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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 27, 2017

Steve Addazio

Greensboro, North Carolina

STEVE ADDAZIO: We're coming off a tough-fought game down at Clemson. Back into it at home against Central Michigan. A team from a league, the conference, the MAC that I've been in and a league I have a great deal of respect for. I know their head coach very well and have a great deal of respect for him as well.

Very accomplished football coach. Very accomplished in the NFL and special teams and just a tremendous person. He's put together a very good football team. They're very potent on offense and shane Morris their quarterback who is very efficient, throws the ball well, commands the offense well, they have good running backs in Spalding and Ward and good receivers. I think their line does a nice job. On defense they have big inside guys. I think they're physical, they're tough, they play really hard. It will be quite a contest here for us.

We're looking to get back home and obviously to find a way to win. We've come off some very tough contests ourselves, and think we've improved each week. So we're looking forward to the game and looking forward to getting going here. With that, I'll take any questions.

Q. To look at this last game, obviously, and the loss against Clemson but through the first three quarters of the game tied 7-7, what positives can you take away from the defensive stance in the first three quarters that obviously didn't end in your favor in the last quarter, but what did you take away positively?
STEVE ADDAZIO: Yeah, I mean, we played them right into the fourth quarter. It was a 7-7 game in the fourth quarter, and then it became a 14-7 game and stood there until about five minutes left in the whole game.

I thought we went toe to toe. I thought we played physical. They're an outstanding football team. We all know that. That's duly documented. At their place, at home I thought we went in and played them really well on defense and on offense. I thought on offense, we made some plays, had some opportunities. Made some, missed some. We missed the field goal in the first half that would have put you us up 10-7. I thought we competed as hard as we're going to compete.

At the very, very end in the last five minutes of the game, three minutes of the game, we let up a punt return and then had some real -- we ran out of gas a little bit. We got pretty depleted. We took a lot of injuries in the game, and we took a lot of injuries going into the game. So we were depleted by the time we got to the last five, three minutes of the game.

In the body of the game, I thought our kids played extremely well, really tough, really physical. It's the best on defense that we've played against Clemson, and especially down at their place, and they're outstanding.

So I thought there were a lot of positives we could take from that game on both sides of the football. On offense, we have a freshman center, freshman quarterback, and tailback in the apex of the offense, and I think they were able to go in there and manage that game atmosphere very, very well. So there are a lot of great things that happened there for us to continue to build with.

Q. You mentioned freshman quarterback Anthony Brown, just what you can say you've seen out of him? What has Brown shown you in his young career in college football for you so far?
STEVE ADDAZIO: Anthony's had the majority of it for the first four games of the season. He's shown us some poise. He showed us the ability to throw the ball. The ability to make good decisions and the ability to have poise. He's had some ups and downs like any young guy would have when they come in here like this. We have played some outstanding football teams right now. We're not in that situation where we've had three games, three kind of fluffy kind of games. That's not been the case for us. Last few weeks we've played arguably two of the top football teams in the country.

So we're growing this team, this quarterback and this team, amongst playing the elite of college football. I feel like we know what we see. It's not like we think we know what we see. No, we know what we see, and it's been a great learning experience. For him, over the course of four weeks, he's had to handle a lot. He had to open up on the road at night. The next week he had to operate with a center that never played a college football game or never played center before. The next week he had to play Notre Dame in that environment in our place. Then he had to go on the road and play Clemson down there. I'd say he's had a pretty good indoctrination in college football.

Q. It's my understanding that you guys are one of the few teams in the ACC that does the anthem on the field for your home games. I wonder if you talked to players about that at all this week, and if you expect anybody to participate in the police brutality protest?
STEVE ADDAZIO: We do come out for the National Anthem, and we're very proud that we do. That's something that's important and that we want to do here. We do talk to our players. We continually have open dialogue about a lot of current hot issues that go on in America and in college sports in particularly in football. I'm a big believer in open dialogue. I'm a big believer in discussion. I never want our kids to feel stifled. But I also feel there is a time and place for everything.

So we always invite our players to discuss whatever social issues or any concerns that they have because that's what educators do. That's what we are. We're teachers and we're educators. I do not anticipate any issue here.

I believe our most important goal right now, we go out there because we want to represent our program, our team, our university and most importantly, our country. And we stand as one. So that's where we are on that issue. But I certainly, like I said, we have open dialogue with our players all the time, and their concerns are our concerns. But time and place, platform for everything. We talk a little bit about blurred lines, so proud of our guys.

Q. Going out for the anthem, is that something that's a practice that you inherited at BC or is it something that you talked about when you came in and started?
STEVE ADDAZIO: It's something that I wanted to do. We wanted to do as we came in here. We didn't do that in the very beginning and I was kind of surprised and wanted to bring that back. Being out, we've always played the National Anthem, but the team wasn't always out. We felt that that was important.

Respect is something that I wanted us all to be a part of. I think our kids have a great deal of respect for our National Anthem and what that really represents.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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