ACC Kickoff: News and notes from around the Atlantic Division

Yesterday CaneSport ran the news and notes from the Coastal, and today take a look at the other side and what players and coaches were talking about:

Q. Cam, first impressions of Willie Taggart and going through the spring with him?

CAM AKERS: Just a lot of energy, a lot of excitement. He came in and changed a lot of things, holding each other accountable, and we're really enjoying it, and we're really looking forward to the first game.

Q. Along those lines, Coach Taggart talked about bringing some fun into his administration. How much fun has it been for the last couple of months?

CAM AKERS: A lot of fun. He brought a lot of energy, like I said, a lot of energy to the program, and just kind of reviving us and bringing us back to Florida State football, where we're supposed to be.

Q. Cam, Coach Taggart is installing a new up-tempo offense. As a running back, how much different is it, maybe how much more fun to be in the spread, go, go, go, high tempo as opposed to the more traditional power I in the past? CAM AKERS: For me just a lot more space, a lot more opportunity, a lot more seams, a lot more opportunity for big plays, so I'm looking forward to being able to break a lot of those for this upcoming season.

Q. 5.3 yards per carry last year. You sort of made it look kind of easy. CAM AKERS: We've got to get that up. That wasn't enough. I did a lot of research on a lot of other backs, 7.5, 6.2, so I feel like I've got a lot of work to do. You'll be seeing that progress this season.

Q. Last year you split time with Jacques Patrick. I would assume that would be the case again. Talk about the different styles, the different skills that you and Mr. Patrick pose for a defense.

CAM AKERS: Anything you're looking for, in my opinion. You've got the bruiser who can get you the five or six yards, and he can make a play, and I can do the same thing. And as far as the other backs, also we've got Laborn, we've got Rasul, we've got White, and everybody can make plays on the field, so it's going to be tough.

Q. Where are you looking to make you biggest improvement as a player from year one to year two?

CAM AKERS: My biggest improvement would be leadership, being more vocal as a leader. Coach Tag talks to me about that all the time, just being more vocal and taking on that role.

Q. Over a thousand yards last year as a freshman, but like you said, there needed to be more last year. What did you take away from that season of adversity where you excelled but obviously you wanted the team to do more?

CAM AKERS: Me personally, I don't feel like I can excel without the team. Last year, it's just something to work off of, for me, as an individual. But I feel like the team -- I'm more worried about the team's success than my success.

Q. Brian, your first impressions of Coach Taggart, what he's brought to this team and what you're taking away from his leadership?

BRIAN BURNS: Coach Taggart has brought a new wave, a new culture to Florida State. He's bringing enthusiasm. He's making everybody hold themselves accountable, responsibility, no excuses for anything, whether it's missing a class, weight room, it doesn't matter. There's no excuses for anything, and he's really changing our guys, and I'm really appreciating him, and I'm excited for this year.

Q. Yesterday Josh Jackson, the Virginia Tech quarterback, talked about how they're watching a lot of Michigan State film to get an idea about Harland Barnett's defense. Can you talk about how you guys are adjusting both to the new scheme and the new defensive coordinator?

BRIAN BURNS: It's a quick adjust. I mean, it's not too difficult. It's a defense that allows you to play rather than think, so we're able to play fast, physical and aggressive, and everything is pin your ears back and go. We're going to get after it, and it's not really that hard to adjust to.

Q. You guys lost Derrick Nnadi and Josh Sweat, but you got yourself back, DeMarcus Christmas. Can you talk about the D-line and how you guys are coming together?

BRIAN BURNS: The D-line, as usual, is going to be another strong part of this team. I mean, with guys such as Marvin, Kaindoh, J. Rob, we have a ton of young guys. I'm forgetting a couple of names, but we have a ton of young guys who are going to step up this year and fill those spots as far as Josh Sweat and Derrick Nnadi. So I'm extremely positive to see what those guys are going to do this year.

Q. I'm looking at the people who aren't here anymore and really some of the biggest names in ACC football. You have just four starters returning on defense and going to a new system. At first glance, it seemed that Florida State could struggle on defense early because there's so many new players. I'm sure you have a different point of view. Sell me on scheme and the personnel that we've never heard of that are going to win games for you.

BRIAN BURNS: To be honest, you're right, there are a lot of guys that was key to our defense last year that left, and we do have four returning starters. But there's a lot of talent and young guys we have that you haven't heard of yet that's soon to come. But other than that, I mean, we do lack experience, but I am extremely confident in the guys we have that's going to step up, and that's what football is about. It's about the next man coming up and playing for the guy that has left. It's always next man up, and they're extremely competitive. They compete every day, and I'm excited to see what they're going to do.

Q. It was just a couple years ago you were coming off six wins in two years, then you found success at South Florida --

WILLIE TAGGART: I don't remember that. (Laughter.)

Q. What did you learn then that led to your journey getting here to Tallahassee?

WILLIE TAGGART: What did I learn then? To stick to the plan. Don't just give up because everyone else thinks it's not going the way that you want it to go. Stick to the plan, believe in your players, believe in the system, and just keep working to see it through. You know, I was told a long time ago when I became a head football coach, in order to be successful you've got to have a vision. You've got to have a plan. You've got to have an unbelievable work ethic. And probably the most important thing, you've got to have the patience to see it through, and you've got to be careful when you say patience. As long as there's progress, where I've been patient, things are heading in the right direction, and luckily we had a great administration at South Florida that understood that and saw it through, and great things happened from that standpoint. I think that's probably what I learned about it all.

Q. You had brought up the tag line lethal simplicity. Just to expand on that a little bit as we head into the fall about what that means for Florida State.

WILLIE TAGGART: Just allowing -- I think you heard Brian talk about earlier, just allowing guys -- just with the defense, allowing guys to line up and play football. We have some talented football players on our team, and we as coaches can't confuse them by being so complicated with a game that's simple and a game that these kids have been playing all their life. And we've got to allow them to go play the game of football like we know they can play and like we recruited them to play for. So just being simple and allowing our guys to play the game of football and have fun doing it. And also realizing they have a lot of other things on their plates, so you can't be as complicated as you want to be. Just keeping it simple and allowing them to be great at what they do.

Q. I talked to you shortly after you took the job at Oregon when you stopped by Clemson for a day. If you had known -- this is kind of jokingly -- but if you had known that a year later you would be coaching the rival, would you have paid a little bit more attention to things around there? And then the second part would be what did you take away from that visit with Dabo and his staff and kind of being on campus?

WILLIE TAGGART: I wouldn't say I would have paid a lot more attention. I paid a lot of attention while I was there. Coach Swinney has done a great job at Clemson. I loved how he ran his program. I had a chance to meet with his offensive coordinator the year before and was really impressed with him. And I think after meeting Coach Scott, I was like, I want to meet Coach Swinney and see how all this thing originated. But they've done a great job over the years, and once you go there and you get around the program and you see the environment, you see the culture, you can understand why they're having a lot of success at Clemson. That was the purpose of going there, and to kind of -- for me personally, just as a young coach and moving his way up, kind of clarify some things to me that we're already doing it the right way where we're at and continuing to do things the way we're doing it, we'll get to where we all want to go.

Q. In an explosive division, maybe the most explosive division in America, Florida State ranked last in offensive production last year. Does that shock you?

WILLIE TAGGART: Yeah. I think everything about last year shocked me when it came to Florida State. But that's football, and that's life, and that's behind us now. It's on us now to change those things because we know we can be a lot better than what we did last year. And that's the expectation for us to be a lot better than what we performed last year, so I'm looking forward to our guys changing that narrative.

Q. How will your offense address those issues, your style, your scheme, and maybe bring back the fast-break football that people saw from Florida State in the '90s?

WILLIE TAGGART: Well, it all comes back to execution. We've got to do a good job as coaches of explaining to our guys what needs to be done in order to be effective. And then we've got to, again, put it back on our players and hold them accountable to doing their job. We know we have talented players, and if we coach them up in their discipline and they're fundamentally and technically sound, then we're going to have ourselves a good football team and a good offense, defense or special teams. We have talented players over there. We've got to coach them up, and then we've got to go out and make those plays to change what happened from last year.

