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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 26, 2018

Steve Addazio

Greensboro, North Carolina

STEVE ADDAZIO: Well, we're looking forward to getting back at it this week, playing Temple. A really fine football team, physical, athletic football team, well-coached, and looking forward to getting back into another game here. We've had a good week, a tough week, a physical week, and our preparations have been good. I'll take any questions.

Q. Last year you kind of had a similar loss against Virginia Tech, and the team rebounded the following week at Louisville. Do you see any kind of historical comparison to that, or was that kind of discussed how you were able to regroup from that loss to win at Louisville?
STEVE ADDAZIO: You know, what we kind of do is just -- everything is its own entity every week. Every year is different. But I think in an effort to evaluate when you feel like your performance wasn't where it should have been and it's my responsibility, I would say one of the things that we have a tendency to do early in the year is -- a week ago I came off the Wake game and kind of wanted to make sure our guys were fresh and kind of pulled off the gas a little bit on the physicality of the practice. We did the flipside, we went right back to hard-core fundamentals, inside drill and everything else started on Sunday, and haven't let up.

My thing is I want to have the most competitive snaps we can possibly have so guys are practicing, making full-speed real-time decisions in the heat of the battle because I felt like that was one of the issues I thought that we had on Saturday. Now, it really wasn't reflective up front on the offensive line and the defensive line, but I thought that -- in some of our semi-skill, skill positions, we left an awful lot on the field, and I thought there were some decisions in-line, in-game speed, game tempo, and I blame myself for that because I felt like that might be a byproduct of too early in the year pulling back the physicality of our practice, which is very uncharacteristic and is not going to happen again.

You know, if there's a little similarity there, I can't really remember. I just look at it for what it is right now.

Q. You've kind of touched on the multiple fronts and different personnel groups Temple can throw at you. Can you elaborate on that?
STEVE ADDAZIO: Yeah, I just think Temple on defense is very multiple. They play a lot of coverage. They've got a lot of pressure. They've got a lot of stuff. They come at you and throw it all at you. I just think it's real important to have a great week of preparation and an understanding of the system of defense and the coverages, making sure the kids understand it so we can play fast, play physical and pick up the various different stunts and blitzes up front and in the back end with the quarterbacks and receivers, be able to route progression read everything and not start trolling into bad coverages.

On offense, they have some really good skilled athletes, good players. They're solid up front, and I think, as always, they're a tough football team there. I respect the place. I've been there. I know it. There's a tough mindset, tough approach, and that's kind of a badge of honor there. That's the edge. And I know that's the way they're going to play.

Q. I know you're fully concerned with winning this game, but are there any emotions going into this knowing that this was your first head coaching job in college and you're going against them?
STEVE ADDAZIO: Well, I just think that you reflect back a little bit, and I'm very appreciative to Temple and the people at Temple that gave me an opportunity. I loved my experience and my time there. I really embraced and love the city. I feel like, as I've said in a couple earlier deals, that I enjoyed having a real part in building that program. The great people like George Moore, who's passed away, and Louis Katz, who's passed away, just guys that I had a chance to work with, Dave Mills, and -- we were able to build a brand new building, and I was very involved with everything right into the upholstering of the chairs. We were able to get into the Big East Conference, which I had a strong relationship with the senior associate commissioner and a direct relationship that led to that. Just the ability to recruit that area and the great high school football around that area, we had a chance to bring in some really, really fine players.

Matt was able to pick that up and win with that, and now Jeff has come in, and I'm -- obviously we're playing them, and this is a big contest, but outside of this week, I'm a real huge fan and always root for Temple because I really love the place.

Yeah, I mean, playing this week made me think about a lot of really great people, Bill Bradshaw, guys that were really good to me and my family, and so you can't help but think about that, especially those couple guys that are no longer with us.

I don't mean to drivel on about it, but I really love those guys. It made me just think about it, and at times you get a little emotional about that. Those guys really banded together to continue to build that program.

Q. Their defenses, they scored two touchdowns last week. They've had an aggressive look. What do you see from them, the aggressiveness? They're not only looking to stop people but they're looking to score.
STEVE ADDAZIO: Yeah, I mean, I think that's their plan. They're very multiple. They come at you with a lot of coverage and a lot of pressure and a lot of different stuff in an effort to -- they're going to play physical. There's no doubt about that. But they also want to be disruptive and get you to turn the ball over. And I think that's a good plan.

But that's clearly what they're doing. So it's led to people turning the ball over.

What happens sometimes is especially early on, you're trying to get a book on people, and with Temple, there's a lot to get done in a short -- we've only played -- this will be our fifth game, so only four games. They present a lot of problems with that.

Of course with that comes the opportunity sometimes for people to make a mistake in the coverage or be out of a gap, and you've got to be able to capitalize on those things.

Q. Just looking at numbers, Anthony Brown had a lot of games last year where he ran the ball productively and hasn't just been the case early this season. I know he had an injury. I don't know if that's just the game plan, but why do you think that's been the case thus far and if he's still the running threat that he was last year?
STEVE ADDAZIO: Yeah, I mean, Anthony is a really good runner. I wouldn't say that running the quarterback is the epicenter of our offense. However, my background is a lot of quarterback running. But I would say in an effort to bring Anthony along and bring him back, we weren't going to put him in harm's way. We're really working on him throwing the ball and some other things, but certainly is a tremendous opportunity for us to utilize his legs. You know, that could come to a theater near you soon.

Q. I was curious on the other side, and I don't want to get too deep into your game plan, but Temple switched up and moved a nickel to starting defensive end. They had a lot of success stopping the run against teams (indiscernible). Knowing your history you don't mind running power, and I wondered when you see that particular match-up how that works and if you plan for that this week.
STEVE ADDAZIO: Well, you know, Jeff is an outstanding coach, and I'm sure he'll take into consideration all the things that we do and make some decisions and build his game plan to what he perceives our strengths are or our weaknesses or whatever. You know, and we do the same. We look at the tape and try to build our game plan.

I think probably neither one of us are going to be straight vanilla and give each other exactly what we think we're going to get. But at the end of the day, it's our job to try to find out where we feel we can gain an advantage and try to get that advantage, just like it is theirs, and that's the little bit of the game of chess that goes on sometimes. You know, I'm sure that, like I said, there are really good coaches there, and they're going to take all that into consideration.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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