Boston College Head Coach Bill O’Brien Shares Thoughts on Special Teams Unit
The Boston College Eagles football team has seen early success during the 2024 season. Sitting at 2-1 on the year, the team has secured big wins over the then-No. 10 Florida State and Duquesne and suffered a close loss to No. 7 Missouri over the weekend.
One of the consistent struggles on the team, however, has been the punting unit. Throughout the Eagles first three games, they have attempted 12 punts for 433 yards and have averaged 32.9 net punt yards using three different punters.
On Tuesday, O’Brien spoke about the special teams unit and shared his thoughts on where he currently thinks they are at.
“It’s okay,” said O’Brien. “We have to punt better. We have to punt more consistently. I think there’s times where we send a rocket ball but then there’s two punts that aren’t really good. So, we have to work on technique. We’re coaching it, they’re working hard on it, they’re great kids, I haven’t settled on a punter. We probably have four or five kids that can punt and if in the end, we’re struggling to punt, we gotta go for it. When I was at Penn State, I think the first year I was at Penn State, we were third in the country in going for it on fourth down. The only two that were ahead of us were two service academies. So, we know that we may have to go for it if we’re struggling to punt but hopefully we can get better this week and we’ll see what happens on Saturday.”
The kicking situation, on the other hand, is the complete opposite. This season, the team is a perfect 15-of-15 on extra point attempts and has yet to attempt a field goal. One of the two kicks who has played, Luca Lombardo, has never attempted a field goal in his collegiate career.
O’Brien also spoke about the kicking unit and how he’s happy with where that group is currently at.
“I like our place kicking situation,” said O’Brien. “I really think both guys are very good.Luca Lombardo and Liam Connor, they’re both good. It’s very much of a luxury, they can both kick off too which is huge and they’ve been very accurate in practice. We put them in situations where they’ve had to make ‘pressure’ kicks in a practice with their teammates watching, know it’s not exactly the same as in a full game but we’ve put them in those situations. I have a lot of faith in those guys, they’re very talented kickers, both of them are.”
KIM RANKIN