ACC Kickoff Day 1 Recap

Divitto and Rettig were very busy Sunday. They did a whole round of TV and print. Both did a great job representing the school and are getting me excited about the season. Here are some of the better links from Day 1. Monday will have more on Addazio and a few features on the players.

The "dude" thing is gaining notice. I loved the way Divitto explained it. At this point you either get it or you don't. 

Addazio taped some TV spots that aren't live yet, but fortunately BC's twitter account tweeted some of the highlights.

Chase Rettig gave all the right answers and conducts himself well. However, I don't get the feeling that he loves doing this sort of thing.

"You either are a dude, or you're not. If you're a dude, you know what it means to be a dude." BC LB explains dudedom http://t.co/M0TFAQ6Ec9
— SB Nation (@sbnation) July 21, 2013

Behind scenes at 2013 #ACC Football Kickoff MT @BCFootballNews: QB Chase Rettig gets #ACCFootball interviews underway pic.twitter.com/6utJXEOuWG
— Jack McCluskey (@jack_mccluskey) July 21, 2013

The players together.

Here is Meter at the BC table.

Ryan Purvis quotes

I sat with Brace first so by the time I got to Purvis he was rehashing stuff. Regardless he still had some good things to say. Here are a few of the subjects that haven't appeared elsewhere.

Purvis on Lars Anderson

“Lars is a real athletic kid. He’s quick. He’s agile. I think he’s going to do alright."

Purvis on Ifeanyi Momah

“Momah...the past couple days in 7-on-7, you see flashes of Plaxico Burress across the middle. Just plucking the ball out of the sky. His biggest thing is consistency. You’ve got to show that on a regular basis. I think he'll do that this year."

Purvis on Crane handling the spotlight

“I think he is doing great. I don’t think he compares himself to Matt in anyway. It’s his fifth year, his last year and his first year. First and last. He’s just looking to make his own imprint in the BC culture and the BC football program. And I think that’s just what he’s worried about. Getting out there and performing. I don’t think the Matt Ryan thing is going to bother him in the slightest.

Purvis on his big jump in productivity from '06 to '07

“I think it was a combination of everything. Every year of playing football, I’ve grown more mentally with the game. Physically, obviously, I am getting bigger and stronger. But then you’ve got to look at the system. How many times did we throw the ball last year? A percentage of those naturally are going to come to a Tight End. So I was just that guy last year."

Purvis on Jags publicly saying we won’t throw the ball as much.

"I feel like they say that but they’re going to do whatever’s working and whatever gets it done to win. If we have to throw the ball 50 times a game, I don’t think Coach Logan will say 'we gotta balance the offense.' But if we get off to a good start and are running the ball well, I don’t care if I have 0 catches next year…as long as we’re winning."

Purvis on his goals for the season

"I want to develop more as a blocker. A nastier blocker. I have good technique, I just have to get more mean at the point of attack. As far as winning and team goals, getting to Tampa and winning it this year is my biggest goal."

Purvis on how the Tight End blocks differently in the zone blocking scheme

"In the older offense I was more of a heavy, blocking D Ends kind of Tight End. I was stationary. In this offense I move around a lot. I am rarely ever in a three-point stance. I am more of a linebacker-level blocker now. I feel it has made me more finesse…getting to those linebackers, playing with your feet and your hands as opposed to raw power."


Purvis on Dominique Davis

"He’s a young guy, real athletic, kind of raw. Still picking up the system. He’s coming into his own though. He’s delivering some balls that I never would have thought he’d throw when I first saw him throw the ball."

Purvis on the Jags' philosophy on redshirting

"I remember when I started, you come in and you redshirted because you needed to. Offensively you needed to. (I don’t know about the defense.) You needed to come in and redshirt just so you could understand the offense. It was almost impossible to come in and pick it up right away. Although I feel like our offense now is just as complex, it’s easier to pick up. Maybe it’s because I am older and I’ve been through another offense. But we had such a smooth transition as far as freshmen playing…Haden, Momah, Castonzo at Right Tackle. I feel like maybe the system is easier to grasp. Maybe conceptually Coach Bible’s offense was harder to pick up. I don’t know. Maybe they recruit different kids. Who knows?"

Purvis on playing in the NFL one day

"If you start thinking about it – and there’s a lot to think about – you’ll just drive yourself crazy. When football comes it’s going to be all football for me. I kind of block out all the distractions and leave that to handle itself.

