Bill O’Brien on Boston College’s New QB, ACC Respect & 2026 Turnaround

Brian Fisher here for Sports Illustrated ACC Media Day is joined by Boston College head coach Bill O'Brien.

And Bill, always seems like this is the signal that the season is almost here, right?

That's right, right.

It's right around the corner, another week or so.

What, what most gets you excited, uh, about this time of year?

I, I love training camp, you know, I think that training camp is a time for you to really lay the foundation of your football team.

It brings the team together.

They all stay in the same dorm.

There's a, there's a lot of team bonding that goes on, and, and there's a, there's a.

A toughness that's built about your team, and I think this is a, a great time of the year when it comes to, uh, your actual team.

Uh, I think there's going to be a lot of questions about your quarterback.

You brought one of them here today.

Uh, what, what can you tell us about Mason and is he kind of getting the nod at this point?

Yeah, Mason's the starting quarterback.

Yeah, he's been that, that, that guy, uh, since he walked in.

Um, he's done a really good job.

He's a dual threat guy.

He's a A very efficient passer, he can anticipate, uh, he, he, he understands protections, he's very smart, he's very prepared, and he can run.

He's a, he, he can, he's a really good athlete .

Uh, he's a good runner with the ball, so we're excited about Mason.

How did you find a guy from, from, from the lower levels like that?

Yeah, you know, BC made a commitment to, to football, and one of the commitments was to increase our personnel staff.

So we were able to add some people and personnel that we were able to go out and kind of scour the portal, and he was a guy that we identified right away, and, and we brought him in and felt like he was a really good fit for what we're trying to do, and, uh.

Like I said, he's come in here and done a really good job, and he's doing a good job, uh, in the summer.

I mean, is that how you kind of got to operate nowadays, just, you know, kind of scouring every nook and cranny for, for players at this point?

You do, you do, um, I think it's important to do that because you have to find the right guy that fits Boston College, you know, the guy that understands the value of an education.

It's not all about a paycheck, right?

It's, it's about, uh, coming to one of the, the greatest universities in the world.

And playing really good football in a great conference in the ACC and what that means to your life.

And Mason understands that.

Those are the type of guys we're looking for at BC.

This is not a football factory.

This is a place where you're gonna get a meaningful degree, you're gonna play good football, and you're gonna give back to the community and.

Mason's one of those guys.

When, when it comes to actually tailoring your offense around him, do you see kind of much more like maybe two years ago when he had Tommy in terms of more incorporating that run game a little bit?

Yeah, much more like that, I would say, you know, different schemes that we're running, but, uh, similar, you know, we, we, we've got to be able to move the quarterback, um, you know, in the run game and different ways in the passing game, but, uh, yeah.

Definitely not, not a, not a dropback, you know, 50 times a game.

We're not doing that.

That's for sure.

Absolutely, uh, a lot of focus in terms of not just him in terms of your new faces.

You got a lot of new wide receivers, offensive linemen who, who's stepping up out of, out of spring ball.

Well, we've had some good, you know, we've really, uh, improved in a lot of areas.

Uh, some of the wide receivers that we got out of the portal, uh, Reed Swanson, uh, uh.

Uh, Landon Wright, uh, Vri Green have made some really good improvements, uh, to our offense.

Uh, running back Evan Dickens has been a good addition defensively.

We got Chris Jones at defensive end, uh, Demetrius Ballard, Anye Noasisi, KJ Sampson, Anthony Plano at inside linebacker, Body Cahune.

I feel like we've really made some improvements on the roster, so.

Uh, we're excited about those guys.

That run game, probably not where you wanted it last year.

Where, where's the improvement gonna come?

Well, look, I think we, you know, we made some changes there, made a coaching change we think has, uh, been really good for us.

Uh, Kurt Anderson's come in.

He's done a really good job.

I think these guys are coming off the ball.

They're moving people.

There'll be some new guys up front, um, that we think are really, really good football players.

Juju, our left tackle, uh, Popsy, another left tackle.

Uh, Traven Humphrey, right tackle, Judah Pruitt at guard, Christian Phillips at guard, Robert Smith at guard, Michael Cr at center.

I really feel good about those guys and, uh, and the way that they're blocking right now.

Over on defense, a lot of experience coming back, especially in the secondary.

How big is that for, for you?

Very experienced secondary safeties are back.

We got some really good veteran safeties.

KP Price, who's here today, Carter Davis, but also some young guys, right?

Marcus Upton, who we think could be a really good player, got some really good corners coming back, uh.

From last year that we think can really help us.

Saer Torrance is coming back off an injury and he's had a really good summer, and, uh, Ashton Cunningham's had a really good summer.

And then the defensive line, like I said before, we've really defensive front, we've made a lot of improvements to and we're fired up about that.

I mean, is that kind of where you almost have to refocus your, your efforts in, in this league in particular, given how much that play really is, is central to how everybody does?

No doubt we had to improve the defense.

The defense is one of the worst in the country, and, and I think we've made a lot of improvements.

And, uh, Ted Roof, now our new defensive coordinator's come in and done a really good job of implement implementing his system in the offseason, and, and, uh, I think we're on the right track.

Ted has been around the, the block to, to say the least.

And how much does that veteran presence.

So just add, knowing he's seen it, seen it all pretty much, yeah, we've been together a lot, right?

