Boston College hires former Bills, Jaguars head coach Doug Marrone  as senior analyst, per report

Boston College Golden Eagles head football coach Bill O’Brien‘s coaching staff is slowly but surely rounding into form. On Saturday, the news broke that the former NFL head coach is bringing in another former franchise leader to assist him in turning Boston College into a formidable foe. According to ESPN’s Pete Thamel, O’Brien is hiring former Buffalo Bills and Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Doug Marrone.

“Boston College is hiring former NFL head coach Doug Marrone as the program’s new Senior Analyst for Football Strategy/Research. He’s the former head coach of the Bills and Jaguars and also at Syracuse. His most recent jobs were at the Saints and Bama as the OL coach,” said Thamel via X.

The duo was quite familiar with each other as they once worked together in the college ranks as members of the Georgia Tech staff in the late 1990s. They also teamed up together under former Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban in 2021. Marrone was the Crimson Tide offensive line coach, and O’Brien was the offensive coordinator and quarterback coach.

O’Brien believes Boston College is a developmental program

O’Brien has been on a quest to build his coaching staff and the Eagles roster under his command in such a way that it will benefit the program for years to come. As far as how he intends to build his staff, the longtime head coach and former offensive coordinator will do so with a particular goal in mind. He wants people known for development, making Marrone an ideal choice to hire.

O’Brien also recently revealed what kind of coaches he is looking for and how he plans on assembling his Boston College roster, during an interview with Thamel.

“I think so, and I think that’s one of the things,” said O’Brien when asked if Boston College is a developmental program. “The staff that that we’re assembling is a staff filled with good developmental coaches; guys that know how to develop players [and] that have been in programs that develop players.

“I was just telling somebody, when you watch the Super Bowl the other day, there are two quarterbacks, awesome quarterbacks, but ones from Texas Tech and ones from Iowa State. So, there are great players out there across the country. We need to do a good job of identifying who they are, target them, and do a good job of getting them to campus and sell what we’re all about.”

O’Brien understands he’s currently not in a position to compete with the elites of the college football landscape. So he plans on starting out his tenure at Boston College, stamping the program as a developmental one. And if he is successful in doing that, O’Brien could make the Eagles into a serious contender in the ACC for years to come.