Head Coach Jeff Hafley speaks with the media on National Signing Day 2023
All right I I’ll be quick my opening and then I’ll let you guys ask questions just I want to thank our staff uh Jason Tan uh Spencer diau the recruiting staff the video staff Anthony goo um everybody involved with recruiting it’s not just our staff it’s everybody operationally um did an unbelievable job
Um smaller class and I know you probably have questions of why I mean it was done with intent it was done with the intent of as I said a little bit of change in and how I want to attack this class and I think a lot of you have seen why
Lately um but smaller class done on purpose U there’s one more that we’ll add and give you later um just just waiting on some stuff to make it final I feel confident about it um we’ll get that one to you later today but smaller class but very talented I think there
Are certain players on this team that will have a chance to help us right away um but certainly um done with the intent of of going hard into the transfer portal which we’ve done and will’ll continue to do for this class but really excited about these players great kids fit
Boston College fit our culture academic kids um I can’t wait for them to get here so appreciate all the hard work everybody did um but we have a lot of work left to do I mean that’s usually the signing day I remember was usually the end all where
You kind of caught your breath and you stopped um but my phone’s been ringing with about three different people every 20 minutes and I’m getting to know and and trying to continue to um continue to recruit and we’ll probably do that right up until June 6 January 16th when we
Start school again so as many questions as you want go right ahead to that point it it’s obviously not free agency but now more than ever does the day change compared to what you remember back in the day and like even now will you keep calling guys and then talking to kids up
Until whatever 4 or 5:00 or is to pretty much St and you’re just waiting on a couple with high school players yeah there’s one other high school player we’re recruiting that’s it um I feel very confident that we’ll find out shortly um unless something changes um
But but that’s it as far as high school players go we we went after the ones that we signed there were some we some we had to part ways with um but this is the group that we wanted these are the players that we targeted I’m grateful
That they decided to sign with us but that would be it for for high school players it’s just so different right I mean from what I remember was there was your February signing date where you worked really hard you got those guys and you were done and it was all high
School players and you know you’d sign 20 20 25 players at the time was 25 with the initials and yeah so it’s very different cuz while this signing class is done there’s there’s a lot more work to be done in the other recruiting area which is the transfer
Portal you go down the list person person it’s not the list sure um all right Ryan boltwood he’s a tight end out of um California junior college so it’s almost like it’s getting an older player kind of got on him late uh turned on his film uh coach shimko is
The one that first showed me his film um big strong plays with like a kind of defensive mindset violent um very energetic uh kind of guy that when he catches the ball he tries to run through you and accelerate physical on the perimeter he’s a guy that I believe will
Have a chance to to come in and play um and I’m really excited about him Charlie cell a local guy um fell in love with Charlie in our camp one of the most competitive high school athletes that I’ve seen in a long time timed them very fast played offense and defense at Camp
Saw him play live a year and two years ago broke his collar bone so really didn’t get a chance to play this year saw him compete at DB saw him instinctively cover locate the ball go and get up the ball and I offered him in Camp um probably would have blown up
This year with a with a year senior year um two possibly a two sport athlete playing baseball that’s how athletic he is um really excited about him uh camori Dixon a linebacker 612 probably 210 right now uh from Virginia um very athletic linebacker probably could play safety backer probably grow into that
Type of guy who can come downhill get in the Box long athletic um missed his junior year was a very highly recruited as a younger player missed his junior year with an injury came back and I mean we were all about him and that was a
Hard fight at the end he had other people come in but he stuck with us um Jason Flint from Philly defensive tackle defensive end um another kid we had up here quite early um his film’s fun to watch he actually played Wildcat quarterback running back so he’s a
Bigger athlete um he’s definitely not going to play those positions in college but he gives us a big athlete that could probably play enden tackle Jaden lafontan uh from the Brunswick School uh this was a hard fight he’s a offensive lineman uh tackle guard and when I first
Saw him he looks like mahogany that’s like the type of body size that he has very athletic in my opinion he also looks like a really good three technique but he’ll be an offensive lineman for us uh committed to Kentucky it was a really hard fight with him with a bunch of
