00:00The guy who is joining us right now will, I'm sure, would like to have, at some point in his
00:06time here, an equally great call.
00:09And that is the head coach of Boston College Football, Bill O'Brien.
00:13Bill, good morning.
00:15Morning, everybody. How we doing?
00:17I understand tomorrow is a big day for you.
00:24Why is that?
00:26Well, I heard it's somebody's birthday tomorrow.
00:30Yeah, once you get past the age of, I don't know, let's call it definitely 50, you really don't want
00:37to hear about birthdays anymore.
00:38That's just my opinion.
00:41I feel the same way.
00:42And I think some who have looked at both of us didn't understand this, but I think I'm older than
00:50you.
00:52I'll be 57. How old are you?
00:54I'm going to be 60 in a week and a half.
01:00I know.
01:01You're doing a lot better than me.
01:03I don't think I've ever met you in person, Greg, but I just know that you're just in much better
01:09condition.
01:11This coaching life is a stressful journey.
01:13Well, you can blame it like John Goodman did on having food alcoholism.
01:19That's what I'm going to use going forward, I think.
01:24But listen, big one this week on the road.
01:28Hoping to get your first win on the road.
01:30And a little bit of a homecoming for you when it comes to Georgia Tech.
01:36Yeah, it's a big game for us.
01:38We, you know, Georgia Tech is 2-4, but they're really not 2-4.
01:42They have a very good football team.
01:44And, yeah, I spent eight seasons there.
01:48Ted Roof, our defensive coordinator, is in the Hall of Fame there.
01:51He was a great player there and also coached there for many years.
01:54We coached there together.
01:55So, yeah, it'll be good to catch up with some people that we haven't seen in a long time, no
01:59doubt.
01:59But the most important thing is going out there and playing the best that we can to try to go
02:04get a win.
02:05Bill, that win last weekend against Pitt, Mason McKenzie looked awesome.
02:08It seemed like it was a breakout game for him.
02:11What clicked in your mind?
02:14I think he's really improved in the passing game.
02:16I think that he's worked very hard to, you know, to really have a good understanding of not only what
02:23we're doing,
02:23but what's going on defensively.
02:25And, you know, I think some guys came up big for him, right?
02:28Landon Wright, John Montague, Dawson Pugh, Vary Green.
02:32Some guys made some big catches for him, Zeke Moore.
02:35So, you know, I thought it was good.
02:36The O-line protected well for the most part, and that was really good to see.
02:41Bill, you look at your defense, and there was a lot of talk in the game about KP Price
02:47and, you know, his obviously potential to play at the next level
02:50and what he's been able to mean for your defense.
02:53What does a guy like that bring to your defense?
02:57I mean, KP, I think he's one of the best, if not the best, leader we have on the team.
03:03I mean, really, our captains have done a great job.
03:07KP is really the leader that shows up every single day.
03:11Look, KP, I've said this before.
03:13KP could have left, right?
03:15He could have gone anywhere.
03:16He chose to stay at Boston College.
03:20He really wants to be a part of a winning team.
03:24He's played really well.
03:25He's played different roles for us.
03:26He plays safety.
03:27He plays the big nickel position.
03:28He plays linebacker.
03:29Last year, he played Will Linebacker.
03:31And so, you know, yeah, he does have a really good future, Wig,
03:34and just very happy for him, and I'm happy that he stayed.
03:37I'm happy that we have him.
03:38So, big commit news for you this week, locally, Bill O'Brien,
03:44and I also understand that at Zavarian,
03:47they're soon going to have the new Bill O'Brien gym facility over there,
03:52which is excellent news.
03:57There is no chance of the Bill O'Brien facility at Zavarian.
04:03It might be the janitor's closet there.
04:06I've been named after me.
04:07I don't know.
04:08St. John's Prep guy won't really get honored there, unfortunately.
04:11No, no, I'm not going to get honored at Zavarian.
04:14But, no, it's, yeah, recruiting's going well.
04:16And we have guys on our team from Zavarian, right?
04:18Charlie Camilla's had a really good year for us.
04:20Danny Edgehill.
04:22We've got a freshman named Don Funk who's got a really good future.
04:25So, yeah, there's a great connection with the Catholic Conference,
04:28and that's really good for us.
04:30You know, that's one of the things we really try to do is recruit local guys
04:35and build the program that way.
04:37But, Bill, when you look at Will Wood specifically,
04:40and he makes that announcement to go from Penn State,
04:43a place that you're very familiar with, to you guys
04:45and emphasizes that he wants to play for you,
04:49how big is that for the program moving forward?
04:52Yeah, I just have to be careful here, Courtney.
04:54I think the question is awesome.
04:56I'm not really supposed to comment on it.
04:58Yeah.
04:59All right.
04:59And this is how stupid the NCAA is, to be honest with you,
05:03because we're actually like, you know, a lot of these guys are getting paid,
05:07but we can't comment on things like that.
