Opening Statement:
It's been a short week.
We've prepared as well as we can to go play
Cincinnati tomorrow night. Look forward to the
opportunity to be on national TV and play a much
improved Cincinnati football team. They're very
explosive on offense. Looks like they have 10
starters back on defense. It's the same team we
played here last year in Raleigh.
Syracuse and Pitt are joining the
ACC sometime. Between now and then they're
continuing to play their Big East opponents.
Take me through your last year or two at
Boston College, how that was as essentially a
lame duck member of a league.
It wasn't fun, I can
promise you that. The first day that it was
announced, we had to go play Syracuse, if you
remember. That was the night our plane was
broke. We got in at 4:00 in the morning, played at
noon. They were throwing dollar bills at us as we
were exiting the stadium.
From that point, everybody in the Big East
got together and did their best to make sure that
we didn't win a football game in the Big East. It
was everybody against BC in those days.
There's two of them. It's not going to be
an easy ride, especially on the road. They chose
their path just as we at Boston College chose our
path.
Tom, last 10 years there's been a
building boom all over the country. Your
facilities are some of the better ones. How
important are the bricks and mortar facilities to
a program and outside of wins and losses is
there a way to measure the returns on the
investment?
It shows a commitment
to the program. It's an outward, visible sign that
we're committed to play football at the highest
level. I think that's what facilities show.
I think certainly our building, a lot of kids
that are not from this area, never been around, the kids from outlying states, they're wowed by the facilities. That gives you an opportunity, a hook
that maybe somebody doesn't have.
I'm not sure how it can be measured in
wins or losses other than you're a winning program
or you're not.
When you look at Cincinnati's
offense on film, what are the challenges they
pose for your defense?
They have a great
running back in Pead. I don't know what he's
averaging, 200 yards a game or whatever. He's
averaging a lot of rushing yards. He's a strong,
powerful guy who took it all the way down the
boundary for 65 yards on the second time he
carried it against Tennessee.
Collaros is in his second year, leading the
Big East in passing efficiency. If he gets out of the pocket, he's more dangerous than he is if he's in
the pocket throwing the football. They have speed
on the outside in the perimeter. Basically the
center is the only new guy we didn't play last year.
There's a lot of experience on that football team
offensively.
I know you're focused on your team
and Cincinnati, but the last couple years the
ACC struggled to get the national respect it
thinks it deserves. Last weekend was a huge
weekend for the league with some big wins.
Your game on Thursday night on national TV
against a solid Big East team, how important is
it to continue the momentum and build the idea
that the ACC, in a national perception, is right
there at the top?
I think it's important
anytime you have the opportunity to play another
BCS conference school. I think for anybody in our
conference, those are things that we have to make
strides in that direction.
Certainly being on national TV is a good
thing. Certainly we want to win, first of all, for us
and this football team. Secondly, it can't hurt our
conference if we go play well tomorrow night.