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BOSTON COLLEGE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

August 3, 2017

Scot Loeffler

Boston, Massachusetts

Q. Coach, there's been kind of a new philosophy when everyone talks about tempo. Can you talk about what that means? Does it mean not necessarily going fast, but can you talk about what that might mean for a rhythm in the offense or how everybody might play a different role in that type of mentality?
SCOT LOEFFLER: Yeah, it's taking the approach that a lot of these tempo teams are. You have the ability to go super fast. You have the ability to slow it down. We were trying to make ourselves unique in terms of having the ability to have multiple groupings, multiple formations on the field. So yeah, the tempo, it's great. There's definitely a place for it, but at the end of the day, like anything, it comes down to execution. You've got to block. You've got to know your assignment. You've got to do your job. You've got to break tackles. You've got to block on the perimeter.

The tempo is great, but at the end of the day, we've still got to teach technique, and the thing that you worry about whenever you're going super fast is that you lose the mentality and continue to teach technique, and that's not going to change here. We're going to make sure the quarterback is taking the right drop, we're going to make sure that our wide receivers are stock, blocking, getting the right releases, the linemen can tag to the right proper backer. So there is an advantage to it. There's a place for it. But at the end of the day, you still have to play great technique and do your job.

Q. Just comment on having a guy like Jon Baker in the middle of your offensive line to develop your young quarterbacks and you get a ground game going, as well.
SCOT LOEFFLER: No question. You know, Darius is older, AB is young; however, they both haven't played -- Darius has played a limited role before he got hurt, played in the Florida State and I believe the Howard game, and then AB hasn't played yet. It's really important regardless who the guy is out there that the foundation always begins with the offensive line, which then trickles down, obviously, to the other positions. Those guys out there, they're going to be out there for the first time. They're expected to do their job, but as you well all know, as much as it starts with us, we've got to make sure that there's people around them doing their jobs to help them along with their inexperience. Is that an excuse? No, absolutely not. Our job at the quarterback position is to go out and play well, but also that's where the criticism comes in whenever everything goes great, you get way too much credit. Whenever things go bad, you get major criticism. So you need to make sure there's people around him doing their job, also.

Q. Just talk about Jon at the point of attack.
SCOT LOEFFLER: Yeah, it's awesome. He's got experience. He's got size. He's a super-smart kid. He's going to be able to help with the protections in terms of making sure that our quarterback is ID'ing it correctly. Yeah, he's a veteran. He's a guy that has shown tremendous leadership so far on our offensive unit.

Q. Seemed like it took a while last year for Tommy Sweeney to get into a groove with Patrick. How do you see the tight ends' role this year?
SCOT LOEFFLER: Well, you know, I've been in the one and done for the last -- I think the last quarterback that I've coached back to back years was Chad Henne. Whenever you're bouncing from quarterback to quarterback to quarterback to quarterback, there's a reason New England is good besides Tommy. There's continuity. The guy has been in the system for 17, 18, whatever it is, 19 years, and any time that you're able to practice and stay within the same system for a period of time, everything gets better. That's what you've seen.

There's more rhythm. There's more timing. We look like we know what we're doing much more just because of the simple fact of time.

Q. Keeping along the lines of the tight ends, how much versatility do they give you, whether it's in a blocking role versus a receiving role?
SCOT LOEFFLER: Yeah, our tight ends are excellent. They're able to play multiple positions, which creates match-up issues, and they'll be used.

Q. Switching to the running back game, what have you seen so far out of your incoming freshmen, and how have they impacted the battle at that group?
SCOT LOEFFLER: Yeah, they're both good football players. Both are different, but both have a skill set that we're all going to like. They're both tough. They're both smart. They're both fast. AJ is obviously just a little bit bigger. Travis does some different things that you can do out of the backfield. But they're both really two young, good football players, and we're really -- they did a great job recruiting Brian White. Coach Addazio did a great job recruiting those guys, and our staff did a great job recruiting those guys. I think we're all going to be really happy with the young players, and our older players at that position are pretty good, too. It's a good feeling to have depth at that position because those guys go through a lot of banging, and you need more than one. You need more than two. We're very fortunate right now at that position. There's a lot of really good depth and talent in my opinion.

Q. Steve was just talking about kind of the jobs you've taken over the years and kind of turning things around in different spots. He said, he's had some tough --
SCOT LOEFFLER: Yeah, it's been fun. It's been a great experience. Every place that I've been, from Michigan to the NFL to Florida to with Steve at Temple, everywhere you learn. I've made some mistakes, and I've learned from mistakes, and I've done some really good things.

You always look at what's happened in the past. You look at the good. You look at the negative, and you just try to keep improving and doing a better job.

Every place that I was at, I loved. I mean, there were some great places that I've been, and I've been very fortunate for my age to have had some great jobs, and this place fits me. There's a blue-collar mentality with Steve. I love the discipline. I love the kids. Very excited and very humbled to be a part of this, and just like I said, I think Steve has done a great job recruiting. He's a great head coach. But I really, really like our players. They're really cool, and this is a special, unique place.

Q. Coming out of the bowl game, talk about what you saw with the system --
SCOT LOEFFLER: Yeah, there was a debate the day that we came to Boston College as if we should go tempo, and we totally changed the throw game, and there was a ton of learning, and we were very, very -- to be quite honest, very simple last year just because we were working on getting in the right splits. It was all new.

Now, again, just like I say, it's a year ahead. We're much more ahead. We're much more comfortable with the system, and we'll play more consistent because of, again, those kids have heard the same things for more than 30 days, you know, like it was last year.

It's an exciting time. We've got to get better. We're much improved. We're not where we'd say it's perfect yet, but we're on the right track.

Q. (Indiscernible).
SCOT LOEFFLER: Yeah, there's no question. Just like I said, this profession -- you know, we had a great year at Temple because they did a great job before we got there. They did a great job with recruiting and what have you, and in this profession, there's a lot of timing to it and all that other stuff, but I don't get into all that. I'm super excited to be around these guys, and you really see where this thing could take off. We've got a lot of work ahead of us, but that's the business, to answer your question. There's sometimes that you walk into things that are perfect, it's ready to go, and there's other times that it takes a little bit of time, and sometimes you get to be the guy that was part of it, and sometimes you got it ready for someone else. That's part of it. To answer your question, yeah. Timing.

Q. (Indiscernible).
SCOT LOEFFLER: Good. You know, we keep going -- feels like EJ has been around here for three years now, but he really is a true freshman that should be coming off his baseball season and heading into the summer, to summer school. But he's been here since January. He's got a lot to learn. There's this tremendous upside. A lot of new things for him. But he's doing a good job.

Q. You mentioned offensive line; could you talk about Chris Lindstrom, his development, and as a leader and obviously size-wise, does he have more motivation having a younger brother in the room now as a leadership role?
SCOT LOEFFLER: Yeah, Chris, it's funny, you watched the last job that I was at, you watched always the crossover film, and you see this 255-, 245-pound guy that's trotting out there that should be redshirted, but you saw a lot of fight. You saw that he was athletic, and he was one of those guys that unfortunately had to play way too early, and now he's 300 pounds plus. He's athletic. He can move. He's smart. He's tough. He gets it. That's the crazy thing about college football; sometimes you're asked to play when you're really not ready to play. You'd have loved to have had the ability to redshirt him, but that experience that he had being at 260 pounds, being undersized, he realized that he had to get a heck of a lot stronger, a heck of a lot bigger, and sometimes you have to go through a little bit of hell to get to where you need to be, and that guy has embraced his first year and has really worked his tail off to do a great job, and he's one of our better players, there's no question.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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