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BOSTON COLLEGE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

August 6, 2019

Mike Bajakian

Boston, Massachusetts

Q. Mike, last year they were kind of incorporating A.J. into the passing game, and then he got hurt and kind of went away. Do you envision using him in screens, wheelhouse, outlook passes, stuff like that?
MIKE BAJAKIAN: Absolutely. I think the philosophy is always, the more ways you can get your play makers the ball, find ways to do it. A.J. is obviously one of the play makers. The more different ways we can get him the ball and get him involved, the better. I think that helps when it comes to balance and tendencies and predictability. It's key to have him do as many things as possible.

Q. Coach Addazio talked about your journey a little bit of starting at the ground level of coaching and getting NFL experience and now coming to BC. Can you talk a little bit about what maybe drew you to BC, and for you, your journey as a coach from starting and going to the NFL and then coming here?
MIKE BAJAKIAN: Sure. Growing up, I realized at a pretty early age that my playing career was going to be limited. I know that's hard to believe. So I knew that, if I was going to stay involved in the game, it would have to be through coaching. So I knew back in high school I was always going to be what I thought a teacher and a coach. And that was in high school and college, that was my plan.

Moving forward later on in college, I got the itch to coach college football. It didn't work out immediately, so I started in the classroom as a teacher and a coach, teaching math at dell Barton school in New Jersey. One of the most valuable experiences in my coaching career has been those two years at dell Barton, where if you can learn and figure out how to command a room of young high school kids in the subject matter math and then coaching football with kids who have a passion for the game is really not that difficult.

But it did help prepare me to be a teacher, and let's face it, that's what coaching is. It's teaching. So from there, you get very, very lucky along the way with opportunities and things that come up. I've been blessed, truly blessed to have people look out for me in my coaching career, from Terry Shea to Lovie Smith, obviously, Coach Koetter, Lloyd Carr has helped me out tremendously, Butch Jones, obviously, I had connections with him in my time.

So in a lot of ways, I've been fortunate to be in the right place at the right time and know the right people. From there, coming to Boston College, that's a great opportunity for me to come home, having gone to school here in the State of Massachusetts, growing up in New Jersey. This is the closest in my coaching career that I've really been to my family in New Jersey.

Again, I was excited about the opportunity, the caliber student-athlete that Boston College is recruiting -- and student-athlete being two operative words in that phrase. So when this opportunity arose and it started to materialize, it was a no brainer for me.

Q. How often do you hear Dick Farley in your ear?
MIKE BAJAKIAN: All the time. Again, you're a product as a coach -- Coach Lewis -- again, we had staff enhancements prior to training camp where we presented to the rest of the staff about whatever subject we wanted, and Coach Lewis, as he was presenting to the staff, pointed out that he's a product of all the coaches that he's worked with and played for, and that's true. I don't think there's many original thoughts in coaching, whether it be a technique or a scheme or whatever it is, we're a product of the guys we've played and coached with.

Coach Farley, my head coach at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, a Hall of Fame NCAA coach, is a very big influence in my life.

Q. Steve talked a little bit about how you like to use their tight ends and their 12 personnel. You don't really see that in college football a lot anymore. How much did that attract you to here, and what do you like about the tight end group in general?
MIKE BAJAKIAN: It was, again, a major factor. As the opportunity here began to materialize and the conversations between Coach Addazio and I proceeded, it became evident that this was the right place for me for many reasons.

Schematically, I had been a coordinator for eight years at the college level, and we ran an up tempo, no huddle spread scheme, operating from the gun, using four wide receiver sets, spreading the field out laterally, and that was my background.

Then when I went to Tampa and joined Coach Koetter -- he was the offensive coordinator -- I learned a ton about how to utilize tight ends better in an offensive scheme. Obviously, we had had some good ones in my past with Travis Kelce in Cincinnati, and at Cincinnati in general, we had three tight ends that ended up playing in the NFL, and we utilized them in separate ways, in interesting ways. But when I went to Tampa, and we had guys like Cameron Brate from Harvard and O.J. Howard and various other guys, and I thought Coach Koetter did a great job of using those guys.

I always thought in the back of my mind, in my four years in Tampa, that if I had the opportunity to coordinate again at the college level, I would use an up tempo scheme, but I would be much more multiple in formations and personnel. So, again, when Coach Addazio and I started talking and he told me about the depth they had at the tight end position, prior to me coming here, and they utilize them, I said that was exactly what I wanted to do, and it became an easy decision.

