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BOSTON COLLEGE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 29, 2018

Steve Addazio

Boston, Massachusetts

STEVE ADDAZIO: It's a tall assignment, and we have a full week ahead of us to get prepared and to put together a good plan. Just really have a lot of respect for Virginia Tech, their program. Obviously Coach Fuente has done a fabulous job there, and he's put his stamp on that program, and you can see it everywhere. They're well-coached. Schematically put together very, very well. They're tough, they're physical. You know, and as I said earlier, on defense, Coach Foster has been there a long time, and the defense is always really, really tough.

Special teams, they've been outstanding, and then they have what I would call the 12th man crowd factor down there, which is big.

Our preparation this week, we've got to handle the crowd noise. We've got to be able to really establish a good run game. You go on the road, you've got to pack your run game, you've got to pack your defense, and you've got to be able to sustain and with stand the home team force. We need to have a really strong week of preparation. We need to get our team feeling good and healthy. We came out of a very physical football game last weekend, and then march on and get ready to get win No. 7.

That's our goal. That's what we're working on right now, looking forward to the week, and it seems like the season goes by so quick. Here we are going down the home stretch. We've got to be playing our best football. I think we are, so looking forward to another week of growth and development. Any questions?

Q. Bud Foster's approach, what makes him such a good football mind?
STEVE ADDAZIO: Well, I think he's a guy that has a plan in how to attack offenses. Been doing it for a long time. I think he's a guy that really takes a look at what you do formationally and tendency wise and really tries to go after that. But I think it starts with a toughness and a demeanor that he instills. Esprit de corps, if you will. It's been pretty remarkable over the years, the level of play they've sustained. And obviously great players. I mean, they've had some -- like anybody else, you've got really good players, and you've got a good scheme and you can put them together good, then you can have a unit that's pretty tough. They've been tough for a long time. I mean, I go all the way back into the early 90s when I was at Syracuse traveling down there, fully aware of it.

Q. What are some of the things that you can do to simulate the crowd noise and get the team ready for that because I know that's a pretty hostile environment?
STEVE ADDAZIO: Yeah, in our new indoor we have a sound system that's probably second to none in America. It's really incredible. We were in there last night, and we had that thing cranked up. It was giving me a headache it was so loud. It's louder than any stadium could possibly be. You know, it's tremendous for us to use that. I've got to pick my spots. We're playing outside, so I don't want to be inside all week, but we'll probably have to go inside because the sound system that we have outside won't do what this one will do. This thing is incredible. It's deafening.

Q. Just about coming off the Miami game and the way you guys were able to sustain drives and move the football, what are some of the things you guys succeeded in doing there?
STEVE ADDAZIO: Well, I thought we played pretty well in tempo. Our goal was to go in and play really fast, and we did. In the first half, we ran about 50 plays and had 300 yards of offense. We had drives of 12 and 16 and nine, and we were able to stay on the field, and I thought we did it with a mixture of run and pass and we had some trick plays in there, and we just kind of kept it really moving, and we did all those things at a really warp speed. So it really impacted their defense.

And that's our goal. That's what we want to do. That's how we're going to play the game. I thought we started with that early, and it didn't subside through the first half at all.

Q. Is that something that you think you'll be able to do again with Virginia Tech, or is that something you'll try to do --
STEVE ADDAZIO: That's how we play. That's the way we want to play. You know, we're not going to allow them to screw their cleats in the ground, not one time. We're going to go as fast and as hard as we can. How we attack that, we change week to week, how we decide to use our formations and styles of play that we use, that can vary. But we're going to go fast, and we're going to -- within that structure is going to be some real hardball downhill runs, some real hardball play actions, and we're going to make them defend 53 and a third. That's the way we want to play. Now, you've got to go get that done. It's easier said than done. You've got to get your first 1st down, you've got to stay on the field, and you've got to allow that to take place, to take a foothold.

Q. 49-0 loss last time you went down to Blacksburg. Is there any chip on your shoulder heading into Saturday?
STEVE ADDAZIO: I mean, I don't think you forget things like that. You know, that wasn't -- I wouldn't call that one of the high moments. It's happened in many a football program to many a football team down there, and that's the impact that that place can have on you. It can roll on you pretty hard.

But you know, certainly we're -- our mindset isn't going to be about letting that happen again.

Q. 32 carries for AJ last game; is that somewhere you want him to be, in the 30 range, or would you like to dial that back at all?
STEVE ADDAZIO: No, I wouldn't dial that back. I think we're going to -- he's a great player, and we're going to feed him the ball. That's the way it's going to go. I mean, if the number is 30, it's 30. If it's 40, it's 40. If it's -- if he's struggling, maybe it's less. It's whatever the situation dictates.

