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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCE

April 21, 2011

Tom O'Brien

COACH O'BRIEN: Well, we were very fortunate to get at least half of the spring game in before the storm came. We got into the third period and evacuated a couple hours before it really got dangerous here. We feel that we accomplished a lot of the goals we set out to in the spring and look forward to getting ready to go here in the fall.

Q. What's been the progress as you've seen it of Glennon in the spring?
COACH O'BRIEN: He made very good progress. You know, this is the third spring that he's been the quarterback, No. 1 guy in the spring, so I think he's ready to take control of this offense. He's as talented as any quarterback that I've had. All those guys at BC, he's got as much or more talent than all of them. He just needs the opportunity to play this fall, and he will get that opportunity, and this team looks forward to his leadership as we go forward in the 2011 season.

Q. Are you counting on Mike as your quarterback? Have you heard anything definitive from Russell at this point?
COACH O'BRIEN: Well, we're not waiting on any decision with Russell. He's with the Colorado Rockies. We've made our decision; we're going forward with Michael Glennon as our quarterback, and we look forward to what Mike can do. As I said, he's as talented as any quarterback I had in my tenure there at Boston College; just a matter of him getting to play. And this team is moving forward; we're not going to wait for the Colorado Rockies to make a decision one way or the other.

Q. What do you like about Glennon? What are his best assets?
COACH O'BRIEN: Well, he has a tremendous arm. He can make every throw that has to be made on the football field. He has good leadership, he has a great understanding of the game, and he's a very mature individual.

Q. You lose a couple of veteran kickers. Can you fill me in on how the replacements are coming there?
COACH O'BRIEN: Well, we haven't had any this spring because they're all high school kids, and certainly we've got to wait until August to get to them. We have a couple of young guys that walked on that have done some things for us in the spring that would certainly be able to handle some duties, but we signed who we think are very, very talented young guys that will handle the kicking chores once we get started here in September.

Q. How nervous or comfortable are you with true freshmen handling --
COACH O'BRIEN: Well, it's not the best situation that you want to be in, and certainly there's some concern about it, but it's the situation we're in, so we'll make the best of it.

Q. Of all the goals you had for the spring, was there one that really had to be hit more than any other?
COACH O'BRIEN: Well, you know, our goal is always to get better as individuals, and as we broke down the spring here for the last couple days, I think that it was a positive for many, many players and this football team. The moves that we made, Audie Cole at middle linebacker looked like it was a good move for us, D.J. Green looks like he's going to be able to handle moving from safety to be the field linebacker spot. I think those were the major moves one way or another as far as positional changes.
Other than that, a lot of those young kids that have gotten their brains beat in the last couple years are starting to mature and becoming much better and much more confident at the positions that they're playing right now.

Q. I'm sorry to continue with the Russell Wilson theme here, but I just have to ask you, how much of an internal debate was it for you to go ahead and say, okay, even though I have a quarterback who could break so many ACC passing records, I'm going to sit him on the bench and I'm okay with that?
COACH O'BRIEN: Well, I'm not sitting him on the bench; he made a choice to go baseball. That was his choice. He's choosing a baseball career. I don't know if he's going to sit on the bench. I have no idea what the outlook is, and so we're moving forward. That was the decision we made a long time ago.

Q. Didn't you say, though, that if he came back he would be the backup?
COACH O'BRIEN: That's where he's going to be.

Q. Isn't that the same thing as sitting him on the bench?
COACH O'BRIEN: You can call it what you want to, but that's where he's going to -- that was the decision that was made then, and we can't be beholden to outside interests of who's going to run our football program.

Q. You guys made such an incremental improvement defensively last season. With I think your top eight tacklers back, should you be even better in 2011?
COACH O'BRIEN: Well, we certainly have that chance, and because of the experience factor. Two years ago we played all those guys at freshman, they learned a lot and improved tremendously, as you said, last year, and they should be poised to take another jump this year. That's what we hope will happen and that's what we're coaching to do is be a much better defensive football team this coming year than we were a year ago, and experience will allow that to happen we hope.

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