How Former NFL Coaches Could Impact College Football: Just A Minute

As college football becomes more like the NFL with each passing year, coaches with NFL experience will become more valuable.

Boston College Eagles head coach Bill O'Brien reacts during the first half against the Nebraska Cornhuskers at Yankee Stadium. | Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

College football is becoming more and more like the NFL with each season that passes. With the influx of NIL money, college football teams are creating new positions that are common in the NFL, like a general manager.

As this evolution progresses further, it would stand to reason coaches with NFL experience could find a way to implement that experience in the collegiate ranks.

Or at least that’s the thought process North Carolina had when it hired six-time Super Bowl winning coach Bill Belichick to lead its football program.

Belichick was 26 wins short of passing Don Shula on the all-time head coach wins list (328-302) when he was hired by the Tar Heels. The football, and really the sporting world at-large, is eager to see Belichick lead a college team (considering the cutthroat personality he created in New England).

But another former Patriots coach has already started to bring the NFL to his collegiate program, and that is Boston College coach Bill O’Brien.

The former Penn State and Houston Texans coach won seven games in his debut season with the Eagles, but has already started to use his professional experience with his former starting quarterback leaving for Florida State.

Plus, O’Brien has some coaching experience at the collegiate level after taking over at Penn State in the wake of its infamous child abuse scandal in 2012.

None of that is to say O’Brien will have more collegiate success than Belichick. But it is a possibility and, either way, next college football season will be one to watch.