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BOSTON COLLEGE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 9, 2017

Steve Addazio

Boston, Massachusetts

Wake Forest - 34, Boston College - 10

COACH ADDAZIO: It's hard to win like that. Statistically, it's pretty close, pretty even numbers. But we turned the ball over, and you can't turn the ball over. Our kids had a great look in their eye, played hard, did some good things. I thought they played hard.

I thought their senior quarterback played really exceptional game.

And that's it. We got to get back to work and we haven't turned the ball over like that. We turned the ball over. That can't happen so I've got to do a good job in making sure that we get rid of the turnovers and go about our business so we can give ourselves a chance to win the game.

Any questions?

Q. (No microphone).
COACH ADDAZIO: Well, he looked a little uncomfortable from the get-go. That's going to happen. Just going to happen. And it didn't show up last week. Showed up in a little bit of a waterfall. Couple interceptions, they were tipped balls. It wasn't his fault. They got tipped. They were tipped like a volleyball. Have to go back and look at exactly -- they were open receivers, they were tipped balls.

Of course, we pitched it to them a couple times. Got aggressive before the half. Got an opportunity for a two-minute drill. Did it a week ago, we were successful with it. We went for it this week. We were not successful with it.

Once again, I think it was -- I don't even remember the tipped ball. I believe it was a tipped ball, okay, for six.

So we just took ourselves out of the game. We would never have been out of that game had we not thrown the ball away. Not in a million years. It wasn't the way it was going to be. They were unbelievable momentum killers, and we paid the price for it.

Q. (No microphone).
COACH ADDAZIO: Well, it's a matter of you get a young guy where it's rolling down on him a little bit, you got to give him a breath. That's just the way it is. So we did. And we hung with them, came back with them in the second half. Made some plays, but got a little flustered. So wanted him to have a breath, take a breath. So that's what we did.

Q. (No microphone).
COACH ADDAZIO: Pretty tough kid. Pretty resilient guy.

Q. (No microphone).
COACH ADDAZIO: I thought he played well. I knew we'd have a couple issues. He's never played center before. Our second team center has been out. He's been out of practice for almost a month so we had to convert a young guy.

Considering that was his first college football start, considering he'd never really played the position before, I give that kid a ton of credit. Aside from that one snap, he was pretty solid in there, and he's just going to get better and better. I think he's going to be a big-time player. We've just got to let him grow.

Q. (No microphone).
COACH ADDAZIO: I mean, I just think that Ben's a little bigger, a little more physical. We knew that we'd have to buy a little time with him, beef him up, get him a little bigger in there. We really feel like Ben is going to be our sixth man. And he did a fabulous job in practice. He really did. And I thought he did a good job today.

We're going to have a little bit of growing pains with him. That's the way it is. I can't do anything about it but let it grow, let it develop, let it soak. I'm proud of that guy, proud of what he got done today. Tough, tough deal for a young guy, but handled it with a lot of maturity. He'll get better.

Q. (No microphone).
COACH ADDAZIO: I'm not going to get up here and how much the loss -- I'm not going to answer that question. For me to say that now, I mean, it is what it is. He's a great kid. He's got a lot of starts. He's our captain. Pretty important piece of the puzzle, especially when you have a freshman quarterback, okay?

But that's life, and we've got to move on. And I'm telling you, we're going to get Shane back. We're going to get him back. That's going to happen. So that's just some bad luck right there. It's life. It happens all over the landscape. And you hope to God you don't get it right at the spot where you're most vulnerable, but it's Murphy's Law sometimes. Happens that way.

I'm very optimistic, quite frankly, about where we're going to head. Just got to let these guys soak in just a little bit. These plug-in guys that are in some pretty important roles right now, just going to have to let them soak it in, and that's what we're going to do.

My fear, going into this game, was turnovers. That was my fear. And I was worried a lot about all the exchanges, but turnovers got us. Got to move on, got to plug on. We'll get much better with that. Much better.

Q. (No microphone).
COACH ADDAZIO: Well, there was some traction. It was intermittent, you know. I thought that John had a couple runs. A.J. had a couple runs. They all kind of had a few runs, you know what I mean?

So at times, it looked pretty good. The tale of this game, I'll look at the tape and maybe I'll say something different later, but the tale of the game really for us was more throwing and catching.

It was just while we made some plays there too, between the turnovers and the drops, just get off schedule, and you never get a chance to bite in. I think we ran 48 plays at the half. I think that's where we were. I don't know where we were for the game. I don't have that stat in front of me right now.

