Addazio to stand by Brown as QB
BC NOTEBOOK
Boston College quarterback Anthony Brown received a vote of confidence from head coach Steve Addazio ahead of Saturday’s home game against Notre Dame.
“Anthony is ready to rock and roll. He’s our quarterback, and (we’re) looking forward for him to get going,” Addazio said yesterday. “He has a great attitude, he’s got a great mindset, and he’s off and running to a great week of preparation. We’ve got a great future with Anthony, so I couldn’t be more fired up about him.”
The 6-foot-1, 210-pound redshirt freshman is coming off a hard-luck performance in Saturday’s 34-10 home loss to Wake Forest in the ACC opener.
In his second career start, Brown was 11-of29 for 119 yards with a touchdown and three interceptions. Brown’s second pick was returned 30 yards for a touchdown by Wake Forest cornerback Essang Bassey and that put the Demon Deacons up 21-7 with 1:36 to play in the half.
Brown was benched in the third quarter and replaced by Darius Wade, who was equally ineffective against Wake Forest’s stout secondary.
“I really liked a lot of the things I saw on the film,” Addazio said. “(I) had to give (Brown) a chance to take a deep breath (and) press the pause button there for a minute, and we did that.”
Two of Wake Forest’s interceptions were tipped balls on intermediate passes that Addazio insisted should have been caught. Addazio claimed the third pick was his fault for sending in a bad play.
Center stage
Addazio generally was pleased with freshman offensive lineman Ben Petrula, who made his first career start at center as an emergency replacement against Wake Forest.
Petrula never had played center but was Addazio’s best option to replace senior Jon Baker, who suffered a season-ending knee injury in BC’s 23-20 victory against Northern Illinois on Sept. 1.
Baker was replaced for one down by freshman Alec Lindstrom and retuned to play the rest of the game against the Huskies. Baker elected to take a medical redshirt after being diagnosed with a torn ACL in his right knee.
“That’s the position on the offense that has to make the protection calls,” Addazio said. “On any offense, that’s who does it.”
Baker’s usual backup Shane Leonard has been out the past three weeks because of an undisclosed ailment. Addazio said Leonard will begin doing restricted practice this week.
Addazio revealed that veteran left guard Sam Schmal missed practice and was replaced by right tackle John Phillips. West Virginia graduate transfer Marcell Lazard started at right tackle.
Kicked around
Last season Mike Knoll was successful in all three phases of the kicking game. Knoll made 12-of-14 field goals for an 85.7 percent success rate, tops in the ACC.
As the Eagles punter, Knoll led the ACC in punts attempted (94) and punt yardage (3,601) for an impressive 38.3 average. He also kicked off 55 times with 16 touchbacks.
Knoll still handles the punting duties, and he’s doing better than last year. Knoll is averaging 40.6 yards on 16 punts with a long of 52, two touchbacks and seven fair catches.
Knoll lost the kicking job to Colton Lichtenberg, who is 4-of-4 on field goals including the game-winner against Northern Illinois with 2:13 to play. The kickoff duties now are handled by converted soccer star Max Schulze-Geisthovel, who has five touchbacks on nine kicks.