Q. How would you describe your vision for this program, not just for this upcoming season but for years to come?

WILLIE TAGGART: My vision for this program is to win multiple championships in a first-class manner. That's our vision. That's going to always be our vision. To me that's what Florida State is all about, and that's what I grew up watching and loving when it came to Florida State football. Every year they were competing for a championship, and every year they were winning. That's our goal. That's our vision, and that's why we all come to Florida State University is to win championships.

Q. You're the only new head coach here at ACC kickoff in 2018, and the league has obviously gotten a lot better over the last five years, and it's astronomically better than when Florida State joined the league in 1992. How does the ACC getting better make your job a little bit more difficult to try to bring Florida State back to the expectations of Florida State?

WILLIE TAGGART: I wouldn't necessarily say it makes my job difficult, but I would say it's a great conference. I think if you look at being the only new coach in this conference, and only new coach and the coach before didn't get fired, says a lot about this conference and the winning that goes on. You understand that each and every week, you've got to come and play your A game, and each and every week you can get beat by any team in this conference. You've got to play your A game. And for us at Florida State, it's not about anybody else, it's about us and the way we play. I wouldn't necessarily say it's difficult -- going to make it more difficult, but it's on us to go out and perform and do the things that we know we're capable of doing, and it's on us to go out and earn the respect and get back to the days that we all know Florida State can and should be.

Q. You want to pick up the tempo with the spread offense. How is that process going? How much faster is it going to look to the fans than last year? And above all, talk about Cam and his suitability for this offense.

WILLIE TAGGART: Tempo, now, with our tempo, and I hear people talk about it, it'll be faster than what we've been before. We're not a team that's trying to get 100 plays. We don't do tempo to get 100 plays. We're trying to get explosive plays. We're going to tempo when we want to, and from that standpoint, it'll be faster. We won't huddle, so that's going to be a change by itself. But the key is to create explosive plays, and I think that's something we all want, and we have the players to do that. You talk about explosive plays, you've got explosive players like Cam. He's a tremendous talent, and as a coach you've got to find ways to get him the football and allow him to do the things that he's capable of doing, and we saw that this past season as a freshman, him doing the things that he did. You can see that he only can get better. He will get better, and I'm excited about it. Again, we've always been able to run the football wherever I've been, and we don't plan on that stopping anytime soon.

Q. Deondre was playing so well against Alabama and then got hurt, James had to come in and play the season, certainly played well at times. Talk about the quarterback position here in 2018 under Willie Taggart.

WILLIE TAGGART: This is the last question and somebody finally asked me about the quarterback, huh? I mean, we have -- I know everyone talks about James Blackman and Deondre Francois -- and we're leaving out Bailey Hockman, he's another quarterback on our roster that's talented and is going to have an opportunity to compete for the job. I'm kind of like the rest of you all, I'm ready to see who's going to be our quarterback, as well. I'm excited. This is the first time I've been in a position as a head football coach to have three guys that can play for you. I'm looking forward to training camp and looking forward to these three young men competing for the job. That's why they came to Florida State, and they understand when you come here you're going to have to compete. Nothing is going to be given to you, and they appreciate that. But those are the type of kids that we bring to Florida State, and I'm excited to see these guys go out and compete this training camp. I'm just like the rest of you, can't wait to see who separates themselves as we go into the season, and as soon as they do that, we will let you all know who our quarterback will be.

Q. Mitch, so much of the conversation about this year's team comes from the defensive line, but no one faces those guys more than you in practice. Could you just tell me about that unit and what makes them so special?

MITCH HYATT: Well, first off, they're just great guys. They're all-around just good guys, and I mean, the intensity they bring to practice and how hard they work is just -- they radiate it, and it comes off on everybody around them. When I am coming to practice, I know I'd better bring it because they're coming after me, so I need to match that intensity of theirs.

Q. Mitch, the daily challenge of blocking Ferrell and Bryant and Wilkins, could you imagine getting better preparation than dealing with those guys every day?

MITCH HYATT: Yeah, just blocking every day, I really do feel like it makes me better and makes the whole offensive line better, and they make everyone better around them. It's just awesome to have that opportunity to go against them every day.

Q. You have a talented dual-threat quarterback in Kelly. Sometimes he stays back in the pocket and throws, sometimes he runs. Do you have a preference? Does it matter to you?

MITCH HYATT: You know, it doesn't matter to me. I'm just blocking for the point, so if he comes over to my side, if he tries to run around my guy and my guy tackles him, I'm not taking responsibility for that, I'll tell you right now. But I think he -- especially him, he has the maturity to understand when he needs to tuck and run or at least move out of the pocket and pass it. He's really smart about that.

Q. When they were asking Mitch about the defensive line and about you, you put your fingers in your ears. Just wondered why; is that trying not to listen to all of the outside noise, or what was the purpose there?

CLELIN FERRELL: You hit it right on the head. When I came in, Coach Hobby, my old defensive line coach, and Coach Bates, too, they always talked to us about not taking the cheese. Yesterday in the team meeting, Coach Swinney getting on us, "I hate seeing them old magazines. I hate that. It's all on paper." But they're right, though. I'm tired of seeing it, too. We're ready to just go out there and play and perform because that's what it's all about. I mean, people just keep asking us how good can we really be? I mean, I don't know. We're very talented, but I hope I get asked this question at the end of the season. That would be a better time to answer it. But yeah, that's basically it, not trying to listen to the outside noise because obviously I know we're a talented group. But we're more so about the action, we want to walk the walk rather than just talk it; know what I mean?

Q. The new redshirt rule seems like a real game changer. Coach Swinney was just telling us the other night about how 2015 when you redshirted, they really could have used you when Shaq Lawson got hurt in the Orange Bowl. How much do you think that will benefit players, the new rule, and especially keeping guys engaged who are kind of on the bubble?

CLELIN FERRELL: Oh, man, it's crazy to me. It's something I haven't really formulated an opinion on yet. But I definitely see where it could have been used in my situation. If the coaches felt like I was ready to play toward the second half of the year that I redshirted, then, yeah, that would have been a great tool to have. Because like you said, Coach Swinney said, Shaq did get hurt. Shaq and Kevin Dodd both were beat up really bad, and it would have been great to have some more young guys get in there, take some of the slack off them. But again then, it's just weird. It's like any game, not even just regular season, like bowl games included, too, so that's like wow. I ain't even thought that they would make a rule like that. I don't know. I haven't really formulated too much of an opinion on it.

Q. Not just you but Christian, Dexter, Austin, everybody coming back on that defensive line as a starter, what that means for Clemson, what you can say about that room knowing that all of you guys are going at it one more time.

CLELIN FERRELL: That means a lot, man, because obviously experience is huge in college football, just being able to have guys who have been there and know what it takes. Not even just have played in the game, but guys who have been to the pinnacle, guys that have played on the National Championship winning team before and know what it takes to get to that moment. That's huge to have in your room. But then again, though, it just brings more out of it because we have new guys coming in every year and we have young guys that we want to see it, as well. And our position rooms are very, very deep, know what I mean. And like Coach Swinney tells us all the time, you're not guaranteed to run out there first just because of what you did last year. You've got to go out there and earn it every single day, and that's something I love about it because that's how I got on the field. I had to go out there and compete with my peers in my position room when I was a redshirt freshman, to go out there and earn the starting job. So that's what you've got to do every day, so it's just going to bring the best out of all of us.

Q. There's a lot of talented young freshmen joining the defensive line. How have they responded to joining such a talented group?

CLELIN FERRELL: Oh, my goodness. Man, they've been great. I've always wondered like with just the hype that our defensive line gets, the front four, and then you still have guys like the No. 1 player coming in or a KJ Henry who's regarded as a five star. And people ask them why are you going to a school where they're already so-called deep in the defensive line. But it's because they know that they're not afraid to come in and compete. They understand the great tradition there, and they understand that they have guys that aren't just about themselves. We're all about each other. And I see those guys come in and be able to take constructive criticism and come in and work hard and make the progressions that they've made throughout the summer. Man, it's been huge, and I love that about them. I'm very hard on them because I want the best for them because if I see the best coming from them, it's only going to make me better. Know what I mean? So it's been great to see them and they're making great progress, so I'm excited for the fall, their first fall camp coming up. It's like a dad seeing his kid go to school for the first time, know what I mean? Because they look up to me because they feel like I have some knowledge that is valuable to them. So I'm happy that I can be able to share some things with them, so it's been really, really good to see.