Q. 82.
COACH ADDAZIO: 82. So we're definitely at least ten light, and I think they held the ball for the majority of the fourth quarter, if I'm not mistaken there. They had a drive that chewed an awful lot of time.

So we were off. We were just off there. But, again, four turnovers. That's what will do it to you. You're off the field abruptly four times. Those are four drive killers. So just got to get that fixed up.

Q. Coach, what areas, and it sounds like you just named two of them, are you going to emphasize as your team prepares for not only Notre Dame but the rest of the ACC schedule?
COACH ADDAZIO: I'm just worried about one game right now, getting ready for Notre Dame. Emphasize taking care of the ball every day. So does everybody. That's not like all of a sudden, oh, let's go emphasize taking care of the football. Just got to make some better decisions.

We've got to be able to cut it like a little bit like today, we were a little concerned today about certain styles of things in the shotgun. We're just going to have to bite down and get beyond that.

So we had some pieces of our game that we really would have liked to have used, but we were a little nervous about stressing that too much, especially in the first series or whatever it was where it screwed it up like that.

So we're going have to say, you know what? We're going. It is what it is. So we're going to emphasize kind of some of the things that we really like to do that we didn't do.

Like we weren't really into shotgun runs so you start to limit yourself just a little bit. We were concerned about some sprint out passes, those things that can be yanked. So we were concerned about some of that, and for good reasons.

A game in for Ben, see where Shane is this week. We lost our rotation with Ben at tackle. So we'll see where we're at.

Q. Coach, what's the philosophy on how you've been using Harold Landry? Is he not 100 percent? Are you trying to give him some rest?
COACH ADDAZIO: I answered that during the week. Our philosophy on Harold Landry is he's the lead pass rusher. If you take those guys and you just run them ragged, you're not going to have any productivity on third down. They're going to be gassed. They're going to be tired. We're trying to get him enough rest so he can be fresh and he can be a dominant player on third down for us.

That's what most people do when they have those kinds of guys. That's what we're doing. We're trying to do the best we can to make sure we have a guy that's not blown out by the time we get to the fourth quarter and will have a fastball pitch when it comes time to get after the quarterback.

So that's what we're doing. That's why you'll see he's not going to be an 80-snap guy. It's not going to happen. He's not going to be a 70-snap guy. It's not going to happen.

Q. (No microphone).
COACH ADDAZIO: We're throwing the ball more now, and we just got to make those plays. We put C.J. Lewis in today, another freshman in there. We put him in there because we think he has exceptional talent. Got to keep just grinding through this. We've got playmakers, and we've got to allow them to grow and be a playmaker.

You saw today A.J. Dillon took a lot more snaps and a lot more carries than he did a week ago.

The logic is to get these guys going. It's kind of a fine line. You do too much sometimes, it's a little too much for them too early. You don't do enough, everybody wants to know why isn't this happening? Well, this is why. You've got to indoctrinate them a little bit.

So that's what we're doing. I think we kind of now have indoctrinated A.J. We kind of got Travis going today. We got C.J. not much. We have to do more with that. We're talking about a 6'4" target. He has great hands. But today, it was volleyball. He'll learn from that.

Bound and determined to get our playmakers, get these guys that I think have got tremendous upside, I'm bound and determined to get them in. Get them in, get them going. I think it's the right thing to do in the big picture.

Q. (No microphone).
COACH ADDAZIO: Honestly, absolutely. You know what I really think about right now? Getting to work tomorrow to get ready to meet Notre Dame. That's what's on my mind right now. College football. Got to get ready to play Notre Dame. That's all I care about. That's what I'm thinking about.

I don't play any of those games, because I don't have the time and there's no value in it. There's only value in one thing. We've got a bright-eyed football team down there. They're bright-eyed. That's a bright-eyed team. They're upset, they're mad, they're bright-eyed.

They have a lot of confidence. They really have a lot. I was talking to them downstairs, and they want to go. They'd just as soon come in this afternoon and watch the tape and get going. That's what those guys are talking about down there.

I love their attitude. I love their mentality. They took that thing. They're deeply disappointed. They took that thing and they can see the upside, and we're in a race to get there as fast as we can get there.

So what's in front of us is being as good a football team as we can be next Saturday at noon, and that's what we're going to go after, and that's all I really care about right now. And I'm very, very excited about our guys. I know the ability that's there, and I just want to just keep racing with it and go. We'll go, let it happen, let it soak. Last thing I'm going to do is pull that back now. Not doing it. Thank you.

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