Schools was committed to Kentucky uh stayed on them stayed consistent I mean in our opinion that’s a local guy one of the top local guys um that there is in the New England area and then we had him up two weekends ago um at the start of
The the period where we could get him back um had him in his mom on campus he was at practice spent a lot of time in my office and uh we were able to flip him that was a big win for us we need to
Do that in New England but he’s got a chance to be a really special player Cedric lot from Texas um you guys probably haven’t seen this kid in many pictures I mean this kid is a long beautiful looking wide receiver saw a lot of seven on seven coach Wyatt did a
Great job with him him saw a lot of seven on seven film of him um hadn’t played much in high school basketball player big- time basketball player I actually went down there two weeks ago and watch him play basketball you want to talk about a smooth soft hand body
Control can dribble goes up and dunks like it’s me playing on a mini basketball net um really good athlete who I think is going to have a chance to be a special player and develop with Coach Wyatt a guy with a ton of ton of upside Ashton McShan uh another Texas
Kid from mcken um I think this kid slipped through the cracks in Texas um and all the local coaches kind of said the same thing when I just visited him really good player instinctive smart competitive great ball skills um really good coverage skills um really good size great kid excited about him Jonathan
Montigue UM quarterback he committed to us over the weekend on the visit um you know we were looking at a couple other quarterbacks and he was up on the visit and got really excited about him and and and got him to commit um just listen to these numbers the kids rush for 2500
Yards he’s had over 40 touchdowns this year I’m talking about this year um 2500 yards over 40 touchdowns and threw for 1500 yards uh you want to talk about an athletic guy and then he’s big he’s over 200 lbs um I would say he’s 6 foot2 and
What a great kid what an athlete and you guys should check out his film if you have not really excited about him uh Judah puit one of the top players um in New Jersey I think he was one of the Jersey players of the year as an offensive lineman um originally was
Committed somewhere else we flipped him pretty early in the process a bunch of kids kept coming bunch of coaches kept coming in to recruit him I appreciate him sticking with us big strong um huge smile that kind of lights up a room um he was up again this weekend hanging out
Watching practice great family um obviously we’re excited about him turbo um running back from Rock Hill South Carolina um you know short stocky not small probably 58 208 210 pounds really good with the ball in his hand had had some huge games he’s one of the best
Backs in all South Carolina one of the best players in South Carolina we were on him early um and he stuck with us and then pop from senagal no I did not go out and visit home visit him in the Sagal um found him in the in the NFL
Academy uh Chris NE did a good job there with OC manura um who were teammates OC got them into the NFL Academy they sent us a bunch of film you want to talk about a giant with a wingspan like I’ve never seen before um and and one of the
Coolest visits that we’ve had you want to talk about someone that gets here with appreciation and a smile on his face over little things that make you kind of take a step back and appreciate it whether it’s sleeping on a comfortable bed first time you’ve been
In a bed that big um eating food just just so grateful for everything that he could have had on the visit with this huge smile on his face and here we are watching and evaluating his film and he’s doing all these drills in sand I mean we’re watching video this kid this
Giant it looks like it’s 110 degrees he’s he’s doing um he’s doing footwork drills in sand he’s running in sand and boy did he look athletic um he’s got a chance guys he he’s a different he’s a different build he’s a tough kid he’s grateful um um and it it’s really cool
To see um it’s cool to see a guy get an opportunity like that and I’m excited to see what he can bring he’d been committed to us for a long time we kind of just kept it quiet um because schools were sniffing around and and we did
Believe that he’d blow up and we wanted to make sure that that this was going to be his home but this guy gosh is he big so small class um you can knock the rating all you want but how do you get high ranking ings you you get 25 people
In your class when you have 11 guys in your class it’s that’s what it’s going to be so it is what it is um not worried about that at all um we’ll combine this with work still to be done on the other recruiting that you now have and we’re
Going to bring in a great group in my opinion it will be a combination will be the best group that we’ve ever brought here and we’ brought in some good athletes and some good football players this one will be different and I can confidently say that um we should get
Some more good new good news here hopefully soon keep our fingers crossed and then within the next day or two we should get we should get some even better news so it’s been fun a lot of hard work I think I went through all of them right got them so any questions about
