Everything Boston College Football Head Coach Bill O’Brien Said on Early Signing Day

The Boston College Eagles football program signed 27 high school players from the class of 2025 on Wednesday as a part of Early Signing Day.

Eagles head coach Bill O’Brien spoke on Wednesday about the upcoming class and what he’s seen out of the future players.

Below is a transcript of everything O’Brien said.

OPENING STATEMENT: This is an exciting day for us to announce the 2025 Boston College recruiting class for football. Look, we spent a lot of time from the day we got hired here, recruiting this class. It's a class of what we believe are high character guys, talented guys, guys that understand the mission of Boston College. We have guys represented from all over the country, just to point out that we have five Massachusetts guys which I think is really good and guys from the East Coast and I think will really help us. But we have guys from everywhere, guys from Texas, from California, from Florida, from all over and we're proud of that. We're very proud of that. I would say it's the largest recruiting class since 2014 which is a good thing. You bring in new guys and add them to the to the football team, a culture of guys right now that exists here that's very, very good. And we have a lot of guys here on this team that will teach them, help to teach them about our culture here at BC. I want to give a special shoutout to a few people. Let's start with Spencer Dickow. Spencer did an unbelievable job with this recruiting class. He was on top of it. He understood where they came from, who they were. He knew about all of them. He was in contact with all of them. He should get a ton of credit for this recruiting class. Special shout out to the coaching staff. I think our coaching staff did a good job. These guys recruited every single day. They found time to recruit and they worked hard at it. Whether it's not just the travel, it's the daily interaction with these guys that that I think really paid off. Kamryn Rodriguez, who's the director of on-campus recruiting for us, she did an excellent job of when these guys came on campus for their visits, whether they were unofficial visits or official visits. She did a really good job of helping. We have a lot of other people. We have a staff of recruiting people that did a great job, like Michael Butler, who played football at Tufts and has been helping us out here in recruiting, did an excellent job, and we have several other people that really helped us. So just a shout out to those recruiting staff members and the job that they did, led by Spencer. With that, I'll open it up to questions.

Q: So you guys got hired in February. Did you feel like you had to play catch up this with recruiting class and just overall, [talk] a little bit more on the job the staff did and and sort of playing catch up these last few months?

O’BRIEN: We did get started a little bit late and obviously there is some catch up that has to be done relative to just developing relationships with these guys, and that's really what recruiting is all about is to being honest and upfront about what we are at BC. We're a place where your son is going to get a great education, he's going to get developed on the football field, and he's going to give back to the community, a man for others. That's what we're all about at BC. And so to be able to communicate that to the families and the parents and all the people involved with recruiting these guys, we had to get working on that. And I think our guys did a really good job of that. They really did. They they worked very hard. They recruited every single day. I think that's one thing that we do. We try to do something in recruiting every single day of the year, 365 days of the year, we try to do something in recruiting whether it's watching a film, talking to a coach or obviously communicating with a prospect. So the coaches did a really good job of that.

Q: Just talk about keeping five Mass., kids home. I know that was important to you. And part two, just mining the Catholic Conference, which you’re so familiar with.

O’BRIEN: Yeah, I think that's so important to us. I think we've got to do a great job in Massachusetts. I wish we got every one of them. We certainly did recruit every one of them. We tried to do as good a job as we could have recruiting every guy. We were late, like Kevin brought up. We were a little bit late on some of these guys that went to other places, but the guys that we got were very proud. We're very, very proud of the Massachusetts guys that we got and we know that those guys are going to be really, really good, good teammates, good guys for us. They come from great programs. They were coached very well. We, personally myself, take a lot of pride having grown up here in getting guys from from Massachusetts. The Catholic Conference is a great conference. There's a lot of great conferences in Massachusetts, but obviously my background in the Catholic conference, I take a lot of pride in that conference. I think there's great coaches in that conference, great schools and schools that are familiar to us here at Boston College. But we also looked at obviously BB&N with Bo MacCormack and being able to get a guy like that was huge for us. So there's other schools obviously in Massachusetts that we recruit in and we just again, Massachusetts is very important to us.

