Clemson 17, Boston College 13: Quotables

Steve Addazio's opening statement:

Well, we were in a tough game tonight against a good opponent. As I said all week long, I had a feeling this game would be exactly the game was. It was going to be a game that was a bunch of three and outs. It was going to be a game where when you had some opportunities to make plays you had to make the plays. It was going to be a game where our defense was really going to have to really be strong. And we had to fight and get to the fourth quarter. That's what we did. We fought. We got it to the fourth quarter. We gave ourselves a chance to win. We just couldn't make a couple of plays that we needed to make to close the game out. I knew it wouldn't be pretty and it wasn't. But, against a really outstanding football team our guys battled, fought, stuck together and gave us a great opportunity to win that game in the fourth quarter.

Obviously our locker room is devastated, which is completely understandable but I'm proud of the fact that we battled. We really battled tonight. We're going to get to work and take a look at where we could have played better, where we could have coached better. Where I could have done a better job to be able to find the inches and the yards in there that would have swung that thing and made a difference. But our team resolve is strong and united. This is where teams come into play. When you're a real team you stick together. You support each other. You cry a little bit together. You take care of each other and your steel resolve gets stronger and you get ready to the play next week. You get ready to go down and play Wake Forrest. That's a good football team we just lost to out there. I've got a lot of respect for them and the job they did as coaches. They found the plays that they needed to win that game and we came up a little bit short but we battled.

Addazio on the opportunities to win the game:

Well we certainly had an opportunity to win the game. I'm not a real should've, could've, would've guy. We didn't. Did we have our opportunities? Yes we did. But you're talking about kids that are champions. You're talking about guys that are warriors for us. You're talking about guys that gave everything they had. Although plays will stick out, I don't go down that path because...there's a lot of plays in there...As I said, it would come down to some plays. It came down to some plays. They obviously must have made a play more than we made. To answer the question simply we fell short a couple of plays.

Addazio on the BC offense:

That's the best defensive line in the ACC and quite frankly maybe one of the most elite in the country. I knew that going in. Everybody says, "Why do you keep saying that? Why do you keep saying that?" I've been in this a long time. I coached the offensive line for a living. I know the run game. I watched the tape. It's really hard. The people that hit plays, hit them on broken plays. And we hit a couple. We hit a couple. But you're not going to consistently hit them.

In a game like that which we knew would be that game going in. It was going to be a bunch of ugliness and we have to play defense, hang in there and make some plays in the play action game. And that's really how it kind of how it unfolded. We hit a couple of runs. A few, not many. Here and there. Not a ton. We were going to try to make our plays.

Addazio on the BC defense:

You win with defense and our defense had to go out and play. That was the best matchup, our defense against their offense. That was the best matchup. I thought our special teams did a great job tonight, until we missed an extra point. But I mean our coverage was outstanding. Our kick return was outstanding. Our kick coverage was outstanding. Our punt coverage was outstanding. I thought we did some really good things on special teams. I thought we did some really good things on defense. I thought we made some plays on offense and left some. I'm telling you, I would tell you straight on. That's about what I thought that would roll like. That's about what I thought would happen. But everybody is so preoccupied with offense, you win with defense. You win with defense, especially when you're playing really good teams. And that's what it should be. This was going to be a defensive struggle and that's what it was.

Addazio on the effort of the BC players:

I thought Tyler Murphy, he just played his tail off, just played. Josh Bordner, played his tail off. Both of those two guys made that play in the end zone on that y-cross. I mean unbelievable, just straining. At the end of the game, Tyler straining to throw that ball back to Charlie Callinan. I really do want to appreciate the effort and the great plays that our guys, and their guys, made. There was some unbelievable play out there tonight. You know I think it's fair for our fan base and for our students to really embrace the fact that, that really was a great football game out there tonight. They saw this young football program, this young football team battle their tail off. It was exciting to watch and I think it was a night that didn't go our way but it gives a peak into the window of where we are going to head. I told you before; we're going to be on a roller coaster ride. Well, we're on a roller coaster ride.

