Despite 1-5 Start, Bill O'Brien Defends BC Football's Heart as UConn Matchup Approaches

The Eagles' head coach backed up his players' inspiration, and the inspiration he derives from them, amid a tough season on the Heights.

Oct 11, 2025; Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA; Boston College Eagles head coach Bill O'Brien yells to an official during the first half against the Clemson Tigers at Alumni Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Eric Canha-Imagn Images | Eric Canha-Imagn Images

Although wins have not come around as often for the Boston College football program this season, passion and inspiration are surely not lacking, according to BC head coach Bill O’Brien.

O’Brien sees it every day inside of the quarters, hallways, and facilities that comprise nearly a third of Boston College’s lower campus. The very sight of his players in the morning, waking up to meet with the coaches and trainers at the football facility at 5:30 AM on a daily basis, fires O’Brien up.

In an animated briefing to the media on Tuesday morning, O’Brien explained how all of the frustrations in the Eagles’ camp this year, and the 1-5 record that is intertwined with the face of the program currently, does not have a detrimental affect on the players or coaches to a degree that has resulted in lost inspiration.

I asked Coach O'Brien about inspiration in the building.

"Are you kidding me? We show up every single day. I'm inspired by the players every day. They're ready to meet at 8 AM, they're in the building at 5:30-6 AM. ... Inspiration? I'm inspired by them."

Full quote: pic.twitter.com/04P9wPu8tv

— Graham Dietz (@graham_dietz) October 14, 2025

“Are you kidding me?” O’Brien said. “Inspiration? I'm inspired by them. I'm inspired by the people in the program that work extremely hard to develop a program, which takes a while. It takes a while to develop a program. It takes a long time. Oh, they're inspired. Yeah, they're inspired.”

Whether fans realize it or not, BC is still showing up everyday to fight hard in order to put the last game behind it and move forward. 

The Eagles are 3-9 against their last 12 Power-Four opponents, dating back to the 2024 season, but in reality, the program is still in its infant stages with O’Brien at the helm.

Even after back-to-back, blowout losses to Atlantic Coast Conference foes Pittsburgh and Clemson, O’Brien is still maintaining a stance of optimism around his players and coaching staff, he said.

The outside world might not be able to register how hard every individual inside of the facility works, day in and day out, but that is not in question at all to O’Brien. If it was, O’Brien would likely be the first to vocalize his frustrations with the team’s lack of effort during practice, but he is not.

“You know, the sky is falling to everyone outside of this program, but not to anyone inside the program,” O’Brien said. “I'm talking about the people in the team meeting room. The sky is not falling. We got great kids that care about Boston College that play their asses off. We got coaches working day in and day out to get it right. Outside of the program, sky's falling. Inside that team meeting room, nobody believes that.”

He even claimed that if Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney, or director of scouting Danny Pearman and defensive ends coach Chris Rumph, for that matter, were asked about the Eagles’ effort in their 41-10 loss to the Tigers on Saturday, they would all say that BC put up a fight with clear effort.

“Clemson won the game,” O’Brien said. “They did a great job. But I think if you called coach [Dabo] Swinney, and you asked coach Danny Pearman there, or you asked coach [Chris] Rumph, they would tell you, ‘Boston College played hard for 60 Minutes with great effort, relentless attitude, right?’ The score wasn't what it was. We get it. We understand we're not where we want to be, all right? But I'm telling you right now, I'm inspired by the guys I coach. I love coaching this team.”

With a regional opponent, the UConn Huskies, appearing next on the schedule, O’Brien was blatantly honest about where his team stands in terms of how the two programs match up.

UConn, an independent program, is not in a Power-Four conference. It is not in the same boat as Notre Dame is, either, as an independent as well—the Huskies are not well known for the strength of their football program as opposed to the men’s and women’s basketball programs, which are perennial NCAA Division 1 title contenders each year.

But UConn head coach Jim Mora has done a better job of rewiring the outlook of the program, to a degree, and O’Brien said that this game will not be any sort of layup for the Eagles like it has been in the past, per se.

In the all-time series, BC is 13-1-2 against the Huskies, but the last two games between the programs have ultimately resulted in tightly-contested battles. In 2022, UConn defeated BC in Storrs, Conn., 13-3. In 2023, the Eagles won by a touchdown, 21-14.

The Huskies are 5-2 this season and are coming off a 41-point blowout over Florida International University (FIU) on Oct. 4 and a bye week. To O’Brien, there is a sense that BC is entering the matchup as the underdogs in this edition of the Northeast rivalry.

“They're playing hard,” O’Brien said. “But no, to think that the UConn game, in my opinion, they should be favored. They have a better record than us, so, like, they should be favored, and we got to show up and play.”