Five Takeaways From New Offensive Coordinator John McNulty's Press Conference

On Tuesday, Boston College and head coach Jeff Hafley introduced new offensive coordinator John McNulty. The former Notre Dame tight end's coach, who has over 30 years of experience at various spots at both the the NFL and collegiate level spoke to the media for the first time since accepting the role. Here are some of the takeaways from the Hafley & McNulty's remarks.

Connections Were Important

Both men spent time together with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Hafley was the defensive backs coach, while McNulty coached quarterbacks.

But it wasn't just Hafley's personal connection with McNulty, in which he admitted they only knew each other a little from their time together with the Bucs. When other coaches and players heard the whispers of BC's interest in the Fighting Irish coach, they also sang their praises. "“I got so many text messages from people in this profession, once we hired him, saying, ‘Incredible hire, home run hire, unbelievable person.’ That’s huge for me,” Hafley told reporters.

McNulty has been around top level talent

Through his various stops both at the collegiate and at the professional level, McNulty has worked with some incredible talent.

The list of players he has coached directly is impressive. Larry Fitzgerald, Anquan Boldin, Ray Rice, Marcus Mariota and Antonio Gates were just some of the big names he has been around. In addition he coached ND tight end Michael Mayer, nicknamed "Baby Gronk", who had 71 catches for 840 yards and seven touchdowns this past season.

He's Going To Find Ways To Get Zay Flowers The Ball

One of the biggest issues with Boston College's offense last year was the inability to get Zay Flowers the ball. A problem that was magnified by the injury to starting quarterback Phil Jurkovec

Flowers, already has made himself very known to the new OC, as McNulty jokingly said that the BC wide out had been in his office already three times in his first morning there. But he was blown away at the tape he saw of Flowers. He talked about watching the cut ups from 2020, and seeing big plays by BC, and almost every time it was Zay Flowers. The new offensive coordinator knows how important it will be to lean on players like Zay Flowers and Jaelen Gill, and will make sure the scheme involves getting them the ball. “I think the ball is going to go to Zay more than he’s used to," he explained.

Rod Chudzinksi was a key to the hire

Jeff Hafley talked at length about the process that it took to get his new offensive coordinator. He mentioned that he had about eight candidates, both internally and externally and that "Coach Chud", his special offensive assistant was integral to the process.

Chudzinski, who many believed could have been a candidate for the job, ran interviews and helped do background checks with Hafley. The head coach who had to do recruiting trips and other duties, leaned heavily on Chudzinski during the process.

Changes are coming on offense

Both head coach Jeff Hafley and McNulty spoke at length about changes to the offense. Hafley said that the offense needs to improve, something he is very aware of, and he believes that his new offensive coordinator will be the guy who can do that.

However, the head coach was evasive on what those changes would be, claiming he wants to have a competitive edge over the teams Boston College will play, including Rutgers in the season opener. McNulty described some of the scheme and formations he used at Notre Dame, especially that he wants to be able to use more players in case an injury happens something that happened in South Bend this last year. Having ready players is crucial for success, especially in a sport like football. He also talked about his usage of college elements in a mostly pro style offense. Frank Cignetti, BC's former offensive coordinator stuck mostly with the pro elements, but that will change with the new coordinator. What those will look like remains a mystery, but could add a different dimension that BC's offense sorely lacked in 2021.

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