We're back, baby.

BC was back inside and outside of Fish Field House on Thursday morning for the first official training camp practice. Here's everything from Haf's presser following the two hour session...

ON THE CHUDZINSKI/SHIMKO COLLABORATION

"I think it's a really good combination with a ton of knowledge and experience. In front of the room (Chud) it's like having another head coach in front of the room and I think the world of Steve. he's really bright and has great ideas. He's really good with the players and processes at a really high level the way he sees the game. I think it's a really cool combination and they have a prior relationship that goes back, so it's a really good working environment."

ON CHUDZINSKI/SHINKO'S RAPPORT WITH PLAYERS

"It's great. Chud's been a guy who's been around who has a relationship with the players. There's guys that have gone to him in the past and obviously, Steve's been here coaching the QB's. It's like having a head coach over there with the offensive side of the ball. They're great with the players. He (Chudzinski) wants to help develop players. He wants to help develop the staff on that side. He's in football for all the right reasons and we are so, so fortunate...I don't think people realize what a big deal it is to have him now full time and coaching. It's a really big deal. Then, on defense, you've got Coach Rhoads...you've got two ex-head coaches now for me to bounce ideas off of or someone can pull them aside and say 'het, what about this?' it's extremely helpful to have that and being around Coach Rhoads again is awesome."

ON THE DUGGAN/AAZAAR COLLABORATION

"Look, they both have their strengths and I'm very involved, so I'm piecing it together with them and making sure our vision is all the same. Those two are extremely close and they work very well together and are very good in front of a room. I think Aazaar is a future head coach and then with Sean...I've said it before, he's one of the smartest coaches I've been around, period. I've said that since the day I met him at Ohio State and he was next to me in the booth. I think it's a great combination. There's no egos. It's kind of like the offense right now, there's no egos. There's clearly defined leadership roles we have that I don't really need to get into on who's here, who's here and who's here and (the players) respect and follow that, but there's no egos. if you've got Coach Wyatt in the room - who I think the world of - he's got ideas and it's like 'yeah, let's go,' so I love the staff. I love the working environment. I love the way they treat the players. They instill confidence in the players. they're really good teachers, but most importantly, they're really good people and our kids see that. We have really good kids right now."

ON WHY LAST YEAR UNFOLDED THE WAY IT DID

"I reflected on that in spring, I reflected on that at ACC Media Day, it's full speed ahead. That's all behind us now. this is as excited as I've been to coach a group that loves football and loves playing with each other. That's all behind us. We talked about it plenty in the spring."

ON WHAT A SUCCESSFUL SEASON WOULD BE IN HIS EYES

"Let's talk about making camp a success first. That's kind of Part 1 of this thing. We've got to stay healthy, We've got to continue coming together as a team. This is as close of a group as we've had since I've been here. We've got to keep doing that and establish our culture, who we are and what we want to be when we come out of this 25 days from now. The most important part is we have to learn how to practice with each other and protect your teammates. It doesn't mean we don't practice hard, it means if you've got a violent cheap shot on a guy, don't take it. Protect him. Our camp will be a success in my mind if we stay healthy, build our culture and bring this team closer together. It's as close as they've been since I've been here. Then, we've got to learn to scheme inside and out. There's some new pieces on offense we have to really get down before we play the opener. On top of that, on defense we're doing some stuff I'm excited about, but let's define how camp will be a success before we go into the season and play one game at a time."

ON WEIGHTS OF GUYS GOING UP AND WORK IN THE OFFSEASON

"Phil Matusz and his strength staff probably don't get enough credit and don't get talked about enough. June's really hard on coaches right now. in the month of June we have our players, we have to recruit high school players, we have camps and we have official visits. So, when we're in (the building) we kind of catch our breath in July. Those strength guys go in July, that's their season. Our guys don't leave. There's early mornings and late days with those strength coaches. They're running, they're lifting and doing football stuff on their own. That's really guided by that strength staff. We're getting older. That first class we brought in is now juniors Donovan (Ezeiruaku's group), you can really see the development from a guy who was under 210 lbs., now he's 254 lbs. You see how big and strong we're getting. Our defensive ends are bigger and faster and even more explosive. Our wideouts, same thing. Our offensive line. Guys are getting older and as they develop in the weight room and work hard, they're getting older and bigger. That's as good as we've looked physically and from a speed and an explosive standpoint. It also helps when your players are turning into juniors and becoming men."