This is our 4th stop together.

We were together at Georgia Tech.

We were together at Duke and at Penn State and now here at Boston College.

So we know each other very well, and, uh, we know how each other coaches and Uh, we're both very competitive, and he's been a really good fit for our program.

When, when it comes to the program overall.

I know it wasn't the season that, that you wanted last year, but Boston College has been one of those places where you have one of those years you tend to bounce back.

What, what have you seen out of your team, uh, through, through camp?

Yeah, I appreciate you saying that, you know, because I do see.

that, you know, and I see that around the landscape of college football.

If you look at the Indianas, the Vanderbilts, the, the Virginia's, you know, previous years weren't very good.

Now look where they are.

And I think we can do the same thing.

Now, we've got to go do it, you know, but I do think we're definitely improved and, Uh, I feel like we're on the right track.

Does your NFL background, especially from the, the personnel side, does that just help because your, your roster turnover, it seems like everybody is dealing with that year after year after year.

It definitely helps from an organizational standpoint, like making sure that, that, uh, you have the right people in place, in place to evaluate and to, and to find the guys and things like that, high school and portal.

Uh, the, the talent evaluation definitely helps, uh, what you're looking for, the vision of the player, the.

The description of the, the type of player that you want for that position, that definitely helps from my experience in the NFL .

So I think, you know, all those things combined have, have definitely helped us improve the team.

Are, are the two games kind of closer than ever at this point given how there's, there's not much difference in terms of you're, you're having to manage a lot of different things as a head coach now.

There's probably, yeah, there's probably a lot more similarities now.

I still think that.

Uh, college football on the field relative to the schemes and things is a lot more multiple, especially on offense, you know, there's just so many more different variables on offense.

But, but I think that, uh, it definitely is from, you know, from the, the timing of the game and the two-minute situations to the coach to quarterback, you know, able to coach the linebacker.

You know, communication deal, I think that that's definitely a lot, a lot made it, made it a lot closer.

Well, we know coaches love to be in the film room.

Is, is there anybody that, that you've kind of caught , caught your eye as well in terms of scheme or, or any place that, uh, you, you said we're, we're gonna incorporate some of that?

Oh, from, from, uh, yeah, I mean, if you look at, uh, some of these, these schools, I don't wanna mention school, but even in our own conference , some, some, some teams that, uh, did a great job offensively, did a great job defensively, that's what we are as coaches, you know, we, we're, we're definitely.

Uh, looking at other schemes and, and we're, we're thieves to a certain extent.

We're gonna take some of the good ideas and incorporate them, but, uh, yeah, there's some, there's some schools within our own conference that do a great job.

Well, I mean, just the ACC, it seems like top to bottom has definitely improved.

Have you noticed that in terms of the on-field play?

Yeah, I said this earlier.

I, I'm really, uh, I'm very, uh, strongly opinionated.

I don't know why we just get relegated to be the third conference.

I mean, we.

We had 11 bowl teams.

We had a number of teams win 9 games, a number of teams win 8 games.

We had, I think we were 7 and 4 in bowl games.

Um, you know, I, I, I think that this conference is very, very tough .

You know, we play 9 games.

Um, I think 3 or 4 of us are playing 1111 P4 opponents, including us.

Georgia Tech, I think it is, maybe Louisville.

Um, you know, so we're, we're, we're a conference is very tough.

I'm in a, I'm in a meeting today with coaches, you know, I got Dabo Sweeney over here, Coach Brom over here, Coach Key, Coach Brown, Coach Franklin.

I mean, we got some great coaches in this league.

We got an NFL Hall of Famer coaching in this league and Bill Belichick.

So, this is a tough conference.

And, um, you know, I think it, uh, is a conference that, uh, you know, does well when it plays outside the conference .

And, um, you know, I have a lot of, a lot of, a lot of opinions about the ACC and how, how good it is.

Well, you, you got a lot of questions about Bill last year and particularly his first year.

Have you talked with him at all in terms of how his first year went and maybe give him a little pointers?

No, not really.

We're, we're busy and when we do see each other, it's usually about family and how things are going and things like that outside of football because we've known each other for a long time, almost 20 years.

So, um .

But no, not, not, not too much about football.

He's not gonna tell me too much about what they're doing.

We're in the same league.

We're trying to win, uh, but you know, we always catch up on family and personal things.

Is there somebody that, uh, you know, especially on the roster that maybe we're not talking about right now, but come the fall, we, we definitely will about the Eagles.

I think there's a few guys.

I think that, um, you know , we have a couple of defensive ends that I think more than a couple, uh, Chris Jones.

Uh, Anye Noasisi and, uh, and, uh, Demetrius Ballard, I think those three guys are really impact players.

So if they stay healthy, I'm, I'm looking forward to watching those guys play.

How would you define success for this 2026 season?

You know, I think we gotta take it 11 day at a time.

I'm not gonna put a, you know, a prediction on a record or anything.

Obviously, we have to be better than last year, right?

That's not a sustainable deal, right?

We have to be better than last year.

I do think we're on the right track, and I think Uh, uh, a marked improvement from last year will be a, a, a good, uh, uh, a good, uh, mark that we can sustain and keep going into the future.

We'll be hopeful to see that on the field.

That is Bill O'Brien joining us here at ACC Media Days with Sports Illustrated.