With New Front Office Additions, Bill O'Brien Will 'Pour Himself into Coaching' in 2026: The Extra Point

Boston College football's head coach is hoping to take some front-office responsibility off his plate with the additions of Kenyatta Watson and Ryan Bartow to his staff.

Brendan Sonnone (@BSonnone) via X.

Being a head coach in college football does not just entail coaching anymore. The transfer portal has created a system in which head coaches must learn the ropes of player contracts, just like how a National-Football-League front office operates when it comes to navigating the free-agency landscape.

That is exactly why BC head coach Bill O’Brien decided to add Kenyatta Watson, the former assistant general manager for Georgia Tech football, to his staff this offseason.

“[Watson’s] a guy that can fulfill that general manager role from a talent evaluation, acquisition standpoint, but also from a contract standpoint,” O’Brien said on the latest episode of his podcast with Jon Meterparel. “Dealing with agents, dealing with players, things like that, because that’s what it is nowadays. Most of these guys have agents. But, at the same, we gotta do a great job of bringing in talent, and I think he’ll really help and that’ll take some of that off my plate.”

Back where it started pic.twitter.com/iwYRNsuvcX

— Boston College Football (@BCFootball) December 8, 2025

Watson was not the only front-office addition O’Brien made recently.

On the podcast, O’Brien noted that the Eagles additionally brought in Ryan Bartow, the former director of high school relations for Florida State, to be an assistant to Watson.

“[Watson’s] bringing a guy with him named Ryan Bartow, which will really help him, too,” O’Brien said. “Kind of an assistant general manager type role, which will really help. So we’re excited about the addition of both those guys.”

Bartow spent three-and-a-half years in Tallahassee, Fla., before parting ways with the program in June of 2024, according to a report from Dustin Lewis of FSU Seminoles On SI—who was informed of the move by an FSU spokesperson.

Before his tenure with the Seminoles, which kicked off in February of 2021, Bartow spent a year with Syracuse as its director of high school relations. Before that, Bartow served roles at XOS as a West Coast scout from 2020-21, the director of high school relations at Oregon from 2018-19, and a national college football recruiting reporter at 247 Sports from 2013-17.

With Watson and Bartow in the driver’s seat of recruiting from a transfer-portal and high-school-recruiting standpoint, O’Brien is keen on rekindling his focus back to coaching, which he struggled with this past season, in which the Eagles went 2-10 and posted a 1-7 record in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

“I’ll still oversee that, but now I can put more time into coaching,” O’Brien said. “I do put a lot of time into coaching, but now I can pour myself into coaching on both sides of the ball, on special teams, especially on the offensive side of the ball. That was the number one thing I learned. I gotta get back to coaching. And that’s what I’m gonna work hard to do.”

O’Brien is still on the prowl for a new defensive coordinator, wide receivers coach, and offensive line coach, which Watson and Bartow can also assist with to a certain extent.

“We have a lot to fix, we have a lot to get better at, starting with me,” O’Brien said. “I’m gonna be a better head coach next year. But I was very proud of this team and how they showed up every week.”

O’Brien added: “You know, I’m a coach. And in this day and age of college football, it’s difficult to just be the coach. And that’s why you have to do as good a job as you can of surrounding yourself with people who can take some things off your plate. So … the hiring of Kenyatta Watson is huge for us.”