ON IF HE'S CHANGED ANYTHING ABOUT CAMP NOW IN YEAR 4

"Yeah. Every camp's got to be different. You can't just roll out the schedule you used from last year and say 'this is what camp's going to be.' Each year, you take notes every day. there's notes I have down today thinking ahead, practice one, what can we do better, what can we do different? You keep going over it. I've changed up how we're meeting in the afternoon because I want players to be off and go do more recovery. There's different ways I want to do walkthroughs at night. So, yeah, you have to change. It's about getting better every single year. Not just on the field, but what can we do as a staff to maximize these days and do better. That's certainly something we look heard at. We'll see how these first five go and then we'll re-evaluate the schedule and the way we're practicing right now. We're in helmets. We have to be in helmets for a while, so you probably can't notice much difference yet with no tackling."

ON BEING WILLING TO PLAY YOUNGER GUYS SOONER

"It's not just young guys. It's...if a guy's deserving of playing and he shows it on the field, we've got to get him in. If we have to find a role for him, we gotta get a role for him. There's a lot of examples of that last year where we started putting those guys in and they started making plays. As we're getting a little bit older, we won't have to rely on those true freshman with as much depth, but there's freshmen, just watching some of the mid-years that came in and being around this summer, there's some freshman that have a chance to help us. If they're ready and they can do it, we're going to play them. At the end of practice today, we had a period of just those guys because we need to do that more. In camp you can o ones, twos, threes, but sometimes you don't get everybody in. So, we have periods now built in - which we haven't done in the past - where we're just going to let those guys go play more because we've got to develop them. If a guy's ready to play we've got to get him in."

ON HAVING MAHOGANY BACK

"Just listening to him (at ACC Media Day), if you listen to all those guys I was really proud how they presented themselves and the way they spoke. He brings a toughness and nastiness and he's a very large human being added back to our offensive line. He kind of sets the tone when he's in that huddle. If you're playing alongside him, you better get ready to go. He's going to let you know. It's awesome to have him back. It's a blessing to have him back and he's really matured. I'm excited to see what he can do this year."

ON CHRIS SNEE'S ROLE

"Yeah, he's been with us now. He's in an analyst/consultant role. Just to have Chris Snee - one of the best offensive linemen not only to play at BC but in the NFL, that guy should be in the Hall of Fame one day - just to have him around to kind of mentor off the field and mentor those young offensive linemen, it's unbelievable. Great human being. Phenomenal football player. We're lucky to have him around."

ON HOW APPLEBAUM CAN HELP TURN THE O-LINE AROUND

"He's got players back. The first question I was asked at ACC Media Day...we had four starts total coming into camp. Last year coming into camp, we had four starts, this year we're like (140). Matt's got a really good relationship with a lot of those players. Matt's the only coach Christian's played for, he's had him for two years. Those guys are really close. Drew Kendall was recruited by him, they're really close. They've got a great bond with him. Matt's really intelligent and he gets those guys to play really hard. We've got depth. There's competition. Right now, there's battles at the tackle position, guard position...it's going to be interesting to see how it pans out. You have a lot of guys that played last year and got valuable experience. unfortunately, some of those guys might be backups and three's all of a sudden. That's how you build depth. That's what you need with the offensive line. Kyle Hergel's obviously been a really good addition. Strong, tough, he's kind of like Christian. He has that same mindset, as does Kendall. There's a nastiness to that group. We brought in Logan (Taylor) who's really talented. Don't forget Kevin Cline who was a starter and got hurt Week 2 last year. He's back and just about full-go right now. Jack Conley has played more football than most of these guys and Bowry. You've got some serious competition going on here. That's how it's got to be. We're got to run the ball. We've got to have defensive linemen. It's so much fun being out there being able to go three's and be competitive on the line of scrimmage. There were times where we didn't have enough bodies (last year). It was 'who's going to play guard today?' Now, it's 'who's going to win the job?' Let's go run the football and run it over and over again and wear them out on Saturday."

