Head coach Steve Addazio announced the promotion of linebackers coach Bill Sheridan to defensive coordinator during Wednesday afternoon's Spring Football Preview press conference. Jim Reid will remain on the staff as the defensive ends coach.
"Bill has got a great background, tremendous background as a coordinator in the NFL," Addazio said. "Been in every major college program but has coordinated at the Tampa Bay Bucs, coordinated at the New York Giants, and he's going to do a fantastic job here with our defense."
Sheridan climbed the college ranks as a position coach at Michigan State (1998-2000), Notre Dame (2001), and Michigan (2002-04). In 2005, he was hired as the linebackers coach for the New York Giants, where he won a Super Bowl in 2008. When Sheridan became the Giants' DC in 2009, his defense allowed the second-most points in team history. In his second stint as a DC for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 2012-13, Sheridan's defenses ranked 21st and 23rd in the league.
At BC, Sheridan said he'd base his defense on three principles: improving daily, maintaining physical and mental toughness, and emphasizing third-down defense. Last year, the Eagles' defense ranked 49th in the country on third down. Sheridan, Reid, and new defensive backs coach Eric Lewis have the challenge of replicating those numbers with a unit that lost eight starters this offseason.
In his 30 minutes with the media, Addazio reflected on the end to last year, explained why he thinks the new staff will encourage competition, and hinted at some breakout candidates for next season.
On the new additions to the roster:
"We have three mid-years here. You have Sam Johnson, Zion Johnson, Ethon Williams, and Izaiah Henderson. Izaiah is a defensive lineman that you know from Mater Dei down in South Jersey. Zion is a transfer from Davidson. Ethon is from Maryland, and Sam is from Detroit. You guys are aware of those guys from signing day. But they're here early, and obviously getting a jump start on everything, which is fantastic."
On the offensive line:
"Yeah, we lost Chris Lindstrom, who a lot of people were asking me why he was playing. Well, he's going to be drafted probably in the first or second round. Aaron Monteiro we lose, Jon Baker.
But part of recruiting, having a chance to be here with some longevity, in six years we've recruited well, and we've got guys that I'm excited about coming in here right now. I mean, John Phillips has emerged to be a really outstanding player, and Ben Petrula is an outstanding player, and Alec Lindstrom is going to be elite at the center position. Tony Palazzolo has waited for his opportunity to play here and is ready to play here.
Our level of play at the offensive line will not drop off at all. I mean, and I think I'm pretty qualified to make that statement. So we're going to have a great front."
On the receiving corps:
"Our tight ends, there's not a better tight end room in the country. What are we talking about here? We're going to lose a third-round pick, fourth-round, fifth-round pick in Sweeney, but we've got draft picks in that room, and not just one. So we're going to several great tight ends, Jake Burt and Christian Garrison and Hunter Long and Korab Idrizi and Ray Marten. I mean, there's not a shortage of those guys now.
The receiver position, Kobay is back, who's an elite player in the ACC. We lost Mike and Jeff, but Ben Glines is playing both positions and is an elite player, and Travis Levy is, oh, by the way, going to play both positions. I mean, our mindset is how are we going to have two really talented guys on—get them all out on the field. Put the best players on the field. Noah Jordan-Williams will have a great year, CJ Lewis will have a great year, Jehlani Galloway we're really, really excited about."
On the effect of BC's cancelled bowl game:
"As I told you before, if you were in that locker room, the level of disappointment and the sadness for the seniors was pretty high.
But I think that there is a sense of a hunger. I mean, we prepared so hard for that bowl game, and we were so ready to play that bowl game and felt like the rug came out from under us.
But I think it set the stage for a lot of these young guys to get a tremendous amount of work. Every year when you go into these bowl games it gives you that extra practice time, and I think we utilized it well this year. And we had a hell of a lot of the older guys out and a lot of these younger guys got a chance to really work, and I think they're hungry to make their mark. And I think coming off that game, or the lack thereof of that game, really had a tremendous jolt in terms of dying to get back on the field type of thing."
On replacing Michael Walker in the return game:
"Jason Maitre is a young guy who's actually out for the spring but that had a high skill level there. We've got a couple guys coming in that are—Zay Flowers is electric. He's an electric guy. You know, Travis Levy will for sure have pieces there. So you'll see those guys in there."
On players who stood out during bowl prep:
"EJ Perry had an unbelievable bowl prep. Hunter Long was phenomenal, Alec Lindstrom, fantastic bowl prep, Anthony Palazzolo. Anthony Palazzolo did a great job in bowl prep. Jason Maitre had gotten hurt. That's that injury that he had to have fixed.
