Three things of note said by Boston College coach Steve Addazio on Tuesday ahead of Saturday's season-opening game against Georgia Tech:
On how the quarterbacks have battled in camp to make the decision to name a starter difficult ...
“I think (Patrick Towles and Darius Wade) both had a great camp. They’re throwing the ball well. They’re leading the offense well. We have confidence in both of those guys. At different times, they’ve all had their movements performing at a high level. I feel much better going into the season knowing that we have two guys that are game ready. That’s pretty comforting knowing that you have somebody that can do that. Then you have John Fadule and Anthony Brown behind that I think have done a really nice job.
"So I think we have a nice group of quarterbacks. They’re talented and they’re capable.
“I think that, obviously, we can throw the football. We can do things on offense that, once (Darius) Wade got hurt last year, it became very difficult for us. I think the only thing that hurt us a little bit at training camp at one point was that we were down a couple of offensive lineman at the end. It took the consistency out for us, but they’re back and ready to go. I thought maybe at one point we were accelerating pretty good, but then we leveled off a little bit, but that will come. I think the defense will always be ahead. We have more veteran players on defense, but I think by nature of what defense is, will be ahead. Offense takes more time with rhythm and timing and things like that. But defensively we are just in a unique situation right now playing against a unique offense right now. It’s really quite different.”
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On seeing the Georgia Tech style offense for the first time ...
“We played Army here. We played Army when I was at Temple and I ran this offense. So I have a good feel for this offense. I’m pretty comfortable with it but I’m not playing. We have to get the team. The kids have to be comfortable with it. I think our staff has a pretty good understanding of it but it is a tough offense. It has answers to everything and once they get it going sometimes it is very hard to stop it – really, really difficult. Especially when they have a veteran quarterback like they do, who is really dynamic. He’s a really dynamic athlete so we have had to simulate him this week and it’s tough. It is a very tough offense. Nobody wants to play that offense, nobody. Just because it takes so much time to devote. You’re in a scheme that is not necessarily the scheme you are going to play against other people. It is a scheme specifically for that offense. So that is the other issue with. It kinda gets you out of your flow.”
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On how the defense looked ...
“Good. It is a work in progress. We’ve been working at it for a long time but it is just one of those deals where they’ll hit you on some plays. That’s what happens with that deal. It’s hard. You take them down into four-down territory and they are going to take four downs to get 10. So we’ve done some really good things against it and they have been able to hit some plays, too. But we’ve got some pretty good guys running it –guys who understand it and how to run it. So the good news is that we’ve been able to at least give them a good look at it and what they are going to get. That’s half of the battle. Imagine doing that in a game week? Woof! Two padded practices to get ready to play that offense? Not easy. It would be hard to do. The good news is we’ve had more than that. Of course the bad news is you spend so much time to work on it you’re not working on your base. It’s different. If you go and blitz 10,000 times against the wishbone, it’s not going to turn out too good for you. It’s an assignment football operation. That’s what it is. That’s why they run it. They force you into whole deal. It’s a different deal.
"Everything is different: third down is different, everything is different, a completely different animal. So opening day for our defense for what we are going to do is a week from now. Opening day for what we’re going to do against Georgia Tech’s coming fast. That’s this week.”
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