Boston College vs. Maine 2015: Steve Addazio's ACC Press Conference Transcript

STEVE ADDAZIO: Great to be back guys. Obviously we're all excited about the start of the college football season. It's been a long preseason camp. We've worked real hard. We've broken in a lot of new names and new faces here at BC, but exciting, exciting players. I think our overall athleticism and our speed has increased, and now it's our job to develop a level of experience with our young football team and get ready to go out and play our first game.

We're playing Maine. Maine is a tough team, a team that's had history of going down and playing really well in these games, beat Mississippi State down there a number of years back, and is a very well-coached, very strong football team.

We're in the process of building ourselves offensively, defensively, and special teams in terms of the chemistry of the whole thing and really adapting to our strengths and accentuating our strengths. All in all, been a great camp and really ready and looking forward to getting going and happy to answer any questions.

So look at your defense heading into this season in 2015, after the fall, who were some of the key people that you were ale to take out and say, you know, there's been leadership shown in certain places kind of from the D-line all the way back to the secondary? Who were some of the people that stood out to you now that we're heading into the 2015 season?

ADDAZIO: Yeah, well, I mean, Connor Wujciak on the interior defensive line. Connor has been here a long time and is a fifth-year player and really had a great off-season and a great camp. He's a big, strong, physical player, dead serious about what he's doing, really ready to have a great year. I thought that Harold Landry, who's a sophomore, has really grown into being that pass rusher that we've been looking for him to be. He's had a great camp.

Of course Mehdi Abdesmad is back, and he looks really powerful. Steven Daniels is a the Mike linebacker, had a great camp. Justin Simmons. I feel like on defense we've got some experience, we've got some veteran players, we've got some speed, and I think we're going to be much improved.

When you look offensively at the quarterback position, what can you say about heading into the season and what you've been able to see there from your quarterbacks that were obviously fighting through the fall and what a guy like Darius (Wade) has been able to show you?

ADDAZIO: Well Darius is a talented guy who really throws the ball very well. He's a very accurate passer. He's got real good athleticism, real good run ability. He understands the offense. He doesn't have a lot of game experience, but he has a comfort and understanding what we're doing, so his skill level is pretty high.

I think the other guys, Troy Flutie has been battling, as has Jeff Smith, who's a true freshman, but both of those guys have done some really good things in camp and have some real special attributes. So we're young but we have some talent there, and I think we'll be able to let them grow and develop.

You talked about the quarterback situation. Have you come close, is it going to be a game-time decision to name the starter? And talk about your young offensive line.

ADDAZIO: Well our starter is Darius Wade. There's no mystery there.

On the offensive line, we're trying to put that unit together, to put what we feel is the five best players on the field. I think we've identified the top six or seven, and I think we're starting to get some gel there. Harris Williams, who has been a starter here for a number of years, we've held out of training camp for no other reason other than just to avoid keeping him away from a lot of hits injuries, but he's going to be ready to roll, so I'm axious to watch him really playing in contact snaps. We haven't had him in all camp that way, just in an effort to protect him. But I think we'll put together a solid, good, competitive, tough offensive line that will get better each week.

One of the questions, I guess is the -- not questions, one of the strengths coming back is Jon Hilliman. Can you talk about him coming into his second season after a strong freshman year, what you expect out of him and what he looks like in practice and everything?

ADDAZIO Well, first off, we have a really a strong whole backfield. I think we have one of the most complete backfields in the conference. When you talk about Myles Willis and Tyler Rouse and Marcus Outlow and Jon Hilliman, that's a group of guys that you'd love to have anywhere. They're great players. They're tough. They practice hard. So we're trying to utilize all their strengths. Jon is a big, fast guy who's going into year two and has a real comfort level with what we're doing, not just a young freshman anymore, and he can hanlde a lot of the two-back run stuff, as can Marcus. All of them can do it all, but he's a little bit bigger. Marcus Outlow is probably one of the shiftier, niftier runners we have. He's got great vision. He's got unbelievable hands out of the backfield. We utilize him in a lot of different roles. And then Tyler Rouse and Myles - Myles has made a lot of big plays here. He's been explosive, real zero to 100 - boom, he's like a shot and show like they're all different.

Tyler Rouse is a tough, low, compact runner. I think the complement of all of them just helps Jon because there's a lot of punches coming at the defense. It's not just one runner, but Jon is capable of doing - what everyone can do, he can do all of the above because he's got the rare combination of size and speed. I mean, he's a big guy, 227-, 228-pound guy who can flat run.

So I think that combination that he has is really hard.

And another thing, when we talked to you this summer in Pinehurst, we were talking about placekicking and trying to improve that. Going into the season, what does that look like after camp?

ADDAZIO: Alex Howell will handle all three duties. He will be the kickoff guy, the punt guy, and the field goal guy. He's really developed his field goal kicking. He's got a great live leg. He gets the ball up high, quick. He's got a long, long leg. I think his accuracy is something that he's continually working on right now, but I would say right now that's how we will go into the season, with him starting in all three phases.

Transcription by ASAP Sports.