Bill O'Brien reflects on what he learned working with Patriots, Bill Belichick
As Bill O’Brien returns to the collegiate ranks as the head coach of Boston College this season, he’s bringing with him more than a decade of experience at the pro level. He’s coached with the best of the best in former Patriots head coach Bill Belichick and the lessons he learned from two stints under the six-time Super Bowl champion will translate in his work with the Eagles. O’Brien discussed the “Patriot way” with ESPN’s Pete Thamel this week.
“I think there’s some things that I learned in New England from Bill and the guys I was around,” O’Brien said. “I’m really fortunate to have coached some of the best players to ever play the game. I’ve coached Tom Brady, I’m so grateful for that. He’s such an awesome guy and such an awesome player. I coached Rob Gronkowski, Randy Moss, Wes Welker… all these guys, I learned a lot from great players and I learned a lot about what a standard was.”
“The standard in New England at that time was, ‘We’re going to be smart, we’re going to line up correctly, we’re not going to jump offsides, we’re going to communicate in a clear, concise language, we’re going to be knowledgable about situations and we’re going to practice those situations and we’re going to compliment each other on the field,'” the new Eagles coach continued. “I think that’s something that was a real, true winning model that we learned from Bill and the players carried it out. That’s how you win football games.”
O’Brien hiring former Patriots ‘consigliere’ Berj Najarian
The end of Belichick’s tenure in New England means there are former Patriots personnel up for grabs this offseason. According to Thamel, Boston College is now expected to hire Berj Najarian as the football team’s “chief of staff.” He spent the last 24 years with the New England Patriots and Bill Belichick. He gives O’Brien yet another asset on staff with NFL experience.
O’Brien is replacing Jeff Hafley at BC, who left to take the Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator position this offseason. Before taking the job, he was planning to be Ohio State’s next offensive coordinator under Ryan Day.
A Boston native, O’Brien has deep ties to the area, having gone to school at Brown. That was where he got his start in coaching before later spending six years with the Patriots in two separate stints. He was the head coach at Penn State before taking the top job with the Houston Texans. He’s coached at Georgia Tech, Maryland, Duke, and Alabama.