Any of those guys that I talked about Coach how much did your previous successes kind of play into the recruiting Trail for you like you know obviously Z they can turn on TV on Sunday and see what he’s doing um other guys see like Matt Milani see with Phils
And just guys who were in the NFL just how much did that kind of help with guys who are now on the recruiting Trail and seeing you know BC and seeing what BC can do I think it always helps I mean I think Zay is a billboard every time he’s
Out there catching touchdowns I mean we recruiting wide receivers right now that their favorite player is a flowers I mean same with Simmons same with guys so love Luke Keeley and Matt Ryan and I mean it’s just how it goes right the more success are players have that are
Playing the the better it is for us I think one of the things you’re going to see with the running backs in the o line is we ran the ball really well this year and now all a sudden these running backs want to come and run behind our
Offensive line um we had Zion drafted all of a sudden we can go out and and and and get for Chris lindström right so all of a sudden that makes it a lot easier you know hopefully Mahogany’s a high pick this year and that continues we’ve had two first round picks in back
Toback years so they see the development they see what we can do and then they turn turned on the TV this year and it’s twofold right it’s wow I want to I want to run behind that offensive line or I want to be part of that offensive line
Or it looks at a position that might lack depth and say wow maybe I can play there and be developed by those guys so you kind of get both yeah that was going to be the the second part of it is you know you obviously have a A Younger You
Know skill position guys like Tommy or are younger guys so when they see these guys um you know the opportunity to compete with them not necessarily against them for spots with with them how do they kind of see that that growth and and how do you also talk about that
Growth and say hey we’ve got guys who are playing who were sophomores who could step in and that could be you if you know everything breaks right all these kids want to play early I mean every competitive guy in the country isn’t saying I’m going to play when I’m
A junior they all want the opportunity to play as a freshman some positions of Tri f are harder than others you know it’s probably harder to play offensive line it’s probably harder to be a starting tack left tackle than it is to come in and play wide out for 10 plays a
Game I mean you’re you’re not as developed as now with all these Co years and extra years a 23-year-old defensive end who’s been starting you know in the ACC for four years and you want to try to block that kid down in down out as an 18yar old it’s hard um but they
Certainly all think they have a chance to and maybe they do I mean we’ve played freshman the last two or three years uh we’re going to play the best players and then we’re going to develop the guys that maybe aren’t ready and try to get
Them ready as soon as we can um but I think every kid that you bring in around the country has aspirations of playing early and then when they get here some realize that you know what I’m not going to be ready and some realize wow I I I
Can play right now and then it’s our job to figure that out and play him yeah the NFL Academy guys do you find them more of a project or like are they mostly ready to go no it could be both right some really haven’t played much football some are just getting into
It and just learning the game and yeah th those guys will have a little bit more to go uh but some of those guys have the highest ceiling you know and um some of those guys turn into the to the to the best ones um but it could go
Either way you’re never really going to know until you get your hands on them and see how quickly they pick up to the speed of the game can understand the scheme in the Playbook um but certainly we we’ve got guys from Canada and now we’ve got guys from senagal so we’ll
Keep looking for them you guys will like you’ll know who he is when he walks in the room um coach we don’t see too many um Juno guys transfering like Brian B was a junior college guy coach shimko was a uh was in the junior college had a coaching
Circuit for a little while before he went to the uh before he went to the Seahawks uh as a general information are there restrictions that you have to deal with when you’re getting junior college guys to transfer up into into an NCA program and two is just you know what’s
That circuit kind of give you when you’re out looking at guys well it’s not one that we’ve really um attacked very hard truthfully um he was a qualifier coming out of high school was needed some more development more time in his recruitment process was a great student
Coming out um and just needed extra time you know there’s some there there’s a lot of players in New England that go to prep schools right out on the west coast a lot of them kind of go that Junior College rout to do the same thing U but definitely
Not one that we’ve attacked very hard he just he kind of popped up late we saw his tape he went on a couple other visits um so he picked up steam late um but Ryan’s a guy we really we really liked a lot definitely um different different um recruitment for him and
