Bill O'Brien Hints at Possibility of Adding Former Boston College Football Players to Staff

Convincing the likes of former Boston College football legends like Matt Ryan and Doug Flutie, the best two quarterbacks to ever play on the Heights, to come back and play a role in the program—either in the coaching department or on the business and administration side—would be a difficult task to accomplish, according BC head coach Bill O’Brien.

“I don’t know if Flutie and Matt [would necessarily come back],” O’Brien said. “Matt Ryan seems to be doing very well for himself, and I think Doug Flutie is doing very well for himself.”

But O’Brien left open the possibility of bringing in other BC football alumni over the 2025-26 offseason, even though it is unclear in what capacity those former players would contribute.

“First of all, the answer is yes,” O’Brien said. “We have Sean Guthrie here. You guys probably see him. He was a great player here. He’s our player development guy. He does a great job. And then over the course of the next couple months, there will be some, you know, some things that we’ll do [that] I think will help the program. But some of that doesn’t have a whole lot to do with me, either, if that makes sense.”

Take Stanford as an example.

The Cardinals brought in arguably its most accomplished football alum ever, quarterback Andrew Luck—who won the Heisman Trophy twice in 2010 and 2011—to be the general manager of the program in 2024.

Luck has not quite reached the point of steering the program to a complete resurgence yet—Stanford is 3-7 with a conference record of 2-5—but his name alone is a recruiting magnet, and his knowledge of the game goes beyond what most current or former players will ever grasp in their lifetime.

Luck was known for his brilliance not just as a football player, but as an individual—in 2012, he earned his bachelor’s degree in architectural design, and in 2023, he earned a master’s in education before leaping into one of the front seats of the football program he used to suit up for.

But, at the very least, having Luck around is about the connections he established in the game itself over time. In Luck’s case, he was able to sign former Indianapolis Colts coach Frank Reich to an interim deal with the school for the 2025 season.

In the past few weeks alone, BC has welcomed back football alumni such as Donovan Ezeiruaku, Zay Flowers, AJ Dillon and Justin Simmons for gamedays.

Built for the next level, great to see you @DonovanEze6 #NEXTLEVEL | 🦅 pic.twitter.com/lVU9prdhxg
— Boston College Football (@BCFootball) November 12, 2025

Flowers and Ezeiruaku are just in the initial stages of their professional careers in the National Football League (NFL), but Dillon and Simmons are both in the latter stages of their careers—Simmons is currently a free agent and Dillon is under contract with the Philadelphia Eagles on a one-year deal.

Soon enough, both Simmons and Dillon will be officially jobless from a playing standpoint, and what better way to continue staying with the game they have known for their entire lives than coming back to their alma mater to assist in any capacity.

Investing money into the program is one thing, and BC certainly needs all the support it can get in that realm as well.

But only a handful of individuals in the entire universe know what it means to don maroon and gold on Saturdays, and being able to carry those individuals in roles of leadership on the coaching and business side would have a far greater impact than a simple donation would.

Growing those connections could make more of a difference than O’Brien might be aware of—or anybody, for that matter—and it seems plausible that he is already working on moves in that domain based on his comments after Thursday’s practice.

Frankly, there is already enough on O’Brien’s plate, from the team’s performance to recruiting and the transfer portal, for him to additionally search for BC football alumni who would like to join his staff.

Home grown Eagle 🦅 #NEXTLEVEL | 🦅 pic.twitter.com/xQs6bnRcMJ
— Boston College Football (@BCFootball) November 4, 2025

There is simply not enough time in the day for O’Brien to single-handedly do everything.

But if Boston College Athletics Director Blake James is listening to O’Brien’s weekly press conferences, he must, at a minimum, want to test out the waters by reaching out more aggressively to those who once graced the turf at Alumni Stadium in Chestnut Hill, Mass.

After a year like this, when virtually all eyes are on BC’s next move, it would be a mistake not to.

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