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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 14, 2018

Willie Taggart

Greensboro, North Carolina

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Florida State head coach Willie Taggart.

COACH TAGGART: We're looking forward to our matchup this week against Boston College. Really good football team coming here in Doak Campbell and we can't wait. Great opportunity for us.

And hoping we can have a nice crowd here to help us as we take on Boston College this week. Good football team. And we're looking forward to it.

Q. Just to speak on your quarterback Deondre Francois, what you've seen from him this season and how you've gauged him on field and on and off the field up to this point?
COACH TAGGART: I think he's done everything we've asked of him. And I thought he's improved throughout the year. And I thought he became -- from a leadership standpoint, the things that he's doing with his teammates in practice, after practice, I've been really impressed with him when he pulled a running back aside and talked to him, how he could run this play better or time things up. Or he grabbed a receiver and tell him how he can run the route and anticipate him throwing at this time.

And I hadn't seen that out of him since I've been here, and throughout the season he's been doing that more and more. And I really think that's been helping the receivers and helping him as well.

Q. As far as something I had spoken to you about a few weeks back, just the buy-in of the team, kind of feeling who is there and where the responsibility is, who is taking responsibility on themselves and leadership and whatnot. Are you getting more of a sense of that right now at this point in the season? And just what can you say about the environment of the team as obviously you and your staff are trying to gauge the present but also the future of Florida State?
COACH TAGGART: The environment is healthy. It's nice. You would think, because of the struggle we have, you would think that everyone would be down and out. But our guys come ready to practice and have a great attitude each and every week.

And that's probably the most frustrating part of it, that we practice really well. Our guys are going hard. We're just not getting the results that we want on the football field on Saturday. And we've got to find a way to get those results. But the culture is on its way like we want it to be. I've been really impressed with our guys, just with their attitude and work ethic and the approach they have when they come to work.

But we expect our guys to be that way. We're still playing for something. And so attitude is good. We as coaches and players know we just gotta go out and do it on Saturday.

Q. In your opinion, when you game plan for Boston College or any opponent, what's more important, doing what you do best and see if they can stop it, or do you have to adjust to what they do and try to stop what they do best?
COACH TAGGART: I think you always gotta do what you do and try to do it better and execute better than the opponent. But I think you always gotta adjust too when they're doing something that's not working against your favor, then you've got to be able to adjust with it. But I don't think you have a chance if you're not doing what you do the best. And like I say, you've got to be able to adjust as the game goes on.

Q. I was there last Saturday for the game in South Bend. It was very cold. It was cold as anything, but Aguayo only did a couple of extra points and didn't attempt any field goals. Was that because of the wind or because it was so cold out? What was the issue, why didn't he try any field goals?
COACH TAGGART: I know the one opportunity where we probably had one, it was just the wind, it was so far back. And we figured it would be best to go for it then the field goal. But I don't think he had many opportunities to kick field goals.

I think that's part of us on the offensive side of the ball executing or getting us down there to where he's going to have those attempts. But I do remember the one attempt or the one time that we could have kicked a field goal, the wind was coming in our face and we thought that was too far for him.

Q. What type of running back is A.J. Dillon? He's a good sophomore running back, freshman of the year last year. What do you have to do to contain him on Saturday?
COACH TAGGART: Well, we've got to do a good job up front. Our D line gotta do a good job with defeating their blocks and getting off of double teams. And he's a big guy, so you gotta do a great job of gang tackling. It's hard to tackle him one-on-one and get after his legs because he's big, strong and fast, and you've got to get multiple people on him. Try to get him before he gets going.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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