What Jim Mora Had To Say About BC On Tuesday

“Great challenge this week going to Boston College on the road. They’re playing very, very well. Different football team than we saw last year. I think Coach Hafley’s done an excellent job of stocking his team with talent. It’s a Power 5 team in the ACC. I think bringing in Rob Chudzinski to work with their offense has paid dividends. They’re just very multiple. They’ve got a quarterback who’s an outstanding runner and they utilize that. They’ve got a great running game in particular. It’s just a huge challenge for us and I think that once again, our guys will rise up. I liked a lot of things I saw looking at the tape on Saturday. That’s probably as hard as we’ve played and as physical as we’ve played in a long time. I see massive amounts of improvement, unfortunately, it’s not showing up on the scoreboard and that’s what’s disappointing. We’re just going to keep hammering away and keep trying to get better and try to measure ourselves this week against a Power 5 team that’s 4-3 and in the ACC against little old independent UConn. That’s kind of the mindset.”

On facing Thomas Castellanos

“It was a challenge early in the year (facing mobile quarterbacks), we’ve done a good job against it lately. After Week 2 we’ve kind of been able to put the brakes on that, but this guy’s a different speed, different quickness than we’ve seen. He leads FBS in rushing yardage for a quarterback. He’s as dynamic as you’ll see. You think of guys like Lamar Jackson and you think of guys like Michael Vick and when you watch this kid put his foot in the ground and turn it up field and accelerate and make people miss, he has those traits. Now, he’s obviously much younger than they are and not as established, but he’s on his way to being that. I have great respect for him and he’s going to make plays, but we have to do the best we can to limit him from making plays with his feet. I think we’ve come a long, long, long, long way since the Georgia State game of taking care of quarterbacks, but once again, this is a challenge like one we haven’t seen yet this year.”

On the importance of regional matchups like the one vs. BC and if he’s want to play them regularly

“A lot of the future schedules were decided years ago. They’re adjusted, certainly. I think any time that we can create regional rivalries it’s a good thing. Or, regional matchups because (BC) might not consider this a rivalry, I don’t want to put words in their mouth. Being an independent, it’s hard for us to have repetitive games year-after-year with opponents where you can kind of build up not a hatred, but I guess the only word you can use is rivalry feel. But, yeah, I like playing the teams up here in the Northeast whether it’s Syracuse or Boston College or it’s anybody else. A lot of those decisions are made based upon what they’re allowed to do as well. But, yeah, I’d love to play BC every year. Not because it’s easy, but because it’s hard and because I think it’d be good for our program.”