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BOSTON COLLEGE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

August 6, 2019

Steve Addazio

Boston, Massachusetts

STEVE ADDAZIO: You don't want to let the team down. You don't want to let each other down, and I'm here to tell you, I've never seen it greater than it is right now, which is a tribute to the people that have come before them, but this is a class of seniors that has lived in that world of a great culture and understands the value of it.

We're returning some very talented players on both sides of the ball. We're probably the most athletic that we've been. We have great team speed. We have outstanding athletic ability and top end. Some areas have more experience than others, but I think we've recruited very, very well, and I'm very excited about the guys that will appear to be some new names and new faces that our fans have not seen.

We couldn't be more ecstatic about having Virginia Tech for our opener. The amount of urgency that that creates with our team is fantastic. We're playing an elite team in our conference on opening day here in Chestnut Hill at Alumni Stadium. It doesn't get a whole lot better than that. So there's a sense of urgency about our preseason camp realizing how much of a short time it is before we get started here against Virginia Tech.

It's going to be a fun year. It's going to be exciting. And like you, really, really looking forward to opening day. We're in the grind of it right now. We've been in practice here for four days, and things are going well. We're starting to build that real structure of the 2019 team.

So I'm happy to answer any questions for you. Feel free to ask.

Q. How do you plan on structuring the team for the first scrimmage on Saturday?
STEVE ADDAZIO: It will be ones versus ones, twos versus twos. So the one offense versus the one defense.

And we'll have a lot of periods on the day, which we call move it, which is essentially scrimmage to you. Move the chains. If you don't move them, come off the field, the two offense will out, et cetera. So they can stimulate having to get a first down to stay on the field or come off the field.

There will be some situational things wove in, but it's going to be a move it period, and I would suspect we're going to strive for somewhere between 70 and 75 snaps for the ones because, as you get closer to game time, you're less likely to want to put them in that situation, but yet they have to feel what that is. If we plan on running 90 snaps in a game, if that's our goal, we need to at least get to 70 or 75 to feel that.

Q. Coach, what are your defined goals as far as win totals and full expectations?
STEVE ADDAZIO: A lot of you guys that have been here have heard me say this before. First and foremost, more this year than ever, obviously, when you think about the quality of who we're playing on opening day, win the opener. You've got to have your goals set. Win the opener. That's the most important thing in front of us, and that's what we have to get done. So that's goal number one.

Goal number two is get Bowl eligible because that's the next goal there is in college football. And then goal number three is to have an opportunity to compete for a championship, okay?

So that's where we are. You line up your goals, and you attack them. Right now we spend all of our time talking about winning the opener.

Q. But as far as seven, eight, nine, whatever, there's no --
STEVE ADDAZIO: Never discussed that, no. Never have I anywhere I've ever been have I been involved with discussing, hey -- you're certainly not going to go out and discuss, hey, let's rally and go out and win five. Let's go get 'em and go win eight. So, Coach, you don't care about rest of them? That conversation doesn't go anywhere.

I think winning the opener, everybody can sink their teeth into that. Getting Bowl eligible, everybody can sink their teeth into that. And then having an opportunity to compete for a conference championship or a division championship, everybody can sink their teeth into that. And I just think that's an appropriate way for your program to aspire and to move towards.

And the rest of that, we all know how hard this conference is in the side we're on, so we can figure out what that means moving towards winning a championship. So once you get Bowl eligible at six, the rest of it kind of speaks for itself, if you want to contend for a championship, where that's going to be.

Q. Coach, you mentioned the team athleticism and team speed and all of that. How has that kind of helped you develop or maybe get a little more complex with just how you approach the team, some of the things that fundamentally maybe get a little more complex?
STEVE ADDAZIO: Well, like last year, I'll give you an example. We were the third most explosive team in the conference last year. We had the most explosives. That was a direct result of athleticism. You know, speed and athleticism on offense. On defense, last year we have three guys from our back end currently in NFL camps, and we had five or six over the last five years. So that speaks to athleticism.

So I think what it does for you is it increases your explosive capability. We talk about in our program guys that can score touchdowns. Like there's a lot of good backs out there, but they're not all home run hitters, meaning if they get a step on somebody, can they go 80, 90 yards for a touchdown, or are they great five, six, seven-yard runners, but if they get a step, they can't bring it home?

We have more than one home run hitter in the backfield. We have receivers that have dynamic speed, that can run by a secondary, even the best of secondaries, and be able to hit a home run. We have a quarterback that would be considered extremely athletic quarterback by any standard in Power Five football, who has a very, very strong arm. We have tight ends that are unbelievably versatile that, in the pass game, are extremely effective route runners and are weapons in the throw game.

