Everything Jeff Hafley had to say at the ACC Kickoff

Q.They always say games are won and lost in the trenches. Last year obviously you guys had some struggles up front, brought in only four starts to the season. This year you bring in 137 starts as a unit. You also bring back all-conference Christian Mahogany there. How do you feel that kind of is really going to -- you got experience for a lot of the young guys last year. How do you feel that's going to pay dividends going forward as a lot of people have said Boston College should have the most improved offensive line in college football?

JEFF HAFLEY: First of all, I love your question. I love your numbers. I agree with your statement.

That guy brings a big smile to my face right now, and he should bring a big smile to our entire team.

Last year in May we found out he got injured, and I still felt pretty good about the line. We only had four, like you said. We had four starts on the whole offensive line, and my biggest concern was, was anybody going to get hurt? Well, then week one or week two we lose our starting right tackle to a torn ACL. Our center tears his meniscus and breaks his left hand, and our left guard tears his labrum.

Now we're taking guys on defense, and we're moving them to offense. I have a ton of respect for these guys. We had guys step up. It was hard. Jackson Ness played guard and played center. He hadn't played center in high school, and he started against Wake Forest at center. Dwayne Allick was a defensive lineman and started every game at guard. Jack Conley, Ozzy Trapilo those guys battled all year, and now a year later we have 137 starts versus four.

At BC you have to run the ball, and we're going to run the ball. The key to our team, the strength of our team needs to be the O-line, and it will be the O-line. It's led by that guy right there. He brings a nastiness and a toughness.

Then you have guys like Drew Kendall, who was a Freshman All-American as a center, who was tough enough to play with a torn meniscus, and he is back.

Ozzy Trapilo at tackle, and Jack Conley, who I already mentioned.

We brought in two transfers, Logan Taylor, who started at Virginia at left tackle, and Kyle Hergel, who is one of the strongest offensive linemen and one of the tougher kids that I have seen. Now there's competition.

Now all those guys who got experience last year and went through it hard, they're competing for jobs. A lot of the guys who were in the two-deep were our starters last year.

That's how it has to be here, and that's what excites me the most about this team is the offensive line. Now, we have to go prove it, and we have to go line up in training camp, and now we're going to be able to practice and be physical, which we weren't able to do.

So as hard as it was last year, I'm really excited and optimistic about the return of Christian along with the rest of our offensive line.

Q.You talked about the return of the offensive linemen and the return of Christian and a lot of that. However, for the players who could tally statistics your returning 80% of that production as well. I know that last year was a very down year where you saw a ton of injuries and whatnot, but is a silver lining and a reason for optimism in Boston College fans not how much you're bringing back from that team, even though they did struggle mightily?

JEFF HAFLEY: Yeah, look at the production. We returned more production I think than most teams in the ACC and maybe in the country.

At the end of the year 37 out of the 44 in our two-deep were first and second year players. Were some ready to play? Maybe not. Some were thrown into fire as true freshmen, and they got a little taste of it.

They went through some really hard times. Then all of a sudden you get a team that's 28-point underdogs that goes into Raleigh as 28-point underdogs. No one thinks we can win the game. We go down I think 14 within the first three minutes. Emmett rallies us back and throws a touchdown to another freshman in Joe Griffin, and we win the game that no one thought we could win.

So you can ask these guys. There's excitement, and there's energy, and our guys are getting older. That's how we have to win at BC. Most of our guys are still underclassmen. We got a lot of juniors and seniors and we brought in some transfers. The attitude, the effort, I think it's contagious.

We're not going to sit up here and talk about how good we are going to be. We have to go play and go to training camp next week, and it's probably as excited as I have been since I have been a head coach to get into a training camp, but we have to go prove it, and we have to get better.

I really like this team. I like the players, and I think they're just as excited as I am.

Q.Some people focus on the problems. Some focus on the solution. Like you said, you're not going to say how good you're going to be because you have to play those games, but when we see you during the season, we're seeing a piece of that iceberg. We're not seeing the majority of all the work that goes in, so culture-wise and building-wise, what do you get excited about at Boston College about what you are doing so that tip of the iceberg is going to look like something positive at the end of the year?

JEFF HAFLEY: I think last year we sat up here and talked about Zay Flowers and Zay could have left. Then you talk about Zay Flowers, who was the 22nd pick in the draft, at the end of the season when we're a three-win team, that guy is playing harder for his teammates than a lot of people.

There's a lot of guys that would have opted out and not played in that game. I mean, there's more examples.

Look at Donovan. Donovan a true sophomore led the ACC in sacks. What do you think happened this offseason? He got called. He got called by schools. He got messaged by schools, and he got offered a lot of money.

We won three games, but we didn't lose our good young players. Same thing with Christian. Christian could have went to the NFL. I'm sure Christian could have went to any team in the country, but he already said it; he wasn't leaving.

Our guys believe in what we're doing. More importantly, our guys believe in each other, and they believe in the coaching staff.

This thing I knew would take some time to build, and I think you're going to see some of those pieces like you talked about as we get going. That's why I'm really excited because I love these guys on this team. I love the players on the team. It makes it a lot of fun to coach them.

