BC Back To Work Prepping For Western Kentucky

This Tuesday's practice seemed a lot cleaner and more locked in than last Tuesday's. No yelling from any of the staff, it was business-like and productive. Not much to really report out of it, there was a lot of scout team stuff and fundamental work. Scouts from New Orleans, Houston, Jacksonville and Tampa Bay were in the building too.

The one notable thing was that Kye Robichaux was not there.Here's what O'Brien said on him: "I think he's doing better. Got in for one play there during the (MSU) game, but, yeah...definitely doing much better. It's not like, a serious thing. It's just something we've got to monitor and I think he's working hard to get back."

Here's a few other things that stood out during the post-practice interviews with O'Brien, Kam Arnold and Turbo Richard...

O'Brien on getting McGowan more involved with the offense: "We've tried to do what we believe is the best thing for us and what it took to win the game. Sometimes, that means guys aren't going to get as many touches or any touches. It's just the way it is, that's football. 'Shake' is working hard and we're going to continue to try and do things to help him get the ball, but, relative to just saying 'ok, we've got to get this guy the ball,' that's really not how we think. We try to put a game plan together. I just told the team, everything we do, we try to make decisions in the best interest of the team. Everything is about the team. What's the best thing for the team? Shake is working really hard and it just hasn't been there for him yet, but I do believe it will be eventually."

O'Brien on the importance of recruits experiencing the atmosphere Saturday night: "I think recruiting's going well. Recruiting is a daily grind. We recruit every single day. We talked about recruiting this morning in our staff meeting. Every day we do something relative to recruiting. I'll call some recruits tonight, tomorrow night too. I think at the end of the day, you can't really judge the recruiting until they actually get here and play, but I think it's going the right way. We're on the right track with a lot of guys. Winning helps. This atmosphere the other night really helps. Bringing them in the locker room and seeing those things, but at the end of the day you've got to chip away at it every single day."

O'Brien on the points of emphasis during a Tuesday practice compared to a Wednesday: "I'd say Tuesday is more about normal downs, the basics. Maybe if there's some third down that you know you're going to do, or something you know you're going to see you'd practice more third down. But, it's more about first and second down and then it's definitely about the punt team. Schematically, punt protection takes the most work, so we work that two or three times per week and start that on Tuesday. We work different situations like tempo or if there's certain things that might come up in a game that we need to be ready for. And then, obviously a full padded practice we'll concentrate on the run game a lot on both sides of the ball. So, that's basically what we try and do Tuesday. Wednesday is more third down, a little bit more passing, punt return, kick off coverage, some of the things that don't take as many reps to get down or aren't quite as complex."

O'Brien on avoiding a trap game before going back to ACC play: "There should be no trap games for Boston College. Every game that we go out there...we only get 12 opportunities. That term should never be used with BC. Every single game that we play at BC is vital to this program. We only get 12 opportunities, we've got to go out there and make sure we're playing at a high level. As a high level as we can play every single week, every single game."

Kam Arnold on the linebackers and what he's liked along with what they need to improve on: "I think we're flying around. I think guys are getting to the football. I like that we have a high-motor group. I think everybody can play, can go all four quarters. I think we've got a really good high-motor group and we've got guys that just get to the football and want to get to the football. I think there's some things we can do (better). Just getting off blocks, understanding...having eye discipline. Understanding who has what in certain schemes, stuff like that. But, it's just little stuff we're working on every day."

Arnold on having Jaylen Blackwell back around the team: "It's really nice. It's encouraging too. He went through a lot with his injury. It's good to see him back and running around. We're all happy for him and we couldn't be happier to have him back."

Arnold in taking pride on holding teams to field goals: "We treat field goals as a win on defense. We would like to stop them, but sometimes they end up getting in the red zone and they come out with a field goal. But, we treat that as a win because it's all about stopping touchdowns."

Turbo Richard on adjusting to the physicality of Power 5 football: I feel like it was a big change for me transitioning from high school to college. Coming in as the new guy, you've got to learn from the older guys...just following in their footsteps and letting them teach me the ways of college football and learning how things work."

Richard on the dynamic and relationship among the backs in the room: "I feel like we all got a pretty close relationship. We all hold each other accountable. We'll make jokes when the time is necessary, or watching film, just pointing things out to each other in the film room and holding each other accountable and helping each other get better."

Richard on how he got the nickname 'Turbo': My coach gave it to me at nine years old. We would race after practice and I'd just win every race, so he gave me the nickname Turbo."