Q. The board of trustees approved Brett Venables' contract extension this morning. Why do you think it was important to get that done and kind of take care of him in that way?

SWINNEY: Yeah, that's really kind of been done a long time ago as far as from my perspective, but there's a process, a formal process that you've got to go through before you can really kind of stamp something, throw it in the filing cabinet. So I'm happy that we were able to go ahead and get that kind of finalized, but really happy for Brent and his family. He has just done a phenomenal job. I think he's the best at what he does. He's so passionate about his job. He's passionate about the players he coaches, and he's passionate about Clemson. We have a tremendous relationship, and excited about his son Jake coming on board. Jake is going to be a great player, Mike-backer for us. But again, just gives him the longevity and a little bit more security. Really wasn't -- the salary didn't change a whole lot, but it just kind of gave him some long-term kind of supplemental income down the road, and more time, term, and in the coaching business, time is very, very valuable. He's earned his status per the market, and just really happy for him.

Q. There seem to be a few elite teams that have a legitimate chance to compete for a spot in the College Football Playoff each year. Clemson has become one of those teams. What are the factors required to take a team from being good to being elite?

SWINNEY: Yeah, that's a deep question and something I actually just talked about with my staff yesterday. You know, for me, it started in '09 our first year, and it's being really driven by the why of our program: Why I coach, why we do what we do, not just what we do, how we do it, but why. And really everybody believing in that part of it. Being culture focused, being very intentional. For me, I recruit people first. I hire people first. There's no perfect people, but I think the good Lord has given me good instincts, and so we've had a certain way that we've gone about doing things. We start over every year, reinstall the program, reinstall the core values, the philosophy that we believe in, the why, and I just don't vary from that. And then as we have been able to build that culture over the many years now, we just nurture it every year. You develop young people. You develop leadership. We've had 196 seniors, 192 graduates. I think we've had 13 or 14 juniors leave early. Three of them are already back. Two of them have got their degree. Da'Quan Bowers is coming back this fall to finish up and work with us. It's just culture driven. That's the short answer I can give you. You know, the program is what I've always been focused on, not just having a good team. From day one, we've always been program oriented, with the goal being developing a consistent winner, to one day be a team that year in and year out you just know you've got a chance. That's all you can ask for.

Q. Just if you could elaborate on your schedule this year, the ACC Atlantic and what you see from the guys coming behind you in the league?

SWINNEY: I mean, it's a challenge every year. You're talking about a league that's had 21 bowl teams in the past two seasons, so very deep. We had 10 bowl teams last year, 11 the year before. I think that's a record of any conference, so that tells you the depth of our league, first of all. It's incredibly competitive. You'd better show up and get better. You'd better show up and be ready, but particularly in our division. Man, Coach Clawson up at Wake Forest, the job he's done; Steve at BC, man, I think they're going to be a really good team. Dave Doeren has done a phenomenal job up at NC State. That's a few play game every single year. Obviously with Florida State, with Willie coming in there, I think he's a great fit for Florida State, and he's a winner. He's won everywhere he's been. No real reason to think that he's not going to get them going. This is a job where he's got really all the resources to be successful, and I don't have any doubt he will. They've always got players, always got talent. So very, very difficult. Syracuse beat us last year. They've got a quarterback coming back that is -- he has got moxie and toughness and just -- the kid is a player. He is a very good player. I was hoping he might leave early. But heck, he's back. I don't know if I missed anybody. But our division is tough. It's going to be a battle to the end. I forgot Louisville. Pretty tough. We've played them four years in a row, and three of those years were the last play of the game. It's a tough division.

Q. This is your 11th year, and what I've been watching is exactly what you described the Atlantic Division, but when you first came into the league, the ACC's bowl performance was pretty lackluster, and coincidentally perhaps, but once the new CFP system was announced, the league took off. I asked the commissioner does the CFP ratings system look at the ACC more favorably. Anyway, your thoughts, is this just a coincidence or how has the ACC grown so much in the last few years?

SWINNEY: Just earned it on the field. Really that simple. I think we've got great coaches, great recruiting, great development of players. All you've got to do is look at the NFL Draft, and I think we're second maybe in draft picks over the last, I don't know, eight, nine years or whatever, and I don't think it's even close. Good recruiting, good development of players, and a lot of great coaching in this conference. But then stepping out and earning it on the field. You've got to go beat people, and I think that rhetoric has changed. When I got the job nine years ago, you're exactly right, that's where we were, and we earned that, too. We didn't beat anybody. And so I used to tell people all the time, I'd be like, guys, let's just shut up -- we've got to play people and you've got to beat people, then the story will change, and that's what's happened. We've done very, very well out of conference. Our head-to-head rivalry games within this conference over the last three, four, five years speaks for itself. And then again, just the competitiveness of the league, and then what we've done in bowl games, et cetera. I think we're -- we're 5-1 in our last six bowl games, and we've played good people. So I think it just takes time, and we've been -- it takes time and it takes consistency for people to kind of change the narrative a little bit, and that's what's happened. We've been very consistent, and we've done it over a good amount of time.

Q. You talk about the bigger picture. When you hoist a trophy, you spend time talking about God and faith and what's above everything else, not just football. Can you speak about that a little bit more because it's impressive that that's where you go when you get asked a question right after hoisting a trophy, so just what you can say to that?

SWINNEY: About my faith? Man, that's the easiest question I've had all day. Well, I mean, to me, that's just the priorities of my life. That's just my -- I think that I made a decision when I was 16 -- I grew up in a family that I was taught there was a God and all that, but I didn't really have a relationship with Christ until I was 16. And that was a game changer for me. That's really become the foundation of my life. And me personally, I don't really -- it's hard to survive and thrive in this world if you don't have a spiritual foundation and have something that you can -- that will give you peace, because life is hard, and we're all going to experience death and failure and setbacks and disappointments and cancer and -- it's just a really difficult world. For me, God is always -- and my relationship with Christ, he's given me hope and peace, and I love Jeremiah 29:11, for I know the plans I have for you. That's kind of been a life verse for me. It says to give you hope in the future. There are plans for good, not disaster. And so I've always taken that, and I've kind of applied that to my life along my journey. Everybody sees me now and I'm the head coach at Clemson and this and that, but my life hasn't always been this way. I've always used that as -- to me, if there's really hope in the future, then there's power in the present to deal with whatever mess you're dealing with in your life, to step through, to hang in there, to persevere, to continue to believe in something, and that's what my relationship with Christ did for me. It gave me a hope and a belief -- the ability to have a hope and a belief beyond my circumstances. It's probably the greatest accomplishment that I have had to this point is to see my three sons come to know Christ and to know him as their Lord and savior. But those are personal decisions that people have to make, but it's just how I choose to live my life. Trust me, people that know me know I ain't perfect, but I do try to live my life in a way that hopefully can be pleasing to my maker because I know I'm going to meet him one day, and he's not going to pat me on the back and talk about how many wins I had or how many Coach of the Year trophies we got or how much money I made. I really think he's going to hold me accountable to how I took advantage of the opportunity and the blessings that he gave me, the impact that I had on young people, the type of men that we develop through a game. Appreciate you asking that question. We can pass the bucket if y'all want and keep going. Didn't expect that one. (Laughter.)

Q. Tommy, AJ Dillon, what you can say about having a weapon like that on offense has been, and being a part of this offense with him, just how he opens everything up and just how dynamic of a player he is.

TOMMY SWEENEY: Yeah, he's a phenomenal player. I think his play speaks for itself. He's a rare combination of speed and quickness and vision. Obviously we're a run heavy team, and like you said, it opens up a lot of different things play action wise and drop back. He's a tremendous talent, a very hard worker, and it's obviously evident in the tape and stuff, and for a tight end like myself who's blocking for him a lot of the time, it's pretty encouraging if you know if you can hold on for a couple seconds, something big is going to happen.

Q. Tommy, all five offensive linemen are going to line up again next to you. How much farther does this put this offense ahead of, say, this time last year, to have that much continuity, all five O-linemen and the tight end to block up front?

