Head Coach of BC football Bill O'Brien joins! 3-1 BC hosts Western Kentucky. Could this be a "trap game"? What did O'Brien say at halftime in the Michigan St. game?
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00:00The head coach of Boston College football joins us right now. Hey, Bill. Good morning
00:05Hey, Greg, how you guys doing doing great? You can't see us
00:09We're on twitch, but you probably aren't watching
00:12Wiggy and I are wearing our Western Kentucky moms
00:17t-shirts this morning
00:19Since some merch arrived merch arrived here at the radio station for Courtney and Curtis and none arrived for for us. Oh
00:26Oh
00:27No, oh we got a man. Hold on. We got I got to get with Bears. We got to get the tracking number out
00:34We got to check the tracking number
00:38Gorgeous
00:43This sounds sounds like one of the the excuse we just played from Diddy's lawyer
00:47Oh
00:52All right, so it's bill it's in the mail right the merch merch is in the mail it's on the way I'm sorry
01:06Well, listen great to have you on again and I
01:12Once again every week is big for this team
01:15But you also said that
01:17You're not allowing these guys to end up looking at this or having this be a trap game
01:23That's a concern. I guess going into Western, Kentucky
01:26I mean that that what I said is that that's that phrase should never be used at Boston College
01:33I mean who the hell are we to be talking about a trap game? I mean, it's ridiculous. We have to we have to play
01:39very well
01:41And we have to improve every week to be able to have a shot to win, you know
01:45We've got a you know, a bunch of guys that are working hard and they really you know care about
01:51You know the team and BC, but we have to there's no such thing as a trap game
01:55I think that's uh, you know that that I just tried never to use that in front of our team
02:00Well, I know you didn't want to give away what you said during halftime on TV because you said you'd have to go to confessional
02:06But we're a little bit more racy on the radio side
02:08Could you give us a taste just a little bit of what you told those boys to come out stronger?
02:13Yeah, I was I was you know, very upset with myself the coaching staff the players and yeah
02:20There were a few, you know, probably words that you know, father Leahy father Jack would not have approved of
02:29You know, I haven't been to confession in a couple years
02:32I probably am due for confession, but you know, I think the thing is like these guys, you know
02:37Look, I think they try to do it the way we we want to do it
02:40But but at the end of the day, we have to get them to death. That's our job as coaches
02:44We've got to teach them and show them
02:47Hey, this is what we need to do and then they have to go out there and execute it
02:51I think it's a combination of the two and I think you know, I'm not saying that was why we won the game
02:56No halftime speech ever won a game, but I think it did kind of put them on high alert. That's for sure
03:02Billy this team appears to win games that I always think prior BC teams would lose and I
03:09just watched that second half and the
03:12Moment of the fans running on the field and your conversation with ACC Network where you know, you said god bless
03:17You know the Crowther family god bless Wells Crowther, right?
03:20I can't tell you how much that meant and that what that crystallized about where this program is now
03:27Engaged with the fan base the student body entirely behind it and I was saying to Courtney
03:33It's not like the Matt Ryan years because we're not waiting for the team to fall off a cliff when Matt leaves
03:38It feels like what you're building here is sustainable. I
03:42Appreciate that Curtis. I really do. I think that
03:45We try very hard to get these guys to understand that they have to play hard on every snap
03:51They've got to play with great effort that the game is never over, right?
03:54I mean it was like, you know, we were down
03:561916 with three minutes to go. I mean the game's never over a lot of these guys have dreams of playing pro football
04:02That's what most pro football games are like that. They're very close, right?
04:05They come down to you got to play the whole game
04:08and I think
04:08One of the best things about the other night was the crowd and we we have to play well and play hard
04:15To keep the crowd coming, you know, I think that's really important for BC that we continue to try to
04:21Play as good as we can. So people want to come watch us play
04:24I thought that that atmosphere for Boston College was was really good the other night
04:29So we just we have to keep playing at a high level of you know of effort every single game
04:34Bill I wanted to delve into something that you touched briefly on when you were on the Edelman podcast this week or when they aired
04:42It and that and and that was that you had the opportunity to stay with the Patriots
04:48but I don't want to speak for you, but
04:51But you you wanted to give Gerard Mayo the opportunity to build his own staff
04:56Is that it is that a fair assessment of what you said?
