#5 Clemson 34, Boston College 17: Eagles Postgame Quotables

Head Coach Steve Addazio overall thoughts...

"I thought our football team went out and played real hard tonight and battled. A lot of credit to Clemson...they have a really good football team, which we knew going in. They are talented. Dabo's done a good job with this football team. I thought we came out hard and played hard throughout the game."

Addazio On Jeff Smith...

"I thought that Jeff Smith took a step forward tonight. He played fast and competitively. He hit some runs in that game, which is tough to do against that defense.

"I thought he played confident and fast. He threw some good balls, some deep balls that I thought were overthrown, but he completed. I can see the earmarking of a talented player ahead. He is going to get bigger and stronger. He is still not powerful, but he is fast. He is competing and getting more comfortable.

"There are still some things going on there that is typical of a young quarterback and a young team. It is not going to change overnight. I thought he played a better game, a more confident game, a faster game. He took a step forward and he will continue to improve."

Addazio on the offense...

"When you are playing with as many young players that we are playing with on offense, against the level of the defenses that we are playing right now, we took a step forward today, and that's a fact. I think you saw a window into the future today, with some talented guys who are going to play a lot of football.

"We felt great at halftime, I felt like we could move the ball against a great defense."

Addazio on the defense...

"We made some good plays. I thought we were pretty good against the run."

Addazio on the third quarter...

"I thought that the third quarter got away from us. We had some real tough stuff go against us on third down. Penalties really got us, three of them that led to three scores, and that's where it got away from us."

Addazio on takeaways from this game...

"We played really hard and competed at a high level on the field. We are making strides. We are going to go win those games. Right now, we seem to be in a patch, where we are in some real tight games with some real tough situations going on."

Justin Simmons on defending Clemson's passing game...

"[Clemson] is very electrifying in the pass game. We knew they were going to try to throw the ball around today and we needed to make one play."

Simmons on Clemson's long drives...

"When they are playing like that, we have to be able to go three-and-out and put our offense in good field position to put points on the board."

Simmons on the youth of the BC team...

"I think that there is improvement. Obviously, we want to walk away with a win and there is no justifying a loss but I do see improvement on both sides of the ball. We just have to go back to work."

Myles Willis on returning from injury...

"I was hoping my return [after sitting out due to injury] would help us get back in the win column. It's always better to be in the action than on the sidelines but I still have that sick feeling because we didn't win the game. We have to get back to work."

Willis on his 45-yard run...

"I was hoping I was going to be able to kick through that [to score]. That is the thing that I am tackling because right now, the great back in college football are turning those long runs into touchdowns. I need to do that for the team."

Willis on the youth of BC...

"On both sides of the ball, we fought. We never stopped fighting. We are growing up but we are not growing up fast enough. We have a lot of seniors, especially on the defensive side of the ball, and I just want to win so badly for them. We have to continue to grow. We still have just about half the season left. We have to keep going."