this season we're ready to come out and keep Phil upright and we're going to make sure that we do that. Alec, this next year, he's gotten so much better through the spring in every aspect. Ben has been doing a great job. Christian Mahogany, he's a young guard, he's doing a great job as well. Let's not forget Tyler. He's been doing a great job, getting better as a run blocker, as a pass blocker, as a leader. I think that's the biggest thing we've seen.
A lot of our guys up front, whether it's Christian, Alec, Ben, Tyler, even some of the young guys, are becoming better leaders not just to themselves but to other people on the team. They're leading other leaders. That's what we need in order for us to take that next step next year.
MARCUS VALDEZ
Q. What does coach's NFL experience help this team?
MARCUS VALDEZ: I think it goes a long way, just from the tape we watch. I mean, even with my position coach, Coach Oghobaase, we're always watching NFL tape. It really shows you the techniques they're teaching us are taught at the next level. There's more buy-in from players. We know what they saw and what they're teaching was huge at the next level. I think it goes a long way.
Plus he has so much experience from the next level, the kind of defensive running is really different from what other colleges run. I think it's excellent.
Q. Last year Boston College forced 21 turnovers, I think 6th against the run, 10th in pass defense efficiency. As a unit, what are your goals this year defensively? What do you feel like you need to improve defensively this year?
MARCUS VALDEZ: I think we need to improve on taking the ball away. Also we had a couple good games that we took the ball away three or four times. That's great, but it has to be every game.
We really put an emphasis on that during practice. We're always doing takeaway circuits for each position. The secondary, linebackers and D-line, whoever gets the most takeaways at practice gets to wear black shirts at practice. Kind of incentive there to take the ball away.
I think we need to improve on, like Coach Haf said, getting off the field on third down, personally rushing the quarterback. We got to get there and get the quarterback on the ground, so...
Q. Can you talk about the player protection rules and how that's affected the defense maybe the last couple years, things like targeting. I've seen a couple of instances last year of calls that were made. Talk about how those player safety rules have affected your defense.
MARCUS VALDEZ: Yeah, I mean, we're always teaching how to tackle, how to tackle properly, not targeting for the head and stuff like that. So, I mean, we're always working on tackling correctly. I mean, it's something we work on.
It's obviously affected the game a lot with people getting out and being suspended and stuff like that. We're very aware by that. We probably had a couple people affected by it.
We're always teaching how to tackle safely and following the rules. I think it's good for the game, so...
Q. How would you describe on and off the field your head coach?
MARCUS VALDEZ: I really feel like he's the same guy on and off the field. He's always going to keep it real with you, tell you the truth. He's always going to motivate you. I love what Coach Haf preaches: tough love, compete, being for the team.
There's always sacrificing towards a bigger goal. Always good to be a part of something bigger than yourself. Really that belief. He's really instilled confidence and belief in everyone. I think that's gone a long way and it will show up this season, so...
Q. You talk about being bigger than yourself. BC is very involved with Team Impact in the Boston area. Speak to your experiences with Team Impact.
MARCUS VALDEZ: Yeah, so recently we just had a kid join us. It was amazing. The whole team showed out. You don't have to come, but everybody came. It was really overwhelming for him. He loved it. He comes around a lot. We were working with him on the field before, quarterback Dennis was throwing to him, Phil was throwing with him, too. It was really good.
I think it's for a really good cause. It goes a long way for him and for his family, and even for us, too.
Q. You used the word 'overwhelming'. Why was it overwhelming?
MARCUS VALDEZ: Just to see his expression. I don't think he was expecting that. I think he was expecting a little smaller get-together. Really the whole team showed up. We have great guys on the team. Everybody showed out and showed him love. He really felt part of the team.