"I have a great family. A great support system. They help me with anything that needs to go through as far as NFL distractions."

Ron Brace quotes

As you saw from the pictures, the media sessions are a bit of a free for all. I asked plenty of questions but many of the quotes have already surfaced in other articles. So, for this post, I thought I would provide the bits you might not have read and in more of an open format.

Brace on playing a year without BJ Raji

“I think it benefited me a lot and it’s also going to benefit him too when he comes back. Teams aren’t just going to be able to focus on one. They are going to worry about both of us.”

Brace on improving BC's pass defense

“That was something we noticed we needed to work on during the season as time went on. We had good games against the pass and some bad ones. We also want to put more emphasis on the pass and put more pressure on the quarterback."

Brace on how Raji’s return will impact the defensive alignments

“I think it will be mostly four-man fronts, but we’ll go back and forth [with three man fronts]. Because usually they want to have me and BJ on the field, or me or BJ and one of our four linebackers out there. It’s just the skys the limit with what we might do. We’re just going to throw a bunch of curve balls."

Brace on the summer training

“Every year our workouts get more intense…especially this year. It’s going to help us out even more. As a defensive line unit, we’re trying to work on our explosion, getting off the line. We’re doing a lot of work on our pass defense.”

Brace on interviews and dealing with the media

"I like to talk. People say I am a quite guy but I don’t mind talking at all. "

Brace on replacing vocal leaders

"I feel as though being a leader is not just a person who’s rah rah. You can also lead by example. That’s what I feel our class is more of...we’re more leaders by example. The last class was full of a lot of talkers and the locker room was just crazy. You had Matt and JoLonn, Pruitt, Gos…any given guy out there was a vocal leader. Where I feel our class lead by example. We don’t want to get on you but we still want you to do your job."

Brace on the young defensive ends

“Newman: he’s going to be a little beast at D end. He shows urgency. Urgency to get to the ball. Holloway, coming fresh out of high school. He decided to leave a half a year of high school early to come and train with us. That just shows you how dedicated he is at trying to get better.

"They’re going to bring that pop, that rush that we need."

Brace on video games

“I can remember the first time I was in the game as a starter I called my family about because it cracked me up. They had me in the game at 335, I think it was, but the body type -- you couldn’t tell. They made me look like a defensive end, tall, six pack. I said, I am going to have to buy this game just so I could look at it."

Brace on Brian Toal coming back

"I think it is going to be a big difference. He’s a competitor. He works hard. You can tell by the look on his face that he’s been working hard. He’s a real smart player too. I remember back while watching film, he used to tell us about reads. He brings a lot of experience that will help us, especially the freshmen.

Jags speaks and other links

Here is the audio of Jags' interview sessions from Monday. He sounds as confident as the players did. He joked with the Herald that he had no problem flying under the radar again.

The Globe's article included some notes about Jeff Smith and using Brian Toal on offense again. One note on the Globe...(and I know I whine about this sort of stuff too much) but check out the first line from Tuesday's article:

It is different now for Jeff Jagodzinski.

and then the first line from Monday's article:

It is different this year for Jeff Jagodzinski.

Way to mix it up!

ACC Kickoff news roundup

The Boston media's coverage of events like the ACC Kickoff has been spotty in the past. Thankfully, this year they delivered. The Globe and the Herald both posted multiple articles today.
-- The Globe on Purvis/Crane.
-- Globe notebook column.
-- The Herald's notebook, which mentions Crane and Purvis' high school relationship (I have a feeling we'll be hearing this mentioned every game).
--The Herald's feature on Brace.
-- BC even put together a quotes page from the two seniors.

As for hard BC news, there wasn't much. Jeff Smith's return generated a fair bit of interest, but I am hedging on his contributions. With head injuries one play can make a difference. Whatever we get from him this year will be gravy.

Heather Dinich posted a link dump this morning.

Tony Barnhart asked Purvis how often he is asked about Matt Ryan. So did Ken Tysiac.

All the leading ACC passers hope to have a season like Matt Ryan.

Another article on the ACC's growing pains.

Purvis is quoted in this article about the balance of power in the ACC vis a vis the two divisions.

Our defensive line will have to watch their knees when we play Georgia Tech.

Other news

Doug Flutie entered the College Football Hall of Fame over the weekend.

Jags really connected with highly-touted recruit Anthony LaLota.