And in the back end, we have great speed in the back end. I mean, give you an example. Our two corners right now, projected two corners -- Brandon Sebastian, who was the starter last year, and Tate Haynes, both are sub-4.5 40 guys, both are 6 feet. They're big. By corner standard, that's a big corner. 6 foot guys at 190, 195 pounds that can run sub-4.5, by any standard, by any program, those are long athletic guys with top end speed. So that's where I made the comment that we're athletic and our team speed is good.

Q. As a followup to that, how much of that comes from the class that came before them, and how much are they helping the class that's coming up behind them?
STEVE ADDAZIO: Well, I think culturally those classes before set the foundation for your culture. There's an expectation of what it is to be a BC man. That's what we like to talk about, a BC man. We recruited BC men. We want to develop BC men. A BC man for us is faith, character, toughness, and passion. That's how we define that. That is the culture of our program. So the older guys have established that for the younger guys.

Last year's class did an unbelievable job of really, really pushing that rock over the top, right? Every class had a role, but last year pushed it over the top. This year's class wears that like a badge of honor, and that trickles down. So the freshmen that are coming in are coming into that environment completely, whereas last year's seniors wasn't necessarily exactly where you want it to be when they were a freshman, but now they've been a part of bringing that over the top.

So I think that culture is a huge part of your program, and I think that this senior class will pass that, have already started to pass that down to the younger guys.

Listen, the continuity here at Boston College -- I'm going into my seventh year. The con0tinuity in the program has really helped us in recruiting. We have evidence, take last year's team -- four drafted, ten free agents, one first rounder, 14th pick of the first round of the NFL Draft -- speaks to the fact that with continuity, you can continue to recruit well, and you can continue to build your program. When you don't have that, there's gaps in your recruiting.

So the beautiful story here is that we've been able to keep recruiting and developing, and that's critically important, and while doing that, be able to bring BC men in here and represent the university in first class fashion, and that goes back to your question about this senior class, moving that forward to these younger guys. What's the standard to be a BC man? We're not compromising that. No, you're not going to behave that way. No, you're not going to act that way. No, that effort's not good enough, you know, blah, blah, blah, right?

Q. Steve, last year you found some added depth in the backfield, kind of forced when A.J. goes down. How much will you maybe kind of monitor his workload a little bit knowing that one ankle can change things?
STEVE ADDAZIO: I think we will monitor it, and I think we'll want to -- there are going to be games where he's going to just -- you know, if he's healthy, he's going to carry a huge load. That's what great tailbacks do, but we will be conscious and pick and choose, and, of course, you need that depth, as you just documented.

We've got David Bailey behind A.J., who's another 200-pound back. He's not a freshman anymore. He's a totally different guy right now. He's in phenomenal shape and understands exactly offensively, schematically what we're doing. So look for him to be another big back that has great ability.

Then, of course, Travis Levy and Ben Glines have played tailback and won games for us. Travis Levy went on the road and was an integral part of beating Virginia Tech and really kind of took that game over. Both those guys are playing dual roles as receivers/tailbacks, and they're outstanding. I mean, they have great speed, great vision. So you have these two big bangers, one of which has got freak speed, and then you've got these other two guys that are extremely athletic with great ball skills coming out of the backfield.

So we have built a good bank of veteran -- they've all played, not one of them hasn't played of that group. So that's exciting, and you need them all. You just need them all. You never know -- along with everything else you talk about with being unbelievably optimistic and feeling great about your season, you need an element of fortune, everyone does, and part of that good fortune is staying healthy. But when you don't, you've got to be able to handle that.

Some positions we're deeper than others. Some we can handle better if we get a rash of injuries, and some maybe we couldn't.

Q. What were A.J.'s take-aways from last year? What, when you see him in the off-season, what maybe leads you to believe that he can take it up to another level this season?
STEVE ADDAZIO: Well, it certainly can take it up to another level. He's become a better student of the game, a more complete student of the game. He understands that he wants -- and he spent a lot more time in the pass game, both receiving the ball out of the backfield and in protection game.

Then he also understands, like any young kind of stardom player, how to handle the emotional highs and lows, whether it be because of an injury or whether it just be notoriety, but how you handle all those things. I think, as you get older and mature, you become better at handling the peaks and the valleys.

So I think with his work ethic, with his time he's put in as a student of the game, with his maturity, both of age and experience now, of having to deal with the highs and the lows and how to be able to really stay focused and not let external things have a place with you, I think that's the maturation that you hope you're going to have with a higher level, star level player that is going to receive so much attention.

Then just dealing with injury. Young guys, sometimes it's not easy to deal with injury, you know. It seems like every year, with the advance of the Internet and everything else, everyone is so attuned -- you used to hear, oh, I've got an ankle sprain. Now you have a high ankle sprain that has a medial component and some other stuff that I can't even regurgitate, right? And they know it. They can recite that. So there's hyper focus, and you have to learn how to handle that.

