Everything Boston College Football Head Coach Bill O’Brien Said on Selection to Pinstripe Bowl

The Boston College Eagles (7-5, 4-4 ACC) football team received its bowl invitation on Sunday afternoon to take on the Nebraska Cornhuskers (6-6, 3-6 B1G) in the Pinstripe Bowl on Dec. 28 at Yankee Stadium.

On Monday, Eagles head coach Bill O’Brien spoke about being selected to the bowl game and shared his early thoughts on Nebraska.

Below is a transcript of everything O’Brien said.

Q: Can you just speak to the benefits of having this game in the northeast. It’s not quite as local as Fenway, but still in New York, it's not too far away. Just how much [does] that help from a fan and recruiting standpoint as well.

O’BRIEN: Yeah, I think it's fantastic for us to be able to play in New York City at an iconic venue, Yankee Stadium. We have a lot of our fan base that lives in that area, lives in the Tri-State area and New York City, have some great alums in that area. So it's a great opportunity for us. We're playing an iconic program in Nebraska, led by Matt Rhule, who I've known for a long time, got great respect for Matt. So it's a really, it's an excellent opportunity for us at BC.

Q: Are you anticipating any opt-outs for the bowl game?

O’BRIEN: As of right now, we’ll see. Not ready to really talk about that right now, some guys are still making decisions. We’ll see. They're always going to do what's in the best interest along with the advice that I give them and things like that. So they'll do what's in the best interest of their own careers and Boston College. We'll see how it all shakes out.

Q: With the 15 extra practices, how much are you going to allocate to team building and how much to game planning?

O’BRIEN: Yeah, well every day is team building. Every day here is team building, but yeah, I know what you mean. We'll start introducing Nebraska at some point in time. We've got to watch the film on them first. There's a lot of film and so we've got to get through all that, but we'll do a good job with our team. We'll start practice tomorrow. We'll practice Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and our team will show up to practice and we'll be ready to play.

Q: Just how does this kind of cap your season? Where have you been able to accomplish and what you wanted to accomplish this year, and does this bowl appearance kind of make that statement about the direction of program setting in?

O’BRIEN: I think it's, for where we're at, to win three out of our last four, and to get to seven wins, and now to have a chance to go to this bowl game and play Nebraska. That was the big thing for me was to be able to go to a bowl where we could play an opponent like Nebraska, a Big Ten opponent. Obviously, I'm familiar with the Big Ten, the history of Nebraska and college football in this country is fantastic. So, to be able to go down there, it's a great opportunity for our guys. It means a lot. We get all these extra practices, got a chance to improve as a football team and really excited about it. Our guys are excited about it. Coaching staff. It's just awesome for Boston College.

Q: Coach, without dating you too much, I just wanted to ask if you had a favorite Nebraska football memory from growing up because I know they were one of those like handful of teams you got to watch on TV back in the day.

O’BRIEN: Yeah, I mean you remember the famous game. I think it was probably, man I probably be dating myself, but the Nebraska-Miami national championship game, Tom Osborne, Howard Schnellenberger. I think Tom Osborne elected to go for two to try to win the game, didn't get it. I think Miami won the game. That was incredible. What an incredible, very, very, one of those college football games that you just never forget. And then I coached against Nebraska twice at Penn State. So we coached against them in 2012 in Lincoln which is an incredible environment and had a great game against them. We lost. And then we coached against them at Penn State at another great game. Lost that one too. So just tough, tough games, tough environments, but great memories of just Nebraska football growing up. No doubt about it.

Q: It was great to see the ACC getting two teams in the College Football Playoff. When you look ahead to ‘25 schedule, you'll be hosting three playoff teams next year at home which Notre Dame, Clemson, SMU. How positive is that, not only for the conference, but really raising the profile of Boston College?

O’BRIEN: Yeah, I mean it's huge. And to think about the ACC getting two teams in, that SMU-Clemson game was a great football game to watch. Came down to the last play. It was incredible to see how that game unfolded. Two great teams. Yeah, I know there's a lot of back and forth between the conferences and all that, I get it. I've kind of said my peace on that. I just, I think the ACC is a very difficult league. I've coached in all three conferences, and all these games are tough. There’s great coaches, there's great quarterbacks, there's defensive linemen and running backs and wide receivers and DB’s and guys you got to deal with that are tight ends. I mean, it's a difficult league to coach in in the ACC. And I think if you really study it and you really study the teams within each conference, not sure where we get all this that the ACC is third. Really not sure about that. I get it, but I just think the ACC is a very, very difficult conference and I'm glad to see that we got two teams in.