TOMMY SWEENEY: Yeah, I think you're right. It's huge. We've been playing together -- a lot of these guys not even just last year, have played together in the past before that, too. We have even depth at that position, and like you said, five linemen and tight ends coming. With that, we've been running this scheme, Coach Addazio, for a couple years now, and like you said, it's built upon where we started last year. We have a whole 'nother season, whole 'nother spring ball. The quality of the unit, the cohesiveness of the unit is evident. It makes it when you have a tailback like him and when you all come together, it's a tough thing to stop.

Q. You had talked just a couple minutes ago about guys coming back. Could this be the best Boston College team that you've played on in your opinion as you head into this season, and why, if you believe that's so?

TOMMY SWEENEY: Yeah, we've had some good teams at BC over the past four years, but I think this year we have a unit of -- we have 16 seniors back. We have a lot of guys who have played before, and we've came a long way, and we've been through a lot, and I think that adds up a lot as far as how this year is going to go. I think we have -- not only do we have a lot of talent that we haven't had in the past, but we have a lot of hard work and grit that's been on the field for a long time, and I think that really helps as far as experience. I mean, experience is something that's not easy to come by unless you do it, right? So that's one of the things I think this team has, and we're just a cohesive unit. Everybody has been together and we're really excited about that, and I think that's really going to help us this year.

Q. Last year you guys really opened some eyes when you put up 45 against Louisville. You put up 41 against Virginia. You had 39 in a game, 35 against Florida State. As good as the offenses are in the Atlantic Division, how important is it to be able to score more? In the past you haven't really associated those kind of numbers with Boston College, but how important is it to score more in this division?

TOMMY SWEENEY: It's huge. I mean, we play against a lot of high-octane offensive teams, like you mentioned, and we pride ourselves and we have a pretty good defense, too, but we play good offenses. With the depth we have offensively and the versatility we have offensively, we were able to score those points, and it's big. Scoring points is -- it's how you win a game, right? And with the talent we have offensively and defensively, we can complement each other pretty well and put a pretty unique team on the field.

Q. We're kind of in the middle of talking season. Everybody is putting out their predictions and projections type deal. Coming from you, what's going to make Boston College a special team this year?

ZACH ALLEN: I think the thing that makes us so special is just our depth. I think you've seen how many different guys have started or played in games, and also our attitude about it. I don't think -- all those projections, they're nice, and nice to have good press, but I think the thing that's helped us out a lot is how hard we've worked this off-season and how it really hasn't like -- nobody has really kind of bought into it, all the fame and publicity, and they haven't slacked off. I think we've worked harder than we ever have, and I'm excited to see what will happen this year.

Q. I wanted to ask you a little bit about John Lamot. Seems like a guy that could really make a leap for the BC defense this year.

ZACH ALLEN: Yeah, John is an absolute stud. Coming in on such short notice and just seeing what he was able to do for us was ginormous. Really excited to see what he has to do because another year of getting bigger, faster, stronger, and he's such a smart kid, too, just in the defense and everything. Really excited to see what John has.

Q. You guys pride yourself on defense at Boston College. Two years ago, three years ago had among the best defenses in the country. But the offenses keep getting better, especially in the Atlantic Division. How much more difficult is it to play against the teams in your league than it was maybe three years ago? How do you as a defensive player keep pace?

ZACH ALLEN: Yeah, I mean, it's definitely tough, especially with these quarterbacks getting faster. It's like defending against two running backs. It's a challenge, but I think last year when we went on that little winning stretch, we figured out how to play against those offenses. But they're only going to get faster and they're only going to get more complex. I think we have the right attitude about it coming in every week and preparing, so really excited to face some new challenges this year.

Q. Coach, it's atypical to keep coordinators around from year to year. You have your offensive and defensive coordinator coming back into their third year. What you can say about keeping that nucleus together and how atypical it is in college football and what can you say about them?

STEVE ADDAZIO: Well, it is difficult, and continuity is really important. Scot Loeffler, our offensive coordinator, we've worked together for a long time. At Florida he came with me when I took the job at Temple and now here at Boston College. I think we're aligned. He knows how I feel and how I think about things, and we have a great working relationship. I love him, and I've watched him evolve and really blossom. He's an elite -- first of all, the guy is an elite quarterback coach. He's one of the best quarterback coaches in the country, and he's a brilliant guy, and he's really -- as a coordinator, I think what we're doing right now, he's spearheaded here is sensational. Jim Reid has been around on defense a long time. He's a Massachusetts guy. He's had a stint at Boston College. I've known Coach Reid forever. I have a great deal of respect for him. High-energy guy, great people person, great relationship guy, and I think he has a great rapport with the players as Scott does. So we have two guys that have been here, they have great rapport, the players know them, trust them, believe in them. I believe in them, and I think it leads to the chemistry that we have right now. We have a great chemistry coach to coach, coach to player, player to player, player to coach. We love our guys, and you can't always say that. That's where it is right now, and I think that's at a high 10 level right now.

Q. Having spent time in Florida as you have and now being up in Boston College and as your players reported, Connecticut, as an upstate New Yorker, I was wondering, how do you prepare these players to play these southern teams in the sweltering heat?

STEVE ADDAZIO: Well, I mean, we -- I think like anything else, we have to have a great strength coach. We have a great strength coach, Frank Piraino is our strength coach, and I think it's in their preparation and how you train them. We train at a high level. I think we do the best we can to put our guys in the heat of the day so that they can get used to that a little bit. But I think at the end of the day, it comes down to mental and physical toughness when you're dealing in that heat, and I think our guys are trained on that front very well. And so we manage it. It has not been an issue for us at all, and I'm pretty well-versed in it. I can remember my days at Florida. I had a great appreciation. I was the line coach down there, and my guys -- I'll never forget it, they'd get in their stance and there was just water running off their bodies, and I'd say to myself, wow, it takes a special guy to do this. But I think it's all in how you train and all in how you prepare, whether it be extreme heat or extreme cold. The southern teams have to come up north and play us in October and November, and that's a nice thing. We like that.

Q. Can you drill down just a little bit more on chemistry and doing it inside the context of wins and losses? 7-6, that's a number that's been with you for four of your first five years. How is it that the chemistry is going to get you to a point this year to where maybe nine or ten wins is possible?

STEVE ADDAZIO: Well, I just think that I'm a big believer in chemistry. I just feel that that's what college football is all about, and the ability to be together -- there has to be a passion and has to be a love for each other. These guys have got to believe that they're the most important thing to us, me, as the head coach and to our staff, that we're going to do everything we can to make it great for them. That their world is important to us, not just on the field but off the field. And that's part of being a part of a family. Sometimes I've got to be hard, I've got to be tough, I've got to be demanding, but I've got to love them. And it's easy to love these guys. You met these two guys. How do you not love these guys? I mean, they come from beautiful families. They're great kids, and we have a team of this. And so that in our locker room -- and it's probably -- our biggest ability to recruit comes from that. Guys come into our locker room and they get around our guys, and they feel like these are guys that can bring the best out of me. Like our culture, they come in, they go to class, they work hard, football is important to them, they live their life the right way. So there's a chemistry in our locker room that we're not going to let each other down and we're going to fight for each other, and when things are at their toughest at BC, these guys along with other guys, we all had each other's back. And we fought through the tough times and have gotten ourselves up to this point where we know that our strength is in bringing the best out of each other. That's the beauty of chemistry. That's what this is all about. For us to take the next step, we need to do all those intangible things, and we need to be together at a high level.

Q. Two years ago you guys were 110th nationally in plays per game. Last year you were 15th. Are you trying to increase the tempo again this year?

STEVE ADDAZIO: Yes. We made a conscious decision two years ago going into the bowl season, something I'd been looking at for a long time. I wanted to take what amounts to 12 personnel, okay, where you can be in a spread set, you can be in a closed set and you can keep the defense on the field and go as fast as we can go and not allow them to substitute and make them deal with the combinations of a spread game and a power game together. And we wanted to get more plays, more opportunities for explosives, and we finally broke out of that. Now we've been fine-tuning that. This year we want to take it to another level. So last year we got ourselves up -- you mentioned it. We went from whatever to whatever in terms of total plays run, and I'd like to be in the top, without question, Top 5 in the country in the amount of plays that we can run. So that's absolutely a goal and done by design.

