Everything Bill O'Brien Said After Boston College Football's Loss to UConn

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. — On his way out of the post-game press conference following Boston College football’s 38-23 loss to UConn on Saturday, BC head coach Bill O’Brien picked up the final stat sheet of the game, crumpled the paper up, and tossed it into the garbage can before exiting the auditorium.

His demeanor was representative of the Eagles’ 2025 campaign thus far—trash.

The Eagles dropped their sixth game in a row to fall to 1-6 on the season with an 0-4 conference record.

The Huskies were able to gain too many yards on first and second downs, leading to easy third-down conversions all game long. Despite leading at half time, BC was limited to just a single field goal in the entirety of the second half, and UConn (5-2) came out of Chestnut Hill, Mass. on top.

Here is everything O’Brien said after the game.

Question: Just talk about when you decided to go with Grayson [James] for this game and do you plan on still starting him going forward?

O'Brien: “I just felt like after the game last week that, you know, the best thing for the team at this point was to go with Grayson, give us a little spark. I thought he did a lot of good things today. He battled hard. And again, it really isn't as much of a reflection on Dylan. Dylan did a lot of great things, you know, but I felt like the team needed a spark, and I thought that Grayson gave us a spark today. You know, he did some really good things. So we'll evaluate, we'll see where we're at. But Grayson, you know, he fought hard today.”

Question: The experience of [UConn quarterback Joe] Fagnano versus a younger, inexperienced secondary. How much of a difference did that make today?

O'Brien: “Yeah, [Fagnano] did a great job. You know, he's very calm. You know, he knows where to go with the ball. Give him a lot of credit. We don't generate a lot of pass rush. He's standing back there. We just can't get off the field. I've got to do a better job with the defense and try to get these guys to, you know, we give up too many yards on first and second down. So it's third and one the whole day. And rarely is it third and 10, and long, rarely. And so that's not a recipe for good defense, but give them credit. Connecticut did a great job when it got inside the redzone. If you could have converted, yeah, a couple of times there might have been a little different. I mean, there were times where we had some, you know, we just did not convert. I thought the play calling was very good. Thought we did a lot of good things. I thought the guys executed, but the low red area was tough today. No doubt about it.”

Question: The first four games, you guys were pretty close. You kept saying that you were close to breaking through. What do you think has changed since then?

O'Brien: “I don't know. If I knew, I'd be able to fix it. I can't fix it. I don't know what it is. I'm gonna keep trying. I'm not, anybody that knows me knows I'm a fighter. I'm not a quitter. I've never quit anything in my life. So I'm gonna keep fighting. I've got to do a better job of trying to figure it out. Watch the tape. Put guys in different spots. We did that today. I thought some guys, you know, we talked about Grayson already. I thought the O line did a lot of good things today. A lot of youth on defense, you know, they'll learn from it, but yeah, I've got to do a better job.”

Question: You talked about the strip sack last game being kind of the turning point. Just wondering if you felt like there was a turning point in this game?

O'Brien: “We just come out in the second half and don't do anything on offense, right? So then, or we do, we move the ball, but we don't really, you know, we can't keep up with them. And then defensively, we still can't. We give up a touchdown on the first drive. When we sit here and we talk about, ‘Hey, look, these are the calls.’ That's what we're going to be in again. They got to be better calls. You got to execute better. First drive of the second half, to give up a touchdown, you know, on a deep post, we're in cover four. We got to do a better job of executing that coverage. And got to teach better. We got to coach better, you know. So I don't know if there was a turning point. I just think the second half didn't play out obviously the way I thought it would.”

Question: Running game got going today, can you talk about that?

O'Brien: “I thought that Grayson helped [the running game] a lot. You know, Grayson ran the ball well. I thought the [offensive] line blocked well. Logan at left tackle. Had a true freshman at right guard, Robert Smith, I think he probably played pretty well. Tommy Matheson at left guard, Judah Pruitt went in there, played some, Michael Crounse at center, and Kevin Cline, I thought those guys did a decent job. You know, we were able to rush for a lot of yards. That was a positive, no doubt.”

Question: Obviously, you know, there’ll be a lot of outside noise. How do you help the kids through this situation?

O'Brien: “Positivity. If you're in that locker room with me just now, I take ownership of it. I have a connection with these kids. I respect them. I love coaching them. There's not a kid in this team in this team meeting room that I don't respect. Try to teach them, try to guide them. They give us everything they got, they'll show up tomorrow, they'll fight, and [I’ll] just keep coaching. I've been in, I've been in, you know, you may say you know or whatever, but I've been in great situations where we've won a lot of games, won a lot in a row. I've been in bad situations. I've been doing this for 33 years, so I've been in both. That's called coaching. That's the journey of coaching, and right now, we're not in a great situation, and we'll just keep fighting to get out of it.”

Question: Going along the line with the run game, earlier in the week, you talked about Jordan McDonald and how he was coming off an ankle injury and you were trying to get him back into the groove. He had 24 carries for 123 yards, what did you see from him?

O'Brien: “Jordan ran really well. He ran hard. Almost broke a couple for touchdowns, you know, and he's still playing hurt, so you talk about a tough guy. Turbo [Richard] got hurt in the game, and Jordan came in. I thought Bo MacCormack did some nice things. So, yeah, I thought the backs played well today.”

Question: Do you think UConn is a better team that it gets credit for?

“I think UConn does a good job. I, again, they were the better team today. No doubt about it. Coach Mora does a good job. Give them credit. We have to give them credit. But, you know, we're only in the second, you know, halfway through the second year of our program. We're building our program. Give UConn credit. They were ready to go today, and they did a better job than we did.”