Boston College 76, Howard 0: Boston College Quotables

Steve Addazio Opening Remarks...

It was an interesting day today. We did what we had to do. We went out there and we did exactly what we had to do. We were able to move the ball. We were playing defense. Our special teams made a few plays. We jumped out real quick and I don't know what else to say about that.

A lot of young guys got a chance to play which was great. No one got hurt which was great.

Now we have to get ready for what's coming down the barrel here in a very short week. We have Florida State coming in here Friday night on national television. We have to get right back to work here. Our Monday is our Tuesday so everything is accelerated but overall we're looking forward to getting that started.

We did what we were supposed to do. That's all you can do, right? Do exactly what we did. You couldn't do anything more than what we did. I mean it was just, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. You hope that you took a few things out of that game and you got a little bit better, but your fear is that what's going to happen on Friday night is going to be so radically different from the first two weeks. There was nothing in between. There's nothing I can do about that. There's not a darn thing we can do about it other than keep going.

On the positive side there was a lot of momentum, a lot of positivity. Guys played a half of football. The starters, some of them didn't get a half of football. In a short week, it's pretty good to be fresh. We have a big-time game coming at us. We have to go out and play a big time game. Hopefully the speed of the game won't hit us in the mouth and we'll be able to adjust to it pretty quickly. We'll probably do some good against good this week. One-on-one's on Monday to get accustomed to the speed of the game.

Addazio on the shortening of quarter length to 10 minutes for the second half...

I've never been a part of anything like that before. They came up to me and said that was within the ACC rules so I was all for it. The other coach was all for it too. So we agreed there right before the start of the second half that we would do that which I thought was great. There was nothing that was going to be had from staying out there and just keep banging around.

Addazio on getting ready for Florida State...

We're going into week three and we're healthy and hopefully we'll be approaching playing some of our better football. I really think you hit your stride in week four and five, not that that's ever etched in stone. You never know.

Addazio on takeaways from the Howard game...

For us, this game didn't get us closer to bowl eligibility. It didn't get us closer to game speed but again, there's nothing that anybody can do about that. There's no sense living in the past. We documented what it is. We knew what this was going to be. The good news is one thing I did not see out there was our kids slopping around. I didn't see that. Our kids went out there in a real professional, workman-like manner and handled their business. They didn't turn it into one of those slap-around deals and everybody acting ridiculous. We went about our business. The older guys were helping the young guys. That's all good stuff. That's all a good sign.

Addazio on if his team will be overconfident after this game...

I don't think so. I think we're pretty grounded. I'm more worried about just the shear speed and the intensity of the game. In terms of that other stuff, our guys get it. I mean they know. They know. One thing about BC, we have smart kids. They can figure that out pretty quick. They know exactly who we played and what just happened, and they know the week before who we played and what happened. And they know what's coming in here on Friday night. They'll be no misunderstanding. Now we have to rise up and play at that level. That remains to be seen and that's what we have to do.

Justin Simmons on the victory...

It was great to have this win and it's great to be 2-0. We're going to enjoy the win tonight with teammates and family, but come tomorrow we really have to ante up and get ready to go with the change of speed. We're really excited for the game on Friday.

Simmons on younger players' game experience...

I was really excited. It's such a long season ahead of us, so much can happen to starters and we're going to need a lot of the younger guys to step up and play. So to have reps today, regardless who it was against, is really helpful for the program.

Simmons on BC's approach to Howard...

The way we approached this game as a defense is the same way we approach every game. They come in here and we're not going to let them run the ball in our house. We wanted to set the tone early. And when that happened all the chips fell into place as far as the rest of the game.

Steven Daniels on BC's run defense and its domination in the first two weeks...

I think [the dominance] started last year when we finished second in the nation in rushing defense. This year we're shooting to be number one. Every day we work harder than anyone else in the nation to stop the run.

Daniels on defensive touchdowns...

It's all coming together for us. That's what we plan on doing. Our defense plans on scoring. We plan on completely dismantling the offense that's playing against us. That's what we have to do.

Connor Strachan on his first career touchdown...

It was definitely exciting. It was fun. But like [Daniels] said, it wasn't surprising. It's the way we've been playing all week. W definitely expected someone to score points and I was excited to be the one to do it.

Strachan on defense setting the tone...

As a defense, we take pride on being able to set the tone early and we want to be out on the field first. It's fun. The energy of the defense is a lot of fun. Every week we're trying to push ourselves to get better and better.

Tyler Rouse on field position...

The defense and special teams set us up with short fields and we wanted to take advantage of that. We came in with the mindset that we just needed to score points, and like we would against every other opponent, we took them head on and tried to be physical. It set a good tone early for us to be able to get into the endzone [on our first drive].

Rouse on capitalizing on opportunities...

We just work every week to keep improving. I think the guys took the initiative with a big schedule coming up and we just have to get better. I think everyone's just working on being great.

Darius Wade on seeing limited reps on Saturday...

As a competitor, you always want to be on the field and be able to help contribute. But you're always thankful for the opportunity to allow the young guys to get in and get game experience, because you never know what can happen the rest of the season. So everyone has to be ready.

Wade on his lessons learned from the sideline...

It just always gives you a different perspective from being off the field compared to being on the field. You just learn attention to detail and it's always good to see everyone else making plays.

Troy Flutie on seeing game action...

Anytime you get on the field it's a great experience. It was definitely fun to be able to sit there and throw a little bit. It's kind of why I came here, to play football.

Flutie on overcoming miscues...

You have to be able to handle adversity well, and that's kind of what we work on at Boston College. Stuff like that happens in game and the whole offense just rallied and put together a good drive.