Q. Eric, having the fastest tempo offense in the country, every 21.1 seconds snapping the ball, what can you say about being a part of the fastest tempo and Dino getting to where he wanted to go essentially with making sure that it was the fastest. And then secondly, what you think about Dontae and Moe running the ball this year?

ERIC DUNGEY: I think Coach will always tell you it's not fast enough, so that's what he's going to tell us. That's what he's been harping on us, and for our practices that's what I've been trying to do, I've just been trying to up the tempo even faster because the faster we go, the better it goes. And then Moe and Dontae, I can't say enough good things about them. Moe has really transformed his body. He came in a little bit small but he's been really putting on weight. Every week in the weight room he's been PR'ing, whether it's bench squat or hang clean. And Dontae, he's just a veteran, so he's savvy, he runs hard, you know what you're going to get out of him. He's been one of my best friends since I've been here been. Been through it all together, so I'm looking forward to seeing how those guys go at it.

Q. So many schools now have dual-threat quarterbacks, and that's led to some really explosive offenses, especially in the Atlantic Division. In your case, you're Syracuse's leading runner. How much fun do you have running the football? What makes you running quarterbacks so difficult to stop, and what's the risk reward?

ERIC DUNGEY: You know, running the football is real fun. It's just kind of one of those things -- I'm a competitive person, so I want to do what I've got to do to win. But from a game plan perspective, it's very tough. If you have a dual-threat quarterback, you kind of have to account for another person to watch him, so it kind of limits the pass game. And if you're going to have more people in the pass game, you can run the ball a little easier. If you've got a savvy quarterback who understands coverages and stuff like that, you're always a man up with that.

Q. Eric, you've had an All-American wide receiver each of the past two seasons. What have you seen out of that position during the spring and in the summer?

ERIC DUNGEY: So during the spring and summer, I'm seeing a lot of young guys with the potential. That's what I'm going to say, a lot of potential in the room, so just waiting for that one guy to step up during our workouts and all that. We've got a lot of guys that look good, but still waiting on that guy to be consistently good, not occasionally great as Coach says. That's what I've been looking for. We've got some veterans in there, but the young guys is who I'm excited about. They're going to have a major impact whether it's this year or two or three years down the road. They're going to make a lot of noise.

Q. Between Steve Ishmael and Ervin Philips you lost about 2,200 receiving yards. Who would you say are the next Steve Ishmael and Ervin Philips?

ERIC DUNGEY: Well, in my sophomore year, you guys were saying, You lost Amba, so what are you going to do next? And then Steve and Irv stepped up, so people saying the same thing. I'm still waiting to see that. But like I say, I see a lot of young guys. We've got four or five guys in my mind that I think could be those next guys. Obviously somebody is going to catch the ball, so we've just got to wait and see who it is.

Q. Last year you guys pulled the big upset of Clemson. Coach Swinney actually came in y'all's locker room after the game. What was that like for you guys?

ERIC DUNGEY: Well, the win was great, so that's what was great for us. Coach Swinney, he's a class act, so it was cool to see that. But for us personally, 4-8 -- but you look at the games, a lot of the people, a lot of reporters say, 4-8, they're a bad team. You look at our schedule, I don't see a lot of teams going on our schedule and putting up wins like that. We're in every game, and unfortunately in November I wasn't able to play, but I'm looking forward to this year and going out there and giving it all.

Q. Eric, I wanted to ask you a little bit about what you think about Syracuse's defense running some more early down nickels. You've played in this conference for three years now, seen a bunch of different defenses. What do you think about that fit, and how can that change what the defense does?

ERIC DUNGEY: I think it fits our personnel great. I'm not a defensive coach so can't speak much on that. I'll let Chris speak more on that and Coach. But personally, I think the coach is going to do what we've got to do to put us in the best situation to win. So that's really all I can say on that.

Q. Eric, like you said, the last two seasons, like you said, 4-8. There were some positives, a win over Virginia Tech and Clemson. How do you build off of that and just what you can say about staying the process, and from the outside looking in, it's 4-8, but from the inside looking out, what do you see?

ERIC DUNGEY: You know, Coach brought us something interesting last year. I didn't even really realize it, but Miami last year -- I think the year before they were just right on the hump, in these games, and I think that's what we were like last year. We had one possession here and there that could have really changed the outlook on our season. It's just learning how to win and playing against the best schools and the best teams. You're not going to get better playing against lower competition, so you want to be with the best, you've got to play against the best. I'm looking forward to that, and that's what our schedule has been in the past three years. You know, I think personally it's given us a lot of experience, and for that I'm looking forward to going into the next year.

Q. Chris, what you've been able to take away from the defense under Brian Ward, just what you can say about learning that -- because obviously you came in with a different set and then switched. What can you say about that defense and what you like about it building forward from here?

CHRIS SLAYTON: Well, what I like about it is that it gives the D tackles a lot more leeway in terms of assignments and things to do. And then the defensive scheme we had, it was a little more aggressive, and this game is not as aggressive as it has been in the past. Also, like the whole nickel situation, it gives us like another personnel, and that gives us a lot of things to do.

Q. The last win for the team came back on October 13th. That's a long time to sit with that. How do you reconcile all of what 2017 was as you prep for 2018?

CHRIS SLAYTON: You know, going back to last season, we obviously didn't finish strong, as strong as we would like. But that's been the whole focal point for this off-season, just starting off strong and then just continuing to fight and finishing the season off strong.

Q. Just to kind of follow up on that, I know everything is not controllable in this sport, but what do you think the defense can do to maybe prepare itself to finish this season strong?

CHRIS SLAYTON: Just having a better leadership. That comes from myself and a lot of the older guys. I'm becoming a better leader, and it's guys like Antwan Cordy, Chris Frederick, like the young guys are going to depend on them as well as myself. Just to be a better leader and to get those guys going, moving, finishing off strong.

Q. Coach, two years ago you came in saying you guys were going to be fast. Last year it was even faster. What would you say is going to be the motto for this team this year?

DINO BABERS: You know, I think the motto needs to be that we're doing everything we can to bring a good football team into the month of November. But one thing that I've realized going into my third season here in the ACC and the ACC Atlantic is just how physical this conference is. Unfortunately for our football team, the team that we've lined up and played with in August and September and October has not been the exact same type of team personnel-wise that we played in November, and I think it really leads to the success that we've had early and the un-success that we've had late. It's really important for us to find a way not only to stay true to our motto to play fast but to also find a way to finish and to finish the month off November the way we've played September and October.

Q. Eric had brought up consistently good, not occasionally great, just what you can say about going into year three knowing that you have some of those wins that you can build off success-wise but trying to build that consistency, what you see out of the team moving forward.

DINO BABERS: I think Eric is exactly right. We had some close losses last year, and what we've got to do, we've got to mirror the season that NC State had. NC State had some close wins last year that really set them off to one of the better seasons that they've had with Coach Doeren, and my hats off to him. When you're taking over a losing football team and trying to change it to a winning football team, there comes that time when you reach that bridge where all of a sudden one minute you're not in games, and then the next minute you're in games, and they're close games and you can't be satisfied. You can't settle for just being close. I think that's -- I don't think that we settled last year, but I think that was the bridge that we were on. So we've been close, and now it's time to get over the hump and get on the other side of that bridge and find a way to win those games and finish out the season.

Q. I was curious to get your thoughts on the new redshirt rule, allowing guys to play in up to four games while maintaining their redshirt status. Just general thoughts, and is there any kind of feeling that it would have been perfect to have last year?