The biggest challenge in front of us right now is to get ready to go play Wake Forrest next week and to be able to strike back from this. That's our biggest challenge but I know our kids are resilient, tough and we'll get that done.

Boston College quarterback Tyler Murphy on the TD pass to Bordner:

Like Coach said, it was a cross and we were trying to get the flat route first. Then my next job was to try and run the ball into the end zone, but they did a good job of running with me, making that difficult. Then we had a back-find throw that wasn't there and Josh (Bordner) was the last option, leak out and he made a great play. You have to tip your hat off to Josh for coming down with it and stepping up big for us.

Murphy on missed opportunities:

We had plays and a few times I was in the pocket too long and took a sack. The last play of the game I threw the ball a foot too low to Shak (Shakim Phillips). If I picked that up a little it might have been a touchdown to win the game. We had some plays we could have made.

We have to find ways to get better and make those plays. Coach has done a good job of putting us in the right position. We have to evaluate and find ways to get better individually so we can come together and play well as a team.

Murphy on feeling like they should have won:

Definitely. It almost brings back the same taste as Colorado State, a game we just kind of let slip away. But we fought and we played really hard. We just have to keep our heads up and find ways to get better and get ready to go on the road and beat Wake Forest who is a good team.

Murphy on the last drive and Clemson taking away his run:

They dropped back and just tried to keep everything in front of them. The pass rushers did a good job of staying in their rush lanes and we were just trying to do things to create chaos and throw them off with some play actions. They haven't seen our game, but they did a good job of doing just well enough to make sure that we didn't score, so you have to tip  your hat off to them. It's a good defense and a lot of those guys, especially up front, will be playing on Sundays, so they came in with a good game plan and did a good job.

Wide receiver Josh Border on missed opportunities:

I mean they were all over the field. I know personally I had two. I dropped a wide open pass in the first quarter and I underthrew Charlie [Callinan] who was wide open and it would have been a TD. There were definitely missed plays all over the field. We just need to execute better and come out next week ready to beat Wake.

Bordner on just one week to prepare as opposed to two like after CSU loss:

I think we'll be able to turn the switch. Having those two weeks, I kind of felt like it was worse because you had to sit on it and think about it for two weeks. But we have to get right at it, starting tomorrow. We have to get ready for a good game plan to go down and win another ACC game.

Senior punter Alex Howell on the feeling after a good personal game, but a team loss:

I mean it's great to have a good game, but then again it's a loss. You don't play football for your own glory. You play to win the game with your teammates. So it kind of takes away from it all. Then again, it's something to look forward to and  build on for next week. Everybody made plays, not just me. We can all take that forward to next week.

Howell on talking to Mike Knoll after the missed PAT:

We told him you just have to keep your head up. As a kicker you can just drain yourself mentally, so you have to keep your head up.

Defensive back Justin Simmons on this game slipping through their fingers:

It definitely feels like that. Like Tyler said, it leaves that taste in your mouth like Colorado State again; you just have to finish on both sides of the ball.

Linebacker Steven Daniels on getting necessary stops:

That's what our defense is about. We're waiting to pressure people and get to the QB as fast as we can. On third down, that's what we have to do...that's always the plan, to get off the field on third down and create chaos for the offense.

Daniels on missing a chance to beat a ranked team:

A ranked team or anyone else, when you're that close to a victory and it gets away from you, it just hurts - and an ACC game. They're a good team, but we had them. It was a really good game, we just didn't close out. We didn't make the few plays on both sides of the ball that we needed to.

Daniels on stopping their short passing game:

We worked on running to the ball all week. It doesn't matter if it was a screen or an outside run or anything like that, that's what we have to continue to do as a team. All 11 of us have to run to the ball.

Clemson Head Coach Dabo Swinney opening statement:

A quality win, just really proud of our football team. Next step for us was to try to find a way to win on the road, and somehow, someway we scratched and clawed and we were able to get it done and beat an excellent team tonight, an excellent team. BC had had every opportunity to win the game as well. You know football is a crazy game, but really proud of our guys. No quit.

