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BOSTON COLLEGE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

December 21, 2016

Steve Addazio

Boston, Massachusetts

STEVE ADDAZIO: Well, we're excited, obviously getting ready to head out to Detroit. We've got a practice today, 1:00 in the morning, then we're on the plane. It's been a great bowl prep for us. We've had an opportunity to really develop our young team, and the extra bowl practices, probably get about 15, 16 of them in which has been fantastic, to watch the young players develop. The first eight of them were heavily geared towards the young players, and that's been fantastic for us. So we're excited about that development.

The kids embraced it. We had great spirited practices out there, really competing hard against each other. It was a lot of fun.

Now as we home it back in a little bit, on Saturday and Sunday and obviously today, they're much more geared towards their flat game week preps now for the game. But we're excited about it. It's been good. Can't wait to get out there. Can't wait to get a chance to play for our seventh win and our first bowl victory in nine years. It's an exciting time, and the prep has been great. It's been awesome. The team has been fantastic. The attitude has been unbelievable, and couldn't ask for anything more. Any questions?

Q. Just talk about the first bowl victory in nine years. You've been to two; can you talk about the difference in mentality?
STEVE ADDAZIO: Well, I think the first one, what happens, you get back to a bowl after a long layoff, and sometimes maybe you exhale, and then all of a sudden, you go out there and you played a really good team that year, and it strikes you. I thought year two, we played a great football game year two, we just couldn't stop them and thought we had a great opportunity to win that game. That was a really competitive, great bowl game.

Obviously our goal right now is to get our seventh win right now. That's our goal. That's what it's all about. I think this team is real focused on that. The preparation has been geared towards going to play this game and win this football game. That's what's on their mind.

Q. You mentioned momentum and things like that. It feels like you guys have some real palpable momentum right now. How important is it to keep that going? Do you guys feel a little extra pressure to keep that going?
STEVE ADDAZIO: You know what, I would say that we just want to go win this game. There's nothing going to stop our momentum going into next year because this team is just not wired like that. This team has got a great attitude. They know that there's a great future ahead of them. They know that we're still developing. So one Saturday morning, if you will, isn't going to derail that. You can't derail 16 practices with that.

But for me not to tell you that the energy level to go into this game is really high and it's really important to us, yes, it's very important, as it is for everybody, but we're attacking it that way. But no matter what, I just loved what I saw at the end of the year as a team, the chemistry, and I loved the actual young players on the field in this bowl prep. That's all real. Obviously it would be fantastic to go in here and win this game. That's our whole direction. That's our whole aim.

Q. Which of the young players have you seen take the most out of the practices you've been able to have, whether it's Anthony, whether it's --
STEVE ADDAZIO: I think Darius and Anthony took a lot out of it. I think they did. I think the offensive line took a lot out of it, guys like John Phillips got in there a lot. I think that was really good for him. Guys like Tom Kowalkoski, our young freshman lineman, I think the young defensive line, I think the young tight ends, who we'll be using a ton in this game, but they just need the development, Ray Martin and Korab Idrizi. Just all over the place. Kobay White as a young receiver, guys just all over the team. You can just watch them, and it's fun. It's exciting. So Max Richardson on defense, the young inside linebacker, just watching these guys. Some of them have played significant snaps during the season, some haven't. But really validates where they're going to be, to me, watching it.

Q. Maryland, a lot like you guys, they've kind of had to scratch and claw their way in a really tough conference to get to this game. What have you seen from the Terrapins on film?
STEVE ADDAZIO: Well, they run the ball really well, and I think they're athletic on defense, very similar to us in a lot of ways. They may look a little different in terms of on offense they're a little bit more spread orientated, a little bit more tempo orientated, but at the end of the day, there's a lot of same kind of play structures.

I think we're match-up teams playing each other. I think it's a good -- obviously I believe that we play in the best conference in the country right now. There's no doubt in my mind about that. The most talented. So we've been well-prepared. We've played a lot of good football teams. There's been no lack of good football teams we've played. I'd say Clemson, Florida State, Virginia Tech and Louisville are as elite a teams as there are in America right now. I think that preparation has been good for us.

So it'll be a good match-up game. Real good match-up game.

Q. Getting back to a bowl game is obviously big for you guys, but around the country there are a couple guys who aren't participating, which has created a conversation about sort of the value of going to a bowl game or the value of games. There are like twice as many of them as there were even 10 years ago. Do you think if players decide to not go to these games, does that at all compromise the value of the game?
STEVE ADDAZIO: Well, I mean, I'm not in favor of any of that. I don't understand that. You have a bowl game, you have your team, you're with your team, and I think a bowl game is a reward for your team, and you go play together, compete together. You don't need to rush your -- everybody wants to rush their life, and then when they get on the other side of that thing, I talk to guys like Mike and Maurkice Pouncey all the time, and they wish they could go back because it's such a unique time in their life. I really don't understand that. I hope that's not something that's going to -- once again, here we go, create that. I hope not. But everybody has got their own individual reasons, I guess, why they do what they do, but at the end of the day, I just think about how we all started this thing, one of our goals was to get to a bowl game as a team, and we want to go as a whole team and compete as a team. I can't understand all that.

Does it devalue games? No. I just think that, like everything else, here we go with some -- there's plenty of great players out there that are playing in their bowl games. I don't know where all this stuff comes from, I really don't.

Q. You've gotten to play in some pretty cool venues this year. Now you guys get to play in a dome in an NFL stadium. Just talk about the experience for your guys and some of them who will play at the next level.
STEVE ADDAZIO: Yeah, I mean, I think part of the college experience, one of the reasons we went to Ireland was for the kids to experience a different culture, different country, and I think that all of these things are a collection of experiences for guys, whether they go to the next level or they don't. I think it's what makes college football great. It's these times that you get to spend with each other, it's the environments, the venues, the areas, the different parts of the country, the exposure you get that you might not normally get, to have a chance to travel and to do it with your family unit, which is your football team, I think those are the memories that live with you forever.

You'll forget scores, you'll forget those things, but you won't forget the memories of being together at these different games, venues, with your teammates. You won't. And that's what to me makes it great when you reflect back on your life, these are the moments -- I call them moments, I think they're moments that make it great for reflection later on and to be able to talk about with your future family and all the great things. It makes college football and athletics as a whole special.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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