Everything Boston College Head Coach Bill O’Brien Said After Loss to Virginia
The Boston College Eagles (4-2, 1-1 ACC) football team suffered its second loss of the season to the Virginia Cavaliers (4-1, 2-0 ACC) 24-14 on Saturday afternoon at Scott Stadium in Charlottesville, Va.
After the game, Eagles head coach Bill O’Brien spoke about what he saw from the team.
Below is a transcript of everything O’Brien said.
Q: Just comment on the penalties and turnovers.
O’BRIEN: Awful, awful. Bad coaching, bad execution, combined. Awful. Give Virginia credit, they did a great job. We did not do a good job. Thank God we got 12 days before our next game, maybe we can get some things corrected. Bad all the way around.
Q: Coach, you did start out the first half with that fast start and talk about…
O’BRIEN: It doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. Gotta play 60 minutes. It's not a 30 minute game. It’s a 30 minute game? Great. It's not. It's 60 minutes.
Q: What’d you see from Tommy specifically in the fourth quarter?
O’BRIEN: It wasn't great. Nobody was great. Nobody was great. Nobody. Coaches. We had ten guys on the field on the last play, on the first play of the last drive on offense. It's terrible. Put it on me. Blame it all on me. We got to do a better job. We got to coach better. We got to play better. We got a long way to go.
Q: When we saw BC’s offense for the first time against Florida State, and even the next game after that, we're seeing the team rushing for over 250 yards each game, and we haven't really seen that in the past two weeks. Do you think that this is going to change every week? And is that just because of the team that you're playing, or do you think that you're going to stick with one specific identity and kind of go back to where the rushing nature of the team had been?
O’BRIEN: I don't know. I have no idea. I got to watch the film and I'll figure it out. We'll figure it out together as a coaching staff. It's a very complicated question, so I don't know. I'm not sure.
Q: Coach, third down on defensive a problem again. What’d you see?
O’BRIEN: Yeah, I mean, third-and-13, third-and-ten, 3rd-and-nine. I don't know, I gotta watch the film. You saw it, I mean, it's not good, right? Was over 50%, just wasn't good. It wasn't good. I don't know. We have to look at it. We have to look in the mirror. Everybody in the program has to self assess, coaches and players. We all have to look and see what we can do to be better, because we're a lot better than what we showed today. Again, give Virginia credit. They did a good job in the second half. But you know, we have to improve.
Q: Coach, Tommy had 10 carries for -9 yards. So I just want to ask you, do you feel like he was kind of taking his first two reads and then still looking for something and forcing something and not kind of trusting his ability to scramble? That's always been his best asset.
O’BRIEN: Yeah, I have to watch the tape, man. I think your questions are great, but like, I have to watch the film. I'm on the sideline, I think I know what I'm seeing, but at the end of the day, I've got to watch the film, you know what I mean? And I'll be able to answer your questions on Tuesday, but yeah, we shouldn't be having negative yardage, that's for sure. So we'll see what it is. Is it protection? Is it the read? Is it the route running? It's 11 guys that have to do the right thing.
Q: Just specifically on that 3rd-and-1, down with about four minutes left. When you were watching that, what do you think that Tommy kind of had in front of him? And do you think he forced the throws?
O’BRIEN: I don't know, again, I would say again, I definitely understand the question, but I have to watch the tape to be able to specifically tell you what I saw. I don’t know exactly what it was.
Q: Coach, I know that a couple guys just walked off during the game and a little banged up, but just overall, I mean I'm sure it's still early, but what's the status of the guys if you know?
O’BRIEN: Yeah, I have no idea. No idea. Just got it in the locker room.
Q: Is there a way to challenge the targeting call? Is there a way to arbitrate that? It looked like it was in the chest. It was not in the head area.
O’BRIEN: It doesn't matter. It's the crown of his head is down. That's the issue. I think all you guys are do a great job, and I really appreciate the coverage but we got to understand the rule, if you're hit with the top of your head, it doesn't matter where you hit him. It's the top of your head. It's a safety issue. So we have to learn to look the tackle in and I try to explain that to our players. I don't think I'm doing a good enough job of explaining that to the players. We have to see the tackle.
Q: Coach, they were really effective last time running the football against Coastal Carolina, you largely kept them bottled up. What did you like defensively?
O’BRIEN: I think our guys played hard. It's not a lack of effort, it’s just breakdowns that we have to fix. We break down and we either commit a penalty or we turn a ball over on offense. I think they play hard, they play very hard. I'm not questioning the effort, I'm questioning we have to do a better job as coaches and in critical situations, we have to play better.
Q: Thomas hit on his first 11 throws, it seemed like there was a lot of room for your receivers to operate and then maybe it closed up a little in the second half. What did you see change there?
O’BRIEN: Yeah, I think the rush got a little bit better, it did bottle up a little bit on coverage. It was kind of a back-and-forth game there for a while, and then we turned it over right? So when you turn it over, then you're concerned about making sure you call the right call, so you don't turn it over again, to be honest with you. So, that's kind of what happened there.
Q: I know, on that touchdown pass that put UVA up, I know I seen… just be patient down on your side. Can you tell me about that…
O’BRIEN: Yeah, I'd have to see that on film. I'm not sure there was, if you saw that, I'm sure it was. I'm sure there was some type of miscommunication, there was a lot of that in the second half, no doubt about it on both sides of the ball. Yeah, no doubt, and we had a lot of miscommunication and that’s where we have to we really have to coach better we got to get these guys to understand and better.
