Everything Boston College Head Coach Bill O’Brien Said After Loss to Virginia Tech
The Boston College Eagles (4-3, 1-2 ACC) football team lost to the Virginia Tech Hokies (4-3, 2-1 ACC) 42-21 on Thursday night at Lane Stadium in Blacksburg, Va.
After the game, Eagles head coach Bill O’Brien spoke about what he saw during the game and what needs to be improved on.
Below is a transcript of everything O’Brien said.
Q: What did you say at halftime?
O’BRIEN: Just takes a couple plays, get back into the game. Can't turn it over anymore. Try not to give the game away. Give Virginia Tech credit, they did a much better job than we did. I got to do a better job. I got to coach the team better. I got to get the team to understand what it takes to win. They don't understand so I have to coach it better. The staff, the coaching staff, has to do a better job. We drive the ball, we turn it over, we give up 357 yards rushing, guy sets a single-game record, give him credit. Give the O-Line for them credit. Yeah, it was a bad night.
Q: Just take me back to that 4th-and-Inches, midfield, down by seven. What was play? What happened there?
O’BRIEN: They slanted on the backside and they beat our guard. And probably could have a better play call there. I wanted to run that play, and we just had to go for it there, it’s fourth and six inches, not gonna punt it but just didn't work. Play didn’t work.
Q: Turnovers on back-to-back possessions during the first quarter. How deflating was it to get off to that start?
O’BRIEN: Yeah, it's terrible when you do that, it’s just, we've done that in all of our losses, so we have to figure out how to correct it. You can't turn it all over and win. There's no correlation between winning in turnovers. There's nothing more important than possession of the ball, so we have to figure that out. We work it every day in practice, but it's obviously not translating to the games.
Q: I think Virginia Tech finished with a season high in yardage. What about their offense makes them so difficult to combat?
O’BRIEN: They ran the ball really well. We had trouble stopping the run. Give them credit, they did a good job. We were out of our gaps, and we were out of our gaps probably because of them. They knocked us out of our gaps and we didn't tackle well. I thought I had the team ready to go today, but I obviously didn't. So I've got to figure out how to get the team ready to go because we're better than that, but I've got to do a better job coaching the team.
Q: With all the fundamental issues that I know were there in the first half, is there something that then you want to stress moving forward, or is it just kind of rehashing for you at this point? I know it's still just early in the post game here.
O’BRIEN: No, we have to take care of the ball better. We actually take the ball away pretty well as a defense, but we do not take care of the ball well on offense. The ball’s on the ground, we fumble the ball, we just don't understand how important possession of the ball is to everybody, everybody on the team, everybody. So that's one thing. And then look, I thought we fought back. We definitely fought back to get back in the game, but we dug ourselves such a deep hole, it's very difficult to come back from a four score deficit. And then we came back and then we had fourth-and-one, fourth and really six inches, couldn't get it. Then we roughed the punter, we got illegal formation, false start. So just a rough night.
Q: The announcers mentioned how it felt like three games within a game. Is that how you felt coaching it?
O’BRIEN: Yeah. Again, give our guys credit. They fought back. They were down 28-0 at halftime. A lot of teams would’ve quit. Our team's not going to quit. They're very frustrated. Like I said, I felt really good about the preparation for the game. Obviously, I was wrong. We have to prepare differently, better, whatever it might be. We got to figure it out on the plane ride home. We got to figure it out tomorrow. We got to figure it out by Sunday, when we get back with the players. We got to coach better. We got a good coaching staff. We do. We have lot of experience, but we didn't have the guys, we didn't play well tonight. So that's on the coaching. We got to coach better and hopefully we'll get it turned around.
Q: Four straight games now giving up points before the half. What have you seen before halftime and what can you adjust?
O’BRIEN: I mean, we were driving the ball and we got sacked. I took a time out to try to save some time. I felt good about the plays that we had, but we didn't convert. We had to punt, and then we couldn't stop them, went right down the field. So I got to watch the film and see what it was but yeah, that's terrible. Again, give Virginia Tech a lot of credit. They did a good job tonight. We did not and like I said, without watching the film, we got a lot to figure out, but we can figure it out. It's not over. The sun will come up tomorrow, but it'll come up slowly.
Q: I thought if a player epitomized kind of putting the team on his back during the comeback in the third quarter, it was probably Cameron Martinez. He had the interception, he had the fumble recovery, and then that big sack before the fourth quarter started. With now you guys got Amari out, obviously, and it just really looked like he took a big step up today in the secondary, and then just all around in terms of his defensive performance. Can you just kind of talk about that?
O’BRIEN: Yeah, he did. He came up big for us. He was injured early in the season, had a bad hamstring pull and took a while to come back from it. It was a pretty significant pull, and so when he came back, he wasn't quite ready, and so we were kind of inching him in there, and he's back full strength now, and he's a very good player. He can return punts, and then obviously defensively, he's a nickel and he did a good job today coming up with the ball, especially in the second half, like you said. So it was, it was a good game by him.
Q: Third quarter, you're down by 14, and you're driving, and you get the chance, it's fourth down. You either get to go for it or go for field goal. You go for the field goal. Can kind of talk a little bit about your rationale, going for it, going for the field goal, instead of going for it there.
O’BRIEN: Yeah, I didn't think it was manageable. When it's 4th-and-4, 4th-and-3, the one at the end was 4th- and-18, I had to go for that. That was it. But that one I just felt like, with the time left in the game that, really had to get points and that was the one I think the snap was over the guy's head, right? So, yeah, you right. Hindsight, should have probably gone for it so you can write that. I should have gone for. My rationale was wrong on that.
Q: Just Turbo running the football tonight, I know he averaged something like seven yards... Just how has he continued to develop?
O’BRIEN: Turbo is a good player. Turbo runs hard especially for a young player, he's got a great future. We got a lot of good young players here. So, yeah Turbo, he's got good vision, good cutting abilities, a strong player, he ran, he ran good tonight.
