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BOSTON COLLEGE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 25, 2019

Steve Addazio

Boston, Massachusetts

STEVE ADDAZIO: We're getting ready to go into the final game of the season, having a great week. Getting ready to get a sixth win. Playing a good team, a top ten defense, top ten rushing defense on their home field on the road Thanksgiving week.

He's got a good staff. Mark Whipple's on their staff. I know Mark well. Got a bunch of good coaches. Dave Borbely is their line coach, really good guy. They've got some real talented players. So we'll get ready to go out and play a great game and go get our sixth win and cap off the Thanksgiving day weekend. Looking forward to that. Any questions?

Q. Does Mark Whipple add any wrinkles to that offense or anything different from what you saw?
STEVE ADDAZIO: Well, the last time I saw, I played him. Was it my first or second year here, I think? They've been through a fair amount of people since then. In fact, I'm not even sure that Pat was there then. I can't even remember. Probably not. No, that would be a completely different deal. But anyway.

Obviously, he's going to throw that ball around a little bit. So heck of a football coach.

Q. I think this is your -- this class is your second full recruiting cycle. Talk about them and what they meant. The first class is always unique because it's your first class, but you get the full calendar.
STEVE ADDAZIO: Bag of guys in terms of fifth year guys. It's not a really big class really. Jake Burt, a guy that came in, local guy, pretty unrecruited guy who's just had a great career. He's come in here and done really, really well. Christian Garrison came in, played for Paul /STKE /KAUS cast. Christian's been great here. Both those guys have had their share of injuries but have really had remarkable careers. Benny Glines. Benny Glines came out of St. Ex, just one that can play a lot of different positions. He's had a great career. Guys like Tanner Karafa, came in as a linebacker, moved to defensive end, moved to inside to defensive tackle. He's a captain along with Benny. He's a developed guy, came in and redshirted and grinded and worked his way up. He's going to have a great future moving ahead and playing.

I don't want to forget anybody. You start going down this path. You know, Elijah Robinson is another guy with great leadership here. Mehdi El Attrach started out and played a lot of years on special teams for us. Anthony Palazzolo. Just a bunch of guys that epitomized what it is to be a BC man, really been great in the classroom. You know, great representatives and role models, height character guys, come from great families. They're going to go on and do remarkable things.

Really, really grateful to them for what they put in the program and really supplied a lot of leadership and glue.

Q. For the first couple years, you always get we've got to try to lay the groundwork for the culture, and then you recruit a class once you've started to do that. I feel like these guys were really like the first class with that intact.
STEVE ADDAZIO: Yeah, when I first got here, there was a class already in place, and we were going to honor every scholarship, and it's a different deal. It was that next year that we really had that real first class, kind of that Zach Allen crew. Those next two years, a bunch of guys went into the league, from Will Harris to Isaac Yiadom to Matt Milano was a part of that first class. What is he, a rookie pro bowler. You just go down the list with these guys. They've all gone on and really a good deal. We'll continue to do that.

So I lose track of the next class sort of speak, you know, because that was Connor Strachan, that was a bunch of guys. So it was really the first, and this was probably really the second, so to speak, that we've had one cycle with. Yeah, so good group of guys. We've kind of re-recruited this whole deal and upgraded. We've had like five DBs go into the NFL, which is good, and I think we've been in a good cycle of trying to build up our receiving corps. I like where that is.

We're still continuing to have really talented young DBs here now. We're always going to do a pretty good job here recruiting the lines, and right now we're in a refresh cycle of we've got some really talented young defensive ends, which is important. It's an ongoing deal, man.

Every day you've got to get up and work at it, and you've got to keep grinding.

Q. Being in that sort of backs against the wall situation, what goes into preparing for it?
STEVE ADDAZIO: Nothing different. Just go straight ahead and keep moving. Every week's the same. Just kind of -- same Sunday, same Monday, same Tuesday, same Wednesday, nothing different. Just get prepared, go out and have a great plan and keep your motivation high, keep your work ethic high, and have a great week one day at a time. Honestly, I would like to think you wouldn't be able to distinguish between any given week. I'd like to think that every week is the same week.

Q. Talk about what's at stake. It's almost a playoff situation, win or go home.
STEVE ADDAZIO: They know that. I think it's important to keep your focus on what it takes to win the football game. Every week you've got to win the football game. Any time you deviate from that, you're creating something that is unnecessary. Hey, we want to keep playing. We want to get a Bowl game and want to keep playing, sure, that's a goal. Nothing can change. The goal is to prepare really great so you can play really great.

Q. They get in the back field with a lot of sacks. What kind of challenge does that present? Do you do anything different?
STEVE ADDAZIO: They have a pretty exotic third down blitz package. So they get a lot of guys cut free on people's offensive line, if you will, or front. They bring a lot of different blitzes. They can pick them up. I think they have some talented defensive ends. I think they do a good job with their scheme. That's shown up. It's on the tape.

So, yeah, those stats are accurate. It's on the tape. That's what's going on.

Q. Is there anything that you do from a block?
STEVE ADDAZIO: I think you just have to do a great job picking up the pressures. I don't think it's an add a guy routine. I think it's great communication up front. We have a pretty good offensive line. We'll work hard to get those things picked up. Bring one more than you got, that means someone's got to get free in man coverage and get the ball out to them. That's all real, yeah.

Q. (No microphone)?
STEVE ADDAZIO: Right now my focus is just getting ready to play Pitt. I think that's a good question, and I think that would be a great question for the future. Right now, honestly, my mind is so set on -- I just walked out of a game plan meeting down into here, and I'm anxious to get back up there. Got a short week, man. We've got to turn this thing over. My focus right now is maximizing who we are and putting our guys and everyone in the best position to play at a high level.

Q. (No microphone). Where did you see that performance in terms of progression?
STEVE ADDAZIO: I don't want to dive way into this right now, but I just think we've seen improvement, we've seen a little bit of the roller coaster ride. That's because of the youth that we have. We played pretty well in the first half of that game. I thought that was evident. With six minutes left in the third quarter, we turned that thing over, and that got a bit of a momentum turn on us, and that's when it went bang-bang like that. It was a pretty good football game up until that point in time. It's all part of development.

I think we've got a bunch of guys that play with a lot of intensity and played well at times. Hopefully, all these little things along the way, it's called development. Hopefully, we can improve, and that's what it's all about. There were plenty of good things to take away from last week, and of course there's plenty of things you need to work on, simple as that.

That's our goal this week right now as we get ready for Pitt is to continue to grow and develop and put a good plan in place.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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