Everything Boston College coach Bill O'Brien said before facing Notre Dame

Boston College (1-7) head coach Bill O’Brien spoke to the media Tuesday before the Eagles host No. 12 Notre Dame (5-2) at Alumni Stadium in Chestnut Hill, Mass., this Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET. This is everything he said.

On physical maintenance of his players being an issue at this point in the season

“Well, maintenance is always an issue, especially with the guys that have played a ton. So we do a good job with that. I mean, we make sure that guys are getting the reps that they need, but it might not be full-speed, live reps. So depending on where they are relative to health, but we always take that into account.”

On allowing 500-plus yards the last two games and if anything needs to change structurally vs. Notre Dame

“It’s a different game, different opponent. Obviously, we can’t give up 500 yards. Notre Dame does a lot of things well. We’re going to have to do some things differently, quite obviously. But I thought we got off to a good start today.”

On if Boston College is sticking with Grayson James at quarterback vs. Notre Dame

“I’d say it’s TBD based on a lot of things, not because of the way anybody played or anything like that. It’s just TBD, so it’s just between me and the team.”

On the Boston College vs. Notre Dame rivalry

“Oh, it’s a great rivalry. I mean, you think about the past, great games in this rivalry. You know, the game back in ’93 where they were number one. You know, we just inducted Brian St. Pierre into the Hall of Fame here. He beat them three times. So there’s been some great BC victories. There’s been great games. And this is a good football team. Marcus does a great job with his football team, and I’m glad we have him at home, and we’re looking forward to the challenge.”

On losing to UConn and a top 25 team by the same number of points

“Yeah, no, it’s—look, a lot of it, our guys are competing. They’re fighting. They’re practicing. They just showed up and had a good practice today. To me, again, it comes down to turnovers. We took the ball away very well against Louisville, but then we gave it right back to them. And so we have to continue to take the ball away when presented to us, but we have to do something with that after we take it away, which is something that we didn’t do against Louisville. So we have to do a better job of that if that occurs in this game.”

On getting too caught up in, ‘Ah, it’s Notre Dame, it’s Notre Dame’ and treating the Fighting Irish like a ‘mythological giant’

“I have great respect for Notre Dame. I worked at Notre Dame for 48 hours. So. A long time ago. A very long time ago. No, I have great respect for Notre Dame. I mean, I’ve been there. I’ve coached in a game there when I was at Georgia Tech. I worked out guys there. We drafted Will Fuller when I was in Houston. We had Nick Martin, was our center in Houston.

“I have great respect for Notre Dame. The history of college football is awesome, and Notre Dame is a big part of the history of college football. So is Boston College. So, again, it’s two of the only two Catholic schools that play Division I football. So it’s just a great rivalry, and it’s a great—it’s an event, especially for the fans, and our players are excited about it.”

On if beating Notre Dame would be a ‘bump’ in an otherwise tough year for Boston College

“Oh, yeah, yeah, no doubt. Yeah, no doubt. You know, it’s not the year that anybody wanted, but we have four guaranteed opportunities left, and this is a guaranteed opportunity, and our guys are going to approach it that way.”

On if Notre Dame is a blueprint for where Boston College wants to be

“I think every school is different, Trevor. I just think every school is a little bit different. So I don’t think we can actually look at every single school, and whether it’s Notre Dame or Vanderbilt or Georgia Tech or Duke, everybody’s different. We’re a Catholic, Jesuit institution in the city of Boston, so we don’t really look at it. We do what’s best for B.C.”

On how he approaches the quarterback situation weighing what’s best for the team but also what’s best for the individuals

“What’s best for the team is to do the best job we can of winning, you know, to try to win the game. The wins are more important right now than anything else. Every decision we make relative to this game, the next game, the next game after that is about putting our team in the best position to try to win.”

On the challenge of stopping Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love

“Huge, yeah, both backs. Jeremiyah’s a great running back. They have two really good backs, and they do a good job. Their offensive line’s excellent. Huge, tough, physical. It’s going to be a physical match. The strength of their team is up front on both sides of the ball. I mean, both the offensive line and defensive line are very, very good, very well coached. And, yeah, we have to—if we’re struggling to stop the run, it’s going to be a long night.”

On if he’s a ‘gut guy’ or more into analytics on fourth down situations

“You know, analytics is important. We use that as a guide. That’s what it is. It’s a guide. You have to get a feel for how the game’s going, and how your defense is playing, what’s the weather like, how’s your special teams playing, how’s your punter punting, how is their returner, and probably 50 other questions that aren’t involved with analytics.

“So analytics is a guide, but it’s actually being in the moment and seeing how the game’s going, how the game’s being played, how many timeouts do you have left, how much time is left, how’s the defense playing, all of that. What’s the length of the yardage that you need for the first down? Is it, you know, three? Is it eight? Is it 10? You know, what are your chances of making that play? Have you made any third and eights? Have you made any fourth and eights? There’s about 100 other questions that go into that.”

On if he feels like analytics have ‘taken over too much’

“No, no, no. Like I said, I think it’s very important. I think it’s a guide. We use it as a guide. No, I don’t think it’s taken over too much. No, not in my opinion.”

On if the Boston College players know what a win over Notre Dame could do for them

“Well, we teach them. We teach them what the rivalry means and what it means to this school, to both schools. And so we talk to them about it and the opportunity that they have and all that. So I think they have a very good idea. A lot of these guys probably visited Notre Dame, whether it was a junior day or something like that. They probably went to see Notre Dame, went to camp there. So they’re aware of the rivalry, no doubt.”

On the commitment to football at Boston College

“I think we’re aligned, Mac. I think it’s a good question. I don’t think it’s a question for me, right? I’m the football coach. I’m trying to coach the football team to the best of my ability. I haven’t done a great job of that yet this year. So I’m just trying to concentrate on Notre Dame. I would say that those questions are for people above me.”

On Boston College running back Jordan MacDonald

“He’s done a great job. He’s an awesome kid, comes from a great family. He runs hard, puts his pads down. He’s a slashing-type runner. He’s done a hell of a job. He was on the scout team a short time ago, last year. His story is really good and a great guy to coach.”

On an area of growth and an area of needed improvement for Boston College

“Well, I mean, there’s a lot of areas we obviously have to improve on, right? We have to, defensively, we’ve got to stop the run, obviously, better. I thought we played pretty good pass defense in the game. I think offensively we’ve got to come out in the second half and play better and we’ve got to take care of the ball better. I think our special teams have been decent overall.

“Growth, I think the team grows every day because of the way they approach. These are great kids that fight every single day. They come out, if anybody saw us practice, you’d see these guys are giving great effort and they show up to work every day and that’s a hell of a life lesson in and of itself. So, I love coaching these guys.”