That's two weeks in a row that we played a really strong, stout defense. Talked about finding that one momentum drive somewhere. We played a field position battle all night. Our defense did a great job. Really the one bad time was poor kickoff coverage and they got the ball at the 50 when they got a face mask, and were able to get a score. They were very patient. They were able to hit some big plays on us, just some fine plays. They had an excellent plan.

Offensively, really proud of Cole Stoudt. Gutsy performance. Big, big plays. We had a couple of balls that should have been caught, they didn't catch, but he had a heck of a night. Really proud of him stepping up, especially on the road. Mike Williams was awesome, Artavis had some nice plays.

Defensively, the biggest thing we knew coming into the games was that they were fourth in the nation in rushing, at 316 yards a  game and we held them to 121. Really proud of our guys, they got loose a couple times. We really did a good job all night long defensively. I think we had about 13 TFLs, which really helped us going 2-for-14 on third down, and we were about 50 percent on third down. That's a big difference in the game right there.

As you look at guys stepping up, T.J. Green had to come in, but he hasn't played a ton in these critical situations, and here this young man goes in there and did some great things. That last play he made in the end zone was just a tremendous play by him, and plus he ran the guy down that got open that one time, getting that guy on the ground so that we could reload. But just proud of our defense, they have great mental toughness.

Two weeks in a row we have been in that situation where a team's got to get a touchdown to win, and we were able to stand strong in the red zone. The field goal turned out to be very big for us to make it four points at the end. And probably the biggest play by the special times was that punt by Peyton at the end. That punt created great field position and T.J. Green again with the tackle.

We are thankful to have a win. All respect in the world to Boston College and again excellent plan. They are going to be a hard out, especially for anyone that plays them up here. We are glad to get it and look forward to getting back home to the Valley next week and get back to that Clemson focus and get a little momentum building.

Swinney on Tyler Murphy:

That quarterback, we had him hemmed up a couple times and he just slipped out. He's done that against everybody. He's a tremendous player. He still averaged 4.2, he went over a 100, but had 28 yards lost, and he was averaging 118 a game.

As I said coming into this game, its almost as if they run the triple option, out of a spread attack. He's a weapon.

He was able to affect us tonight in a couple of those situations where he was able to beat our guys. We had him hemmed up two or three times, where it's a sack or a TFL, and the next thing you know it's a first down or a five-yard gain. He's a good player and he made some nice throws again. It's unfortunate for them they missed a couple of opportunities in the passing game. He put the ball on the money tonight and that's the thing I hadn't seen him do as much. I'm sure they knew they were going to have to throw the ball tonight, with what they had coming into this game. And they had a great plan.

Clemson running back Wayne Gallman on his touchdown run:

I saw a small crease and I wanted it so back that it just popped open.

Gallman on BC's defensive toughness:

They are pretty physical but we got the upper hand on them in the second half.

Clemson safety T.J. Green on his play overall and getting beat on the BC touchdown:

It was very average. I have a lot to work on. I have a lot of film to work on. It was a very average game.

Clemson quarterback Cole Stoudt on the Clemson defense:

Our defense really stepped up this week and this is a big win...It was our first win on the road. It's very exciting.

Stoudt on the last drive:

'That's just execution. We work on it at practice every single day and worked on it all summer. That's the mentality of finally finishing games and never giving up...keep on battling. The O-Line did an incredible job and the preparation they put in throughout the week...every single player...they were 100 percent dialed in...whatever string you're on. The O-Line really stepped up on that last drive and Mike stepped up and made some incredible catches. That last drive was really on the O-Line.

Stoudt on his confidence in the defense:

I knew that going out there, Boston College was going on the last drive to win the game. I knew our defense was going to get a stop. We did it last week against Louisville. I knew our defense was going to make the plays because we have a great defense.