Everything Boston College Head Coach Bill O’Brien Said After First Scrimmage of Fall Camp
Boston College continued fall camp on Wednesday inside Alumni Stadium for the first scrimmage of the summer.
Eagles head coach Bill O’Brien spoke the media afterwards to give an update on how the scrimmage went and what he’s working to improve as the team’s season opener on Sept. 2 against Florida State in Tallahassee, Fla., gets closer.
Below is a transcript of everything O’Brien said.
Q: First day in the stadium. What did you like about what you saw or not?
O’BRIEN: It was okay. It needs to be better. There was some good, definitely some good, and there was some stuff we need to clean up. These guys gotta decide what type of team they want to be and we gotta get better. We’re getting better, we’ve definitely improved but the next time we come out, we have to be better.
Q: Tell me what you’re doing situationally when you bring guys to the 50-yard line and you got them backed up in the end zone. What are you trying to see?
O”BRIEN: We covered a lot of different things today. First and second down, a lot of special teams: punt, punt return, kickoff, kickoff return, PAT, field goal, field goal block, all of that, third down. Then we did backed up inside our own 5-yard line, goal line, red zone, two-minute [drill]. There’s a lot of different situations that go into football and we covered a lot of it today. Not everything’s been covered but we’re pretty close to having covered everything. I thought the guys handled that all pretty well. It was good. It was a good day for that stuff.
Q: You mentioned the install the other day or that you were still installing. Is this all still a part of it for you or have you started to reach into the refinement part?
O’BRIEN: I’d say the install is pretty much done. There’s a couple things that we need to get done but for the most part, the bulk of it is done. We’re more headed towards the season now, beginning to get ready for games, and things like that. So yeah, we’re definitely in the what you call ‘refinement’ mode. We need a lot of refining.
Q: In terms of discipline football, limiting penalties, how close are you to where you want to be?
O’BRIEN: Nah. It was getting better and then we had that series down there where it was like 3rd-and-52. I’m not sure I’ve ever been in a 3rd-and-52, I’ve been in a 3rd-and-48 but never a third-and-52 so that was kind of new to me. Not sure what play to call there but that’s what penalties do to you. So we’ve gotta be a more disciplined team. We had a couple things, personal fouls at the end, hands to the face, gotta be more disciplined. If we’re not, then those are the things that are gonna come back to hurt us so we’ve got to fix that. We were getting better, but not we gotta do a better job this week.
Q: Coach, we’ve talked a lot about competition at many positions. Is quarterback one of them right now?
O’BRIEN: No, Tommy’s the starter. He does a good job. Grayson’s too. They definitely compete but Castellanos is the starter. He’s gonna help us win a lot of games and Grayson will be ready to play, Grayson has definitely improved, but Tommy Castellanos is the starer.
Q: Overall, how wold you evaluate what you’ve seen from the quarterback position in general?
O’BRIEN: Both of those guys have gotten better, there’s no doubt about it. They made some plays out here today, they both can make plays with their feet, obviously Tommy can. Grayson can too. They both have command in the huddle, they have good leadership qualities, so both of them have definitely improved a lot.
Q: Just how big of a step is this to get the headsets back on and get the guys out there in scrimmage?
O’BRIEN: That was big. That was a lot. A lot of this was for the coaches because that was the first time we had coaches in the press box and communicating to the coaches on the sideline and communicating to the signal callers on the field. I thought that was pretty smooth. We’ll go back in there this afternoon and regroup on that type of stuff but that was a big day for the coaches in that regard, no doubt.
Q: Coach, I heard you on the radio this morning. How important is that type of stuff to get the community more fired up about BC as you try and have a bigger footprint here in Boston?
O’BRIEN: Yeah absolutely. I think it’s huge. I really appreciate WEEI doing that, having us on. I think that’s really big because that’s a great show Greg Hill runs. A lot of people listen to it. We have to put a good product out here. We have to get people that want to come watch us play and we got to be better than we were today in order to do that but these kids have worked really hard and I hope that people come to watch us play Duquesne our first home game. Really need a good home crowd. We really feel good about the work we’ve put in and like I said, we’ve got to go out there and prove to the people that we can play good football and we need a good crowd that’ll help us.
Q: How much is that sinking in [that] the first trip to Tallahassee is around the corner, is creeping up?
O’BRIEN: Yeah, definitely sinking in. I’ve been in a few big games in my career. It’s a game and it’s an important game but it’s the first game of the season so we have to do a good job of being ready. I think we’re on the way to being ready, still got time here to shore some things up, but I think everybody understands what type of environment that’s gonna be and we’re looking forward to it.
Q: Coach, Tommy had that pass to Kamari that went down the sidelines there. A player like Tommy, beyond just throwing the ball, what is it about him that makes an explosive play so special when he’s got the ball in his hands?
O’BRIEN: He’s that type of player. He’s a very dangerous player. I think he’s hard to defend because he can throw the ball. He’s really improved in the passing game and then, obviously, he can run the ball. He’s got great quickness, good speed, got really good instincts for the game. A lot of times in a scrimmage it’s not real right, like we let him run and then we blow the whistle whether he got tackled or not is very much in question right. It could probably be more yards on some of those runs so yeah, he’s an electric player and I’m definitely glad we have him.
Q: Coach, this is not your first time being a first-year head coach with a new team. How do you balance trying to establish your culture but also preparing for the first week?
O’BRIEN: Yeah, I think it’s all about, there’s no balance. I think we have to repeat it every day. Repeated actions every single day. Make sure that everybody understands what standard is at Boston College. Boston College can be good in a lot. It’s already an unbelievable academic school, got a beautiful campus, 15 minutes from downtown Boston. Why can’t we be good at football? But there’s a standard. We have to play disciplined football. We have to play smart football. We can’t play football where we hurt the team. We can’t be selfish. We have to be good teammates. We have to understand what it takes to be a good football team and I think we’re on our way, I really do, but Boston College can be good in football. We’re trying to build that every single day by repeated actions.
Q: As that opener comes up, what does a successful back half of training camp look like for you?
O’BRIEN: Definitely less mistakes. There’s gonna be some physical errors at times, that’s football, nothing’s perfect but less line of scrimmage penalties, less turnovers, less undisciplined fouls like hands to the face or throwing a punch at somebody. No more of that. We’ve got to eliminate all that if we want to be the team we believe we can be.
KIM RANKIN