Different path that he took but I think he’s a really good fit here does he transfer in as a as a freshman he will be yes I believe he will be a freshman yes he’ll be a sophomore so he’ll will be really a seconde player
Okay touched on a bit but how much do you look at you know what we need versus Talent is it like you know we need to you know X your discuss is really good how do you balance that it’s hard it’s really hard because it used to be where
You would look at you used to had it all laid out right your freshman seniors Juniors um red shirts how many years each kid had left and you kind of knew who you were going to have to replace each year you just don’t know who you’re
Going to have to replace anymore so it could be in this class we know we need to take four offensive linemen and then all of a sudden you need like you might need more right it’s like okay we don’t think we’re going to need any receivers
But then two receivers leave and all of a sudden you got to go recruit two more so it’s really hard to manage a roster you just I’ve started to look at positions where you really need depth and you just are always going to attack those positions regardless you know um
And then there’s certain players where you say I I’m not passing up on this guy he’s too good of a player we’re taking them and cuz you just never know right now I mean there’s no way to predict I mean if you look at it right now it’s
We’ve been really fortunate our our starters our older players they’ve stayed right we got to go through the whole spring portal window again and then the hard part after the spring is if if kids decide to go into the transfer portal at the end of the spring
The only input is the transfer portal whoever’s left in the transfer portal you’re not going to there’s not going to be a high school recruit class to do that so you kind of got to take some guesses of we’re going to overload at this position um but it’s hard now it
Makes it really hard I mean what if a school after spring recruit what if a school after Spring ball loses like five guys at one position then it’s how do you replace that so managing a roster has become really challenging so the high need positions where you have to
Have depth have become a priority um and then just never saying no to a really good player It’s Tricky man really has become tricky time for one more we talked a lot about keeping a fence around New England only two kids here was it by Design or
Just kind I’ve never ever used the word keeping a fence around New England um General this I’m going to recruit and evaluate New England um as hard as we can and we’ll continue to do that and whether it’s a kid who had minimal offers um or a kid who was highly
Recruited committed to an SEC school um I think it’s really important to look here first and evaluate here because we can get in person and see them in Camp more um but recruiting everywhere has become so National right I was I was talking to an ex player about that this
Morning actually who played here um he used to be a Northeast kid and used to look at the colleges in the Northeast um used to be a northeast school and look at the players in the Northeast and now West Coast Schools are coming to get East Coast guys East Coast
Kids want to go to the West Coast West Coast kids it it’s just but it will always start here for sure that will always be really important to me I think this is really good football it’s well coached um and I think there’s a lot of players who are later
Bloomers um that go on and become really good college football players and I have a lot of respect for that um and we need to keep doing a good job and giving those guys the first look and and and that’s something that we’ll do um but then there’s always
Going to be there’s always going to be the kid that doesn’t want to stay home and might love BC and just not want to come to BC might want to get away um and then there’s some kids honestly they’ll want to find their way back and that’s
Why you always leave people on good terms and have good relationships because with this portal now you never know when they’re going to come back to you um and then it’s our decision to say yes or no not theirs anymore um but I’m excited about the local guys
That we got I’m excited about all these guys that we got in general it’s a smaller class within my opinion world we got two local guys I mean we got Charlie from Charlie’s I consider a local guy um Jaden’s a local guy you got two local guys right there
So I’m excited about them two of the 11 and then maybe some local guys being announced down the road here we’ll see anyone else Dan you got a big smile on your face what’s the reward tonight the reward we got we got practice I was say
You’re not going to like no no like good takeout that’s how it used to be back in the day when it was in February I remember um going out and really celebrating last year we I took I took the staff out too but we’ve got 2:30 special teams Meeting 3:00 offense
Defense meeting practice and then I’m going to take the team the top golf tonight finals was it was the last day so I’m going to take the team out tonight and play some top gol so there will be a reward for the players tonight for doing a good job and just getting
Out and hanging out with them a little bit they’ve been bogged down with football in finals