Q.You start off with three straight home games to start and then four out of the first five. How important is it to get across to your team about starting strong with having that many home games to start the season?

JEFF HAFLEY: Yeah, you've got to take advantage of that. You have to start fast. You have to use home field advantage. The beauty of it, too, the first three are at noon, so there's consistency. There's time to recover. There's time for these guys after the game to go be with their families, but you're home. You're not traveling.

To have that opportunity to start at home the first three and have as many home games as we do, we need to take advantage of it. We have an unbelievable student section, and we've had an unbelievable fan base this last couple of years, and I'm excited that we get to start fast in front of them.

THE MODERATOR: From the podium, speaking of transition, you've got some coaching changes. You've elevated Coach Shimco to offensive coordinator, Coach Chudzinski is rejoining the team, and then you also have co-defensive coordinators in Coach Abdul-Rahim and Coach Duggan. What is it about what you are trying to put into place plays through those coaches, and what's your strategy in all these coaching additions and changes?

JEFF HAFLEY: I wanted to make sure we got the staff right. I'm really excited about Coach Chud. Coach Chud has an incredible reputation in the National Football League as a play-caller, offensive coordinator, head coach. He has been a big part of just a game management and helping me set some things up and being a big mentor to me.

The fact to kind of bring him on full-team and the development of the scheme and the players is probably as excited as I've been. If you ask these guys, especially Emmett and Christian, I think they'll reiterate that.

I think the combination of him and Steve Shimko, who has worked with our quarterbacks and who I have been around now for three years, very smart. Processes at a high level. I think they really compliment each other well and work together very well. They've had a prior relationship.

So I'm really excited about that. Defensively obviously that's my background, so our defensive scheme is not going to change very much. Sean Duggan was with me at Ohio State. Another really sharp, up-and-coming young coach.

Coach Aazaar, incredible relationship with our players. Him in front of the room is really impressive. Very knowledgeable.

Then I got a chance to bring in Paul Rhoads. Paul was one of my biggest mentors. He helped me get started in football. He was a defensive coordinator at Pitt when I was hired to be -- he hired me to be his GA. Young guy, 25 years old. Then I was hired full-time to be the secondary coach. Kept in touch with him. Probably the guy I've looked up to most as a defensive back coach, young defensive back coach and defensive coach in general. So to have the opportunity to bring him on, it was huge for me. Not only as a great defensive coach, but an ex-head coach, being the ex-head coach at Iowa State. So now I have two ex-head coaches on the staff, which I think is huge.

Q.I'm just wondering how has -- you touched on it a little bit -- how has Logan Taylor fit in since joining you guys? How has the transition been?

JEFF HAFLEY: Love him. He has really changed and developed his body. Obviously he has gotten a little older where, he has three years left. Tough, tenacious, practices really hard, knowledgeable.

He is going to have a chance to be a really, really good football player. I think Emmett is probably pretty excited to have him protecting him.

I know they have a prior relationship playing in, I believe, a year together, but really happy that he is here to come in and compete and help us win games. So I appreciate the question.

Q.Obviously you have some big shoes to fill with Zay Flowers, but can you talk about bring in UCF transfer Ryan O'Keefe, someone who has 2,000 receiving yards and 15 touchdowns throughout his career. He has experience. What does he bring to the pass game having to replace Zay Flowers? And if I may follow up, you said you want to get back to running, which is the identity of Boston College football. How important is it to bring back a running back like Pat Garwo, who has been 1,000-yard rusher in the past?

JEFF HAFLEY: Having Pat Garwo back, it's big-time. Pat and I had a lot of conversations in the offseason. There were some people calling him, and there might have been thoughts with him, I just went through a really tough year after just rushing for 1,000 yards, and then last year, I mean -- last year was last year, and it wasn't. It was hard for him. I think it would have been hard for everybody; right?

But he came back in the spring, and I think he liked what he saw up front. He came to me and said he was going to stay, but that's a guy that I don't think he is talked about enough in the ACC, to be honest with you.

He is just as deserving in my opinion to be sitting up here today. The guy had 1,000 yards two years ago. In all due respect, I think he has a chance to do it again.

I'm really grateful you asked the question and brought him up because he should probably be up here with us as well.

Ryan O'Keefe, one, I think Coach Wyatt, who is our wide receiver coach and pass game coordinator, does as good of a job as any wide receiver Coach I've been around.

What he did with Zay this last year was incredible. Really and I mean that, and I think our wide receivers would tell you the same thing.

I don't want to compare anyone to Zay. Zay was special, and until someone proves it, I'm not going to make those comparisons.

Ryan can fly. Ryan is the fastest punter on our team. He might be one of the fastest players in the ACC. He has had back-to-back thousand -yard seasons, like you said. I love the way he practices. Love the way he fits in with these guys.

Gives us a guy back in the kick returning game that can take one to the house, which we really haven't had in a long time. Can catch a screen and take it the distance like we've all seen if we watched him on the tape. He can make those contested catches down the field.

I think what he will get with Coach Wyatt is I think he will be able to develop like Zay into a complete wideout, so I'm really glad he is here with us.