ESPN College Football

Posted by ESPN.com's Heather Dinich

Your front seven, I know you have to plug those holes on the interior line and at linebacker. How have those guys been coming along?

FS: The up-front guys, we have some young, inexperienced guys, we don't have enough depth there. The issue at linebacker is just as critical as at quarterback. If you had to draw a parallel, right now we're missing our two most important cogs at linebacker over there unexpectedly. We have some guys who are inexperienced who have to play and are untested talent-wise. That's just as big of a concern as the quarterback, really.

How have you handled all this? Are you losing sleep at night?

FS: First of all, a lot of the concerns are not new, I knew going in. One of the biggest surprises was to find out the problems were just as bad as I'd been telling everybody. I understood what was going on. We've got a plan. We know how to fix it, we know how to get better. We're anxious to see how it's all going to turn out, but we're not losing sleep -- yet.

Does it help to bring in a new offensive coordinator when you don't have quarterbacks who were necessarily entrenched in the old system?

FS: It helps to bring in Gary Tranquill. Gary is tailor-made for what we needed here. He was the first guy who came to my mind and thank God he's here. It's certainly very challenging and you need an experienced guy who's been around and is not going to be flustered by the situation, and that certainly is Gary. I just feel very fortunate every day to go out to practice knowing that that's in his hands.

What's the overall attitude of the team right now? Do you sense these guys are really itching to prove they can exceed people's expectations again?

FS: That's always been the case here. That's sort of the mindset. We're trying to develop an attitude ... They're young and inexperienced. Some of our leaders aren't out there, and we're unsettled at quarterback. You've been following sports, that can be very unsettling as far as leadership and personnel, and the team and dynamics. We're trying to find ourselves here. We're seeing improvement in that area, but we've got to get the right attitude.

How's Mark (Herzlich) doing?

FS: I talked to him about a week ago. He's in whatever stage of treatment it is right now. He sounded fine. Some days are worse than others, obviously. He's planning on being back here in early September and joining us.

Where do you set your goals at right now? Do you say, 'hey, we're trying to win the ACC title,' or are you just taking it one day at a time right now?

FS: We have obviously team goals, and that's always the case. You have to have those. In the context of one day at a time and in order to get to those goals, there's a lot of little things that have to be taken care of. That's where we're at with that. We talk about goals, we have aspirations, but we're realistic. We understand what people think of us and why. It's not like somebody just came off outer space and decided how good we're going to be. There's reasons. That's the way it always is in football.

Posted by ESPN.com's Heather Dinich

Boston College has now gone through 10 practices, so I thought it would be a good time to check in with first-year coach Frank Spaziani. I had a lot of questions, but through no fault of his own, Spaz doesn't quite have a lot of answers right now. That doesn't mean it's all doom and gloom in Chestnut Hill, it just means that progress is slow and they're realistic about the obstacles they've got to overcome. Here are the highlights of our interview:

	AP Photo/Michael Dwyer
	Boston College coach Frank Spaziani is looking for answers.

How do your quarterbacks look? It seems like they struggled a little bit during the scrimmage.

Frank Spaziani: They look like they need work.

Is there a frontrunner?

FS: We gave them all equal work for the first scrimmage, which was six or seven practices and then you have to get some continuity and some unity, so we've divvied up the practice a little bit different. That's where we're at right now.

Can you tell me who's taking the most reps at No. 1?

FS: We don't have a one, but right now (Dave) Shinskie is getting more of the reps as opposed to 25, 25, 25.

With Shinksie, is it a matter of him being rusty?

FS: Rusty is not the word because rusty implies to me he played quarterback, and he never did it at this level. He's got the physical skills, it's more about learning and understanding what happens at this level. I wouldn't say he's rusty. He's learning.

The drills that you guys are working on right now with those guys, how much of it is fundamentals, and how much is the offense you're going to run?

FS: We've had to balance that. We always work on fundamentals. Our whole deal here is fundamentals. Obviously we've got to get a team ready to play. Quarterback is not the only issue we've got around here. We've got a lot of other issues too. We've had to make some decisions and push forward as far as getting into executing some stuff. We don't have to decide that right now, but we're making progress.

As far as the running backs go, I would think that would be a strength for you guys, especially with that offensive line. Where have you seen the improvement in guys like Montel (Harris) and Josh (Haden), who should be taking another step this year for you guys?

FS: Those guys, they fundamentally have improved, but because of what I alluded to earlier, our continuity, running four quarterbacks and trying to find out some other things, we haven't been running on all eight cylinders. We've got a better idea of what we can do and what we can't do.

Do you feel like your situation and inexperience at quarterback will force you to run the ball a majority of the time?

FS: No.

Really?

FS: There are three phases. We're going to take them all into consideration and figure out what is our best plan of attack to win. On the surface that would look like it is, but you can't play like that these days, unless you're a wishbone team or whatever Georgia Tech is. And they throw the ball. You just can't run like in the old days.

Check back in a bit to see what Spaz had to say about this year's goals, how the front seven have been progressing, and what kind of a toll all of these obstacles have had on him.