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FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE


November 11, 2016


Jimbo Fisher


Tallahassee, Florida

Florida State - 45, Boston College - 7

JIMBO FISHER: Again, proud of our team. Loved the way they came out and started the game. Played really well defensively. Offensively, very efficient taking the first two drives down, played really well, got ahead, and that was one of our challenges. I said, get ahead, stay ahead and keep playing from ahead. We're learning how to do that, and keep taking steps, and learning to do that process, and very proud of our team.

I thought they played very hard. I thought they played with good consistency. Again, that is a -- Boston College is a very physical football team, best defense when they force a lot of fronts, a lot of blitzes, a lot of -- challenge you in a lot of different ways and try to make you play over the top of them, which we were able to do tonight, Auden and some of the guys in the verticals and the passing game down the field, was able to make plays, and it's hard running the footballs of them. They give you some ugly negative runs because they put so many guys in the box and blitz and twist and do things.

Dalvin was still able to get over 100 yards. The quarterback runs really helped us in the numbers and the angles when we had to use those, and what we did, but getting better as a football team.

We always want to get better in November and keep progressing. I think we are defensively. We were outstanding. I thought they were lights out getting off the field on 3rd down, playing the run, keeping great contain because they do a great job of getting edge sweeps and speed sweeps. We were really playing those really well, and then special teams, we did a nice job, and punted the ball much better tonight, too. Very proud of Logan. He had a good night, hit a big field goal, and you some of his leg and the things he's doing.

So very proud of our team. Again, a lot of work to do. Got to get ready to play a very good Syracuse team next week up there in the Dome. That's a tough place to play, so we'll get ready to go.

Q. Defensively you held them to 0 and 11 on 3rd down. What is it about your defense that allowed you to have so much success?
JIMBO FISHER: Well, I think we kept great leverage on the ball. We played well on 1st down to get them in 2nd and long and 3rd and long and then you played from ahead, and then we covered well. We were able to cover and kept great leverage, and those young guys are learning how to play. We pressured the quarterback when we had to pressure him, and gave different looks, and Charles and those guys did a really nice job.

Q. Was it good to get the monkey off your back with that quick start?
JIMBO FISHER: Yeah, it had been, and just learning how to do that, and they've just got to go out and relax and do it. And that said, it's a part of growing and maturing is when a young football team and those young guys -- I say, sometimes you say where they're not intense enough or they get too intense, just do your job, have great weeks of practice, and like I said, when you practice really well and you learn to practice and practice -- not just practice but practice well, you feel confident. It's like studying for a test, then all of a sudden those answers come and you're relaxed. You're not pressing yourself, and they're learning how to do that, and they're learning how to practice and prepare for games with so much youth, and then they're going out and executing and they're getting better at it.

Q. Did you feel like going in after a good week of practice that they had the right mindset?
JIMBO FISHER: I did. I felt good, and that was one of our huge challenges. That was my Friday talk, about learning how to get ahead, stay ahead and play from ahead and finish, and then we did all those things.

Q. I asked you after the game against South Florida last year when he had 266 if Dalvin was the best running back you had ever coached, and you said it was too early. Is it time --
JIMBO FISHER: Listen, I wouldn't trade him for anybody; I know that. I don't ever say the best I've ever coached, because let me tell you something, guys; I've been fortunate in my lifetime be a part of some phenomenal players, and I don't ever like to compare -- it's like comparing your children. You don't ever say which child do you like the most. You know what I'm saying? But talent wise, Dalvin is a special cat now, and to be as selfless as he is -- he's as good as -- I'll put it like this: He's in that top group of guys that just -- when you talk about performance, you talk about leadership, you talk about teammate, you talk about selfless, you talk about all the things that you really include to be, and affect your teammates in a positive way, he's just a phenomenal, phenomenal guy, buddy.

Q. Did you know how close he was to the record tonight?
JIMBO FISHER: Yeah.

Q. It was 35-0 and --
JIMBO FISHER: It was, and I went over to him -- I'd have never forgave myself if he went out there in the fourth quarter, to what this team can still achieve, the year it can still have, and for him to get injured at the end of a football game like that, and like he said and we both said, we don't play for records. That's not what we play for. We play for team. He said, Coach, we won the game. That's what I'm here for. We played well as a team. Again, another sign of why he's Dalvin.

Q. What do you see this team still being able to achieve?
JIMBO FISHER: A lot. I still think this team is getting better and better, and these seniors leaving the legacy of hard work, and learning these young guys, just because you didn't have all your goals and everything didn't go right to keep working hard, to persevere and become as good as you can become, and that's the ultimate goal at the end. Become the team you possibly can become. Young guys leaving a legacy of what the future can hold in how they practice, how they have to achieve, how they have to still go in, you're still playing, still got another arch rival, still got an ACC game left, and you've still got a chance to win 10 games and the legacy of doing all that and winning a bowl game.

