Everything Boston College Head Coach Bill O’Brien Said After Win Over Western Kentucky
The Boston College Eagles (4-1, 1-0 ACC) football team defeated the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers (3-2, 1-0 CUSA) 21-20 on Saturday afternoon after battling back from a 13-point second-half deficit.
After the game, Eagles head coach Bill O’Brien shared his thoughts on the results and what he saw from his team.
Below is a transcript of everything O’Brien said.
Q: Bill, was that almost the perfect coaching moment, where you can get a victory in a game that was that challenging and teach them a lesson?
O’BRIEN: First of all, give Western Kentucky a lot of credit. They're very difficult to prepare for, had won three in a row coming in, I really don't care what happened in the Alabama game. Alabama's a good football team. They're a good football team, Western Kentucky, and they gave us, obviously, everything we could handle. They got a great coaching staff, lot of respect. Look, we have to do better. You know, we can play better. We need to start faster. We've got a chance to have a good football team, but we have to show up and be ready to go right from the get-go. And I think that's something we're going to work hard on, but we're very resilient team. Give our guys a lot of credit. Donovan Ezeiruaku came up with a big strip sack, and that was huge in the game. I thought Grayson James, for the most part, he's a calm, poised guy and he did a good job. So it’s a resilient win. Give our give our guys a lot of credit, but I just think we have a higher ceiling or no ceiling I mean. We did, we can play better. That's all I'm saying.
Q: Coach, when did you know that Grayson was gonna play this week and just how’d you tell the team and all that?
O’BRIEN: Yeah, Grayson's good player. I'm not going to get into what I knew and all that stuff, that's for the guys in this room. Grayson's a good player. He played well in the spring game, when he's had his opportunities and practice, he's done a good job. We have a lot of confidence in Grayson. I feel like we're very lucky to have Grayson. To come in there and having not played a whole lot this year at all, and just to be able to, and he was injured too back few weeks ago, so give a lot of credit to him and it's not a big, dramatic thing Kevin when it comes to the team, like I don't stand up and give speeches about who's playing and who's not playing. I show film, I teach football and that's what the coaches do, and that's what we try to do, try to get better every day.
Q: Coach, the the offense in general under Grayson, did you have to change things based on the type of quarterback that he was compared to Tommy? And as the game goes on or game went on, did you start to notice things that he might have been more comfortable with, that you could work with?
O’BRIEN: Yeah, I would say we didn't change that much. He ran the same plays for the most part that, I would give credit to Western Kentucky more so. Their pressure, I think they pressured 65% of the time coming into the game, I'm not sure what the percentage was today and I would give them credit. They kept us off balance. They did a really good job. It took us a while to get adjusted. We turned the ball over. We were moving the ball, turned it over, things that we can't do. We cannot do that and so I give Western Kentucky credit more so than what plays we ran and all that stuff.
Q: More about Donovan. He just wouldn't let you guys lose today.
O’BRIEN: Donovan is a helluva player, one of the best players in the ACC. He’s a playmaker. He's smart. He knows when the when the time is right to make a play. He’s got good timing, he knew that we needed a play right there and he made a play. We're very happy that Donovan is on our team that’s forsure. He did a great job today.
Q: Bill, just comment on that touchdown at the end of the first half. It kind of gave you a little breathing space it seemed like.
O’BRIEN: Yeah. I mean, we needed something, was almost a goose egg there at halftime, which would have been thoroughly embarrassing. So it was a little less embarrassing that we were able to score a touchdown. But look, again, like I tell you, I give Western Kentucky a lot of credit. They did a really good job. We have to study this film because a lot of teams will copy kind of some of the things that they did and we have to figure it out and get better. But yeah, our guys hung in there. They're very resilient. They're a tough group of guys, they practice hard, they work very hard. They don't feel good at halftime when they come in like that. They look in the mirror and they self assess and they go out there and they try to play better in the second half. So I'm very proud of that. I'm proud of the resiliency of the group.
Q: Their short and intermediate passing game that was so effective in the first half, it kind of disappeared, especially in the fourth quarter. What adjustments did you make?