04:59Yeah, absolutely Greg
05:01I you know look last year was tough at the Patriots and I don't want to get into all the details
05:05but it wasn't like a great situation and and I think one of the things that
05:10That you know being somebody that's been coaching for 32 years been a head coach my third head coaching job
05:16I really have a strong belief that you have to have
05:20You know everybody together and everybody on the same page
05:23I came there to work for Bill, and you know it was a bad year. It's a tough year
05:27We were all everybody had to share in that blame. We moved on. I think he's got a really good staff there
05:32He's doing it. You know look. I know where they're at, but they've got a lot of really good coaches on that staff
05:39And I know some of those guys like Bobby Bicknell, and you know Evan Rothstein
05:43I mean, they've got some really good sharp coach Demarcus Covington's a hell of a coach
05:49Mike Pellegrino
05:51Brian Belichick like they've got a really strong staff of guys
05:54So you know I think that they're they're headed in you know the right direction when it comes to that so you know I think
05:59We're all in a better spot than we were and I think that's what coaching is all about
06:04Wiggies Wiggies head exploded yesterday when we played some audio from Dan Orlovsky
06:10Saying that he would not in any way shape or form play Drake May at all this season
06:16When it comes to rookie court you have to talk specifically about Drake May
06:20But rookie quarterbacks what like wait where if you were that you were on that staff you were the offensive coordinator
06:26Would you want to get Drake May in there just purely so you see what you have I?
06:32Think the big thing is that again. I think it's important to know like what's around him right is he going to be?
06:40You know well protected
06:43Is he picking things up in practice like is he able to redirect protections is he able to you know
06:50You know get out of a bad play put us into a good play
06:53I think there's a lot that goes into it. You know look you drafted the guy at number three
06:57I mean you're gonna want this guy to play pretty quickly
07:00I mean I had the Sean Watson and Houston when he was a rookie we started a veteran Tom Savage
07:06But quickly we went to the Sean Watson
07:09And you know because he could escape he could do some things and we were doing some things off
07:13Eventually that suited his skill set look at the end of the day you drafted the guy at number three
07:18You're gonna want this guy to play at some point
07:20But they must not think that either he's not ready or you know they're not ready to support him in the right way
07:26You know they they they're in the building. They know what's going on
07:29They're making the best decisions for the team in their opinion
07:32Is it a legit argument when some suggest that it's the their concern about the offensive line?
07:39And he's gonna get killed out there like I mean isn't that football isn't that playing the position in the NFL?
07:46Yeah, I look I do think that but I mean if you're struggling to you know whether like for example at the tackle position
07:54You know if you're struggling to block a really good pass rusher
07:57And you're not chipping for him, and you're not you know whatever it might be you know he gets you know he gets tattooed
08:04That's just not a great thing especially if it's happening over and over again
08:07I'm not saying that that's the case
08:09I'm just you know saying hey that might be what's what the conversations are in the building or it might be hey look
08:15He's not quite ready yet. You know we don't believe he's ready yet, and and when he's ready. We'll put him in there
08:20I wanted to ask you about the situation at UNLV
08:24We have this as a lead the other day the quarterback and his agents say that they
08:30Gave him a verbal promise of a hundred grand
08:34It ended up being 3,000 bucks, so he redshirted and left it sounds like Brockton
08:44Is this is this a good thing for college football
08:47No, no not at all. I think the I
08:52Think there's a lot
08:54That's going on right now really in the courts. There's litigation
08:58I don't I've read a lot about the UNLV situation last night. I read a lot about it
09:02I'm not really sure what exactly happened there. I know what we do at Boston College
09:07You know we're part of this NIL program, but that's not the biggest part of our program
09:12We have an earn it philosophy here. You know you've got to be a good locker room got me
09:16You've got to be somebody that goes to class that participates in the community
09:21You know you don't want to I don't think you ever want it. I might be naive
09:25I really might be the people have accused me of that before but like how can you you know promise a guy?
09:31Who's really not been in your program yet?
09:34You know more than somebody like you know that's been in your program for three or four years that has bled for you
09:41Sweated for you done everything you've asked him to do and now you're gonna give this guy
09:46Who's never been in your program more than that guy like that doesn't make sense to me?