But we want to get the ball in the hands of the best players on the field for sure. We had a lot of different people touch the ball in that game. We had like nine different receivers. A lot of people touched the ball, and we're going to keep doing that, but the one constant is going to be that he's a workhorse, and we're going to feed him the ball. I thought what he did Saturday was remarkable considering he is come off that injury. He had a very significant injury, and for him to come in like that and carry and -- those are physical 30 carries. Those were physical. I thought he did a fantastic job with it, and he came out of that game feeling really good.

You know, hopefully we can stay there.

Q. Just so you don't forget what happened in Blacksburg a couple years ago, some of the players -- that might have been on the sidelines, but like AJ hadn't seen it --
STEVE ADDAZIO: No.

Q. The last time you went down there, how do you explain to the guys what that game was like, and then also what that stadium was like?
STEVE ADDAZIO: Well, I'm not wasting a lot of time talking about what that experience was like. I mean, it is what it is. But the understanding of what the environment is like, that's another story. We're addressing that and talking, that's real, and we're going to simulate that. Obviously the guys that were there and the older guys understand that -- if you're going to go down to a place like Blacksburg and try to take a game, you've got to have a whole different mindset, and you've got to have a bunch of mature guys and tough guys, and it's a very, very hard to go down there and take something away from them down in their home field. That's one of the toughest places in the country, and I think our kids totally understand that now.

We'll do the best we can to simulate that. No, we're not going to waste a lot of time talking about what happened two years ago, other than the fact that it happened, and it's not something that we ever want to have happen again.

But to have a lot of protracted conversation wouldn't be very positive. A lot of these guys weren't even there, as you said. This is a different football team and a different time, but the fact of how hard it is to go down there and to win in that environment, that's the relevant conversation that has to be had with our team right now.

Q. (Indiscernible) how is that different from the first time this season? You had the experience, like hey, we got it, but is there a different approach now?
STEVE ADDAZIO: Didn't address it. Kind of like I didn't address the fact that we were bowl eligible. Just didn't address it. Not going to. I think our kids got a real feel for the last go-around here of -- if anybody thought that any of that has any meaning or waste any time thinking about anything like that is going to help you, well, they clearly -- if they didn't know it before, they clearly know it now. That's just a poisonous punch right there now, that's not going anywhere.

What's important right now is one thing. We have got to focus, our entire focus has to be on having the ability to go down and get our seventh win. We've got to go down there in a very tough environment and extract a W from a very good football team, and that's it. Everything else has got to be cleared out of the chamber. We talked about that last night. I mean, there's nothing else to think about. There's nothing else to talk about. There's nothing else on anybody's mind. How do we collectively go down there, play our best level of football and go extract a win in a very difficult place against a very good football team, and if anybody has got room for any other conversation than that, then they're not giving us everything they have. Simple as that, because that's how difficult this will be.

Q. How is Hunter, and he had some nicks and knacks in that game --
STEVE ADDAZIO: Yeah, I mean, we were in a very physical game. We're a banged up football team, but in my mind, I believe that we'll be ready to roll come Saturday. Like everybody else in the country this time of year and at the level of play that we're playing at right now in terms of who we're playing, we -- you're going to come out of each game pretty banged up right now. Like I said, we came off of a bunch of physical games in a row, and this one was -- we played the No. 1 defense statistically in the country. They were big. They were physical. They were athletic. And our kids went after them. I don't know what they're like, but we're banged up right now.

But we're banged up, but I believe that we'll be at full strength.

Q. And Hunter is --
STEVE ADDAZIO: He's en route to being. I would fully anticipate that we should have him. You never know. I'll find out for sure by the end of the week, but I feel confident that we'll be -- if not full strength, close to it.

Q. You touched on injuries. Talk about Virginia Tech. They're still without Josh Jackson. What have you seen from Ryan Willis so far?
STEVE ADDAZIO: Well, I mean, he can really hurt you with his feet. He's a talented guy, can throw the ball, he can run the ball. Appears to be operating their offense at a high level. You know, he'll pose a lot of challenges, you know, another quarterback that can run and create an extra gap with the Q runs, so we've got to get ready for that and put a good hard week with that stuff in with our defense.

Q. How has Hamp become one of the leading ball hawks in the nation right now?
STEVE ADDAZIO: He's a pretty athletic, slippery guy. Hamp is -- since he's been here, even as he came in as a freshman, he had a knack to make plays. He's just -- he's very nimble. He's very -- I call it like supple. He's one of those guys that -- he's hard to get a clean shot on. He's an exceptional athlete.

