Boston College Media Day: Steve Addazio's Press Conference

Around one o'clock pm Steve Addazio addressed the group of media members that had descended on Boston College. First off, you may have read it elsewhere, but his voice can seriously fill a room. Addazio's persona of being larger than life was certainly true, as every word he spoke seemingly captivated the room.

He started off by talking about the second practice, he again remarked how impressed he was with the playbook retention of the players. In many other spots he has been in, he hasn't had that level of retention, which he said is a testament to the character of the players at Boston College.

Addazio further went on to talk about how the next few practices would be going. The players will be going to shoulder pads tomorrow, and full pads in the next couple of days. Just as it is with any team, he wants to gradually pick up the physicality of the play. They have been pushing the players he said, but he is going to begin to amp up the stress the players need to face, both in the situations and the way the coaches will be getting in their face. The players are only in day 2, so it might be a little easy, with nice weather, but Addazio was curious to see how things would be come day four and five.

Much of the media had questions about Chase Rettig, whom Addazio was quick to compliment saying "Chase is a tough guy". But he also wanted people to understand that it's not all about Chase. While having a good QB is a key to winning he said, this is about the team. Chase needs to be a leader for that team, and Addazio is going to need to see how Chase reacts to stressful situations. As Addazio said "it's easy to be a leader when it's nice and sunny out".

The coach was pleased at the climate and culture was "coming together" on the team. He aluded that there were cliques and groups when he first got here, but now he saw things like "the offensive line going to dinner together", which he reports is encouraging. Speaking of the offensive line, he was also happy with how they were coming together. He said that having an experienced lineman like Matt Patchan, who was already "just one of the guys", and noticed how tight the group was already.

Questions were asked about the balance of the offense. Addazio said he was concerned about the lack of depth at some positions, but "liked the young freshman backs (Myles Willis and Tyler Rouse)." He wanted the offense to be balanced, and joked that right now it was about 60/40 pass, but in the end he was hoping that in a game he hopes to have 30 runs and 29 passes.

Toughness was also something that the coach addressed. The team had yet to be put in any tough situations, so he wanted to see how they would react in a stressful situation. The only way they would convert on 4th and 1 on the road was to go through tough situations now. He wanted his players to be "great people, but vicious fighters" and to "fight as hard as they can when compete".

Recruiting was talked about by Coach Addazio as well. He talked about how important recruiting would be to get Boston College back to their former glory. He emphasized how keeping local kids at BC was vital, because there was top notch talent in New England. With the current depth issues, good recruiting was going to have to happen.

Finally Coach Addazio talked about BC's aggressiveness. He joked that on the offensive end they would not be a "three yards and a cloud of dust" offense that many predicted, and that Coach Brown was going to put together an aggressive attack on defense. The team was all in on this style of defense, and he was prepared for that the team would inevitably be beaten over the top and on big plays though he hoped it wouldn't happen that often. On special teams, they are going to be aggressive as well, going for fakes and what not, to keep everyone on their toes.

All in all Coach Addazio gives one of the most engaging press conferences I have seen. He has a way of commanding the entire room, while making it seem that he is talking just to you. I know I am not playing for him, but I can easily see why he is such a good recruiter. The start of the season can not start soon enough