ON BEING PICKED 13TH OUT OF 14 TEAMS IN THE ACC

"I think we've been picked 13th...we were picked 13th my first year. i think we were picked 13th the previous two years. Yeah, I think you can motivation when you see it if you're any type of competitor, but that where's off after a while. What motivates you? It's got to be your teammates. The players motivate me. The coaches motivate me. Being the head coach at BC and the fans and the alumni and people motivate me. You can carry a chip on your shoulder, but that's not real. That disappears after a while. We've got to go prove it. Everyone's thinking about last year, that's why we were picked 13th. This isn't last year. That's not last year's team. They know it. They don't need to talk about it. They don't need to see us picked 13th, it's what we'd expect to be picked after last year and the way we played last year. We've got to go play the game. Let's see where we finish, not where we start."

ON ANY POSITION GROUPS STANDING OUT EARLY

"The D-line. We've got four defensive tackles now, which is something we've never had. Big-bodied tackles and we have four ends that have playing experience. It's the lines and that's how we need to win here. We've got to be good up front and physical up front. Our ends are bigger now. We recruited some undersized guys that can run and have arm length. Now they're putting on the weight and they're violent and they're fast. Shittah looks unbelievable. Donovan's out there...we've talked about him. Neto looks great. Edwin - I think - had two sacks last year in the last game of the season, he's got experience now. That's four ends we just talked about and we've got more guys in the middle and guys in the transfer portal that we've added, we're bigger up front. That to me - and then the wideout group. I think we all wish Zay would pop through the door right now with his big smile and light up the room, but we're all happy for Zay and what he's doing right now in Baltimore, but it's a good, solid group of players. People talk about Ryan O'Keefe who can fly and he was running today. Don't forget you've got Joe Griffin. Before he got hurt he was playing really well. Dino Tomlin did a nice job coming in. Lewis Bond is a guy that flashed last year at times too. There's guys im there that are going to have a role and be really, really good players. Taji's a big guy no one's talking about. He's a guy that can do a bunch of different things. Jaden Williams. Jaden probably should have been the first guy I've mentioned. He's played a lot of football here and he's fast. We all miss Zay. I'll miss Zay for the rest of my life, but we've got guys that could have a great year and they have a great coach (Wyatt). We've got some freshman in that group...keep an eye out on some of those young guys. We brought in some good wideouts. The Zay effect is real with some of the players we were able to recruit. He opened some people's eyes that you can come here as a wideout and be a first round pick."

ON O'KEEFE BEING A FACTOR IN THE RETURN GAME

"Yeah. To get a guy...do you know what it's like as a coach when you've got to kick off to a guy that could take it back any time? You think that's fun? No. Now you've got a guy who can take a kick back anytime, that's fun. He's got to be our returner, man. That guy can catch it if you've seen his highlights - you start at the 45 you've got a better chance of scoring than at the 20. I'm excited he'll be back there...he's working on doing punt returns. Jaden can do punts, we've got a few other guys working on returning punts. We've got a couple young guys who were good punt returners in high school. We'll see."

ON THE IMPORTANCE OF THE RETURN GAME THIS YEAR

"It's huge. Travis (Levy) hit a couple good ones when we first got here. I think it's just a weapon. What are you going to do, not kick to him? Kick a touchback every time? Which people can do, but yeah, that's a big factor to have a threat like that back there. I'm excited to see him. He's fast man, he's a fast player. He's a good worker and a great kid."