Everything Boston College Football Head Coach Bill O’Brien Said After Win Over Syracuse
The Boston College Eagles (5-4, 2-3 ACC) snapped its three-game losing streak with a 37-31 win over the Syracuse Orange (6-3, 3-3 ACC) on Saturday afternoon.
After the game, Eagles head coach Bill O’Brien spoke about what he saw out of his team in the performance.
Below is a transcript of everything O’Brien said.
Q: Just comment on snapping the three-game losing streak with a 60 minute game.
O’BRIEN: Yeah, it wasn't always easy, give Syracuse a lot of credit. They got a good football team, Coach Brown's done a great job of that team. But, yeah, I think it was probably the first time in a while, I would say all the way back to the beginning of season, where we played a complete game. There were some things in there that we got to clean up, obviously, but running the football, stopping the run, fourth down defense, obviously they've got a great offense. Their passing offense is really one of the best in the country. We did the best we could but we held up when we had to. So it was a really good win for Boston College.
Q: Grayson James. Was that injury based or performance based or a little bit of both?
O’BRIEN: I just felt like at that time it was the best decision for the team. So a little bit of everything went into that, but I felt like a decision needed to be made. I try to look at the team, that's my job. I have to make the best decisions for the team and I thought that was the best decision for the team at the time.
Q: What did you think it took for the team to play four full quarters this time, not just two or one?
O’BRIEN: Yeah, I think we had a really good, this our second bye week. The guys really approached it the right way. We got good leadership on this team. We feel like we've been close. We realize the close doesn't count, but we felt like we could play a game like this and so give the guys credit. Give all the players [and] the coaches credit. The time they put in for this game and to come out there and play and get that win over a really good team, a really good team was important for our program.
Q: Just to follow, the pass rush today. Quintayvious, obviously Donovan as well. Were you kind of expecting this recent emergence from Q and what do you think about he with those two guys on the edge the rest of the season?
O’BRIEN: Yeah, they're very important to our defense. Q is one of the most improved players in our program over the 6, 7, 8 months we've been here. He's really made marked improvement and he's one of the better players on our team. Donovan, obviously, is one of the best players in the country at his position, and they both made plays, and I thought the inside guys did enough to kind of hold the center in, both guards in there, so they couldn't really help the tackles and that was very important too. So we had a good rush plan. And look, they threw the ball very well. I mean we were in good position to cover people but McCord is a very good quarterback, right? He's [a] transfer from Ohio State, one of the better quarterbacks in the country this year but I thought our guys came up big when they had to.
Q: Can you just talk about the rushing game… The duo of McDonald and Robichaux out there.
O’BRIEN: Give a lot of credit to the O-Line and the tight ends first because those guys did a good job. They had a couple of hard weeks. We've got a really good offensive line and we preached to them like coming off the ball, making sure that we did the best we could to win the line of scrimmage with a high percentage of snaps in the running game and I thought that we did that, tight ends included. Kamari and Jeremiah did a great, great job. I thought the receivers blocked well, right. Lewis Bond, Reed Harris, everybody was into it and I thought that was good. And then obviously Kye and Jordan. Jordan played a lot because he practiced well. He deserved to play. He earned it on the practice field. That's really what the program is all about. Jordan was on the scout team and we said hey look, this guy is really doing well. He's had two good scrimmages for us during the bye week. This guy needs a shot to play, and so that's why we did it and and he was able to spell Kye. Kye was the workhorse. Obviously, they had a great game, but Jordan did a really nice job today.
Q: When you took this job, you talked about getting back to BC hard nosed football. Is that what it felt like today?
O’BRIEN: Yeah I mean, I think that's what we have to be, right? We're in Boston, we're not in LA. I mean, we're in Boston. We're in a city that's built on toughness and determination and grittiness and overcoming adversity and that's who we are. Look, we're going to have to throw the ball better as time goes on like don't get me wrong. I mean, the best player to ever play in this program, well two of them, Doug Flutie and Matt Ryan, they were quarterbacks, so we're going to have to throw the ball better over time. But I think we have to be a tough football team that wins the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball,
Q: The nine point swing was that the difference in the game?
O’BRIEN: Yeah, that was a big, the safety was obviously huge. Could have been a touchdown, but the safety was really good there and then to be able to answer their score with a drive was very important. So the answer drives are very important. That's something we hadn't been doing, right? If their offense scores, we hadn't been answering. We answered a lot today. We answered their drives with really good drives. Yep.
Q: Can you take us through the touchdown with Jeremiah [Franklin], the 4th-and-1 right there?
O’BRIEN: Yeah, I mean look, we're going to go for it on a lot of these 4th-and-1’s. Liam Connor, by the way, nobody's asked me about him, but I just want to say real quick, he did an unbelievable job today. I know he missed one, but I mean he punted for us, he kicked for us. Did a great job. So it was no reflection on Liam. It was more about we had to score. We needed touchdowns going against McCord and that offense, so Will Lawing made a great play call on that. It was one he really wanted and he knew it was going to work throughout the week and he had a minute. The timing of that play call was awesome by Will.
Q: I was just gonna ask if you're gonna kind of reevaluate, moving forward, who's gonna be under center?
O’BRIEN: I'm gonna look at the film and see where we're at. I mean both guys do some really good things, right? I mean, we kind of have a luxury there. We have two guys that have played a lot of football in Division I. Grayson's come up big for us twice this year in games that we really needed, Western Kentucky and today. So we'll look at it and we'll see, see where we go from there. It's just the game just ended so give me 24 hours and I'll figure it out.
