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BOSTON COLLEGE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 22, 2016

Steve Addazio

Boston, Massachusetts

Syracuse - 28, Boston College - 20

STEVE ADDAZIO: We were better today, obviously, but the consistency in our throw game was not just there. Not there, whether it was drops, throws, just wasn't there. We had plenty of opportunities in the throw game. I think we ran it for 223, normally run it for 250, but we didn't throw it effectively enough, but we certainly had opportunities throwing it.

Any questions?

Q. Just what happened with Patrick? Why did you have to take him out of the game?
STEVE ADDAZIO: Pulled his hamstring.

Q. Was it on the touchdown?
STEVE ADDAZIO: Yeah, he tried to go, and you know, you saw him when he had to pull it down and run to the sideline. I just couldn't let that kid pop that hamstring on himself. I just can't do that. I had to take care of him. We had to pull him out. It was hard, obviously, at that time and that point in that game to do that was very, very difficult, but he had to come out of that game for his own health.

Q. Was Jon Hilliman hurt?
STEVE ADDAZIO: Jon Hilliman hurt his ankle against Clemson and was not all the way back and was not able to play as well as Connor Strachan. Connor Strachan was not able to play.

Q. You gave up over 500 yards to Syracuse. Is that more Dungey and what he was able to do or defensive breakdowns on your part?
STEVE ADDAZIO: I wouldn't say there was a lot of breakdowns. I thought their quarterback play -- I think he's been playing extremely well. He just has -- even on the move, his eyes were down the field. I thought he made some great throws. I thought we had decent coverage in the end zone. They made that great toe catch, toe tap in. They got a couple of those fifth-year receivers that are outstanding players, and I think the quarterback is the real deal. You know, he made some plays to win that game.

But in the same breath, that game was anybody's game, and we had an unbelievable opportunity, just like we had -- we had an unbelievable opportunity going in where we turned the ball over and that was going to be a touchdown. And in the beginning of the game we had an opportunity to run that ball, and that was going to be a touchdown. You know, those are just two right off the top of my head that are just glaring. They're right in front of you to be had. I mean, they're touchdowns any way you shake that stick. In a game like this, those two touchdowns matter, obviously.

I thought we competed hard, and I think we can see where there's opportunity for us as we -- it's like we percolate and hit it and then we have a penalty and we do this and do this and then we drop. It's our job to smooth that out, develop that, keep that going positively in the right direction and continue to grow.

The injuries, we're just going to have to deal with that. Those are -- with Connor, obviously he's the quarterback of our defense, and Patrick is the obvious quarterback of our offense.

You know, hopefully we'll have those guys back, and we'll be ready to roll.

Q. Coach, two questions on that first -- after the Will Harris interception, did you feel that Dungey should have gotten thrown out of the game for that tackle, and what made the team come out?
STEVE ADDAZIO: I can't speak to any of that. I wasn't out there. I think there's some stuff on the video that will need to be addressed on that play. Some stuff went down over there that I could see myself, and that's going to be addressed over there.

Q. As a coach would you like to see your players not go across the field?
STEVE ADDAZIO: Of course. Of course. You know, but what happens is when one of your teammates gets body slammed, okay, over there, some guys were already over there, and someone else gets thrown to the ground, someone else gets punched, then I think you're -- it's hard to stop that in motion; do you understand? And you're trying to make sure it doesn't escalate and get it back, okay.

But beyond a doubt, you don't want your team going across the field, but what's hard is to watch one of your buddies getting ganged over there, okay; that's hard. That's an impulse to protect your teammate, and you know, it's addressed all the time. We've got a bunch of good kids in our program now, okay, and they're tremendous guys, high-character guys. But they've got to protect one of their guys over there, and that's what happened.

Q. At the same time, video seemed to show one of their coaches put their hands on --
STEVE ADDAZIO: You know, I'm not going to comment on that right now.

Q. Are you aware of it?
STEVE ADDAZIO: Let's let the proper people take a look at it and make the proper decision. I think it would be inappropriate for me to make a comment on something like that right now.

Q. This was the only ACC game you were favored in going forward. Is there any concern about breaking that monkey off your back looking at the ACC streak?
STEVE ADDAZIO: Here's the way I look at this quite honestly, and every game is the same to me; I don't care ACC, not ACC. You pour your heart and soul into winning the football game; that's all you do. Player, coach, everybody. You pour your heart and soul into it. It is what it is.

We've got another game next week, and we've got to rock and roll and we've got to get ready to play. My concern right now is getting our players back on the field healthy and keeping positive energy and positive momentum going because you can see where the places are to fix them. You can see where they are.

Like I talked about, the fruit is there to -- you've got to grab the fruit. There's two touchdowns that were not very hard to get right there. We've got to get them. You get those things, never mind the countless other little things along the way that keep another set of downs going. When you've got a couple plays where we had an unbelievable opportunity to get another set of downs, and we didn't convert them, and it was low-hanging fruit right there to convert them. We have to get that done.

And then we got hit with a couple of big plays, you know, and we're working hard to eliminate those on defense, those big plays. They've been here -- because of the nature of who we are, they've been here over the course of three years, these big plays. When you play man coverage you put yourself in jeopardy. With some of the receivers that we have in our league and the quarterbacks that we have in our league right now, you put yourself in jeopardy. You want to bring the heat, you want to bring some pressure, you want to be disruptive, but you hold yourself open for those things to happen. Those corners get out there isolated, and I think we've done a better job this year of mixing that, but we got caught obviously a couple times in that.

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