Q: My first question is your name is William O'Brien? Anyone call you William?

O’BRIEN: Yeah, my mom. My mom. My full name is William James. So when she was upset with me, she would say William James get over here. That's about it, though.

Q: And how do you strike the balance between filling positional holes versus just getting overall talent? How do you kind of find those two in between?

O’BRIEN: Yeah, I think that's a great question. I mean, we definitely had some needs and we still have needs. But I think in the end, what it was important for us to do was to make sure that we had guys that were good football players, that were high character guys that we felt fit the bill for Boston College, fit the culture of Boston College. I think that was the most important thing. A lot of these guys played both ways. So whether they're skilled guys that played receiver and DB, or some of these guys played tight end and defensive end, or offensive line and defensive line, so we'll see how that shakes out as we move forward, but the most important thing was do they fit what we're looking for relative to being football players, but most importantly, being good culture fits for us here at BC.

Q: This question pertains to Andy, the Irish punter that you guys obviously picked up. Boston College was founded by Irish immigrants back in the day. We obviously have a huge connection to Ireland. We have a building literally in Dublin. I spent my six months abroad there, and I'm just wondering, there's a lot of rugby players over there. Do you think that possibly, it could be kind of an untapped, hidden gem that possibly, with more Irish kids coming over to play here, you could even kind of recruit in that sense?

O’BRIEN: I definitely think there is a little bit of a pipeline that can be set up over there. I think that American football because of what the NFL has done over there has taken shape over there, especially like in England. And then we have, you know, on our team right now Pape Sy, who was from Africa and then went to the NFL program in Europe and was able to develop up and now he's at Boston College. Obviously Andy Quinn that we have coming to us from Ireland, I definitely think there's something to that that we have to always look at that and especially in Ireland. I have an affinity from Ireland, I'm an Irish Catholic from Boston. My mom and dad were both Irish. My mom was a Murphy. My dad was an O'Brien, obviously. So, I think guys from Ireland that can play football, and he's a guy that really at a young age, he punted in a punting competition, kicking competition in front of 50,000 people outside of Dublin, and so he has the poise, the demeanor, the ability to be a punter for us and also he's a kicker. So we feel very fortunate to get Andy. Andy was recruited by a lot of schools. So, we feel a lot of [and] we take a lot of pride in Andy Quinn coming to BC.

Q: You mentioned the development of the relationships, kind of twofold. On the other side of that is, how much do you see Boston College, just on the recruiting trail, be something that people notice, people recognize, that people understand, especially since the class breakdown has started to spread out outside of the Northeast?

O’BRIEN: I think there's definitely a Boston College brand and I think it's up to us to continue to, in many ways, spread the word of Boston College. I mean, this is a very special place. This is a place where you can get a tremendous education, a world renowned education, and you can play good football. We're not an undefeated team, but we're a good football team and a place where, Father Jack Butler talks about this a lot. He talks about getting the more, getting the more out of everybody. And so our guys are very busy. So they're prepared for life when they get out of Boston College. They have to go to class, they get a great education, they're going to play good football, and they give back to the community. Our guys do a lot in the community and so I think that's what BC is all about. And so there is that brand across the country that when we go out to whether it's California or right here in Massachusetts, people know about Boston College.

Q: Just as a follow up in there, I know you got a couple of legacies in this class too, Kaelan Chudzinski, obviously Coach Chud’s son and Bryce Lewis is Tim Lewis's son. Just kind of how excited are you to kind of keep it in the family? Because I know that's also something that's kind of existed over the last few years.

O’BRIEN: And I think one of the things that's great is that both those guys, Kaelan and Bryce, have great dads, they’re on our coaching staff. They're awesome guys, but we recruited them because they were very good players. Bryce Lewis is 6-foot-6, 230-pounds, tight end. His best years are ahead of him. He's just a really good athlete for the size that he is. A football junkie like really, every time you got him on the phone, all he wanted to do was talk about football, just a really good guy. And then Kaelan Chudzinski, I went and watched him personally, right out here at Alumni Stadium when they played a game against Governor. He had a really good game. I mean, he played tough. He was a blocker, but he was a very dynamic athlete in the game, and I can see him being used in a lot of different ways in our offense and so yeah, we were thrilled to get them. I think anytime you get the son of a coach, over the course, the history of football, sons of coaches usually turn out really well, and so that'll be a good thing for us.

