Boston College Eagles College Football Pregame Quote, 10/13/2020

We had a great day at practice today. Guys were excited. Another opportunity, another really good football team. Coach Fuente has done a really nice job. I know he’s had to manage COVID. I give him a lot of respect and credit. He’s had a lot of guys sit out games and he’s managed to win two.

He played a really good North Carolina team, fought back, and had a chance to win it at the end. I hope all their players are healthy and safe over there. He and Coach Cornelsen over there on the offensive side of the ball do a really good job. I think it starts with their offensive line. They’re huge, I think every one of them is over 300 pounds and they’re really long. They have two really good backs, I believe both of them are transfers. #21 and #6. #21 to me is a pro back. He’s a special player, breaks a lot of tackles, has speed, returns, so really talented. I believe they score 43 points per game and run for 300 yards per game, which are like video game stats, I don’t think I’ve ever coached against 300 yards rushing per game before. Their quarterbacks, obviously they play with a bunch, looks like #2 will play against us. He won six games last year when he came in, and obviously drove them back to get over 300 yards in the second half last week to lead them back, so we need to be alert for them. They’re good players. They run the ball, they throw the ball. #11 and #83 on the outside are dangerous receivers. Maybe one guy who isn’t talked about is their tight end #82. He might be the best tight end we’ve seen all year. He looks like an NFL player. He’s long, fast, and he blocks well. He’s dangerous on the outside, it gives them the ability to line him up as a wide out. A ton of respect for their offense and their coaches. Obviously I can spend more time talking about their offense because I watch them earlier in the week, but I have a lot of respect for them.

Coach Hamilton on defense has done a good job on Virginia Tech, they’ve played good defense all year. They have two good defensive ends; their linebackers seem to be the heart and soul of their defense. They’ve rotated a bunch of players that have been hurt in their secondary. I credit them for doing such a good job and piecing it all together. They fight and they scrap and play a really good scheme. They play a lot of closed defense, so they load the box. I think they’re like fourth in the country in sacks, so they have guys that can get after the quarterback.

Their special teams, and Coach Shibest, to me, they’re the best special teams group we’ve played all year. Their kicker is special. I know the kid last week hit one from about 70, but this kid has a big time leg. They play hard in all phases. Again, we’re excited to go out there. I have never been there before. There will be fans there for the first time in my coaching career. That will be a little bit different for me. Our guys are focused, we still have to get better. I’m still going to make this about us. But a ton of respect for Virginia Tech and their staff.

Looking at their rushing offense and then looking at yours, it’s quite the contrast. Do you feel that you can’t rely on the pass game, and you’ll have to get the run game going?

I’m confident in both, you look at them and they’re rushing for 300 and we’re throwing for 300. It’s hard to do both, I think you’re going to see the run come out. Just be positive and patient, I’m very positive and confident in our o-line and our ability to run the football. I’m also very confident in us throwing the ball down the field. We’re going to do both, and I look forward to everybody seeing that.

Four games in now, in terms of pregame and game day procedure, do you feel like you have your team rhythm down with the weird start times, or is it getting better?

I’m trying. I think I’m getting better at it. I try and loosen up with the same guy and throw the ball around a bit with the same guy. I know what time I talk to the refs before the game now. It’s still weird for me, not coaching a position in pre-game. I usually have a ball in my hand to keep myself busy, and I’ll throw the ball to the DBs and wide outs. I’m getting a hang of it, but we haven’t had a game at the same time yet. I probably still have to get better at it, I’m working on it.

You mentioned the quarterbacks, and the fact that they play all of them, is there an element that you have to prepare for more than one at this point? Or when they announce the starter, does it make it so you have to prepare for one guy over another?

We just prepare our defense, and what they do schematically, they both can run the football, they both can throw it. It’s not like we’re playing one guy who sits back in the pocket like a statue, and then another guy who comes in and runs all over the place. They’re both athletic. We’re going to prepare ourselves against their scheme and do the best we can.

We talked about how long ago the Duke trip feels, is there anything that you guys can take away from being on the road before to make things go smoothly or get used to the idea of traveling under these circumstances?

We’re not going to make a big deal out of it. We look back at the Duke game, it was the first time we had an away game, this will be our second. We’ll keep looking at it every week and keep tweaking it to get it how we like it, but we’ll get our guys prepared this week, get them on the plane and to the hotel, hang out, enjoy each other, and prepare for the game and do the best we can. It’s different, you can’t eat on the plane, you have your mask on, and there’s some little things that go into it, but it is what it is and our guys will push through.

Talking specifically about Zay, he had a big game against Duke, and then two weeks of lull where he didn’t get much success, and then obviously a huge game this week against UNC, how do you make sure he keeps his momentum up from last week going into this week?

That happens, right? Whether you’re a wide receiver, a quarterback, or a running back. You can’t go into every game thinking you’re going to get 180 (yards). You do the best you can, you prepare like you need to. That’s the same message to him. The great ones that I’ve been around, they have a mindset to go practice and get better every day. Zay is a really good player, if he has that mindset he will become a special player. Every day I have to get better, and so does Zay. We all have that attitude, we’ll all continue to take small steps and do better, and continue to be a better football team.

Back to back weeks, you were playing two of the best passing offenses in the ACC, now you’re going up against a team that has a great rushing attack, and a team that has a lot of guys who can run the ball. Is it hard, defensively, in terms of having to pivot from one way to the other, going from passing to rushing?