09:50We have an earn it philosophy here, and that's you know how we try to
09:55You know we try to stick to that philosophy
09:57Well how do you make sure because that's a really interesting point right there like how do you make sure because it seems like what a
10:04lot of kids like this
10:06They're promised whether it's money whether it's playing time like how do you make sure that you're as?
10:13Transparent as possible when you're recruiting these kids to come to the school
10:18But also making sure you're living up to what you're telling them
10:23You know I have two boys in recruitment, and I know coaches will tell you anything to get you to come to the school
10:28But how do you make sure that your word is born in the sense?
10:32We're like okay
10:33You're gonna if I tell you you're gonna get an opportunity or if I tell you that we're gonna give you X
10:38how do you make sure that you as a head coach try to be as transparent and as honest and upfront as
10:46possible I
10:47Think that's the key wig. I think you I don't think I don't
10:52I'm just speaking for myself. I don't promise anything. I promise you know you're gonna work hard
10:57I promise the parents that I'm gonna make sure that they go to class
11:00I talk a lot about Boston College what Boston College can do for their son
11:05I don't promise anything. I think when I when I work for you know for instance when I work for Nick Saban
11:11I didn't promise anything there
11:12I told him look this is gonna be a very challenging place to play football
11:16You're gonna have to earn it every single day in the building
11:19You know you're gonna have to practice very well to be able to earn a spot here
11:24You know I think you've got to be up front. That's how you develop a trusting relationship
11:29With the family I think the key is that in my opinion the head coaches have to establish a relationship
11:36With the parents or whoever the parental figures are and I think that's a that's a big key that we try to do we don't
11:42Get into you know a bunch of promises because promises don't work out
11:47You know we you know it's just like life man. Whatever you do. I believe in order to be a success
11:53You've got to earn it you got to show that you can you're confident enough to show up every day and earn it
11:58And I think that's what we try to do here well on Julian's podcast
12:01I found it great that he talked about speaking with your team right now and saying that the BC guys were hungry wanted to learn
12:07in this
12:09landscape of college football where you see head coaches leaving because they say that they can't deal with the way that the players are
12:15Expecting millions of dollars and and everything just handed to them
12:19Have you found it to be different than your last coaching stint in college like is there a big change in?
12:262024 than you've seen in the past I
12:29Mean it's a little bit different. You know when I was at, Alabama the
12:33Second year there. I would say is really I would say that Bryce young was the very first you know real NIL player
12:40You know now. I didn't know exactly what was going on with him
12:43I was an assistant coach, but you know I would say it's changed
12:47You know and there are collectives and every school has a collective and we have a collective here called the friends of the Heights
12:53That do a great job
12:56And so it has changed, but I one thing Courtney. I have not
12:59Really experienced really anybody that's just come to me and said hey how much are you going to pay my son?
13:05Because at Boston College like that's not what we're looking for now
13:10What we're looking for is a young man that comes from a family that that that has dreams of playing pro football
13:17But also understands that football doesn't last forever. I say this all the time
13:21Of all the high school players you know everybody that plays football in high school only
13:252.5% of those those players play
13:28Division one college football of those players only
13:321.5% make it to pro football
13:34So like you need to have a degree and if you have a Boston College degree
13:38And you've played good football at Boston College
13:40I mean you've got a world of opportunities when you graduate here
13:44So there's more to life than NIL and I think that is a part of it
13:48But I I think that there's more for us here at BC that we can talk to families about
13:54Well, we understand why you may have missed that at Alabama because I think Mac Jones got it out there that he was teaching
14:00You the offense at the time
14:08What's going on if I remember correctly
14:13No, I actually learned a lot about the offense from when I was there from from Steve Sarkisian
14:19I spent some time with him and then from Bryce Young
14:22Bryce Young knew the offense very very well. He helped me with it. So now yeah, that's kind of how it went there
14:28And he shot that Arch Manning enters the transfer portal to BC next year. Oh
14:33No, I don't think so
14:36University
14:38He's doing fine, he's doing fine at
14:41So we appreciate it. It's and just quick reminder. It's XL for me unless unless they're in the unless they're
14:48Slim fit and then I probably need the double X
14:53It's the tracking number I swear to God we got it
14:56It's on its way wig and great. All right. Good luck this week. Thanks bill. Good job you guys. Thank you