DINO BABERS: Let me do the latter. It would have been real good last year. I'll just leave it at that. The rule really gives the coaches a lot of flexibility. You don't really know how the rule is going to play out because it's such a new rule. And what I mean by that, it might be a situation most likely where you have lack of depth at a certain position -- you're trying to redshirt either a junior college or a freshman football player -- and because of the lack of depth in maybe that month of November where you're decimated and position group is not the same, that now you can play one of those young men that are really, really talented but they don't have the game experience. But maybe it gives you an opportunity, maybe you can simplify one side of the ball and see if their athletic ability can come out. I think for everyone to believe that all these freshmen are going to get an opportunity to automatically play four games in their freshman year is not true. If you have an opportunity to have a game where you get to put other people in the game, your first responsibility is to the depth of your football team. So if the ones aren't out there, you need to put the twos out there. And if you look across especially our schedule the last two years, there's not a lot of teams that we've been able to blow out where we can put people like that in, and I think that has to speak for a lot of teams in the ACC Atlantic. Unless you've got certain surname on the back of your jersey, those games are difficult and they're always close. So you just don't have the freedom or the luxury to just play so-and-so's son or so-and-so position to give them experience for recruiting. So you've got to play those games to win, or I don't get an opportunity to address you guys for years and years and years to come up here. So I think the rule will flow. I think it will adjust every year. I think it's a fantastic rule. I really do. And I think it's something that we needed in college football based off of the injuries that we've been having later on in the season and the type of people that we've been putting out on the football field.

Q. Obviously the way you play you're going to have some high scoring games. You've had a lot of them, especially late in the season when you had injuries. What do you expect of your defense this year, and what's realistic?

DINO BABERS: I expect our defense to be better. I realistically think that they should be better. I think that we're more talented over there on that side of the ball since I've been here. This is the most talent we've had on that side of the ball since we've been there. Some of that talent is very experienced like the young men sitting behind me, and some of that talent is very inexperienced. But there's no doubt in my mind that we're talented over there, so now we have to decide on how complicated or how simplistic we want to be with the talent that we have not only on that side of the ball but on the offensive side of the ball, as well. The recruits are better, and we need to -- and hopefully we'll see better results on the football field.

Q. You've seen this is the most experienced offensive line that you've had during your time at Syracuse. What have you seen from them, and what do you think that experience can do for you going into the season with your team?

DINO BABERS: You know, I came from a big family. I've got three sisters -- one of my sisters just called me today and wished me a happy birthday. I've got two other brothers, so we were kind of like the Brady bunch, only not exactly like them, know what I mean. So three boys, three girls, and one thing about being in a big family is when you walk down the street, whether they're with you or not, you had family around. You know, West Side Story, got family around, Family Man? That's the way you feel when you have an offensive line and a defensive line. Our offensive line is the best we've had since I've been there, and they are real big people that are like strong, real strong. So when you walk down the street, you want to walk with those guys, okay. And not only do we have five of them that are really good, but I think we can go to seven, eight. We're as deep as we've been there. Not as deep as other football teams in the conference, but it gives us an opportunity to play a little big ball, or what I call pull up your boots, roll up your shirt sleeves and get after some people. It gives us an opportunity to be more physical than we've been in the past. It gives us an opportunity maybe to run the ball better than we have in the past, and if we have an opportunity to run the ball and move people around, we can help that defense a little bit and we can shorten some of those games. And when you get in the red zone, if you have the ability to run the football in the red zone and not just throw the ball in the red zone, you have a higher percentage of scoring points, which gives you an opportunity to maybe get away from some people. So I think that's a huge advantage for us, and I think it's one of the keys to our season. Fabulous question.

Q. Going off of what you had said a couple minutes ago, building and establishing depth, I know you spoke about the offensive and defensive line, but as you look across the roster going into your third season, what can you say about that depth and if it's getting to where you want it to be at this point?

DINO BABERS: It's definitely heading in the right direction. I think that our two weakest positions I don't need to throw out there. I think we have a weak one on offense as far as experience, and I think we have a weak one on defense as far as experience. But like once again, like Eric said when he was up there, from a talent standpoint, it's the most talent we've had from senior to freshman since I've been there. Now, that doesn't mean everybody is ready to play. Some of them, potentially they can be outstanding. But we all know what potential is going to get us. But if we keep seasoning it and keep training it and keep working on techniques and fundamentals and we get enough time, we're going to be able to develop that. I'm anxious to get back to work on the 1st of August and see what we can come up with in the next 26 or 27 days before our first opponent to see if we can mature some of that talent to where we can have an outstanding season.

Q. You've had some big words to say about your receiving corps, just what you can say about them going into the season and how excited you are for the weapons that you have to go a little bit deeper into those weapons.

RYAN FINLEY: Yeah, real excited about that group. Obviously led by Steph and Kelvin and Jakobi, in my opinion the best trio wide receiving corps in the country. Just can't speak enough words about how hard they work and just kind of how they approach the game and the level of preparation they put into the game and obviously very talented. And then behind them with Emeka and CJ and Thayer, just kind of guys chomping at the bit to get in. The depth at that position is really special, and the talent from those guys and the experience and kind of the level of trust we've been able to kind of get with each other, and obviously Coach McDonald has done a great job with that group.

Q. NC State has a history of great quarterback play with guys like Philip Rivers, Russell Wilson. What does it mean to you to kind of join that group and be a part of that legacy of NC State quarterbacks?

RYAN FINLEY: Yeah, it's a pretty impressive lineage of quarterbacks, and I don't take it lightly to be considered among that group at all. I think there's a standard that needs to be upheld when it comes to the quarterback position at North Carolina State. Just in our quarterback room, we've got this table, and all four or five of them are on that table, just kind of a reminder of who came before you in the history of this position at North Carolina State. That's something you shouldn't forget.

Q. Germaine, what you can say about the Dave Doeren factor, what he's done for NC State and what the environment has been like as you've grown through your time there.

GERMAINE PRATT: He makes people want to come to Raleigh, I think. It was a ghost town. When I first got there, it was a ghost town. People didn't want to come back and work. But now people come back and ask to work. People wanted to even commit and come here to play with us because they seen what we had last year, seven people get drafted and go to the NFL. So I think everybody wants to come to Raleigh.

Q. You have quite a few players starting on defense who did not start last year. Talk about the challenges of that in the Atlantic Division where there are so many great offenses. What are the challenges that defenses face in this division?

GERMAINE PRATT: I mean, I don't think it's a challenge, I don't think they would find it as a challenge. I think it's an opportunity for them to showcase their talent since they've not been on the radar. They're ready for their opportunity and showcase what they've got. We've got guys with experience, Darian Roseboro, Big E, Shug, James Smith-Williams, and then you've got guys coming from JuCo, Larrell, and you've got -- dang, I can't get his name out right now, but yeah, he's ready to play. And then you've got guys around that's ready to play like Steven Griff, a transfer at nickel, he'll be ready to play, and then a lot of guys that's ready to take on a bigger role. And my role has only increased, as well, by pushing others and taking care of my job and ready to seize the moment. Q. Last day and a half we've heard a lot about CTE, concussions and football. What do you guys do to educate and protect your players?

DAVE DOEREN: Player safety is a big deal, and I think in the last -- I've only been a head coach seven years, but in the last seven years through the NCAA and NFL, you've seen a ton of research being done, Brian Hainline heads that up for the NCAA. And we're just trying to learn about it, to be honest. I can't give you the facts. We know that it's there. Don't know exactly what all the exact information is. But we care a lot about these guys. We care a lot about this game. From the changes in practice where we can't have two-a-days on back-to-back days, we don't ever wear full pads on back-to-back days, wear half pads, full pads, pro pads, so we're changing that rigor of contact from back in the day when -- I'm not that old, but when I played we had 14 straight days of two-a-days and they were all full padded. That just doesn't happen anymore. So the ability to develop players, which is what we take incredible pride in at NC State, starts with being healthy. You have to be at practice. You have to be in the weight room. You have to be in the meeting room. You have to be your best you can be, and I have to set a schedule that allows these guys to stay that way. The advances in technology are incredible. Like our ability to track the volume they run, how fast they run, how many times they change direction, the contact that takes place, it all adds up, along with the information that's coming in on a yearly basis from the NCAA. Just trying to take it all in and doing the best that we can with that info to help the game of football. And really it's not just football, it's athletics. There's so many contact sports, including soccer. You see kids that aren't allowed to head a soccer ball anymore at certain ages. I think we're all learning as we go, and at the end of the day, I have three sons, we treat our players as sons, we want them to compete hard in a very physical sport but compete as safely as they can.

Q. The team has had some issues in the past in the secondary, and I just want you to speak a little bit about what do you project for the secondary this year on defense?

