Boston College Football Head Coach Bill O’Brien Talks Transfer Portal, New Rules
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The Boston College Eagles (7-5, 4-4 ACC) football team is starting preparations for its bowl game against the Nebraska Cornhuskers (6-6, 3-6 B1G).
Boston College and Nebraska were selected to compete in the 2024 Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, N.Y., on Saturday, Dec. 28. The announcement was made on Sunday afternoon as a part of Selection Day.
On Tuesday, Eagles head coach Bill O’Brien and Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule participated in the Pinstripe Bowl press conference.
During the conference, O’Brien talked about dealing with the transfer portal while also trying to prepare for its final game of the season and the difficulty in that.
“Our team is sticking together,” said O’Brien. “I’m not going to get into who’s doing what and all that, but who makes these rules? Who opens the portal during the bowl season? I don’t understand that. The portal should be open after the bowl season, but that’s just one man’s opinion. For us at Boston College, we’re trying to build a program where you really wanna be here. You’re coming to Boston College to play for a coaching staff that can develop you and you can get an unbelievable education at a place that really does an unbelievable job at giving back to the community.
It’s a unique place,” said O’Brien. “We got hired in February, we haven’t even been here a full year and we’re gonna keep, like Blake [James] said, keep trying to build it the right way relative to Boston College, but the whole portal and things like that, I could sit here for hours. I don’t want to speak for Coach Rhule at all but like you’re trying to keep your team together [and] get them ready to play a game, but now the portal pops open. But it is part of the deal, it is the system we live in and we deal with it every day and we do the best we can.”
The first-year Eagles head coach also criticized the NCAA’s new roster limit rules which will go into effect for the 2025-26 school year. The policy caps football rosters to 105 players.
“The 105 rule might be the most ridiculous rule in my opinion,” said O’Brien. “When I went to Penn State, the way that we kept the team together was with walk-ons. We have a couple of walk-ons from Penn State that were with me there that are coming to visit us this weekend to watch us practice. The walk-ons are the heart and soul of college football. A guy pays whatever he pays to come to Boston College, to get a great education and says ‘you know what, I want to play football.’
Our captain Joe Marinaro, special teams captain, he was a walk-on that I awarded a scholarship to this fall,” said O’Brien. “He was a walk-on for four years. We don’t have 150 [players] like Matt [Rhule] does, but we have 120. So, at some point in time, we’ve got to cut down. We have to cut 15 kids to get to 105. That makes no sense to me. I don’t know who makes those rules but I would certainly love to sit down with them and discuss how important the walk-ons are to college football.”
The Eagles and Cornhuskers will square off on Dec. 28 at noon ET on ABC.
More Football News From Boston College Eagles On SI:
Boston College AD Blake James Shares Thoughts on Bill O’Brien’s First Year
What Nebraska Head Coach Matt Rhule Said About Boston College After Pinstripe Bowl Selection
Boston College Football Wide Receiver Enters Transfer Portal
Kim Rankin is the lead writer for Boston College On SI. The 2020 graduate of the University of Alabama. She joined Alabama Crimson Tide On SI in February 2024 covering baseball, softball, football, men’s basketball, and more for BamaCentral, but has also contributed to Missouri Tigers On SI. She previously worked as the brand manager at Tide 100.9 FM in Tuscaloosa, Ala. She has covered a wide variety of events including SEC Championships, NCAA Regionals, and bowl games.
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