05:09But, anyways, I do think in a general sense it's very, very important
05:15that we do as good a job as we can of recruiting New England,
05:19specifically Massachusetts.
05:21And we've really worked hard on that.
05:23We haven't been able to get everybody.
05:25We recruited Marky Walbridge a couple years ago.
05:27He went to Michigan, but it came down to us in Michigan, you know,
05:30and I can give you several examples like that.
05:32But we've been able to get our share.
05:35Bo McCormick's here, you know, is having a really good year.
05:37I talked about Charlie Camelo.
05:39There's other guys on our football team.
05:41I really believe that this program can have a good amount of guys from Massachusetts
05:45and win.
05:46And so, you know, it's really good to continue to do that.
05:49Bill, another issue last week when it comes to the game clock in college football,
05:53and this time there was clearly a second left for Notre Dame
05:56and one more chance to get it in the end zone.
05:59And Big 12 admitted that that was messed up.
06:02How do you fix that if you can?
06:05I mean, I can remember.
06:07It's funny you ask that because I do this.
06:10I put together this tape every Thursday or Wednesday night for Thursday morning
06:14squad meeting here, you know, to show them all the different things that went on
06:18around college football last week.
06:20And so I always said and we always said in the NFL that it's all about just
06:26getting it right.
06:27So somebody needs to call in, whether it's the Big 12 Conference, if that's, you
06:31know, who is in charge of that game or, you know, the ACC, the SEC, the Big Ten.
06:36Every single call should really be reviewed.
06:40And I know that would maybe increase the length of the – but the game is so
06:44fast, it's very difficult to keep up with the game.
06:47It's the timing of the game, the way the game is played.
06:50Really, when it's game-changing moments like that, it has to be reviewed under
06:55the umbrella of like, look, we just want to get this right.
06:58We want to get it right.
06:59And, you know, we continue to try to get that corrected, but it keeps showing up.
07:04And on that note, as a guy who was a head coach in the NFL, does it
07:09surprise you when it seems like somebody like Dan Quinn can be so unaware of
07:13timeouts and what down it is?
07:17You know, look, I know the way that we did it, whether it was, you know, in
07:24Houston or, you know, New England, obviously.
07:28We had people that helped us.
07:30You know, Bill had Ernie, right?
07:32I had a guy named John Perry.
07:33Like, you know, there's people that you really trust because in the heat of the
07:37moment, when you're thinking about, you know, 500 different things, you've got to
07:41have a trusted – you know, Mike has stretch.
07:44You know what I mean?
07:44Like, you've got to have a trusted guy that keeps you on task with what is
07:49happening, you know?
07:50And I think, you know, I don't know what's going on at the Commanders.
07:52I really haven't followed that, to be honest with you.
07:54I've seen it, but I haven't seen the games or anything.
07:56But I think you have to have a trusted person in the press box that's telling you,
08:00hey, look, man, you know, you've got this much time.
08:03You've got these many timeouts.
08:04You know, you've got to clock it here.
08:05You've got to do this.
08:06You've got to do that.
08:06And, you know, that's what I tried to do.
08:08Bill, a huge story in the NFL is Jalen Hurts and the Eagles flying him back from
08:16England knowing that he had this blood clot that they had found.
08:20How does something like that happen?
08:22Like, where do you fall in as the head coach of a football team working with a
08:26medical staff and understanding the proper course of action?
08:30Because Nick Sirianni hasn't really had any answers.
08:32I definitely have an opinion on this, Curtis.
08:35It's a very – I remember when I took my first coaching job, I remember somebody
08:40told me who had been a head coach for a long time, you have no idea how important
08:43the medical part of this is, the medical team.
08:46You know, the medical team's in charge of that.
08:48I can remember in Houston, Deshaun Watson had a collapsed lung and had it versus
08:55the Dallas Cowboys.
08:57We were playing the Jaguars the next week to win the AFC South, and he actually took
09:02a bus.
09:02We put him on a – he took a bus with our strength coach to Jacksonville to, you know,
09:09to help us win the game because he couldn't fly.
09:11That was a medical decision.
09:12I know that Nick Sirianni was asked that.
09:16I did follow that a little bit, like that he was asked that question, but that's really
09:19not Nick's expertise.
09:21Like, you know, that has to be answered by the medical team.
09:26And so I don't – you know, I don't know exactly what happened there.
09:29I feel – I know Jalen.
09:30That's a horrible thing, and I feel terrible for him, but, yeah, he definitely shouldn't
09:34have been flying.
09:35I mean, but, you know, I don't think that's really Nick Sirianni's area of expertise.
09:41You know, I think it's the medical team.
09:43All right, Bill.
09:44Well, good luck this weekend, and happy early birthday, and we will look forward to talking
09:49to you again next week.
09:51Thank you, guys.
09:52Appreciate it.
09:52All right.
09:53That's Bill O'Brien.
