Postgame Press Conference: Steve Addazio

How did that defensive effort get..just kind of get away in the last 6 minutes?

BOSTON COLLEGE HEAD COACH STEVE ADDAZIO: Well, I mean, you know, I can’t recount every inch of that right this split second, but we let up a… there was a big run that we let up that we were late with the linebacker and his safety was there, missed the tackle, that was a big one there.

I’d really rather focus on what we did in the belly of the game. We took this team that’s the number two team in the country, we took them late into the fourth quarter and our kids played their tails off. You know, that’s the storyline of the game, and I thought we went after them with everything we had. I thought we made plays on offense, we made plays on defense, and I was proud of the way our kids fought, proud of the way they battled against this team that was one of the best teams in the country, if not the best, and one of the best defenses in the country and offenses and we had them nose-for-nose in that game, and that’s… those are the facts.

You know, I thought, you know, early in the game when we recovered the fumble we had a good first down play and we fumbled that snap on second down, got off schedule there, I thought that hurt us a little bit right there. Then at the… towards the end, when we tried to get in that two minute mode, we dropped a couple of balls and hurt us move the chains there. So, other than that, I thought, you know, I thought within the body of that game there was a lot of good plays in there, you know. We’re trying to be careful and managing our quarterback a little bit still and trying to do that I thought we did a pretty good job of that. There were some situations there that got a little hairy. I thought at time we ran the ball against them, too. And then at time, you know, we didn’t. That’s a good defense we’re playing against right there. Both teams were battling each other, that’s the storyline of that game, and, you know, just really felt that our kids gave everything they did.

You know, I’m very, very concerned right now with the amount of injuries that we have and that we just took in this game. I don’t know the extent of them right now, I mean, you know, we’re just losing an incredible amount of starters right now and, you know, that’s a big concern that I have and I have to get my arms around where we are. Seems like every week, you know, we have to restart something. You know, we got the offense going and then we get, the defense gets hit, and then we try to get the defense back going and now, you know, we lost Max, we lost Aaron Monteiro, I mean, so I gotta figure out what the extent of these things are right now.

So, I think what I want you to hear from me is the truth, which is we battle hard, we’re physical, we’re tough, we played this team and we won to drag them into the fourth quarter, we drug [sic] them into the fourth quarter, that’s what we did, you know, and played with great heart and you can see the potential of this football team right now. The key right now though, is having enough guys to come out of this thing, you know, taking that experience and what we’ve gained and what we’ve been able to do and let that work for you now, and not be so crippled in here that we, you know, are gonna have a hard time with that. That’s to be told, I don’t know the answer to that right now.

How much did the defense...it felt like they wanted to come out and prove a point about who they were, especially coming off the last week. They had some hits, some mild ones, and that’s where they made some play. How does that defense wanna show something?

ADDAZIO: I think both sides did. I mean, yeah, I really do. I mean, I think what I want you to hear is that up front, both sides of the ball. I mean, our offensive line was going after them. I think our kids, you know, the defense and… but the whole… everybody did. I mean, they came down here with an unbelievable, relentless mindset and attitude, and that showed, and it was… we… you could feel it. I mean, you guys were there, I mean, you could see the whole thing.

Do you think your guys will be able to take those positives that you said away from this as well, into next week?

ADDAZIO: I don’t think there’s any question. The mindset, the attitude - fantastic. My worry is just the sheer numbers of players. You know, we’re not at the point here where we can lose seven starters now, in the first four weeks of the season. I don’t think anybody is, really, nevermind us. So, those are some concerns, you know, and I’m gonna have to deal with that right now. I mean, at the end of the game, we took Anthony out because he was having an issue. We didn’t take him out to take him out, that’s not why we did that. And, so, you know, that was, that was that piece at the very end [Was it cramps?] No, no. So I gotta deal with that right now as well.

Talk about Mike Knoll and the field position…

ADDAZIO: Mike Knoll did a fabulous job, you know. That’s why, I mean that last punt he had was just an unbelievable punt. I mean, we’re so good in coverage. I just, you know, certain things grab onto you. That grabbed onto me at the end of the game - we’re so good in coverage, but yet somewhere we lost the net on that ball and, you know, I gotta look at it. It looked like, you know, Mike might have got blocked in the back. I gotta take a look at that right now, but we lost our net, you know, we lost our net. So, that bothered me. That’s where that was. What else, anything else?

With what you had done already on defense, just, once you get to that fourth quarter and it’s been a slugfest already, how hard is it to kinda hold it together?

ADDAZIO: John Lamot was in the game, he’s never played in a college football game before, you know, I mean, this is, at linebacker, you know. He’s played in some special teams, that’s it. He was in there playing, he did a pretty good job, best I could see, but at the end, you know, he’s a redshirt freshman, it was tough on him a little bit there, but he did a great job, you know, so all of a sudden he’s in there, you know. We gotta bunch of guys that have never really played any football before in there, and you know, that’s a tough job description.

The end of the half, what happened?

ADDAZIO: Listen, you know, I can’t be and I don’t wanna be, I’m not gonna say anything to be judgmental on anything. I guess I can just say the… what happened, right? I mean, the ball was on the right hash, it was on the correct hash, and we had set the ball on the right forty-nine yard line and not the wrong forty-nine, you know what I mean? And it moved three times, and finally they stopped the game and I think they got it corrected and then we called a play and then while we’re running out… going out to run the play, the hash moved again. So we got the wrong call. So I ran out on the field simply to call a timeout because I’m like… I don’t… so I don’t know what to tell you. I mean, there’s nothing… there is no other story. I’m not sitting here blaming anybody or criticizing anybody. I’m just, you asked me the facts - that’s what happened. And so, you know, I mean, it didn’t become a factor in the game but I don’t know what to tell you. The hash moved three times and the line of scrimmage moved twice and all we were trying to do is get it right and all I was trying to do is call a timeout to say “whoa, whoa, hold on a minute, you just moved the hash on me here.” You know, and that’s all it was, nothing more than that.

Lukas Denis - thirteen tackles - breakout game for him?

ADDAZIO: Yea, I thought he played good from what I could see, you know, and you know, towards the end there, you know, he was cramped up a little bit, we had to get him out, but he played well - a lot of guys played well. Ty Schwab played well, I thought we played well up front, but we’ve been playing well up front, you know, I mean.

If you have a chance to watch the tape, I mean, and the other coaches do, you know, both sides of the ball we’re playing physical and we’re playing well, you know, and I thought we played better fitting our gaps and getting guys in the right position on defense today. We missed… and it’s only to the very end that we missed a couple of those and then we had a lot of different faces in there at that point, so you know we made some plays on offense too, you know, I… there was some more I wish we could have made but we made some plays.

Transcribed by BCInterruption based on the video.