O’BRIEN: I think Tim did a good job of kind of mixing in some man, mixing in some matched coverage, where you can pass things off inside, if that makes sense. So the unders weren't hurting us as much in the second half as the shallow cross as it was in the first half and give the players a lot of credit. They understood the adjustment and they were able to execute in the second half.
Q: Coach, why do you think you were able to run the ball a lot better late than at the beginning?
O’BRIEN: I think we got big guys up front and I think eventually they wear people down. Some teams, not every team because other teams have big guys too, but I think in this case, I thought our guys hung in there, and they kept, the two-yard gain in the first half became a six-yard gain in the second half and that's what I always say, if you have a good offensive line which we do, eventually just stick with it. Don't abandon a run at Boston College. Do not abandon a run, because eventually it'll break through and I think it did today.
Q: Coach, obviously Grayson's first start at BC. As he's navigating the ups and downs of a game like this. Where are you telling him in his ear?
O’BRIEN: Yeah, he's a veteran player. He's got 11 starts at FIU. He's played a lot of football. He's very, very smart, very poised. My thing is just telling him what the next series of plays are going to be during a time out or things like that. What we're thinking. ‘Do you like this play?’ I always ask these guys, ‘Hey, I don't really like this play coach’, then we'll change play if they're not comfortable with the play. So those are the type of conversations. Nothing more than that.
Q: Coach, just talk about the game that Kye had, coming back from injury, he came up huge for you guys in the second half.
O’BRIEN: No doubt. Yeah, he was a hot back today. I think I've said that in the past. Anytime you got a guy you can tell, the line of scrimmage, is moving, he’s got a good feel for it, he’s running with his pads down, he’s a physical player, he’s a tough guy. He's still got kind of a banged up ankle. Very tough guy and he ran really well today. He came up big for us, took care of the ball. They were trying to rip the ball out, and he did a really good job today. We’re really proud of Kye.
Q: Coach, I asked you same thing last week, was the message the same thing in the locker room at halftime as you guys were down?
O’BRIEN: Yeah. I mean, it was similar. It was similar. Yeah, it wasn't a real happy locker room at halftime. I'm just speaking for myself here, but we have very, I have very high expectations for the team, so I look at it as definitely my fault when we don't play well in the first half and I see that crowd, especially the students. I see the students and I feel bad that, we've got to play better in the first half of these games, and I know we can and so I've got to figure it out. I've got to figure out what I can do better to get these guys playing better in the first half because I take that to heart. And so what I talked about at halftime is we don't blame each other. We're a team. It's all about the team. That's the great thing about football. You can talk about NIL, transfer, portal, all this other stuff. In the end, it comes down to the team. And I think these guys are really starting to realize that and that's what you saw in the second half. We played complimentary football. We played together as a team. That's what we have to continue to try to do.
Q: Coach, between Penn State, Texans, and here, this is the best five-game start… What does it mean when you hear that?
O’BRIEN: Really? I know the Texans, we won nine in a row one year, but maybe we didn't start. Oh, best five game stretch start. Oh, I got you, yeah. I was confused. I'm easily confused. That's my Brown degree at work there. It's a credit to our kids. They work very hard. I'm happy for them. I think that the key to us is when it becomes an exciting football season, is when you're winning and the games become bigger and bigger, right? So now you start your ACC schedule. I think, obviously, that's the most important part of the schedule. We got a very, very difficult game on the road coming up that we have to have a great week in preparation for.
Q: Coach, first my brother's a Brown graduate, so I'm totally using that against him.
O’BRIEN: Yeah, you should. Feel free.
Q: Caden Veltkamp for Western Kentucky was such a unique quarterback. Just how is he kind of different from you've seen just from any quarterback so far this season?
O’BRIEN: Yeah, we were very concerned about him, and rightfully so. I mean, he's very athletic, very poised, made some really nice throws. I thought we kind of stepped up a little bit better, obviously, in the second half to try to contain them, but I thought he was really a tough guy to defend, really. The running game that they have, I told Coach Helton at the end of the game and several of their coaches, I know their coaching staff, and just a lot of respect for them. They do a really good job so very, very obviously a very difficult game.
