Sticking to O'Brien's Agenda Key for Boston College Football in Year Two

“Coaching is all about being able to adapt,” O’Brien said. “In the guys I’ve worked for, Nick Saban would say it all the time, Bill Belichick—you’ve got to adapt. If you don’t adapt, the game is going to pass you by. We’re doing a good job of that at BC. We’re adapting to the changing times.”

Much of the 2024 football season involved change for BC.

O’Brien and quarterbacks coach Jonathan DiBiaso maneuvered a late-season quarterback change which sparked a period of drama until it unfolded with the program’s former quarterback—Thomas Castellanos—leaving suddenly and unexpectedly due to his personal issue with being benched. 

Tensions between Castellanos, now the signal caller for Florida State who is also set to attend this year’s edition of ACC Football Kickoff, and the Eagles have surprisingly continued after he took shots at the program in an exclusive interview with On3’s Pete Nakos this June.

Apart from Castellanos’ benching, there was also a rollercoaster nature in 2024 which made O’Brien’s mood changes extremely dependable on the outcome of a single week.

From starting off hot and earning the Eagles a ranking in the AP Top 25 poll to a miserable stretch involving losses to Virginia and Virginia Tech, and a blowout loss to Louisville, to then finding some footing again late in the season and eventually qualifying for a bowl game, the ups and downs of 2024 made the season arduous—not just for O’Brien.

Every single individual in the building on a day-to-day basis felt those changes as well, sometimes postively, sometimes negatively. But they were mostly all for the better and showed that a learning curve was possible. A road to consecutive success was in the works, even just the very early stages of it. It still is.

Realistically, it would have been a miracle had O’Brien done more than steer the Eagles to a seven-win season, which has lately become a benchmark of success for the program. BC has not won more than seven games since 2009.

But for possibly the first time since his hiring in February of 2024, O’Brien can confidently feel—or say—that he doesn’t need anymore change. At least not for the time being.

In just under a week, the Atlantic Coast Conference will host its 17 member programs for one of college football’s premier preseason events—the 2025 ACC Football Kickoff, taking place from July 22-24, at the Hilton Charlotte Uptown in Charlotte, N.C.

O’Brien’s footing is as solid as ever heading into this year’s ACC Media Days, which is really the first time media and the college football world can hear from each program of all the Power Four conferences, from head coaches to some of the players who are considered leaders. For BC, those will be wide receiver Lewis Bond, offensive tackle Logan Taylor, defensive back KP Price and linebacker Daveon “Bam” Crouch. 

Since BC’s loss in the Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl to Nebraska, concluding the 2024 chapter of BC football with a 7-6 record, O’Brien has done nothing but go head over heels in recruiting and has picked up some promising portal editions—including the potential starting quarterback, Dylan Lonergan. O’Brien has done everything to adjust to the constant pressure of being everything a head coach must be in this current era of college athletics, which is simply a task that involves a year-round time commitment, more so than in the National Football League.

There isn’t a need to prove anything more about his head coaching abilities—that all comes in the form of a record at the end of the season when everything is said and done.

O’Brien has maintained a steady purpose for the Boston College football program since day one, and all he has to do is continue believing in that and making the cast around him believe his message as well. He has already done it in the form of recruiting, going from a class of 13 recruits in 2024 to a 2026 recruiting class of 26 so far. All three major recruiting publications rank the Eagles at least in the top-50 for ’26 class rankings and previously in the top-25 for a portion of the offseason.

Now it’s about keeping the purpose which O’Brien has established among his players and staff—the message those very same people have grown to respect about O'Brien and choose to follow him for.

If there is any coach in college football which is stubbornly good at doing just that, it is him.