I thought Elijah Jones did a great job with bowl prep. I thought the young secondary guys, the DB's back there, Mike Palmer and Tate Haynes, those guys, Jehlani Galloway had a chance to really shine as a receiver in the bowl prep. I thought Noah Jordan-Williams did a great job. I'm really excited about Noah Jordan-Williams at the receiver position. We have been for a while. I think he's about ready now to pop.
I thought Jaleel Berry was a guy that really has come a long way on the defensive front. Bill can elaborate on that a little more. He got himself in shape. He can run. He's trim. I think that guy has a chance to really go.
And of course I told you Brandon Barlow came a long way at the end of the year and so did Marcus Valdez and Joe Luchetti. Joe Luchetti had a chance to prepare like a starter in the bowl prep. I know I'm saying a few, but those guys all got a lot of work. Mm-hmm.
You know, David is going to be an unbelievable tailback, and he had a lot of work in the bowl prep. He looks great. He's trimmed down a little bit. He's 250-something pounds, and now he's down to like 240, which is still a huge back. But I think David Bailey is a real talent. He had a really good bowl prep.
Sometimes you watch these freshmen, it takes them a while, you know, and then all of a sudden they start coming. AJ is a freshman, it happened in the second half of his freshman year, but all those guys, you can see them starting to come.
You know another guy? Finn Dirstine. Finn Dirstine went from like 330 to 305, and he looks fantastic. Tyler Vrabel, he looks fantastic. Those are two guys you can really see emerge this year. They're emerging."
On Hamp Cheevers' NFL Draft prospects:
"I think Hamp could have benefited from being here another year, to be transparent with you. But Hamp felt this was in his best interest. He's an explosive guy. He's going to have to get bigger. He's got really good ball skills. He's got really good coverage ability. He made a lot of plays. I think he was just starting—you're starting to really see the emergence of Hamp. So I think he'll do well in the combine. And I would think he'd have a great opportunity ahead of him. I mean, we're certainly all cheering for him.
But you know, you get—you go into that arena and the margin for error is small, so I hope he has a great workout here pro day and a great combine. He's a terrific kid, and we wish him nothing but the best."
On the ups and downs of last season:
"In the tenth week of the season, we were 7-2, on GameDay, 17th in the country, playing Clemson for the conference championship. Well, if they signed me up for that right now, I'm taking that again right now. That's not bad at that point in time.
Now, the outcome, the outcome was not where we wanted it to be, but I think in the same breath, the outcome wasn't where it wanted to be for a lot of people playing Clemson. I saw the last two games of that year against Alabama and Notre Dame, and I'd say we played them every bit as good if not better without our starting quarterback.
But the reality of it is we did not win that game. So in week 10, we fell short of our goal, which was to compete and win a conference championship.
I would say to you after that game, we were very disappointed in the next week. That was a game that we felt we dominated that game and lost that game. And then we played an outstanding Syracuse team with a veteran quarterback who's one of the more elite players in the country.
We ended up with seven wins. We ended up with a chance to play in a bowl game for eight wins. Would I have liked that to have been better? Sure, but I thought that was still another outstanding season. But our goal is to do better than that."
On whether Anthony Brown is "the guy" this year:
"You know, yeah. I mean, I always feel that he's the starter. And he's done a phenomenal job, and he had an outstanding year. But having said that, we're going to compete. Mike [Bajakian] is going to get up here and talk about it. He's coming in here—you know what the beautiful thing is sometimes when you have new coaches coming in? Everybody starts from the same spot, and I love that. And I think it just creates a really great competition because he's going to evaluate it the way he sees it, and I've told him that. I want him to do that. So I think that's great.
So there's going to be some real healthy competition—I mean, Matt McDonald, all of them. I mean, if I'm a quarterback right now, I'm excited. I'm fired up; I've got a chance; I've got someone to come in here. I want to show what I can do.
And I think if your quarterback is a guy that wants to rest on what's perceived that he is, call it your laurels for lack of a better word to say, then you're not really a true vicious competitor, because if you're a real competitor, you never feel like that. You always feel like you've got an edge to you and you've got something to prove, and I think all those guys feel that way, and I think Mike is going to be the kind of guy that is going to embrace them and challenge them, and I think—I'd say they're all excited for that. It's going to bring the best out in all of them. It's a new beginning, fantastic.
Same in the back end with Eric; he's coming in here, it's a clean slate. That's cool. It's great. You know, and I'm looking forward to it. I can't wait to see how these guys—what their assessments are. I'm excited about it, you know.
I like a little edge. Anybody doesn't want to be too comfortable, and I think that's good. And there will be a little edge, and it'll be nice. Bill is going to look at it through a different lens. I mean, that's good. He's fired up. He'll tell you. I'm excited for you guys to talk to those guys. You don't need to talk to me. You hear the same stuff from me. You get to talk to those guys; it's a lot better than talking to me anyways."
