Everything Boston College Football Head Coach Bill O’Brien Said Ahead of Louisville
The Boston College Eagles (4-3, 1-2 ACC) football team returns to Alumni Stadium on Friday night to take on the Louisville Cardinals (4-3, 2-2 ACC) for homecoming.
On Tuesday, Eagles head coach Bill O’Brien spoke about the upcoming game and what needs to improve from his teams.
Below is a transcript of everything O’Brien said.
O’BRIEN: I do think these guys attack practice the right way. We practice Sunday, Monday, today [is] Tuesday, tomorrow is like a Thursday for us. So I really think these guys have attacked it really well. And give credit to the leadership on the team, the captains have really done a good job of keeping this team moving forward.
Q: Is that what you're going to be when you go into the… of the ACC schedule?
O’BRIEN: These are tough games, right. All of them are tough and we have to limit our mistakes. That’s the thing about us. If we can limit our, obviously turnovers, penalties, stop the run better, then obviously we'll be in these games. But if we don't, then we won't. So we have to do a good job of correcting the mistakes and being ready to go and I believe these guys will.
Q: Just the offensive firepower of this team. Is that, based on your team speed, is this the fastest team?
O’BRIEN: This is a very good team. To say they're the fastest, they're probably up there. They’ve got good receivers, Ja’Corey Brooks, who we had in Alabama, is a great player. The quarterback’s really good. The running backs are good. They're a very good team on offense. They do a really good job with explosive plays. And Coach Brown's really good coach, so it's a big challenge for us. But our guys, we're home, like you said, and our guys are excited about the opportunity.
Q: We saw Kam [Arnold] in a sling. Just how's he doing? And what’s the timeline on him, if you can share?
O’BRIEN: I think that's probably day-to-day. I think that sling is kind of a precaution, but probably know more in a few days, but that's probably a day-to-day deal.
Q: So last time you guys were home, it's been a while, but we talked to you after Western Kentucky, and you said you weren't happy with sort of the atmosphere, the game day atmosphere. Are you actually taking over the music and more-so is there anything that you want to see change just in terms of how game days sort of play out at Alumni?
O’BRIEN: To be clear, though, like I was talking about warm ups. The atmosphere for the game has been really good. I've stated that several times, so let me be really clear. I think that the home game, once the ball has been kicked off, it's been fantastic. The students, we’ve got 7,000 students at these games. I'm sure we're going to have a great turnout again on Friday night. I just think that, I just want people to get into the stadium early. That's my biggest thing. Let's get into the stadium early. We'll try to play some better music so we're not at the opera. We're getting ready for a football game and nothing against the opera, but it’s not football and so that was the biggest thing for me, is just let's get everybody into the stadium half an hour, 45 minutes before kickoff, and get the energy going early.
Q: Coach, more specifically, I know you've mentioned from the turnovers and some of the mistakes that you need to correct. What if anything have you identified kind of as the biggest things that you've needed to stress this week in practice?
O’BRIEN: We got to take care of the ball. We have 13 takeaways and 12 turnovers. So if we could take care of the ball better, we would be really in good shape because we take the ball away actually pretty well and so we've got to take care of the ball. That's a big, big thing. And then, to me is, we have to do a better job obviously against the running game. We got to stop the run and we got to be able to run the football. So those are things we've worked hard on and hopefully we can get better at that this week.
Q: You talked a little bit about taking accountability for for the losses, especially on yourself and the coaches and saying that you need to coach better and I'm just wondering kind of what that entails in your in your own sort of mindset. When you say that ‘we need to coach better, we need to do better,’ what is kind of going into the things you're doing to make a difference when you go into practice for the week?
O’BRIEN: Number 1 is to continue to define the BC football culture that we want. Number 2 is to define what leadership is. Number 3 is to define, in different ways, what we mean by taking care of the football and drill it. Drill it. Ball security drills over and over again. Number 4, we've got to tackle better and drill it. Drill it. More tackling drills is what we've done. Tackle more. As a coaching staff, make sure that our players know what to do. Simplify, don't add more to the plate. Simplify. Do things that when these guys, when the ball snapped on either side of the ball, and on special teams, they know exactly what to do. On and on and on, everybody's in it together. It's like a pot, right? We're all in it together. Players need to play better. Coaches need to coach better, and we all work hard to do that.
Q: Just one more on the fumbles. Do you think it's more physical or mental? Do you have any idea of like, what the what the actual root of it is?
O’BRIEN: Doesn't matter. When you carry the football for Boston College, you're carrying the hopes and dreams of BC. The hopes and dreams of the football team, the school, the city, if there's fans in the city, which I believe there are, your families, their hopes and dreams. When you when you carry the football for Boston College, you're carrying the hopes and dreams of a school, a university, a team.
Q: Just a little bit more on Louisville. They historically used to have dual-threat quarterbacks with Lamar and those guys that they have, but lately they've kind of switched and in the last couple of years they’ve gone to more strong arm, pocket passers. What kind of is Shough showing you? I know he's the older guy who's been around the block, so what is he just kind of showing you as a passer?
O’BRIEN: Very smart, very accurate, understands where to go with the ball, good decision maker. Coach Brown’s had all kinds of different quarterbacks. He knows how to coach offense. Big challenge for us. Quarterback has great anticipation. He's athletic. He can get out of trouble. He can direct the offense. Good player.
Q: We talked about special teams, specifically punting a lot early in the season. How do you like where you're at in terms of punting, just the special teams, more broadly, with Luca?
O’BRIEN: Luca has been out. Luca’s been out for a while now, but Liam's done okay. We had a bad snap, bad short snap the other night, which was not good. So we got to snap the ball better. I think the punting’s improved. Ivan is our punter. He's improved, no doubt about it, need that, continue to improve. But I think our coverage units have been decent and I think our return game can improve. We've worked very hard on our return game, trying to try to get that little better, punt return and kickoff return. I’m not talking about the returners, I'm talking about the blocking for it. Like in the punt return game, we got to block the gunners better to give our punt returners a chance to make something out of a return. So, there's a lot of things we've worked on. Hopefully, it'll get better.
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