I don’t think so. If you look at North Carolina, I think North Carolina is one of the most dynamic running teams in the country with their o-line and two backs. Trust me when I tell you, we worked all week on stopping the run, and Pitt the same thing. I didn’t think they were going to throw the ball 50 times, or whatever it was. The number one thing with our defense every week is stopping the run, because if we can’t stop the run we have no chance. We’ll continue to do so. It is one of the best rushing attacks in college football, I mean, 300 yards is crazy. We have to prepare, and strap our shoulder pads on a little bit tighter, and go to work.

Just the way Hunter Long can turn a six yard reception into an 18 yard gain, and also many cases with Zay, there were a lot of plays where the yards after the catch was as long as the throw. How much of that element do you work on, and is that a credit for Jurkovec to hit them on the run?

It’s the timing and rhythm of the pass game. He gets the ball while running, he punctures, he gets vertical, and our mindset is to score. Whether it’s running through a guy and breaking a tackle, for extra yards, I know Coach Shimko and Coach Dailey coach him hard, it’s who we are. It’s not just good enough to catch the ball, it’s ‚Äògo catch the ball and score.’

Question about Zay, when I say you come in, December you were mostly inside, can you remember the first wild moment with Zay?

That’s a great question. It was the first time we were in a 1-on-1 drill, and obviously I was helping coach the cornerbacks, he goes right up in there, and I saw him release off the line and drop his hips and catch a comeback. I was like ‚Äòoh my gosh, this kid has got a live body.’ The way he’s twitched up and can move laterally, and accelerate, and how quickly he can gain ground, and then how quickly he can shut it down, that’s when I was like ‚Äòthis kid is a receiver, and this kid has a chance to play.’

CJ Lewis missed most of last year due to injury, what have you seen in terms of growth out of him this year?

I think it’s his confidence and the way he practices. He’s a big kid who can go up and get the ball. If you watch him closely, the most impressive part is the way he blocks down the field and gets after people. He plays with a ton of energy, he’s grown as much as any player we have, and he’ll continue to get better. He’s a big kid, a strong kid who plays really hard, and that’s how he practices. If he continues to do that, he’ll develop into a really nice receiver.

Jeff I know you’ve been working through how to cut down on penalties for a couple weeks now, I know that during games, you don’t get on guys about certain mistakes, how can you go about reducing those in game penalties during the week?

I get on them during the game about penalties, foolish penalties. If a guy gets two PI calls, I’ve been around DBs my whole life, you get into those funks sometimes where the flags don’t go your way. You’ve got to keep your confidence and fight through it. The ones I’m not okay with are the mental ones, where guys are jumping offsides on a 4th and 8, or jumping off sides on 3rd and 1. We constantly talk to them about it and show them on tape, we show them other teams doing it on tape. Then we put them in positions where we give them the hard count, and if they jump we take them out. We’ll continue to work on it, I think what you’ll see is we will continue to get more comfortable within everything we’re doing. There’s no time to panic about it. I’m not going to get on a guy if he makes a mistake physically on the field, but if a guy isn’t doing his job and staying onside and has a foolish penalty, that’s not okay.

If you could rank your games 1-4 overall, in terms of how you played. Do you feel like you guys are growing 1-4, or do you think it’s all over the place?

I think we’ve grown each week. Now I don’t think we played our best, certainly last week, but we’ve had our moments where we can get better. I still think we have to put together a complete game in all three phases, and I think we will. It’s hard to rank them, I’d have to sit down and really think about it. I’m just looking forward to the next one, trying to prepare them for that. I think the biggest thing about us is that we try to learn from our mistakes, and I certainly admit mine and make sure I do a good job myself of making sure the team goes forward.

Back on Zay, there’s one thing about production and consistency, obviously he’s still a kid and still growing. The one thing we have seen is the explosive plays, can you talk about the importance of those explosive plays at this level?

It’s huge. To me it’s everything that I preach about as a defensive coach. We have to eliminate explosive plays. Explosives change a game. If you could make teams drive the length of the field in short increments time and time again, you’re probably going to play pretty good defense, because they’re going to make mistakes. If you have the ability on offense to strike fast and make explosives like that, it changes how you think on defense. If people want to bring guys up in the box to stop the run, we have to be able to throw it over their head. That is what Zay and some of our other guys give us the ability to do. Eventually, you’ll see that it makes us be able to run the ball more effectively. Once we do that, we got a team right where we want them.

You mentioned at the end of the game you would have loved to have fans there. From a cultural standpoint, I know you wanted to inject energy, there has clearly been that. From your perspective, how important is it that you keep the energy levels high without fans?

I walk around campus right now and students will be yelling at me and congratulating me, and congratulating us. It’s sad that the kids and students can’t come watch our games right now, because they all have been excited. It stinks, and for them to not be able to walk down to the stadium. That’s just how it is right now, 2020 is hard and we have to be safe. I just wish they had the opportunity. As far as the energy goes, we’re going to have energy regardless. I’ll have energy no matter what. I’m not going to change due to the circumstances, we’re going to do the best we can. I’m going to have energy; the team is going to have energy. I’m hoping that the students, and the fans, and the city have energy too. There’s going to be some ups and downs, but we’re going to get this thing rolling. It will be hard, and it will be a process like I’ve said, but I want their energy regardless and I’m going to bring mine regardless.

As the season goes on, as the schedule gets tougher, as everything grinds forward, what is your perspective after you’ve played four games and you look ahead to see some of the contests that are coming up?

I know who we play next week, just because the schedule came out, and what time we’re playing. I couldn’t even tell you who we’re playing after that. That’s where my head is, and that’s how we approach this thing right now. We’ve played four games, our guys are banged up, and they’ve got to push through. Now is the time to push, now is the time to take care of the little things, now is the time to get better. Now is where you’ll see teams go two different ways. They won’t continue to get better, or they will. So we will continue to get better every single week, and that’s what we think about.