Q: You mentioned throughout the year that recruiting is year round. With the transfer portal winter window opening on December 9, it's only going to last 20 days, how aggressive do you plan on being with that limited time frame. And then how do you kind of look to navigate the portal as it pretty much aligns with your bowl preparation?

O’BRIEN: Yeah, no, we'll be involved in the portal. Relative to our level of aggressiveness, it's really all about like, the model that we want to use here is we want to recruit high school guys and so like in the NFL, you're going to build the team through the draft. That's what we believed in at New England and Houston. And so we want to build the team through high school recruiting, and then we want to supplement the team through free agency in the NFL. We want to supplement this team through the portal. We're not going to be swapping 30 guys out and bringing 30 guys in, that's not who we are. We're going to develop the guys we have in our program, build a culture with those guys, and then try to look where we have some needs we have a need here, we have a need there. I'm not going to get into what those needs are, but hey, maybe we can use a couple guys here and there to help fortify those positions. That's what we'll do here at BC, we'll see if it works. We have a strong belief in it and we're going to make it work, but that's what we're going to do.

Q: Hey Coach, you mentioned the strong job that your staff did on the road. Two coaches I've heard a lot about from different recruits, really had an impact for your staff. Can you talk a little bit about Coach Brown and Coach DiBiaso and how they really have made an impact for your school on the transfer portal, I mean, in the recruiting trail?

O’BRIEN: First of all, I would say our whole staff did a really good job. Some guys, like the coordinators, don't have as much recruiting responsibility as the assistants because they're in the office and getting game plans together and things like that. The assistant coaches, the position coaches, have a lot more responsibility on the recruiting trail and I think all those guys did a really good job relative to where they were recruiting and how they recruited. But Coach DiBiaso does an excellent job. He's got great knowledge of this area, but he has knowledge around the country. He's built a great network of connections. He knows a lot of high school coaches. Another son of a coach. His dad's playing for the state championship on Thursday night down at Gillette. Jonathan's a great coach, great young coach that has a bright future and he did an unbelievable job recruiting for us each and every day. Ray Brown has a great personality. Anybody that's been around Ray, he's a funny guy, he's a smart guy, he's a competitive guy, and he's able to connect with these kids and he did a really good job of that. Darrell Wyatt able to connect with the guys. I think it's all about connecting. But even, you look at Danny O'Brien. Danny O'Brien was the one that recruited Zacari Thomas. I mean, connections with players and relationships with their parents is so important. That's really what it is. And especially like in this day and age of NIL and portal, there's got to be a connection. There has to be a sense that this coach really cares about my son and I think all the coaches did a good job of that.

Q: Hey Coach, I know you said you're really high on Shaker [Reisig] obviously and just being along the lines of how Grayson has stepped into the offense and done a very good job as of these past five games or so that he’s started. What do you think are kind of the differences between a guy like Grayson and a guy like Shaker? I know they have kind of different statures and different frames, and how do you think Shaker could fit into the offense?

O’BRIEN: Grayson’s done a really good job. We're very proud of Grayson, to come from, where he's come from, the journey that he's had. He's done a really good job. He played his best game the other night against Pitt and very, very proud of Grayson. Shaker, yeah everybody's a little bit different. Shaker was coached very well in high school. So he comes from a really good offense where he had to make a lot of decisions at the line of scrimmage, he had to check plays, he had to check protections, he had to read coverage. He's another guy that loves football, loves the preparation, loves everything about football. Comes from a great family. His mom and dad, they lived in Buffalo, and then they moved to Oklahoma to give him a better football opportunity. And so, he's all about ball, and I think that he'll come in here, it's hard to play as a freshman, we don't really expect that. We just want him to come in here and get better, learn our system, get better and better every single day, and that's what he's going to do. He was going to Utah and we were able to get him to come here and I think that says a lot because I have a lot of respect for the Utah program and what they do, and in the success that Coach Whittingham’s had so to be able to get Shaker to come over to BC was a big accomplishment for us. And we're thrilled to have him. We're thrilled to have him. We can't wait to coach him. He's been a joy to recruit.

