Boston College coach Bill O’Brien eager to embrace challenges in Year 1 leading Eagles

Bill O’Brien knows how difficult you find it to win at Boston College. He’s heard this left and right since he took over the BC program in February. After spending last season as the New England Patriots’ offensive coordinator, O’Brien was tapped to take on the same role as Ryan Day at Ohio State before the Boston College position opened up late in the cycle. Jeff Hafley’s decision to leave BC for a defensive coordinator role in the NFL has led many to wonder if more college coaches would abandon the headaches of the transfer portal and name, image and likeness for the professional ranks.

Many of these problems are compounded at a place like Boston College, which doesn’t have the same kind of resources that many blue-blood programs can invest in their teams. For O’Brien, it was the challenges that drew him to the job.

“Without a shadow of a doubt, it’s a motivating factor for me,” O’Brien told CBS Sports. “All I hear is that it’s a hard job. But Boston College is a very special and unique place for me and my family. I’m from here and when I was a kid, I grew up dreaming of being the head coach at Boston College. I watched Jack Bicknell, I watched Tom Coughlin when I was younger and then Tom O’Brien while training what they did here.

“Every job I’ve had has been difficult. I had the job at Penn State right after Joe Paterno. I had the job with the Houston Texans in the National Football League. (Also) working as an assistant in the NFL with the Patriots — those are not easy jobs.”

O’Brien learns that no one has ever described the job for Bill Belichick and Nick Saban as easy, and he quickly laughs and agrees.

“Without a doubt,” he said.

The Boston native takes over a Boston College program that went 7-6 last season under Hafley, including a Fenway Bowl victory over future ACC foe SMU. We recently caught up with O’Brien to discuss what he inherited at BC, the lessons he learned working for Saban at Alabama and more. The conversation has been lightly condensed and edited for clarity.

CBS Sports: You were at Alabama at the start of the NIL (2021-2022 seasons) and then spent last season with the Patriots. Just in the year since you left college football, how much have things changed?

Bill O’Brien: Things change very quickly. When I was at Alabama we had Bryce Young and he was probably the first guy relative to the NIL that could take advantage of the NIL and rightfully so. He was a great player (and) Heisman Trophy winner. But there weren’t many guys like that at Alabama. There was a couple: Will Anderson (and) Bryce Young. Now all these kids have an idea of ​​what it means and how it works and things change quickly.

I don’t think at Boston College we’ll ever be all about NIL. We are part of the NIL world, but we have a lot of things to sell at Boston College in regards to the Jesuit education (and) the community involvement that we have here. Things have changed, but BC is still what it is. It’s a great academic school that plays very good football.

CBS: Does a salary cap revenue sharing model help Boston College by taking away some of the pressure of raising all the NIL money and, in theory, leveling the playing field a bit?

BO: I think this helps everyone. I definitely think it helps the BC if there is a level playing field, there’s no doubt about that. That’s the thing with the NFL, there are 32 teams that play under the same rules. (They have) the same salary cap rules, the same draft rules, the same free agency rules (and) the same roster rules. There (are) only 32 teams and there (are) a lot more teams in Division 1 college football, but to me that’s a great place to start in terms of leveling the playing field for everyone so it doesn’t become a game where you have the haves and the have nots and there is a huge space in between. I don’t think we want that. (All) college football teams have a great history and tradition.

If you look at Boston College, we have a great tradition (and) a great history here of playing good football when we had great quarterbacks. Doug Flutie, Matt Ryan, and so on, this has been a team to reckon with. I don’t think college football wants to get away from that.

CBS: You start the season at Florida State. This may not be ideal, but is there any benefit to playing a really good team in Week 1 and having the entire off-season to prepare for it?

BO: Undoubtedly. This brings a lot of these guys that we have on our team, they are very focused. They know we’re going to play one of the best teams in the country to open the season. They finished 13-0 last season and will probably show up in a bad mood when they play us because they want to prove they deserve to be in the playoffs. We need to be ready and I think that helps us in the offseason when you have a team like that (on the schedule). Just mentioning this team can improve the intensity of your workout (and) the intensity of your weight room. No one was late for a meeting this spring, I promise. And a lot of that has to do with our initial opponent.

CBS: I remember Lane Kiffin once saying that no one was better at preparing a team to play Week 1 than Nick Saban. Did you learn anything from Saban about that or what do you think he did so well that his Alabama teams never lost in Week 1?

BO: There are so many things I learned from Nick Saban. He is the greatest coach of all time. One of the things he did very well was prepare his team for each game. (Preparing for) that Week 1 game (with) the way he set up training camp practice, summer practice (and) the preparation that took place in June and July leading up to training camp had a lot to do with to do with why Alabama was so prepared. Plus the fact that when Nick stood in front of that team, you could hear a pin drop. He was great at talking to the team. There are a lot of different things I learned from Nick in general.

CBS: What do you think media personality Nick Saban will be like?

BO: I think it’s great. I think any time you have a guy like Nick Saban who’s going to be out there educating the public about football, I think that’s fantastic. I think this means a lot for the game. I’ll say the same thing about Bill Belichick being on the Manningcast and Pat McAfee Show. I think it’s great. I think Nick Saban has a great voice in college football.

CBS: Who are the guys in your cast that fans need to know and deserve more attention?

BO: Let me start with the defense. We have a very good defensive end, Donovan Ezeiruaku, he is very good – good quick passing ability, good against the run (and an) excellent player. We have two linebackers who are really good players and had good springs. We have a corner, Amari Jackson, who I think will be very good, and then a safety named KP Price who is very good. I think defensive tackle Cam Horsley is a very good player and will have a good year.

On offense, Tom Castellanos is our quarterback. He had a very good spring. We have a very good running back in Treshaun Ward. (We have a) really good offensive line – Ozzy Trapilo, Drew Kendall our center, Logan Taylor our guard, left tackle Jude Bowry.

Lewis Bond, the receiver, is very good (and) Kamari Morales, the tight end.

There are a lot more guys. I actually think we have a good, decent football team and we just need to stay healthy and ready to play when the season starts.