DAVE DOEREN: You know, I'm excited for those guys. I think every year there's -- in this conference there's a huge challenge. I think you've just got to pick your poison on defense in college football. I think you can say that you want to be great in pass defense and then you're giving up a bunch of run plays. That's just not how I'm wired. I think our defensive football team and our offensive football team both believe in winning the line of scrimmage, and it starts from a mentality standpoint our identity is play hard, play tough, play together. You don't do that if you don't stop the run, if you can't run the football. Our coverage, they're going to have one-on-one out there a lot, and we ask a lot of them. Now, we do some things to help them with middle field players and some cover-two, but if you're going to stop the run, your corners are going to have to cover, and in our league, your safety to the field or your nickel to the field is going to have to cover. And we play against some of the best receivers in college football week in and week out. West Virginia is going to have some of the best receivers in college football, and we play them. Marshall has one of the top receivers in college football, and we play him. So that's a challenge. It's a lot easier than just, yeah, we'll get that fixed. But our DBs are very athletic. They take it personal. They've got good coaches, and we run a very good scheme, but we're going to stop the run first. I promise you that, and that's just a mentality that we have.

Q. You're coming off an excellent season, and actually I noticed four seasons in a row, winning record. You've got a returning quarterback with excellent stats. He's a veteran. What are your expectations that you're expressing to the Wolfpack alumni?

DAVE DOEREN: You know, I think it's just continuing to build things the right way, play hard, compete, recruit local guys, and help them reach their goals and dreams, be physical, win as many games as we can and do it the right way. I want to win a championship. Everyone knows that. Every coach in the world will tell you that. But I'm going to do it the right way, and we're going to do it with class. We're going to help these guys become better men and reach their academic goals. There's just a lot more to it to me than just winning. I mean, and I want to win, don't get me wrong. I came to NC State to win a championship. And I want to do that. But I'm going to do it where these guys are getting that total experience they can get, and our staff and all of us, the biggest challenge is getting everyone to work together towards a common goal and being the guy that gets to lead that charge, it's a blessing. It's the hardest thing and the funnest thing that you get to do. So I'm excited. I tell the alumni the same thing. Like just look at the progress. Five years ago we had zero wins in the ACC, this year we tied the school record. Five years ago we had no draft picks, this year we broke the school record. So the progress is there. Everyone sees it. Now it's just continuing to get better and just raising the standard for this program again, and that's what this year is about.

Q. Jaylen, just speak on the receiving corps, just what you can say about what you've done individually to improve and what you're seeing out of the rest of the corps, as we know that this offense can score points.

JAYLEN SMITH: Well, I've tried to mold myself into more of a leader at the receiver position, and me, Dez and Seth, we get the spotlight, but it goes way beyond that, guys like Corey Reed, Devante Peete coming back, Emonee Spence who's been under the radar for a minute, and all the freshmen coming in are all speed guys. I feel like we have the best group in the conference, and we work like it. So that's the main thing to me. We put in the work to have the title of the best group in the conference, and it shows.

Q. Jaylen, you returned four offensive linemen and not just yourself but two other wide receivers. Talk about the comfort level for a new quarterback to have that many familiar faces blocking for him and that many familiar faces to throw to.

JAYLEN SMITH: Yeah, that was a focus for us, making Puma's job a lot easier. As much as we can do to help him out in his first season as the starting quarterback is what we will do. The O-line will do the same. So I think that would be important for us. Puma has put in the work, he's put in his time, he's paid his dues, and it's his time to shine.

Q. Do you guys feel a little under the radar? You lost Lamar, a lot of talk about him, but do you feel a little under the radar going into the season as a team?

JAYLEN SMITH: Yeah, we do. It's just you lose that production, all that Lamar did. Even with the skills that Puma possesses, people are still going to have questions. They're still going to have their doubts about what we can do without Lamar and how much we actually did without him. So yeah, it feels like we're kind of sliding under the radar, but it's up to us to do what we do, work hard, put it together and let the chips fall where they may.

Q. You talk about imposing your will, 22.5 tackles for loss in your career, been fairly steady in that category. As you think about 2018, is there something about you that wants to be more aggressive?

JONATHAN GREENARD: Definitely. The most thing I can say I want to be more aggressive in is finishing, staying aggressive every single play and not giving up and steadily progressing my motor, as in consistently making plays, chasing the ball down the backside, running to the football if the ball is thrown. So I feel like I've been working on that a lot with my conditioning, as well, and from spring I definitely tried to master that craft, as well.

Q. Jonathan, under Coach Petrino the defense has been good, and I understand a new system now, but what was the takeaway from those performances? What has to change?

JONATHAN GREENARD: Yeah, it's definitely not -- we realized at the end of the year that we had to sit back and realize that that's not what U of L football is about. U of L football has always been defensive-minded. We always had a dominant defense no matter what year or what the case may be, so to realize that we gave up that many points, that was very uncharacteristic, like you said. We just definitely took that as a chip on our shoulder towards the end of the year, and that's why we finished a little bit stronger like we did, and we'll just carry that over, and hopefully that lasts for the summer and into the fall, as well.

Q. You just spoke on some inspiration. How does Bobby Petrino inspire?

JONATHAN GREENARD: Because he has a winning tradition. Anybody who knows about Petrino knows where he comes from, what he's about. He's definitely a winning guy. He knows what -- he wants the best for you. The main thing with Coach Petrino, he just wants us just to hone in on technique because technique is going to win you the games, when the other guys who have more talent than you, they just don't have the technique. If you have the technique, you're going to have -- little things like hand placement as a defensive lineman, when you're honing in on your technique and stuff like that, he emphasizes that on stuff like that, so that way you can be able to have yourself ahead of a guy who might be more athletic than you, who might be stronger or faster or whatever the case may be, so you can't beat technique.

Q. Your teams have moved the ball at every level of coaching, every place you've been, and yet I don't think we've ever seen the yards and points that we saw during the last couple of seasons. Walk us through what's your vision of the post-Lamar Jackson era? What's this offense going to look like this year?

BOBBY PETRINO: Yeah, I mean, I expect us to be better. I expect us to be more balanced, the ability to get more guys involved, particularly in the running game. I really like our receiving corps coming back. I really think it's one of the strongest corps coming back. I forgot Jaylen missed three games and still had that many catches and that many touchdowns, and Dez is a guy that can really go get the ball and adjust to the ball. Seth is a big, physical guy that really runs well after the catch. And like Jaylen said, we have some really good young speed guys that will be able to come in and help us create plays and maybe give us a little different flavor in the run after the catch, and guys that can create more after the catch. And then I think that we'll do well at quarterback. Puma is a really good player that's really been an inspiration to all of us because at the quarterback position it's one of transfer throughout the country. He's a very highly recruited young guy with high expectations and came in and sat and supported Lamar at everything that he did. He never once came into my office with any talk about transferring, and I really respect that, and I know he has the respect of all of his teammates on how he's performed every time that he's went out on the field. We've got a great group of tight ends. I think that's maybe the unknown because we've got three really good tight ends that we can do different things with personnel groupings and a much more experienced offensive line. You might not get the chunks out of one guy like we have the last couple years, but overall they've all got to make up for it and be more productive than we've been.

Q. Running backs?

BOBBY PETRINO: Running backs are a good group. Tre Smith had a great spring. He really showed his ability to run between the tackles and get yards after contact and protect the quarterback. A lot of times young running backs don't play because you don't trust them to protect the quarterback. But we trust him now to do that. And then Dae Williams and Colin Wilson are two big physical guys, and Colin has some special skills as far as his movement in and out of holes. Tobias Little is a guy that played fullback for us last year, and then we started giving him the football, and he's a 245-pound guy that can play tailback and catch the ball out of the backfield. I think overall it's a really good group. What we need to find out is who wants to separate from the pack, who wants to become the featured back, and you do that by hard work and practice.

Q. What are your feelings about the new redshirt rule, and how will you use that at Louisville?

BOBBY PETRINO: Yeah, I mean, I like the rule. I think it's a good rule. I'm getting old, so I remember way back when we changed the schedule from 11 games to 12 games. There was supposed to be a piece of pie out there for the head coaches, that we'll change it to 12 games and give everyone five years of eligibility, which never did happen, so that's really what I was always liking. But I think it's a good deal. What I'm going to try to do is try to find a list of freshmen that I really think can play early and help us and maybe play the entire season and utilize them in the first four games of the year and see where they're at and see if they can continue to improve and help us and make a decision. Then I think we'll have another group of guys that you say, hey, he's not ready right now, either it's physically or mentally or hasn't adjusted to the speed. Let him continue to practice. We work our redshirts and guys that don't play a lot in the game on Sunday nights, let them continue to work on that and then utilize them in the last four games of the year and get them experience and help us in the bowl game. So that's kind of the plan going in. And then we're going to have to be able to improvise and adjust.