Q. There's a lot of young guys on the Virginia Tech offense in addition to the quarterback position. What does the offense present to you? What are you looking at for your defense? Can you add any different complexities in there to try and confuse them?
STEVE ADDAZIO: I think their offense -- you know, it's a quarterback-driven offense. I mean, it's -- you know, as I said, they have the Q runs that come off of that offense that you've got to get your fits and the play action that comes off of it is hard to fit. And they do a great job with it. I mean, it's kind of like the wishbone teams in a way that there's an answer for every reaction that they get defensively from you.

But I think in the defense we've got to do a great job of disguising our defense and not showing our coverage whether we're in two high, one high, and disguising our fronts, and we've got to do a great job with that, not getting a beating, and I'm sure there will be a lot of check with me kind of stuff going on, and we've had a bunch of it this year. I think we've got to continue to get better and improve, and I think we will. But having said that, we've got a pretty veteran group of guys up front that we've got to sustain our physicality, because no matter what the offense is, penetration stops all run games, and we've got to be able to play that way up front. We've got to attack and penetrate and disrupt, and that's going to be critically important in this game.

Q. It seems like the defense has really come together in recent weeks. How much of that has to do with the newer guys like Palmer and Isaiah McDuffie stepping in?
STEVE ADDAZIO: Well, I think Isaiah has certainly been playing a lot and developing, and it's kind of like learning as he's going right now. So he's getting -- he's improving each week. Mike Palmer, much the same. I think every team, every unit as the season goes on is, believe it or not, you're still developing your personality and forming it. I think defensively you're seeing that, getting comfortable with the personality of this defense.

But it starts with the physicality and the intensity of how we're playing. I feel like in the last few weeks, we've really picked up our intensity, you know, and maybe that starts because early on some guys were thinking too much maybe, and now we're just playing and reacting a little bit more. So I really like the level of play that we've had over the course of the last few weeks. I think it's really come together well, and I think it's the same on offense.

I mean, I thought we were playing really well on offense early, and at times we really were, but we're playing even more physically and more aggressively now. I mean, we're not just up front blocking people, we're finishing people. It's a mindset, and I'm thrilled. I was a little nervous in the bye week that we would lose a little bit of that. Sometimes you get in a bye week, you have a little momentum going, sometimes that can get away from you just a little bit, and I was a little concerned about that. But we came back into the game, and I thought we picked up right where we left off and kind of took off with that, and that was a topic of conversation we had last night was how good that taste feels and smells, to lock on to that style of play and own it and really want to drive it and continue to improve upon that, so that's something that we're really, really working on.

And here we are now, we've got to go back on the road, and we've got to go on the road, and you've got to sustain -- you've got to exceed that same intensity on the road. It's really hard to go on the road in this conference against a good team and get a win. People I don't think pay enough attention and realize how hard that really is in some of these venues, and of course we all know this is one of those venues.

So it's going to take all of that and more, go down there and have that kind of passionate play. It's all part of this, part of the -- it's a big psychologist part of the week.

Q. You just touched upon the schedule or the conference and how hard it is to win on the road. I don't know if enjoy is the right word, but how much do you enjoy the fact that the league is so tough and the fact that your crossovers are teams like Virginia Tech?
STEVE ADDAZIO: Yeah, our permanent crossover is Virginia Tech, and then we got to play Miami as the other one, yeah, I know. That's great.

You know, listen, as a competitor, you love the challenges of all these things, but the reality of it all is that the margin for error gets very, very small, and to sustain that week in and week out is not easy.

Some of these conferences just aren't like that right now. The level of defense isn't like that. And then some sides of some of these conferences are so much less. It's cyclical, and it kind of is what it is, but for us, I can only speak for us. What I see right now, I mean, week in and week out, I mean, we're in those battles. And then one of our non-conference games we're traveling out to the Big Ten to go to west Lafayette to play Purdue at Purdue.

There's no doubt in my mind we play -- and we played Temple here, and I think everybody has seen what Temple was doing. That was a physical football team. I guess every coach likes to stand up here and say we have one of the toughest schedules in the country, but I'd really like to tell you, I think we do. I challenge to see who really has got much of a tougher schedule. I mean, really?

So we've got quite a road ahead of us right now. That's why you've got to really focus in right now on the one thing we have, the main thing, what we have right now is Virginia Tech Saturday at 3:30 down there, and we've really got to have total focus on that. If you don't, you just, boom, it's gone. It gets away from you just like that, and we've had two experiences with that on the road already.

