Boston College vs. Louisville: Steve Addazio's Press Conference Highlights

Steve Addazio addressed the media on Monday at his weekly press address to talk Louisville. Full transcript can be found here. Some of the highlights:

Opening Statement:

There were actually some (great plays) left on the field that could have been made. But we're playing good team ball right now. We're improving in a lot of areas and getting better."

I actually agree that the Virginia Tech game was made substantially harder than it needed to be. It's scary to think that the Ryan Day Offense left points on the board after scoring 33 points, but they did. Consider the long runs by Myles Willis and Tyler Murphy; now consider the plays left on the field that could've gone deep. Jon Hilliman obviously getting hurt plays into that, but I really felt like they shackled the offense after its early ineffectiveness.

He continues...

We're averaging 274 yards a game which is ninth in America. We're 10th in the country with eight total turnovers. Scoring in the red zone, we're 23rd in the country with 89 percent scoring in the red zone. So there are a lot of real positive things and a lot of really great things that are going on now.

Hummina hummina hummina hummina.

On playing Louisville:

They're seventh in total defense and eighth in scoring defense in America right now. They're third in rushing defense and 32nd in pass defense and really an elite team. They're super talented. They had a 21-point lead on FSU and without the unbelievable effort by the Heisman Trophy winner, I don't what would've happened.

Touchdowns scored by Seminoles currently or previously under investigation for being complete morons: 3

Touchdowns scored by Seminoles who may or may not have ended the career of a Boston College defensive lineman: 1

Wins that Louisville will be allotted after this gets vacated by the NCAA in 2018: 0

...at least I'm not bitter.

On the difficulty of running against Louisville:

They're going to play a lot of multiple defenses out of [the 3-4] and play a nickel, four-down look. They're going to play a three-down which is kind of like a bear look. They're going to play under, cover-one, a lot of man-read. They can match up in the secondary and they're going to load the box to stop the run.

Translation: They can pretty much stop everything. My own football coach just threw so much respect at this team that I'm more than frightened about the offense being shut down.

On Louisville's offense:

It might be to this point the most explosive offense we play. Colorado State had a pretty explosive offense.

OH COME ON.

On Jon Hilliman:

He'll be available. He'll get better each day. He was ready to roll last week; he just wasn't quite at full strength. Hopefully we'll get him close to that this week. Those kind of deals, you need a bye week to flush them out. I'm grateful that we have one right around the corner. We need it.

I know the Eagles are completely banged up, which worries me about Saturday. Hilliman is clearly hurt, but Murphy looked dinged up against Virginia Tech. He's taken a pounding, and he looked a little limp gimpy when he was running into the end zone on his long run.

On being in the national spotlight by playing in a bowl:

When you get bowl eligible, it helps you in all avenues. That's why it's great when that happens, especially when you're in the stage that we are. We're in year two of a four-five year turnaround deal. We've got one recruiting class in place here. Sixteen of them are playing. We need to keep recruiting. One of the thrilling things is to watch the older guys develop a personality...it's exciting to watch...We'll continue to be in that development stage. You like to think that you need to get four classes in place before you get the program back up.

I just got so amped up by this answer. Steve Addazio is our football coach. He wants to win, and he wants to win here. The darkest days are behind us, folks. We are on the way back. Thank you, Coach, and let's go Eagles.