BC Media Day: Steve Addazio Talks Anthony Brown, AJ Dillon, Zach Allen And More!

The Boston College football program held their annual media day today at Alumni Stadium. While I was unable to make the event, head coach Steve Addazio, Scot Loeffler and Jim Reid had some interesting points to bring up regarding the up coming season. Let’s break down some of what the coaches talked about:

Regarding Anthony Brown’s Injury Recovery:

AJ’s Take: It is great to hear that Brown is becoming a leader in the locker room and that he is driven to win. While a lot of the focus this year is rightfully going to be on running back AJ Dillon, I believe the success of this team, and the ability to take that next step as a program lies with Brown. Obvious a lot of this could be coach speak, but it is great to hear that he is a motivated leader. He went on to say in another question that Brown is undoubtedly the starter, and that there is a battle right now for #2 between Matt McDonald and E.J. Perry IV

Daz on the return of Zach Allen:

“I think his decision to return was wanting to get his degree. Zach is a 3.7 I believe GPA in finance. It’s very, very important to him. His teammates, being a part of something special.”

“Zach is maniacal about everything. He wants to be the best, which is a great thing. Fun to be around him and watch him.”

AJ’s Take: Zach Allen is without a doubt a “BC Guy”. As fun as Harold Landry was to watch over the past two years, Allen is going to be a real treat this season. He seems to be a sponge, a guy that continues to improve year after year, and I truly believe that he is going to have a huge year for the Eagles. Gear up fans, Zach Allen is going to be a lot of fun to watch this season.

On What The Eagles To Improve Upon

On defense

“stopping the run on third down. The third down run has become more predominant nowadays because people are getting into these, and we do the same, blitz packages, these dime blitz packages that put a lot of smaller bodies on the field. Consequently people are starting to run the ball a little bit on third down. Gets you a little bit light on defense and try to hit you with the runs. You have great pass-rushers. What do great passers want to do? Get up the field, all right? Get up the field. All of a sudden there’s open gaps sometimes in there. We last year felt like we needed to do a much better job on that.

On Offense:

Third-and-medium for us, throwing down for us in a throw game we have a heavy emphasis on third-and-medium. We also have a heavy emphasis on shotgun runs because we don’t want to be just a team that is under center when we’re going to hand the ball off, in the shotgun when we’re going to throw the ball, right? Simple. We feel like now AJ is in year two, he’s an every-down back right now, third down included.

AJ’s Take: Totally agree on 3rd down defense, last year that was brutal for the Eagles. On 3rd down last year, the Eagles allowed 5.74 yards per carry, and 8.76 yards on 3rd and long on the ground. Both of those need to change, because if they do, their 3rd down will be pretty solid (even with those stats, the Eagles had the 50th ranked 3rd down defense). On offense, yes, we want balance, we have been asking for that for years.

On Chris Lindstrom:

He’s dominant in these three, four days of camp. He’s developing into being an elite offensive lineman. Honestly, he’s as good as there is in the conference right now. I think that will show to be true at the end. He’s very competitive, very tough guy.

What a tremendous representation of Boston College. He just comes in here, kind of guy that stands for all the right things. His whole family. His brother Alec is a young guy here, following exactly in the same course as Chris. Chris will have a great opportunity to go on and play at the next level, have great things ahead of him. I wish I had 20 of him. He’s a great guy, really, truthfully.

AJ’s Take: Again you could take this as coach’s speak, but Lindstrom continues to grow as an offensive lineman. Love his play, and with a big year he could not only bring BC’s offense to the next level, but could find a career in the NFL.

On Lukas Denis and Will Harris

Luke has done a great job. What a role model. If you haven’t spent a lot of time around Lukas Denis, you should do that. He’s a tremendous kid with a great personality, wonderful heart. He’s a really talented player. That makes usually for really good leadership skills. You can look up to him as a role model, as you can Will.

AJ’s Take: I have argued this on multiple ACC radio shows, but I think Harris and Denis could be the best safety combo in the ACC. They are going to be a lot of fun to watch this season. Can’t wait to see what they are able to do against some of the better passing offenses they face like Purdue, Florida State and Clemson.

Read the entire transcript here.