Boston College vs. Maine Football: Steve Addazio Press Conference Highlights

Boston College head coach Steve Addazio is feeling pretty, prettty, pretttty good right about now. On Monday, the head dude sat down with the media at his weekly press conference to talk about the USC win and look ahead to this week's game against Maine. Full transcript here. Here are some of the highlights:

On the USC game on Saturday night...

I thought after watching the tape our guys played really, really hard. Sometimes you watch the tape and think, `we scored some points', but we really did dominate up front on both sides of the ball. We genuinely dominated them, especially towards the end.

Our plan going into that game on offense was to try to hit them inside with a few different scheme styles and hit them outside, bring some elements of option, make them run side to side and try to wear them down all the way to the fourth quarter and then run a more physical power attack at them and I thought that we did that. On defense we had a lot of scheme in the game, we were able to free up a lot of unblocked defenders in their run game. But the overarching theme was we had to win up front and we did, on both sides of the ball.

Our kids played with great energy and great passion. They're a really good football team. You walk away from that game, you're extremely ecstatic about how your guys responded and how we played. I look at it and I wish we would have played that same way a week ago and I also think, `let's make sure we don't have this conversation next week about how we didn't play with our energy'.

Someone said, `You say you're a young team but you have a veteran o-line'... we have a veteran o-line and we're pretty young everywhere else. So when you have a young team, this is all part of the learning curve. I've said this from the beginning, we're going to be on that roller coaster, we're trying not to be, but you'll see us there. Where you see a game a week ago that we needed to play better and you see a game this past week where we played at a very high level. Now we have to try and even these things out a little bit. As long as we stay healthy we can even them out.

Injuries become another problem because we don't have great amounts of depth at every position. In the first four weeks you're trying to find your chemistry- what you do well, what you don't do well and it's a process that's different every year. People wonder why you don't have the answers, but you can't have them because you really don't know it until you get against other opponents. A lot of times you don't hit your stride until game 4 or 5. You don't know it until you get tugged on.

We have a lot of respect for Maine and their program and history. They've been a powerhouse in the old Yankee Conference and in the world of D1 AA football right now; they're a power. They're physical; they've traditionally done well against BCS opponents. I think they have a great deal of confidence and will come in here really well coached and really well prepared to play our football team.

We've got a lot of respect and I hope that they're mature enough to understand that if you don't bring your A-game, if you're not emotionally, mentally and physically prepared every week, you take a strong football team like Maine and they'll come down here and put it right on you. That's just the way it is. We have our work cut out for us.

Obviously a lot here, but interesting to hear more about the game plan against USC which was more or less run to perfection. Glad to also hear Addazio say all the right things about Maine. This program isn't back to a spot where they can overlook anyone on a week-by-week basis anymore. At least, not yet.

On celebrating the win over USC...

We took them out to eat; we had a heck of a team dinner downtown. As I said to them, we are going to celebrate this game because we have to celebrate it, but you also have to have the maturity to walk forward after this dinner is over. A week ago we tightened things down a bit. We went out in full pads Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. This week will be close to that depending on the injuries. We pick our spots, we needed to celebrate it. If you can't enjoy the great moments then you're losing sight of what you're doing. I know the paranoia of the whole thing, maybe USC celebrated too much from the other win. You have to wire your guys so they enjoy the wins, not too much, but enough. Then you have to get back to work. It really comes from great leadership within the program, as coaches we try, but at the end of the day it's generated inside. Right now, I'm really pleased with how we played. I loved our effort, I loved our intensity, guys made plays, we stepped up in a great environment, and we represented our university well and defeated a tough opponent. Simple answer is: we're going to go like hell on Tuesday.

Basically, buy stock in Fogo de Chão Brazilian Steakhouse.

On expanding the passing game...

I'd love to. I'd like to see us not drop those balls. Last two games, we've dropped some critical balls. We opened that game up with a throw down the field. We attacked them with the run game, we had a lot of play action to threaten with the throw game, but it's tough. Our team is not very good at 2nd & 10. I believe in our receivers. We spend an awful lot of time on that, but when you're not making routine plays, it's tough. You want to get more balls? Catch more balls.

But don't open up the passing game this weekend if you don't have to, you know? Especially with a Colorado State team watching from home and having an extra week to prepare for their trip east. I'd hate to tip your hand if you don't have to and that game against CSU in two weeks looms LARGE for bowl eligibility. It's a really critical spot.

On the offensive line's performance so far this season...

I think it's important to play well on the offensive line and that's why I was disappointed after Pitt. I don't have a good explanation; it must have been something I did, because we didn't play well then. But I think they played really well on Saturday up front and really well versus UMass. But for some reason, versus a very simple 4-3 Pitt defense, we just didn't block them well. To their credit there was a lot of pride about that. We have more experience there than any other position on the field. That line should be very consistent. The key to getting that defense was keeping them on the field and wearing them down. I was surprised versus Pitt; I'm accustomed to seeing what we saw. We have ability and experience. What we're lacking up there is personality. This is a group that doesn't have that throbbing heart, so to speak. They're five good guys with ability, but they need some more emotional presence. You just have to figure out how to keep that emotion and passion level high.

Real interesting characterization of the offensive line. I hope the coaches figure out a way to get what they are looking for out of that unit.

On the game environment...

That was one of the best environments I've seen here. We've got to get that week in and week out. And that's all about winning. There's no better environment than college football, exciting games and exciting times. I honestly can't figure out what everyone else who isn't there is doing on a Saturday night. What's fun? That's fun!

Translation: go to the games.

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Anything else stand out to you? What do you wish Addazio had addressed? Leave your thoughts below.