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BOSTON COLLEGE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 5, 2016

Steve Addazio

Boston, Massachusetts

Louisville - 52, Boston College - 7

STEVE ADDAZIO: As I said during the week, I think that's the best defense in the conference. But we have a lot of good defenses in the conference. There are no slouches in many of them to be honest with you, including the one we're going to play next week.

You know, I thought -- the only thing we did manage to do a little bit was have some time of possession. Some of that was at the end, but we had some time of possession. We made some plays, but you know, when we threw it, we completed some passes, but between catching the ball and fumbling it and giving up a stupid sack on a touchdown throw we had, just some of those things, you know, that's the development that we have to have, and we have to learn how to play -- I think our team when we play those kinds of teams, I think our guys, I think they press too hard, and we have a tendency to kind of press and not play within our framework of what we need to do.

But make no mistake about the team we just played. I would say that I've been around long enough to know that it's one of the top three most talented teams in America right now, okay. That was a real operation right there. That quarterback is electric.

We've got to get ready to learn and take what we can off the tape and move forward. Okay, any questions?

Q. You talked about it coming in, knowing that Lamar Jackson was going to be a problem, but seeing him in real time, some of the issues he kind of caused for you, what were they besides -- containing him and keeping him inside the ends --
STEVE ADDAZIO: There were a few times we had him completely boxed, and he came out of there and hit a crease and he's gone. He's electric. I mean, he's a -- I think I've been around some of the best quarterbacks in the country in my day, and this guy is really something now. He's got a great arm. He's got a great release. He's got a real knack of knowing what's around him and coming out of trouble. He can throw it, and he's as an elite of a runner as I've ever seen. He reminds me running like Percy Harvin reminded me when we had him at Florida. He's that kind of runner, but yet he can throw the rock, and when he's on, he's on. He was on tonight. Sometimes, like anybody else, you can be off a little bit, but he was on.

They've got some -- this is the best quarterback-receiver combination play that we've had in the ACC ever, and you're seeing it right now. You know, and some of the big plays that we're letting up right now is a direct reflection of the quarterback-receiver combination play that's in the conference right now. We're playing some of the best quarterbacks that have rolled through this conference.

We are playing elite, elite football teams right now, and we're going to play another one this week, okay. Their defense is as elite as anybody's. Those combinations have hurt us, and they've hurt a lot of people, not just us. So I mean, but we've faced the best -- almost all of the best of what the ACC has to offer we've seen up close and personal.

Q. Last year five touchdowns allowed by the defense on plays over 20 years. This year it's already up to 15. What do you think has been the difference?
STEVE ADDAZIO: I just told you. I just told you what the difference is. It's who we're facing. I told our defense in preseason camp, I said, everybody likes to talk about stats, but the biggest challenge for you is going to be that the young offenses and quarterbacks and skill players that are going to be coming into play this season are going to -- we're not going to have those same stats now, and we're going to face elite guys right now, and we are. And that's really the difference in a nutshell.

We played the same coverages, same different combinations. We rotated through man free, man, zone, combo, double in this game. We rolled through every coverage we have. We got beat in man, we got beat in zone, we got beat in a double coverage in the end zone. I mean, we actually tried to play some more zone than we have in the past, but the biggest difference between now and one year ago are the quarterbacks -- Lamar Jackson is a different guy this year than he was a year ago. That's as good of an example as I can show to you.

The Clemson quarterback-receiver combination was just as deadly last year, and Virginia Tech added with their fourth- and fifth-year seniors at wide receiver, which we knew they were coming down the barrel, and they put a junior college quarterback in there that gives them a great opportunity to get the ball to them. Those combinations are lethal combinations, and I think the Syracuse quarterback is a guy that is really -- they've got a fifth-year receiver that came in that's elite, and the quarterback I think is a heck of a quarterback. I think that'll prove out to be true.

So that's kind of the difference. But I mean, I don't think anybody has any delusions about how good this team was there today. We've been talking all year about the ACC and our side of the division we're in right now, but we'll grow from all this. We'll learn and we'll develop, and this stuff will come back to you. This is painful, but it helps you develop when you have to go match up on some of these levels of players, and as our guys grow and develop, these experiences will come back to them in a positive way, just maybe not today.

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