Q. We had a head coach in the room earlier today that said progress in this league is not easy. You're heading into your ninth year, 66-35 as an ACC head coach. How has the progress been for you in this league?

BOBBY PETRINO: Yeah, I think that it's a very, very competitive league. Some of those wins that you're talking about we were back in either Conference USA or the Big East, and those conferences you maybe had two, sometimes three games a year where you felt like when you stepped on the field you were better than the other team. It's not that way in our conference. Everybody has really good players. Everybody are very well-coached. So you have to be able to do it week in and week out in your preparation and your performance on the field. That's what makes it so difficult. I feel like we've knocked on the door a few times. I want to see us get over the hump and get to that championship game here.

Q. Last year there was a 49 percent reduction in sacks compared to 2016; what is it about the unit that has allowed you guys to gel and really protect that backfield?

PHIL HAYNES: Pretty much like the last question, just gelling together on and off the field. We do a lot of film study together every week, and we're just always studying film together, just off the field always having fun together, going to play golf or something like that. That's how we gel.

Q. Last season Wake Forest had one of the two most explosive offenses in the entire Atlantic Coast Conference in a league with a lot of explosive offenses. What's your take on that? Where does the explosiveness come from, and what's the role of the line in getting those big chunk plays? PHIL HAYNES: Well, I think we have a good group of guys that just come to practice every day and work hard. I think we can compete with anybody in the country. The O-line is a big part of that. I play O-line so I'm a little biased. But I feel like O-line is very important because if you can't protect the quarterback or open up holes for running backs, no one is going anywhere.

Q. What you can say about what Coach Clawson has done for this team and just what you can say about the environment around Wake Forest, how this has evolved over time in your opinion?

PHIL HAYNES: It's unbelievable honestly. For me personally, and I know other people on the team too, he made me into a better man today. Also like in the weight room, in the locker room, the culture has changed. There's more emphasis on respecting other people's stuff. Just normally when I was a freshman, you couldn't leave anything out in the locker room, my phone, my wallet, anything. I love that Coach Clawson is just bringing everybody together as a family.

Q. You obviously have been here long enough when Wake Forest wasn't going to bowl games and hadn't been for a couple of years. Now that it's been back-to-back years, shooting for three, when did you know that this program was being built the right way?

WILLIE YARBARY: I feel like it was being built after I got to college. It takes time, and we always talk about the process, and so after long years and seeing that we didn't want to be 3-9 again, I think we just started putting more time into it. I have to dedicate a lot of that to Coach Hourigan, our strength and conditioning coach, spending hours with us trying to get us stronger and just preparing us for this conference, the ACC. Because the ACC, especially the Atlantic, is one of the hardest conferences in the world.

Q. You won a lot of games last year, but they were high-scoring games both ways. What do you have to do defensively to maybe cut down some on the yards and points you're giving up?

WILLIE YARBARY: I've got to give credit to the offense. They did their thing last year. On defense, it's a whole unit. It's not just one specific group. Not the safeties, not the linebackers, not the D-line. We all have to get better. If we want to cut down on passing yards, we need to get to the ball faster. If we want to stop the run, we've got to get to the ball faster and got to get off blocks. It's really everybody, it's not just one specific group that can change one thing.

Q. Just to speak on playing the long game and starting to see that success come to fruition at Wake Forest.

DAVE CLAWSON: Yeah, I mean, it's been very rewarding. Getting up here year one and year two when we were 3-9, it's a lot more enjoyable being up here after consecutive winning seasons and consecutive bowl wins. And the thing that I'm most excited about is I really believe that we've built a foundation that we can sustain success. I think if you look at the history of Wake Forest football, there's been flashes of success, but I think that we've built something that we can sustain, created a regional and a national narrative that Wake Forest is a place that people aren't surprised when we go to bowl games. I think right now internally the expectation is we want to be a perennial bowl team. We want to compete for championships, and we want the regional and the national media to view our program that way. And having said that, progress in this league is not easy. I mean, this division and this conference is really good football, and I think the big thing last year, not only did we get back to a bowl and win eight games, but we beat some really good football teams. I don't feel like our season in any way was a fluke. We had one of the most difficult schedules in the country last year, and we want to build off it, though. I don't think anybody on our staff, in our locker room is satisfied with what we did, and we think there's a greater ceiling to what we can accomplish, and we're excited to prove that.

Q. I'm really struck by the contrast between your very first season where you couldn't protect the passer and couldn't really run block, either, and then last year where against even the best defenses in the league, you're moving it up and down the field. Obviously it's a process, it took five years, but what were some of the critical elements that opened up your offense and made it so difficult to defend?

DAVE CLAWSON: Well, again, we took a long-term approach to it. I knew Phil Haynes was going to be a really good football player. I knew Ryan Anderson was going to be a good player, Justin Strnad, Patrick Osterhage. We did not have an O-line when we got there. We had to play those guys before we were ready. Whether it was John Wolford or any of those guys. And we just tried to stay positive with them, and we thought at some point the accumulation of all those reps and all that experience that there would be a payoff. And I think what happens is you kind of have incremental improvement, but when individually they all get better together, then you have that explosion. And I think that happened across the board, whether it was our O-line, which really gelled to become in my opinion one of the best O-lines in the conference if not the country. John Wolford was a second team all ACC quarterback, Gregg Dortch, Scotty Washington, Matt Colburn, Cade Carney. I mean, we have good players, and the players we get we make them better, and that's how we run the program. And that will never change. I don't think any amount of success we have -- I don't think the dynamics of how we do it are going to change. You know, we're going to be a blue-collar program and we're going to get good players, and we're going to develop them and we're going to keep them in school and graduate players. And to me that's the advantage of Wake Forest. It's not the disadvantage.

Q. How does the new redshirt rule affect the way you will approach --

DAVE CLAWSON: Oh, I think for Wake Forest, it's great. When that rule passed, I think that rule helps Wake Forest as much as any program in the country because we probably redshirt -- you know, the way that we run the program is we've probably redshirted a half to three-quarters of our freshmen every year, and the nature of the school, being private, very academic, it's hard to get guys in. We don't get a lot of walk-ons. So if we redshirt, let's say, 15 players or 18 players, and now all of a sudden all those guys get four games that they haven't got before, to me that's 60 to 80 more player games that we get. And I just think it helps keep the freshmen engaged. We have a plan and a strategy of how we're going to deal with it and how we're going to work it, and we've thought a lot about it and researched it and talked to people and we've talked as a staff. And I'm not going to share what that philosophy is, but we're -- I think this will really help us. Again, this is probably the most depth that we've had in my five years at Wake. And then on top of that you have this new redshirt rule that those 15 to 20 guys that we typically would redshirt that you now have available for four games, I think it'll help us on special teams. It'll help us in our different personnel packages, and I'm excited about it. I think it's really going to help us.

Q. Several teams in the league have dual-threat quarterbacks now. What makes offenses with running quarterbacks so much more difficult to defend?

DAVE CLAWSON: Well, it just creates more of a dilemma for the defense in terms of defending the run, and even if you get the extra hat in the box, you can still be a guy short with a running quarterback. It's a numbers game. If the quarterback can run and the running back can be used as a lead blocker, you're plus one. There's always a balance. There's a lot of good things on the chalkboard when you run the quarterback, but you also don't want to overdo it that you get your quarterback hurt. The quarterback is obviously a very critical position and there's limited reps in practice. Last year I always thought we were right on the edge with John. Obviously there were critical calls that we felt if we had to run the quarterback we would. The quarterback gets hit in the normal course of a play anyway, whether it's a drop-back pass or he escapes or a scramble. So I think you have to factor in the durability aspect of your quarterback when you decide how much you want to run him. It's something that we do. It's not something that we want to major in. But there's certainly a lot of plays last year and ways that we got defended that the quarterback run game was very advantageous to us.