Bill O'Brien describes what Boston College will look like under his leadership

After a brief detour back to the NFL with Bill Belichick and the Patriots, Bill O’Brien is returning to college football as the head coach at Boston College. O’Brien will certainly have his work cut out for him to transform the program.

Although the Eagles have been solid over the past decade or more with a handful of six and seven win seasons, they haven’t achieved double digit victories since 2007. In fact, Boston College has never won the ACC Championship since joining the conference in 2005.

Still, O’Brien believes he can take the program to new heights given some time.

“The guys that are here right now — we just got done in the facility with a 6:30 a.m. workout — these guys are working hard,” he told ESPN’s Pete Thamel. “This is a good football team right here and right now and we need to build on that. We need tough guys. We need guys that care about getting a good education. We need guys that understand what it means to play here in this great city.

“We need to get guys on campus. Sell the city, sell the campus, sell what we’re all about. I think if we do that and we target the right guys, we’ll have a good football team. All these jobs take a lot of work. You have to work at it. We have to be organized and diligent about how we go about our work. It can be done.”

Bill O’Brien is set to take over for Jeff Hafley, who left to become the offensive coordinator of the Green Bay Packers. He inherits a team that went 7-6 this past season and capped it off with a win in the Fenway Bowl.

Boston College returns starting quarterback Thomas Castellanos, who should give O’Brien something to work with. He showed his ability as a dual-threat quarterback to finish as the Eagles’ leading rusher with 1,113 yards and 13 touchdowns in 2023.

Castellanos could use some work as a passer, however, as he completed only 57% of his throws and had 15 touchdowns compared to 14 interceptions. If he can develop working under O’Brien, who brings experience as an NFL head coach and also worked with Nick Saban at Alabama, Boston College could even take a step forward.

It’s clear the Eagles are still a long way from where they want to be, but there’s plenty of excitement about the future with O’Brien at the helm.