Hafley Talks Turnovers, Missed Tackles, ‘Trusting the Process’ After Loss

Saturday night at Virginia Tech, Boston College coughed up the ball five times, committed nine penalties, and never slowed down a dynamic Hokies rushing attack that finished with 350 yards on the ground. It was the first decisive loss of the Jeff Hafley era.

The rookie head coach told reporters on Sunday, however, that his approach remains the same.

“I'm never going to be one to walk in after a loss and be pouty and change who I am, and all of a sudden start saying stuff to guys that I haven't said all year,” Hafley said. “And I told them that.”

Still, he didn’t hide his frustration with the 40-14 defeat, a game in which BC totaled 435 yards of offense, converted 11-of-18 3rd/4th Downs, and reached the red zone four times.

“Am I pissed off? Yeah, I'm pissed off,” Hafley said.

“But if you look at that tape, it's 17-14 with four minutes left in the third quarter, and we had turned the ball over four times. I mean, think about that. That's what gets you angry. If you look at the system, our offense looked unstoppable.”

The Eagles, who entered the week with the third-worst rushing attack in all of college football, rushed for 30 yards on their opening drive before Pat Garwo committed the first of three first-half turnovers. The next series, David Bailey burst through the trenches for a gain of 14 yards—of course, that was one play before Phil Jurkovec collided with Hunter Long and tossed an errant pitch the junior running back’s way, resulting in another fumble.

Hafley noted that ball security is something that must be addressed, not just in team meetings but on the field. He even suggested that the defensive scout team will be putting an added emphasis on punching and ripping at the rock this week in practice. Hafley is confident that the run game will continue to trend in the right direction, as he reminded reporters that BC’s offensive system is still new for players, a bit more than a month into a season that had minimal spring ball.

“We ran the ball better than we ran the ball all year,” Hafley said. “We did. You saw the cutbacks. You saw the holes. We were getting like 15 yards a pop early in the game. And then the pass protection, too. Phil had time in the pocket yesterday. He really did.”

BC’s offensive line only allowed a Hokies defense that ranked third nationally in sacks per game to bring down Jurkovec behind the line of scrimmage once all night. It was a positive sign for an experienced group that had struggled to click this fall, especially having given up 17 sacks—four more than all of last year—in the first four games of competition.

Jurkovec tallied his fourth 300-yard passing game of the season, but the redshirt sophomore only completed 28 of his 51 pass attempts, marking his second straight game with a sub-55% completion percentage (after clearing 65% in his first three starts). He threw two interceptions, the first of which was nowhere near his intended receiver and capped a brutal game-opening stretch where the Eagles turned the ball over on three of their first four possessions.

The 6-foot-5 dual-threat quarterback made his fair share of plays and spread the ball more than he has all season, hooking up with five different targets four or more times. Wide receivers Jaelen Gill and Jehlani Galloway—who came in with a total of 12 receptions on the year—combined for 10 catches and 172 yards.

But as the game got away from BC late in the second half, Hafley and offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti Jr. debated whether they should remove their breakout transfer from the game.

“We were gonna take [Jurkovec] out, and maybe we should have,” Hafley said. “But our conversation was, ‘I want quick throws, don't let him get hit, he still needs to get experience, he still needs to get better.’”

Hafley conceded Sunday that maybe the decision to keep Jurkovec in the game was a “little risky,” although he was glad that it worked out. At the time, the Eagles were staring at a multi-score deficit, partly because they had shot themselves in the foot with turnovers but also because BC’s defense fell apart in the back half of play.

“We probably missed twice as many tackles yesterday as we've missed all season,” Hafley said. “We've gotta tackle lower, we've gotta wrap up, we've gotta run our feet, and we have to get multiple people around the ball.”

Virginia Tech piled up 194 rushing yards in the second half alone. Often, the Eagles got to Hokies quarterback Hendon Hooker or running back Khalil Herbert in the backfield yet failed to wrap up. As a result, potential TFLs turned into highlight-reel runs. Hooker burned BC on the zone read on a handful of plays, dashing his way to three touchdowns and 164 rushing yards, the most by a Virginia Tech gunslinger since Michael Vick in 2000.

Hafley said that his defense hadn’t played like that all season before Saturday night. He pointed out that he won’t stray away from having live tackling once a week in practice. Hafley gave credit to Hooker and Herbert, but he made it clear that BC needs to execute better on the defensive side of the ball.

Penalties remain a weakness for the Eagles. They were flagged nine times this past weekend for 70 yards. BC is now tied for the 11th-most infractions in the country. Hafley explained that, as the game wore on and fatigue began to set in, the procedural penalties started to ramp up. He mentioned the unnecessary roughness call against Ryan Betro that got him upset on the sideline and elaborated that those are the kinds of penalties that are undisciplined and selfish.

Hafley emphasized Sunday that, regardless of a game outcome, he coaches hard during the week. Win or lose, he said he always goes through the tape and shows his players three things: what needs to be improved, inexcusable mistakes, and the team’s highlights.

He said that he knows that this team is built to weather adversity. After all, it hasn’t produced a positive COVID-19 result since late June and already bounced back from a heartbreaking loss to a top-15 Tar Heels team a few weeks ago. Hafley’s message to his players following Saturday’s humbling 26-point defeat was to not “let circumstance dictate your behavior.”

“I think this team is buying in on trusting the process,” he said. “Yeah, we're in a result-oriented business, and we want to win in everything we do, but if you just look at the end result sometimes, win or lose, you're not looking at the right things.”