Q. Anthony Brown at quarterback, where are you hoping to take him and maybe take his game to the next level?
MIKE BAJAKIAN: Anthony obviously has a lot of experience under his belt, and experience is the best developer of talent. So I think that alone is going to help him make a jump. He's a hard worker that pays attention to detail. The things we've emphasized this spring and this summer in training camp is becoming a more accurate passer. We emphasize explosives in our offense, and they did a good job of that here at Boston College last season, and we'll continue to emphasize it moving forward.

And I think more precise ball location can only help in the area of explosives, and the phrase we use is, hey, turn those receivers into ball carriers so that they can catch and advance, and that's one area that, as I evaluated last year's video, Anthony, I believe, had completed a higher percentage of passes than he had ever done before in his career, but I thought he could have done a better job of the pinpoint accuracy that allows guys to catch and advance, and that's been a focal area moving forward.

Q. Tyler Vrabel, I understand, plays a different position than his dad, but do you see his dad in him?
MIKE BAJAKIAN: I don't know his dad too well, other than to say he was a tremendous football player. Tyler obviously has the toughness in his background, has good football IQ, and he's been around a lot. He understands the ins and outs of what it means to prepare like a pro and to play like a pro. So there's definitely aspects of his dad in Tyler's game.

Q. Are there challenges as a coach when he comes from a coaching dad, or is it just, you know, he's off. We're taking care of him. There's going to be no interference from his dad?
MIKE BAJAKIAN: Again, I haven't sensed that at all. I think in general, to generalize, in recruiting, we love recruiting coaches' sons. I don't care if it's a high school coach's son, a college coach's son, an NFL coach's son, and then obviously a player's son adds an element to that. Because, again, they understand a little bit more of the game. They've been raised in the culture of the game, and there's usually an a discipline and a drive in those players that's necessary to have success at the college level.

Q. Coach, you mentioned helping Anthony get a little bit better with his accuracy, turning the receivers into ball carriers. Is that something that you just do based off of film work, or are there different drills or different exercises?
MIKE BAJAKIAN: I think an emphasis on that. You can always improve with mechanics and technique, and again that's just stuff that as he's growing as a quarterback and the more reps he gets and the more experience he gets, that will improve. It's just a point of emphasis is we're watching video, we're out on the field, it's hey, all right, that was a complete pass and maybe a first down conversion on third down, but we could have -- we lost yards by not turning him into a ball carrier. So it's constant reminders.

Q. Do you see in A.J. Dillon some extra fire this year based on how last year turned out? I understand it wasn't his fault. Sometimes football is a dangerous game. Does it seem like he wants to make it right and have the season that --
MIKE BAJAKIAN: I can't speak on that because I wasn't here last year. I can only speak on what he's been like since my time here. His approach has been very attentive, very focused, working hard. Again, I can't compare it to last year because I wasn't here, but I think he understands. I do think there's a hunger there to succeed, and that's evident in work ethic.

Q. Coach, how do you build a relationship with the players so early on in the season?
MIKE BAJAKIAN: Well, I'll be honest, it starts with the culture that's created by the head coach, Coach Addazio. He is -- he makes it apparent -- and that's part of what I love in the brief time that I've been here, and what I had heard about him and the rest of the coaching staff -- he makes it apparent to the players that he loves them as an individual, not as a football player. It goes far beyond that.

When players understand that you care for them, that's when growth occurs. So when you take about growing that relationship, it's a matter of investing time and showing that you have a true appreciation for them as a person, as a student, as a football player beyond just what you're experiencing in the meeting room or on the football field.

Q. Steve talks about how he sees so much potential in this offensive line. What's your perspective, based on how much time you've spent at the next level, about this group?
MIKE BAJAKIAN: I think they're outstanding. I know we graduated three offensive linemen last year, and I know in the interview process, Coach Addazio said we're losing three offensive linemen, but I think we have a chance to be really, really good. I'll be honest, part of me in the back of my mind thought maybe he was blowing smoke a little bit about, oh, that -- maybe he's trying to recruit me a little bit. Sure enough, we get here, and he's 100 percent right.

Coach Trautwein and Coach Addazio do a great job, number one, of evaluating high school offensive linemen, and number two, of developing young offensive linemen. We've said this in recruiting, and we say it as a staff, if you're an offensive lineman and you look at Boston College, you can't underestimate the value of having a head coach with an offensive line background and how he's going to prepare you to play the position and play the game, and it's evident.

Those guys, those young offensive linemen are outstanding. Again, I can tell you what I've seen on video from last season, but I look at our offensive line, and our offense is one of the strengths of our offense, and around them, we can build a lot schematically and even the mentality that you're looking for starts with those guys.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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