Bill O’Brien Puts BC Soccer Back on the Map, originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
On Monday morning, for no reason other than wanting to avoid yard work, I uploaded one of the greatest games in Boston College Football history to YouTube: the surprising 1993 game against No. 1 Notre Dame.
That 41-39 victory is famous for David Gordon’s improbable 41-yard field goal as time ran out, but it was really about so much more: Future NFL quarterback Glenn Foley tearing the Fighting Irish apart through the air, Brockton’s Darnell Campbell slicing them open on the ground and hot-tempered head coach Tom Coughlin exacting sweet revenge for the previous year’s 54-7 loss in South Bend.
If it’s not the high point in the program’s history, it’s one of the top three, along with Doug Flutie’s 1984 Hail Mary and the 1941 Sugar Bowl.
I’d like to say I knew BC would open the 2024 season on Monday, but between moving to the ACC and the rough times since Matt Ryan graduated more than 15 years ago, the Eagles haven’t earned much attention. They’ve had a string of reckless coaches and disappointing results, barely registering en route to atrocities like the AdvoCare V100 Bowl, which sounds like something you’d needlessly attach to your toilet. (And which they lost to Arizona in 2013.)
That changed, at least a little, over the winter, when the Eagles made their first splash in a while by hiring former Patriots offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien as head coach. O’Brien couldn’t fix the dysfunction that was Mac Jones and the entire Patriots operation last year, but BC already looks like it could be a different story.
The Eagles did indeed open the regular season on Monday night, and they did so with great enthusiasm, traveling to Tallahassee and defeating No. 10 Florida State in a performance reminiscent of their glory days.
In O’Brien’s debut, the Eagles didn’t just push the Seminoles around, they manhandled them. The school once known as Offensive Line U lived up to its old reputation by rushing for 263 yards, most of it straight through the gut. The Eagles won the time-of-possession battle by nearly 20 minutes, and when they needed a play in the passing game, jitterbug quarterback Thomas Castellanos delivered a pair of TDs.
As a sweaty O’Brien donned a headset to accept congratulations from ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt, it was hard not to see Coughlin, an equally gruff boss who led British Columbia to some of its greatest heights before moving on to the NFL and winning two Super Bowls with the Giants. Needless to say.
O’Brien arrived in Chestnut Hill determined to build a similar program, emphasizing physical toughness and mental discipline. The Eagles delivered on both fronts, not only dominating both lines of scrimmage but also committing just one penalty, 17 fewer than the year before when they nearly stunned the Seminoles.
“Everything we did this offseason led to this,” Castellanos told The Boston Globe. “This is what we were preparing for. It all worked out well.”
It’s hard to overstate how important BC football was back in the day. From the Flutie years to those fun Foley teams, the Eagles earned full-time traveling coverage from multiple TV stations and newspapers. When they briefly flirted with the No. 1 overall ranking during Ryan’s heyday, it turned out to be one last hurrah before the bottom fell out.
Part of it was the Big East exit — who cares about Duke or NC State? — but mostly it was their mediocrity. The Eagles mastered the dark art of bowl qualification, winning six or seven games virtually every year only to end up in some version of the aforementioned commode.
Maybe that will change.
BC fans of a certain age can’t miss the spots on the offensive line being manned by Drew Kendall and Ozzy Trapilo. Their fathers were BC legends. Pete Kendall spent 13 years as an NFL guard after being drafted in the first round, while the late Steve Trapilo is best remembered for hoisting Flutie aloft after completing the Miracle in Miami.
Look further down the roster and you’ll see freshman defensive back Charlie Comella, Greg’s son, who himself played seven years as a fullback in the NFL.
Those ties to the past hint at the promise of a brighter future, but it’s all about O’Brien. Bringing him in gave the Eagles a taste of relevance, and when I saw their surprising early lead on Monday, I tuned in to ESPN. It was hell to watch, the Eagles simply shoving it down FSU’s throat in a performance that felt like an antidote to the cookie-cutter offenses rampant at all levels.
It’ll take more than one game to make the Eagles worth watching, and the schedule isn’t getting any easier with reigning Cotton Bowl champion Missouri looming in two weeks. But at least there’s hope that watching some satisfying highlights won’t require a trip back in time 30 years.
We can already thank Bill O’Brien for that.
