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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 22, 2016

Dave Clawson

Greensboro, North Carolina

COACH CLAWSON: We're coming off a tough loss against Clemson. Clemson is an excellent football team. A lot of skill, very well-coached and we fell behind early, but I was proud of the way our guys battled back.

Now we've got to finish up against a very improved, and I would say, very improving Boston College team. Probably playing their best football. They had a great win last week, and it's a typical Steve Addazio-coached team. They are excellent on defense, extremely physical in their front. I really like their secondary.

And offensively, they just -- you know, very well-coached on the O-line, very physical. They take deep shots down the field. They give a lot of ^ so you have to spend a lot of time getting lined up to it, and very physical at the running back position; big backs that can get those tough yards.

Our games with them have been very competitive games both years, and we expect a great football game at home in BB&T here.

Q. To see obviously positives and some trying times for the team this year, kind of the ebb and flow, to have six wins going into this final game and knowing that you'll have those extra practices with a Bowl game, just what that means to this team as it continues to grow.
COACH CLAWSON: Well, it's huge. I said at the beginning of the year that we are very capable of being a Bowl team this year, and I'm glad that we've achieved that goal. But there's still more we want to get.

We have a chance to win another football game on Saturday, and you know, we'll worry about Bowl practice and where we go after that. But you know, we're staring four days away against a very improving football team that's very physical, and our focus right now is on BC.

Once this game is over, then we'll focus on the Bowl practices and the development that that will help us with.

Q. As far as the development of the offense, having three different quarterbacks that were out there so far this season, just what you can say about how that's affected the offense, where you think the offense is at and how they have handled a change in leadership from one quarterback to the next?
COACH CLAWSON: I don't think there's a coach in the country that wants to say, hey, we are going to play three different quarterbacks this year. But that's part of football. Sometimes that happens. Unfortunately we lost Kendall Hinton in the third game of the year. John Wolford has certainly given us some good games and then he got banged up and couldn't play at Clemson; Kyle Kearns was there.

The challenge is we did not inherit a quarterback, and it's hard to recruit more than one quarterback a year. And now, we're thinned at the position, but we expect John to play this week and Kyle will go back to the backup role.

Looking forward, certainly Kendall will be healthy in the spring and we're red-shirting Jamie Newman. We think moving forward, we're in great shape at the position. But I don't know if there's any program in the country that gets to their third and fourth quarterback and doesn't lose something. There's a reason your starter is your starter, is because he's your best one.

Q. Do you feel like BC makes up for a lot with their toughness and their physicality and is that the kind of game you expect, especially in November, from BC?
COACH CLAWSON: Yeah, I think that's always been their trademark; that they have been excellent on defense, every year. Last year they were No. 1 in the country in defense and this year they are No. 2 in the ACC.

So they are very physical. They have got great players on defense, all conference calibre players and they are very hard to run the football on, both because of who they play with and what they do schematically. Their secondary reacts very well and they trigger on screens. A lot of times when you out-number the box, the things that you would do, they are so good at reacting at; their defense is so well-coached and so instinctive, they just have good players that understand how they are going to be attacked and they react to it so well.

Steve has never been a guy that cares about how many yards. He wants to win football games. He plays to his strengths and the strength at BC has always been their offensive line and their defense. They are based -- you know, they are a very, very physical football team on both sides of the football. You know, that's how they are; it represents their coach.

Q. I was just reading about Ryan Janvion being up for the Campbell Award. Can you talk about him, a four-year starter, a guy that's played a lot? I understand he's a little banged up right now, but can you talk about what he brings both as a player and as a student athlete?
COACH CLAWSON: I mean, I'm only allowed to be on here ten minutes and five of them are up, so I don't know if I have enough time to answer that one. I mean, he is -- sometimes players and student athletes can be almost too good to be true, and with Ryan, it is true.

He is an excellent student. He's in our business school. He's been a four-year starter, a three-year captain. I don't know if there's a player on our team that does more community service. And he doesn't do it for accolades or attention, because that's truly where his heart is, and he's just a mature, compassionate -- he's a great leader and he's got really, really good personal skills.

He just doesn't do the right thing by example, but he's a verbal leader, and he's a leader behind the scenes. What an impact he's left on our program here. Not only is he nominated for it; I think he has a great chance of winning it, I really do. I'd be surprised if they are not making it very difficult for him to be the winner of that thing. He's done it all right.

Q. Can you talk about him as a player, what he brings to the table?
COACH CLAWSON: Instincts, toughness, unselfishness. This year we have a really good freshman safety, Jessie Bates and another guy, Cam Glenn, and he doesn't -- we play all three of those guys when they are healthy and Ryan could care less. He's on more special teams. He's a team-first guy.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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