Virginia WR Tim Smith is still interested in visiting BC.

Going behind the scenes during the player interviews at the ACC Kickoff

With the ACC holding its annual Football Kickoff just outside of Atlanta, I took the opportunity to meet with Ron Brace and Ryan Purvis and take in the sights and sounds.

First off, the ACC does a great job with the event. It’s held at the Ritz-Carlton at Reynolds Plantation, a golf resort a little over an hour from Atlanta. Planned to the tee, the Kickoff includes a variety of golf and media events. There’s also a series of social activities for bowl committees and league personnel.

Each school has two player in attendance – one offense and one defense (with the exception of Wake, who had two defensive players?). In addition to Purvis and Brace, some of the names you might recognize included Sean Glennon, Drew Weatherford, Cullen Harper, and Jeremy Navarre.

They spilt the players along divisions, with the Atlantic guys doing radio and TV first, while the print and dotcom guys had our chance to interview the Coastal players. Since I was there to see the BC guys (and didn’t have any pressing needs with the other guys) I was able to observe the goings on. Some thoughts:
-- Seemingly every paper south of Richmond and north of Atlanta sent someone. We all read about big daily papers slashing travel budgets and scaling back coverage, yet these second-level papers send reporters. Good for them. It shows that there is an audience for this material.
-- The ESPNers in attendance were Mark Schlabach, Joe Schad, and the most prolific writer in the ACC, Heather Dinich. (Dinich is already posting from the event). Schad was easy to spot. In a sea of polo/golf shirts and khakis, Schad stood out in his dark pants (mighta been jeans), a dark shirt untucked and a dark pinstriped suit jacket. A lot of people like to bash ESPN, but they had (at least) three people there and they all worked every table long and hard. I know we all have the impression that ESPN folks don’t do their homework, but these three did.
-- The players get the short straw at this event. Everyone else has a multi-day stay and get to golf and mingle. The players arrived Saturday afternoon and were on flights back home by Sunday night.

Other names you might recognize included The Sporting News’ Matt Hayes, Mr. College Football Tony Barnhart, and ACC Now’s J.P. Giglio. I may have overlooked a few other hard working guys. These were just the faces I knew or got to meet.

As for the Boston media: the Globe’s Mark Blaudschun, the Herald’s Steve Conroy and the voice of BC football Jon Meterparel all made it down south.

Between sessions, I filled out my preseason ACC football ballot. I am not 100% on what I filled out, but you gotta put something down. I predicted the following order of finish:
Atlantic
1. Clemson
2. Boston College
3. Wake Forest
4. Florida State
5. Maryland
6. North Carolina State
Coastal
1. Virginia Tech
2. North Carolina
3. Miami
4. Georgia Tech
5. Virginia
6. Duke
Champion: Clemson
Preseason Player of the Year: Cullen Harper

"BC Guys"
I’ll have quotes from my interviews with Brace and Purvis in the coming days. But some initial thoughts: both are quality kids. Both are very personable…and patient. Purvis was asked over and over again about life after Matt Ryan and Brace was asked about B.J. Raji ten different ways. Purvis completed his degree in May and Brace just completed his degree this summer. As I sat at the table another funny thing happened -- the guys from the smaller southern papers kept peppering them with the backhanded compliment questions like “were you guys surprised to win the Atlantic last year?” or “are you surprised that you’ve beaten Clemson three years in a row?” or “do you like playing the spoiler?”. Instead of the taking them as signs of disrespect, the guys answered them honestly.

Let me say this too...I’ve felt uneasy about BC’s chances until today. Ryan and Ron both have so much genuine confidence in Chris Crane and the offense, that I am starting to feel things could come together again.

That's Mark Blaudschun to Purvis' right and Steve Conroy to his left.

Brace fields questions.

My warning to Meterparel: "smile, Meter, this is going to be on the internet tomorrow!"
The hotel had plenty of these standing flags promoting the ACC.
ESPN's ACC blogger Heather Dinich interviews Ron Brace.
Sean Glennon had some of the biggest crowds. Standing behind him are ESPN's Mark Schlabach (in red) and the Sporting News Matt Hayes (in blue).
That's Tony Barnhart on the right.
Joe Schad was one of many ESPNers there.
The Coastal flags hung on one end of the room...
The Atlantic on the other.
Every table had two players. The media moves freely and just jumps in with questions, leading to a lot of repitition for the players.