When Pete Cronin played, they don't have any face masks (Laughter). They didn't even acknowledge that they have an injury. I don't know if that's because -- I don't even want to go down that path, you know, but we're in a new world today. So if Pete played today, he probably would miss a lot of games.

Q. What is it about Mike and your decision to bring him on as offensive coordinator, just his personality, what led to that decision?
STEVE ADDAZIO: We interviewed and spoke with a fair amount of candidates, and I just loved Mike, first of all -- I don't know if this is any particular order. First of all, I love the fact that he's a Bergen Catholic guy from New Jersey, which is one of our most important recruiting areas. In that are, when you want to recruit in the Northeast, it's hard to be a stranger in a strange land. So I love that.

I love the fact that he wanted to be at a Catholic Jesuit institution. That was really important to him, and I love that because that speaks to understanding what it is to be at BC at a higher level.

I love that fact that he had had -- he had started at the bottom levels of coaching and worked his way up, all through the college ranks, through the elite college level, and then through to the NFL, and he had coached the quarterbacks in the NFL. I wanted to make sure that -- we had a great quarterback teacher in Scott Loeffler, and I wanted to make sure we maintained a high level of quarterback instruction.

Also, I wanted to find somebody that believed in kind of what we believe in, philosophically from an X and O standpoint. A lot of our game is pro based. Mike had come from a background a little bit like me, where he had been involved with spread offenses and had that component, but also had the pro component with it, and his heavy point of emphasis is the quarterbacks and the throw game. I really felt like one of the things we need to improve on this year in order to take the next step is our third down, and I thought he brings great value.

Then, of course, who he is as a man, who he stands for as a husband and as a father and the way he related to our players, the way that he handles our staff, the way that he and I interact. I just knew that we were aligned and we were on the same page.

So I gave you a pretty long answer. I'm pretty detailed because I feel that good about it.

Q. It seems like again the tight ends are a pretty deep, talented group even though you lost Tommy. How has Mike sort of been able to help involve those tight ends into what he's bringing in? Has it changed that much?
STEVE ADDAZIO: No. So we had -- my/our vision was we wanted to be a 12 personnel team that would never have to substitute and we could play in tempo, and part of that vision means you have to be able to go out and recruit and maintain a pretty high level of tight end play and depth in your tight end room.

We've put a lot of time over the last couple of years in the involvement of the tight end, not just in the run game, but in the throw game, and the beautiful thing is that Mike -- that's where Mike is too. So he's excited about the utilization of that position.

So we're enhancing that as we go, to be honest with you. We're continuing to enhance that. We lost a really good one in Tommy, who right now looks like he's starting in the NFL as of right now, but we have outstanding ones that are here. These guys are all pro caliber level players. They can run. They can catch. They can block. They can do a lot of things.

So we have a fair number, and we need a fair number because, when you're playing two on every snap, you probably need to have six at least that you feel can play in a game.

Q. Vrabel was a guy you mentioned you're really excited about. What in his game has changed or maybe improved that you're excited about?
STEVE ADDAZIO: First of all, he loves ball. This is a guy that loves ball. He comes from a dad that loves ball, and he loves ball. He's so classic us, you know what I mean? Here is an under recruited guy who had a great passion for football, right? He's got unbelievable feet, athleticism. Here's a guy that's a 310-pound guy, 312-pound guy who moves on that field unbelievable, and fun to coach. He'll be our starting left tackle and has a chance to be starting there for the next four years.

He's got a high, high level season. It's been a lot of fun to be around him and to coach him, be a part of watching his development. He's a young guy, so he's got a lot more development to go. He, along with several other guys, like Alec Lindstrom and those guys, are why we're so optimistic about our offensive line. We feel like we have a chance to be better than we were a year ago.

We lost a couple of really good players. One guy we just duly documented and another guy, Aaron Monteiro, who's doing really well in Jacksonville, but we're going to be seven or eight deep up front, and we're super talented. I'll make this statement right now that you'll see down the road we'll have five or six of those guys will be NFL players. So we're going to be good up front, and we can handle some injuries. You certainly can't handle too many. But we have some depth. So I'm excited about that as well.

It all starts up front, and he's a big piece of that as is -- as are the rest of them. So that front seven is pretty good if you look at it through a front seven glass, the two tight ends and the five offensive linemen. Benny Petrula and John Phillips. John Phillips is a guy that's really come a long way in our program. He's a heck of a player. He's the next guy coming out of here. He's the senior that's going to be leaving after this season, and he'll go on and play at the next level. He's really having a great offseason, a great camp, and he's a heck of a player.

There's a good culture. Chris and Aaron were a huge part of really driving -- and John Baker, of really driving that culture in that offensive line room, and you'd better have a good one there because that's really important. That's 5 of the 11 positions on that side of the ball at one time.

Guys, thank you very much.

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