New Era Pinstripe Bowl, Penn State 31, Boston College 30: Quotables

Head coach Steve Addazio opening remarks...

We're obviously extremely disappointed. Give credit to Penn State. It was a hard-fought game. Their kids played hard. Our kids played hard. I guess people got their money's worth.

Offensively they moved the ball well. We moved the ball well. At the end of the day, it was a hard-fought game, went back and forth.

Addazio on pressuring Christian Hackenberg...

Yeah probably would have liked to have gotten more pressure. They were in a lot of maximum protection, three-man routes. Thought they did a nice job throwing the ball. They did a nice job of throwing and catching the ball so...

Kind of an interesting game. I think there were times where they looked good on offense, there were times we looked good on offense, times where we looked good on defense...

It was a seesaw, back-and-forth game that went on. Obviously that's why it ended up in overtime the way it did.

Addazio on the extra point...

Yeah, we've had a lot of difficulties through the year on extra points and field goals. We didn't really do a good job kicking the ball off much today either.

So, you know, we started with those issues and we ended with those issues. It's my job to get it fixed, and that's what I'm going to do.

Addazio on if he talked to Mike Knoll after the game...

No I haven't. I talked to our team right after the game.That's the important thing right now. We'll have a chance to talk to everybody.

As I told the team in there, there's a lot of plays all over the place, we had a lot of chances for interceptions that we let get away from us.

I'm sure there's missed blocks here, penalties all over the place. When you lose a game in overtime like that, the obvious thing to look at is the way we lost it, bitter end. There will be plays along the way that could have changed the tale of the game. You can drive yourself absolutely insane.

We have some issues we have to get fixed in the kicking game, that goes without saying. But that's something that's been there all year long. It's not a new phenomenon. That's why I went for fourth down a bunch during that game. Didn't feel like we were in any kind of consistency where we could have a high percentage.

It paid off for us on most of those fourth-down calls. You know, it's tough when you're calling games like that, but it's what it is. You got deal with what you got.

Addazio on reflecting on the seniors and freshmen...

What I said to the team in there, really my takeaway was we have a tough team, a team that battles, a great foundation here in our program. We have to learn how to finish and close out those games. We've had more than our share of them this season which we've lost on last drive, last play. That's the next step our program has to take.

We've got to develop and mature and make those last plays that would create different outcomes right now. We probably have been in that situation three to four times this season with heartbreaking results.

I guess you could say that shows the development of where we are in our program, but it's frustrating. As far as my takeaway on this as the head coach, we've got to get that done.

I think in that locker room right now no one is really interested in zip-a-dee-doo-dah, we played in overtime.

We made a lot of strides. We're heading in the right direction. But we just lost a game we didn't need to, but we did.

It was a great effort, tremendous effort. Must have been a hell of a game to watch, two teams slugging each other. You can't be ashamed or embarassed by that. But in the end you play to win, and we lost.

This program is not built on close games, it's built on winning games. Our whole emphasis this off-season will be learning how to close out the games. How will we do that? We'll do it through great development, through development of fundamental, mental toughness. We'll do it through recruiting, all right?

We'll get there. We'll get to where we want to be. That will happen.

Addazio on the secondary play...

Well, we gave away a lot of plays. We had a lot of plays we could have made, including the second to last play in overtime. We had it. We had picks we gave away. At some point we were double covered. We didn't make enough plays there as a whole.

We've got to find a way to get that done. We had a chance to close the game out with 2 minutes and 10 seconds. Once again, weren't able to do that. That's something we have to learn how to do, get off the field. It's happened to us a fair amount. We have to learn how to get that done.

We've made great strides in the secondary over the course of the last year and a half, two years, but we're not there yet.

Addazio on if this season's performance was a major step forward for the program...

Yes, I mean our season is a major step forward. People picked us at the very bottom of the conference. We are in a major rebuilding scenario here at Boston College. Most people on the inside that know would tell you this is a four-year to five-year rebuilding process. There's a lot of great things happening.

I'm not wired like that. Our program is not going to be wired like that. Year three, we have one recruiting class right now, one full recruiting class. We played 18 freshmen this season. We're still a couple of years away. We got to get a couple more recruiting classes in here. That's a fact.

It was mentioned the other day, I didn't correct it, that we returned our whole offensive line this year. That's not an accurate statement. We returned two starters this year. We lost Harris Williams in the first game, so we replaced three of the offensive linemen this year. We're going to graduate this whole group. There's a big void there. We're going to play with a very young offensive line next year. So we're still in that process.

Yeah, I mean. I think there's great progress, great development, great growth. There's a lot of buzz about Boston College, all for the right reasons, it's an exciting program right now. But we're still in that same year-one-through-three rebuilding phase until we can fill those voids we have on our roster. That's really going to take two years.

I'm not an excuse maker. I haven't made any excuses since I got here. We said we're going to be a team that would be at the bottom of the ACC—that's not right. That didn't happen. We'll come back, battle next year. There will be a point in the near future where we'll fill that roster to its completion. We'll have 85 scholarships. We won't graduate five offensive linemen in one class. Practice.

We have to hammer away at recruiting. There's an electricity going on right now in our program. It's real, okay? We've got to take the next step. The next step will be everything I just talked about, and winning those kinds of games.

That game, the Florida State game, the Clemson game, the Colorado State game. Those games are all right there. We got to take 'em.

Addazio on Tyler Murphy's leadership...

Tyler has done a great job. He's been a tremendous addition to our program. He provided stability. He provided experience. He provided leadership. He's an A1A terrific character guy. He's great to be around. The players believe in him. He had a great, valiant effort today. Proud of what he accomplished. Happy for him he's able to have the kind of senior year he always dreamed of having.

Really, really proud of that young man and hope he has a chance to go on and continue to play.

QB Tyler Murphy on the game...

It was tough...we just fought so hard to take the game into overtime. The guys fought and played really hard. Not getting the win is very disappointing—I'm definitely going to miss being a part of this program and being with these guys. I think that's the toughest part.

Murphy on the missed extra point in OT...

The whole operation is not just the kicker. If I could have got it down faster...it's something I'm going to have to figure out and look at and critique. I need to try and find a way to help with that kick.

Murphy on what he said to Mike Knoll...

I just told him to keep his head up. That one PAT didn't lose us the game. I started off slow at the beginning. I had a few missed throws...a lot of opportunities. It's a team game and it just stinks to finish like that. Everyone is going to look at Mike (Knoll) like it's his fault, but it's a team game—all three phases—offense, defense, and special team. You have to control what you control and I started off slow and that came back to haunt us.

RB Jon Hilliman on the running game...

The O-line did a phenomenal job all camp. They adjusted to the defense and the schemes and got great movement. We hit all the holes...it was pretty easy for us today.

Hilliman on the disappointing ending...

It's a game for the seniors, and it's kind of tough to not end it on the right note for them. Especially at the beginning, we had them pretty good. We just couldn't finish. We have to get that right.

Hilliman on the senior class...

It's tough...this is a great group of guys. They believed in me, I believed in them. I can't say I will miss one person more than anyone. It's a phenomenal group of guys.

Hilliman on his milestone performance...

I never think of it like that (a breakout performance). The biggest step for me is the win and loss column. It was not the result that we all wanted.