Q: Two parter. First, can you elaborate on your relationship with Matt Rhule? Just how you guys know each other over the years, how far do you go back? And then just some thoughts on Nebraska, I know you're just getting a feel for them, but your early thoughts on them.

O’BRIEN: Yeah, when I got the job at Penn State was when I really met Matt. Matt went to Penn State. Played at Penn State. Matt is from State College, just a very well known guy in Pennsylvania and at Penn State. Matt's a great guy. He was coaching, I think at, I want to say Temple when I was at Penn State. And wherever he's gone, he's done a really good job. He's coached in the NFL. He worked for Tom Coughlin in New York Giants, head coach of the Carolina Panthers as everybody knows and he's done a great job at Baylor, Nebraska, Temple, guy’s a really good football coach. And yeah, so I got to know him or first met him about 12 years ago at Penn State.

Q: And then just early scouting report on Nebraska? I know you’re just getting a feel for them but what makes them unique?

O’BRIEN: I mean you start offensively, they've got an excellent young quarterback in Dylan Raiola. We recruited him when I was at Alabama, one of the top players in the country at that position and so it's a very difficult challenge for us. A lot of good skill players and then as always Nebraska has linemen, right. They've got offensive linemen and they've got defensive linemen. On defense, their edge guys are really good, their defensive tackles are excellent, and they're a good football team. I know at the end of the day, we both lost some tough games, but Nebraska is a really good football team and it's a big time opportunity for us to go against a Big Ten team and it's pretty cool opportunity for us.

Q: Do you anticipate fine tuning a few things and maybe adding a few wrinkles that Nebraska won't see on film?

O’BRIEN: I mean, I don't know. We're gonna have to look at it. We're studying the tape right now. Look, we do what we do, we run the ball, we try to mix it up on defense, and we try to do as good a job as we can on special teams, covering kicks and coming after kicks and returning kicks and things like that. So, we'll do what we do and we'll see if there's, as we watch the tape, if there's anything we can try to take advantage of, but we are what we are right now, there's no doubt about that.

Q: Without getting into which guys might play, might not play, but for your younger guys, I know that bowl games don't necessarily impact eligibility or one game towards a redshirt or anything like that. So, how great is it to have this opportunity to not only after the practices, to maybe see them in a real game?

O’BRIEN: No doubt, that's a great question, and there's no doubt about that. You've got a chance to play guys that have not played and this doesn't affect their redshirt so they can get ready for the game. We've got a lot of good young players in this program, so really looking forward to the opportunities that those guys may get. Now, they got to earn it on the practice field. We start practice tomorrow and they've got to do a good job of practice to earn the right to play in Yankee Stadium against Nebraska. But it is an opportunity for some of those younger guys to play that have not played. So it'll be cool to watch that all play out over the next three weeks.

Q: As a general follow up for you, I know I asked earlier about Nebraska memories… You've been around for a while. Are there like Bucket List stadiums that you look at and be like, ‘Hey, we can still cross this one off the list?’

O’BRIEN: Yeah. I mean, I've never been to Yankee Stadium. So this is very, very cool to have a chance to go coach a football game in Yankee Stadium. I mean, as a football coach who's been around a long time, who has a baseball background, you guys know my son as a baseball player, it's an unbelievable opportunity. And I've been to a lot of stadiums. Just thinking about when I coached at Penn State and we went to Nebraska and played in Lincoln. That place, there's a lot of history there and a lot of great games have been played in that stadium. So yeah, I've been fortunate. I've coached in a lot of unbelievable venues.

Q: Gonna wear a Red Sox shirt while you're down there?

O’BRIEN: No, no, not at all.

More Football News From Boston College Eagles on SI:

Boston College Football to Face Nebraska in Pinstripe Bowl

Boston College Football DE Wins ACC Defensive Player of the Year

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