BC vs. Clemson Quotes

Boston College Head Coach Steve Addazio

Overall thoughts:

“I thought our football team went out and played real hard tonight and battled. A lot of credit to Clemson…they have a really good football team, which we knew going in. They are talented. Dabo’s done a good job with this football team. I thought we came out hard and played hard throughout the game.”

On Jeff Smith:

“I thought that Jeff Smith took a step forward tonight. He played fast and competitively. He hit some runs in that game, which is tough to do against that defense.

“I thought he played confident and fast. He threw some good balls, some deep balls that I thought were overthrown, but he completed. I can see the earmarking of a talented player ahead. He is going to get bigger and stronger. He is still not powerful, but he is fast. He is competing and getting more comfortable.

“There are still some things going on there that is typical of a young quarterback and a young team. It is not going to change overnight. I thought he played a better game, a more confident game, a faster game. He took a step forward and he will continue to improve.”

On his offense:

“When you are playing with as many young players that we are playing with on offense, against the level of the defenses that we are playing right now, we took a step forward today, and that’s a fact. I think you saw a window into the future today, with some talented guys who are going to play a lot of football.

“We felt great at halftime, I felt like we could move the ball against a great defense.”

On his defense:

“We made some good plays. I thought we were pretty good against the run.”

On the third quarter and penalties:

“I thought that the third quarter got away from us. We had some real tough stuff go against us on third down. Penalties really got us, three of them that led to three scores, and that’s where it got away from us.”

On his takeaway message:

“We played really hard and competed at a high level on the field. We are making strides. We are going to go win those games. Right now, we seem to be in a patch, where we are in some real tight games with some real tough situations going on.”

Clemson Head Coach Dabo Swinney

Overall thoughts:

“This was a great win. Winning 14 games in a row at home is a big deal. I told our guys that they’ve been playing football here for 100+ years and there’s never been a group that’s won 14 in a row at home. I’m so proud of our guys. Boston College is a tough, physical, hard-nosed team. I loved our mentality. We dominated on defense in the first half, but we just missed on the offensive plays.

“We knew the style of play that they were throwing at us, but we just missed the opportunities. Thankfully, we settled down and lit it up in the second half

“Deshaun Watson threw for 420 yards, but we should have thrown for about 600 yards. It was good to see us stick with the plan and make the plays.

“Hats off to whole football team. This is now three weeks in a row with special teams being a big part of the game. Our defense was huge today again. We had nine different receivers catch a pass and Jordan Leggett tied the school record for consecutive games with a touchdown catch by a tight end. That record has been around for a long time, and it’s great to see him having the success that he’s having.

“Tony Elliott and Jeff Scott called a great game. Boston College came in here with the No.1 defense in the nation and we had 532 yards of offense. Hats off to our offensive staff, the offense and the whole team for getting it done.”

On maintaining focus:

“We have a great coaching staff and excellent player leadership. We have guys that ‘get it’ and have bought in to the philosophy that we have in place. It’s not just ‘coach speak.’ We enjoy every win, but on Monday, it’s about what’s in front of us.

“It’s like it says in Proverbs…we fix our eyes straight ahead. Those guys in our locker room believe that we’re the best team. It’s about how we prepare. If we stay disciplined, we can line up and beat anybody. But we’re not cocky. We know anyone can beat us.

“Our guys believe in the process. We talk about practicing and playing to a standard. The juniors and seniors on this team have had a lot of success, but they understand that the margin for error is small. If we lose, we’ll lose because the team was just better than us. We don’t want to lose because we’re unfocused. I give credit to our staff, but a lot of the credit goes to the leaders on the team.”

Clemson Quarterback Deshaun Watson

On taking a lot of shots downfield:

“We knew that we had some shots in the first half and didn’t connect. I overshot some receivers, but in the second half, we connected and it opened up.”

On Boston College’s defense:

“We knew they were the number one defense in the country for a reason. They started off strong and we started a little slow, but we picked it up and got a good win.”

On if this was first time he felt on target with the younger guys:

“I wouldn’t say the first time…it just depends on the situation of the game and what the play calls are and what the defense is doing against us.”

Clemson Wide Reciever Artavis Scott

On Deshaun Watson’s rough first half and calming him down:

“He knows we have his back and he just has to relax, and we just told him that we have your back. We are teammates, we have love for each other and we just tell him to relax and that we have this and it’s going to come.

On Watson thinking he was going to overthrow him in the third quarter:

“No, I knew he wasn’t going to overthrow me. It was there the whole time. I just knew if he threw it, I was going to get it.”

On the yards racked up against the nation’s  No. 1 defense:

“We know that when we put everything together, we are going to be scary. It is going to happen, and every week we are going to take what everyone gives us. It is going to come together.”

Clemson Safety Jayron Kearse

On who had the better defense:

“I definitely think we made the case. We went out there and played good defense. Some of the things that they were good at throughout the season we shut down, so I definitely think we went out there and showed that we are one of the top defenses in the nation.”

On home winning streak:

“That’s big, that’s big for this program, that’s big for this team and that’s big for our future. Just knowing that we can come out and be consistent with winning and be consistent playing great football…I think that’s big for this program.”

Clemson Defensive End Shaq Lawson

On keeping the edge:

“We just have to come in here hungry every day and get better. We have to remain focused as a team and as a defense, because every game is important for us and we need to come in here every game and play our best game.”

On facing the Boston College rushing attack:

“We knew they were going to run. They gave us a lot of funky formations, and we just had to adjust to them, and that’s what our team did. If we couldn’t adjust to them, they have us beat, but coach (Brent Venables) came in with a great gameplan and we lined up and executed.”

Clemson Linebacker Ben Boulware

On the Boston College offensive gameplan:

“A lot of the stuff we worked on all week, they didn’t do. That was just a really complex, confusing game. I didn’t really expect them to do a lot of the things they did. They didn’t really do no-huddle, but they tempoed a lot, so with those confusing formations and tempo, you had no time to read the formation and see what they do out of it. It was a really confusing game, probably the most confusing game I’ve been in.”