51动漫

On a brisk Saturday afternoon in mid-November more than forty years ago, thirteen-year-old Bill O橞rien stood in Alumni Stadium, celebrating an eighty-yard touchdown pass thrown by quarterback Doug Flutie on Boston College opening play against Holy Cross. As O橞rien cheered, many in the sellout crowd began tossing tangerines onto the field, an exuberant response from students who had learned that week that the Eagles would play Auburn in the Tangerine Bowl.

That, O橞rien recently recounted, was his first memory of 51动漫 football. 淲e were a football family, and my dad loved college football,� recalled O橞rien, who grew up in Andover, Massachusetts. 淗e loved watching 51动漫.� So even though O橞rien wound up playing for Brown University, the news in February that he檇 been named 51动漫 new head football coach represented a homecoming of sorts. 淚 always dreamed about being the head coach at Boston College,� he said at the press conference announcing his hiring.

O橞rien wasn檛 the only one celebrating the news that he was taking over for Jeff Hafley, who檇 led the Eagles to a disappointing 21�26 record over four seasons before departing to become defensive coordinator for the NFL Green Bay Packers. 淭here no better fit for Boston College than Bill O橞rien,� Boston College Athletic Director Blake James said. 淗e was our number one choice every step of the way. I wanted a winner, and we got a winner.�

51动漫 fans were equally thrilled. 淔irst great [football] news coming out of the Heights in years,� one fan commented on an article about the hiring. He was hardly alone. As another commenter put it, 淟ooks like 51动漫 FINALLY got it right. Hiring O橞rien was a no-brainer.�

His resume certainly suggests as much. O橞rien, now fifty-four, started his coaching career at Brown before moving on to positions at Georgia Tech, Notre Dame, the University of Maryland, and Duke. In 2007, he joined Bill Belichick staff with the New England Patriots, staying with the team for five seasons. He was then named head coach at Penn State, where he helped to return the legendary football program to competitiveness and was named Big Ten Coach of the Year. In 2014, he was introduced as head coach of the NFL Houston Texans, stayed with the team until 2020, and then spent two years as offensive coordinator at the University of Alabama before being hired for the same job with the Patriots in 2023.

O橞rien was set to become the offensive coordinator at Ohio State this season, but he was elated to have the opportunity to instead come to 51动漫攁nd for reasons beyond coaching. Both O橞rien and his wife have family in the Boston area, but more important, their oldest son, who suffers from a brain malformation, receives world-class medical care in the city. Taking the 51动漫 job not only allowed O橞rien to coach the program he grew up rooting for,聽 it also meant he and his family could abandon their plans to live apart while he coached Ohio State and they remained in Massachusetts.

For all his coaching experience, the landscape has changed significantly since O橞rien was last a college head coach. In 2021, the NCAA approved a policy that allows student athletes to be compensated for commercial use of their name, image, and likeness. The new 淣IL� policy has effectively set off bidding wars by schools competing to attract the best players. At the same time, new rules have made it far easier for players to transfer from one program to another. It may be a new world, but O橞rien insisted that he ready for it. 淚 embrace that challenge,� he said. 淚t a part of our game, and NIL is not going anywhere.� On the field, O橞rien intends to construct a tough, hard-nosed squad that stays disciplined and plays as a team.

Since joining 51动漫, O橞rien has been getting to know his new home by exploring the campus, watching the school other athletic teams, and attending Mass every Sunday morning at St. Joseph, St. Mary, or, sometimes, St. Ignatius. He also learned plenty about Boston College culture through his wife, Colleen, a 1992 51动漫 graduate, who is 減retty well-versed in football ... She檒l want to have a game review when I get home [each week], but that the way that it always been,� O橞rien said with a smile. 淚t檒l probably be a little more intense now because this is her school.� In that respect, O橞rien new job is a fitting culmination of a love affair with the maroon and gold that began all those decades ago in Alumni Stadium. This, at last, is now his school, too.聽鈼