Boston College vs. Virginia Tech: Steve Addazio Waxes Poetic on Virginia Tech

Steve Addazio addressed the media on Tuesday, the full content of which can be found here. We review some of the highlights:

On Virginia Tech:

I'm very, very impressed with them on defense. I really think that they're so sound. You look at them and you're trying to come up with your game plan and Bud Foster just has answers for everything and does a great job of dissecting what you do, so really a concern there.

Again, maybe this is just coach speak, but this is a team failing to hold an opponent under 20 points all season. They just gave up 456 yards of offense, 364 of which was on the ground, to Miami. Pittsburgh ran for over 200 yards on the ground in their win two weeks ago. I don't know that Virginia Tech has answers for everything.

Actually, check that. They have answers for everything. The answers have just been usually wrong as of late.

We've got to go down and play in traditionally one of the roughest places to play in the country, on the road against a hungry Virginia Tech team. Both teams are working to become bowl eligible in a critical matchup. So it should be an exciting game and we have a lot of work ahead of us, a lot of planning. We have a lot to process to get ready for this week.

For a team with one of the "roughest places" to play in the country, they've been getting brutalized at home. They're 1-3 at Lane Stadium this year, including that loss to ECU. Their only home win was over William and Mary. Chris Fowler just tweeted out that they need to stop playing Enter Sandman until they get dominant again. Then again, for me, Enter Sandman is something reserved for Mariano Rivera (and I'm a Sox fan).

On playing in Lane Stadium:

There is just anxiety about going to - in our conference - one of the top three toughest spots to play on the road. This is an angry place to go play. It's loud and hard. Since I started coaching college at Syracuse, I can remember it like yesterday: Traditionally cold, the stands are right up on you and it's a great home field advantage. Everybody in the business knows that this is one of those great home field advantage places.

One of the three toughest spots to play on the road. Let's try and figure out where the other two are. I'm going with Miami as one of them.

On being successful on the road:

Well, we can win on the road, now we have to go do it. We have played on the road in silent games and we have operated that pretty effectively. So we've done a few of those things that make you feel a little better. You certainly would hate for this to be your first road trip, but nevertheless, it doesn't lessen the impact of the rough crowd that you're going down to play in front of.

Addazio quickly changed his tune and corrected his word from "rough" to "passionate" for what it's worth.

BC has proven it can win on the road. In fact, they've been arguably better on the road than they've been at home. If you're a team, you want to feed off that energy and quiet the crowd early. Nothing sounds better for a road football time quite like the sound of people being quiet.

On a sense of urgency being close to bowl eligibility:

It better be high. You're going down the home stretch now. From the beginning of the year on, they're all precious as we've witnessed. We've basically let two get away from us.

#FireRyanDay, tho.

On the team's hard work:

I think this team has done a heck of a job. We're sitting right now at 5-3. Could easily be 6-2 and some would say 7-1. This team has really worked hard. Now, what does that mean in the big picture? You have four games left and you have to find a way each week and get as many wins as you can get. This is a team that has worked real hard to get where they are. I would say that we're over achieving right now and that's good. No one wouldn't say that we don't compete hard every week. You could say that we are inconsistent sometimes in our level of play.

I agree wholeheartedly. This team is 5-3 but very easily could be 7-1 or even 8-0. But at the same time, they easily could be 3-5. Instead of thinking about what this team could be, when you ask me what I think their record should be, I think it should be 5-3. They outscored opponents in five games. They failed to do it in three games. That means they should be 5-3.

I would agree they've been inconsistent, but all season long, they've been progressing. I think the theme overall has to be for BC to continually get better, even right up until the end. You always have to be looking for ways to improve.

That said, their compete level is through the roof.

On the kicking game:

What am I working on? One guy is hurt; there's no consistency kicking extra points. We're inconsistent to say the least and we have to get that fixed. I think Alex [Howell] is doing a great job punting. Punting seems to be something that we're doing well.

Translation: we suck, we've been sucking, and I have no idea what we can do to make us suck slightly less. Let me throw a couple of slices of pizza against the wall and see what sticks.