So you know, hopefully you grow and you mature. It's very, very difficult to go on the road anywhere, never mind places like this, and extract a win. You know, thank God I think we've got -- we're playing well right now, and I think we have some older guys, and I think we've had some experience with that right now, be it not as positive as I would have liked it to have been, but experience nonetheless, and we've got to go get this thing.

That's just the way it is.

Q. You mentioned a number of receivers (indiscernible) eight, nine. The responsibility of those guys, can you just map out how you told them they were going to be used and how that all sort of (indiscernible)?
STEVE ADDAZIO: Yeah, I mean, Frank has done a great job with the tight ends. Our goal -- I told you guys, we wanted to be a 12 team, so that we can stay in one grouping the whole game. Every time you substitute, they stand over the ball, so I sometimes get irritated when I see a substituting for really no reason, not because we're changing a grouping, we're just changing a player, and it slows us down.

So that's by design to be in 12, so we can play really, really fast, and with 12 give a multiplicity of styles of offense that you can run, from the power game to the one back game to the spread game, and so that's all by design. And then the ability to target all these guys makes the defense have to defend all of them, and these multiple sets and in these multiple schemes.

So that's our deal. So we've got to be healthy at that position, which is really critical for us, and -- that's been by design, and I think we have some really talented guys.

Q. In terms of the number of snaps you take, the responsibilities there --
STEVE ADDAZIO: Well, I think the biggest thing in preparing that group is the fact that they have to block like an offensive lineman, yet you're asking them to run routes and be involved in the throw game like a receiver. There's such a crossover training operation with those guys that is very difficult, and I think it's easy to lose sight of how fatigued they can get because it's hard to run corner routes and crossing routes and stalk blocking the perimeter, yet at the same time you're blocking a 265-, 275-pound defensive end in this conference.

And so the practice structure has to be so exact because they have to be able to handle all these different job descriptions and get practice at them, and then the physicality of it, and then the mental aspect of it. And one of the things we felt like we could recruit tight ends here, and I think we've been right that we can. We can recruit some tough guys at that position, and we have to have smart guys at that position because mentally there's a lot to playing the tight end here. There's a lot going on every snap for those tight ends. They're all over the place, just sheer alignments alone, you've got to be a bright guy, and we have some real bright guys playing at that position right now. They're participate.

That's an important deal for us. That's kind of what makes us go, and then that allows our quarterback, our running back and everybody to kind of fit into where -- how we want to do things here. But without those tight ends, playing in 12 isn't going to do anything with you.

Q. (Indiscernible) how did that come about?
STEVE ADDAZIO: Oh, it was just Scott and -- did a great job, and the offensive staff, and I think every -- just trying to put in a bunch of different stuff in there to utilize against different defenses, you know, whether they be misdirections, perimeter sweeps, all kinds of stuff going on, really. That's what I'm saying, it's mentally such a hard position to play really for us.

Q. I know you guys are locked in right now, as you've said, but on Friday night fans were playing until the third or fourth quarter, which hasn't always been the case. Is that something you guys have noticed, and do you feed off of that?
STEVE ADDAZIO: Well, I can tell you this: The energy in the stadium on Friday night was fantastic. I mean, I just thought it was a great energy, a great atmosphere. Pregame, during the game, postgame, I thought our -- I thought the fan experience, I thought the energy level, the engagement was fantastic. I mean, it was a big-time atmosphere. You know, of course the bandanna game is a big part of that, but I thought that -- I mean, if you couldn't enjoy that, if you couldn't have fun in that, then you're probably not going to have much fun. I don't know what to tell you. But you got it all. There was great defense, great offense, great special teams. There was big-time atmosphere. It was two good teams going after each other. Fantastic. Some day in my next life I'm going to come back and be one of those people in the stands and take all that in and enjoy it a little bit. Just like sometimes I walk down that walk and I smell the cooking hamburgers, and I think one day I'm going to be one of those guys over there having a burger and a beverage and just enjoying the heck out of myself not having my stomach tied up in 13 different knots. That will be a heck of a deal, man. Yelling, run this, do that, having fun, man. It's awesome. I think it's great.

Friday night here was fantastic. Friday night was fantastic. I hope every Friday night or Saturday afternoon or Saturday evening here in the Heights is every bit of that and more, because that's cool, that's fun for everybody, and I don't know what else anybody else could be doing, because that was really exciting. You're a sports fan, you're a football fan, the next time we come home, I hope that just grows and grows and gets better and better and catches on and just becomes the culture here at BC, and that will be really, really cool. Hope that's the way it is.

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