Q: Yeah, Coach, just wondering, are you guys allowed to go to Gillette this week or no?

O’BRIEN: It's a dead period. Can you believe that? We can't go. I might go. I might go in disguise. I'm gonna put my Groucho Marx disguise on and go down there. No, I'm just kidding. No, we're not allowed to go. We're not allowed to go. So I'll be watching the live stream.

Q: I’m just curious more about Bo MacCormack, you mentioned him earlier and then Mekhi Dodd, just those two really seem like they compliment each other, kind of like the running backs do currently. Just how about they're contrasting the styles and how they can can mesh well together?

O’BRIEN: Yeah, let's start with Bo. I mean Bo, it's just been awesome to recruit Bo. He comes from an awesome family, his mom and dad and his sister, they were in on an official visit last week, and I spent a lot of time with his mom and dad. I spent a lot of time with Bo over the last couple months. And he's just highly competitive, tough, he's a Massachusetts guy, and that's what we're looking for. We want the Mass., guys that are tough, have big hearts. I mean, you look at the guys stats at BB&N, he rushed for almost 7,000 yards, had 100 touchdowns. I mean, it's incredible. You’re talking about a guy that is a really, really good football player, and so that that was important. Mekhi is another guy that's been on a quite a journey, has an awesome family, great mom, Coach [John] DiBiaso at CM [Catholic Memorial] has done a great job with him. He hurt his knee. He came back this year from a knee injury to dominate the state, I'd say he's the best back in the Catholic Conference. He just did an excellent job, and he's got those guys headed to the state championship at Gillette. He's been a fun guy to recruit. He's a good guy and we've had a lot of fun recruiting him. And he's a big back, like you said and he's a powerful back, and he's done a great job at CM.

Q: I was gonna ask if you have any good stories from the road. I mean, or recruiting… But I think I’d ask, get any good food or some stories out of the road?

O’BRIEN: We haven't really. I wasn't able to go out on the road yet. I got hired in February. Can't go out on the road till January, so I haven't even been out on the road. I can't go out on the road in the spring. So that's a better question for the assistant coaches. I haven't been out. Now, I have good recruiting stories from my 30 other years of recruiting, but not this year. I haven't been able to. I won't be able to go on the road until January. December is dead. The recruiting calendar has changed a lot. So we got hired in February. The assistant coaches went out in May, and then head coaches are not allowed to go out in May and then now we can't go out again till January, so I'll be out on the road in January.

Q: Do you have any early enrollees that you can have in spring ball?

O’BRIEN: Yeah, we have 13 guys. We can get you that list. I think there's 13 guys that will enroll this semester that will be in spring practice.

Q: What does that advantage, though, help those kids to get first the taste of college and the case of football before they even ready to play?

O’BRIEN: Yeah, it’s a good question. I go back and forth on this. I do think it's important for a guy like Shaker Reisig to to be here. A quarterback that can get in on the meetings and start to learn the offense right away. I think that's important, but I do think it's tough. I think it's the way it is in college football now, but I also think some of these guys, sometimes you miss out on your high school experience, the last half of your high school season or year, the prom and some of the things that happen in the spring of your high school year. But I do think, relative to BC and football, you get these guys in there early, they understand what the classroom is all about, like where the classes are, and what the routine is of our program or a morning program, and what that's going to look like so that when the summer rolls around and when the training camp rolls around, they have an idea. They're not, not everything's brand new to them. They know how we practice. They know how we do things. So I do think it's good for that, but I don't think it's easy. I'm not somebody that is all gung ho about, hey, you have to be here. If a guy chooses to say, hey, look coach, I'll be there in June. I'm all about that. I don't think it, I don't think it's the be all in the end all to have to be here in January.