But more importantly, the pride of who you are. You have pride in your work, and when you at the end of the day become as good as you can become and have great pride in how you practice and how you play, you achieve everything you want to achieve because that's what it's all about. It's not about championships, it's becoming what you can become, and when you do that, all the other things fall in place.

Q. Talking about the young guys tonight, when you see Auden, six receptions, 101 yards, two touchdowns. (Indiscernible) had two big games, we've seen Auden have another big game. How would you describe the progress you've seen from him over the last few weeks?
JIMBO FISHER: Well, and they're learning because I'm going to tell you what; ask them how much I've been in their tail for about the last eight, ten weeks, and then when we're forced into playing them -- because I wasn't going to -- if you're going to play, go make some big plays but I need those every-down plays. I need that consistency because we've got to have play as a team. They have done it. I've been extremely pleased with them, and that's when what you're capable of and how you play, they have to match up, and those guys are learning how to do that.

Q. What do you think these two games have shown that Auden, at least for himself, can be more than just that guy in jump ball situations and red zone --
JIMBO FISHER: He's learning how to do it. And there's still some times where he got bumped around tonight and learning to play with his size. He's always learning to bend. He's got to learn to bend like a little guy and then use his size when he has to. You've got to keep that great flexibility in his hips, and he's learning to do that and he's learning to run more routes. We're adding more to his plate, and understanding situations, leverages, all those type of things. He's growing.

Q. I know the circumstances weren't ideal, but Sean getting to play here today --
JIMBO FISHER: Oh, I was extremely happy. To come in and hit a big go route and then come down and throw two touchdowns like he did, again, I told you, his parents ought to be the proudest parents in the world. That guy right there is salt of the earth, and whatever you ask him to do, again, another great teammate, another great senior, what he's achieved. The big games he's played, whatever -- yes, sir, I'll do it, and he goes in and performs every time he goes in with a lot of heart and a lot of toughness. Just very proud and happy for him.

Q. What is the status on Deondre's injury?
JIMBO FISHER: He's fine. He just took a shot on the shoulder and he was bruised up right there and got a little sore, guy took him pretty good and then Sean was in, and I said, we're up, there ain't no sense to come back. It didn't dislocate or anything, just a bruise, and we'll heal him up and be ready to go.

Q. Only 50 yards passing for Boston College. I believe it was about 25 yards before that garbage time drive, but what was really effective about the pass defense?
JIMBO FISHER: I think kept great leverage on the football. And we pressured the quarterback. How many sacks did we get on him tonight?

Q. Three sacks.
JIMBO FISHER: Three sacks and got a lot of pressures and one 1st down, and we covered very tightly, played great leverage on the football, got up in guys, and those young guys, those DB's are just learning to play their technique so much better.

Q. Who individually has really grown the last few weeks?
JIMBO FISHER: All of them. There's no -- all of them in general have. They all have, and I know that sounds like a cliché or coach talk, it's not. They all have grown, because they're learning how to prepare and practice, and what they're learning to do is the ability God gave them is the last thing they use. They're learning how to get lined up, play great leverage, understand the down and distance, understand how to prepare, where to play, where their help is, and then all of a sudden, then that athletic ability comes -- that's the last thing you want to use. They're learning to play the game mentally and psychologically the way you want to play it.

Q. Early on the pass protection seemed to be really good, a couple breakdowns.
JIMBO FISHER: We did, and that one in they got now, 7, he's got them deer hips now. He can drop them hips and come around that corner. And big guy had a groin injury, 71 got a groin injury right there and it was bothering him. He didn't come out and he couldn't get that hip open and it was bothering him and they got some pressure. That drive right before the half I was disappointed we couldn't get something there, but that guy is a good pass rusher. We changed the protection, went back, chipped him a little bit, banged him around, and helped that tackle, and you've got to be able to do that when you get great pass rushers.

Q. When you did protect well you were able to take shots downfield?
JIMBO FISHER: We were, because as I said, they make you play, and it's not ugly but what I mean is it's feast or famine. They get up in your grille. Their DB's are long, too, now, so they can get long, and if they can get their hands on things, they play great leverage, they play physical and they try to make you play over the top of them, and we did, we got over the top, then when we got over the top, we did a great job with our back shoulder throws on the fade. We're learning how to do that, and then the crossing routes we got open a couple times and did some boots and things, but they made us play that way. Our young receivers keeping -- again, playing physical back, in other words, giving us the space to back shoulder. Travis Rudolph -- you talk about Auden, but Travis Rudolph played a heck of a football game. That one play he made and scored now, that was outstanding, but he caught two big-time back shoulder fades, too, that we stuck and their guys were playing over the top, but he squeezed.

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