Georgia Tech Head Coaching Candidate Profiles: Bill O'Brien

Would Alabama offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien be a fit at Georgia Tech?

Jackson Caudell | Oct 3, 2022

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After firing head coach Geoff Collins last week, Georgia Tech went on the road and defeated Pittsburgh, who was ranked 24th at the time. However, the biggest thing still looming over Georgia Tech, despite that win, is who is going to be the next head coach.

Two more power five jobs came open yesterday, with Colorado firing Karl Dorell and Wisconsin firing Paul Chryst. That means that there is going to be more competition for coaching candidates and as of right now, Georgia Tech is the only one that also has to hire an athletic director.

Here are the profiles that I have already written for both Deion Sanders and Jamey Chadwell.

For the next coaching candidate profile, let's take a look at a former Georgia Tech assistant, former NFL head coach, offensive coordinator, and current offensive coordinator for the Alabama Crimson Tide and that is Bill O'Brien.

Alabama Offensive Coordinator Bill O'Brien — Would Bill O'Brien be a fit for the Georgia Tech head coaching job? :: Gary Cosby Jr. / USA TODAY NETWORK

O'Brien has been mentioned by reports as a candidate for the job and actually has experience coaching at the school previously. Tech was one of O'Brien's first coaching gigs and he was there from 1995-2002. While at Tech, O'Brien was a grad assistant, running backs coach, offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, and assistant head coach.

After Georgia Tech, O'Brien was the running backs coach at Maryland for one season in 2004 and then was the offensive coordinator for Duke under then head coach Ted Roof from 2005-2006. O'Brien would then leave the college game and go to the NFL to be an assistant under Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots.

Bill O'Brien has experience with tough college rebuilding jobs before. / Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

While with the Patriots, O'Brien was an offensive assistant, then the wide receivers coach in 2008, then the quarterback's coach from 2009-2010, then the offensive coordinator for the 2011 season, a year in which the Patriots went to the Super Bowl.

O'Brien came back to the college game and took one of the most difficult jobs in the country. Penn State was coming out of the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal and O'Brien was there for two years and had a 15-9 record and a 10-6 record in the Big Ten. O'Brien won numerous coach of the year awards after posting an 8-4 record. After coaching Penn State for two years, O'Brien left for the NFL again to become the head coach of the Houston Texans.

Bill O'Brien coaches a game with the Houston Texans — Bill O'Brien was successful as an NFL head coach with the Houston Texans / Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

In his first three years (2014-16), O'Brien led the Texans to three straight winning seasons for the first time in franchise history and back-to-back AFC South division championships.

Overall, O'Brien had a successful run with the Houston Texans. In addition to his role as head coach, O'Brien was also the Texans general manager for one season (2020) and compiled a 52-48 (.520) record with four AFC South titles, four playoff appearances, and two appearances in the AFC Divisional Round.

Houston was one of just three teams in the NFL to win four division titles from 2015-2019 (Kansas City and New England), and its 21 wins over the 2018 and 2019 seasons were the second-most in a two-year span in franchise history (22 wins from 2011-12).

O'Brien did mismanage the roster during his time as the general manager (to put it mildly) and a lot of his missteps with the roster led to his firing after the 2020 season. He was then named the offensive coordinator at Alabama ahead of the 2021 season.

O'Brien helped develop Bryce Young, who won the Heisman Trophy last season and was a part of a staff that got Alabama to the national title game. Despite losing the game to Georgia, Alabama's offense was one of the best in the country and one of the only offenses to score points against the historically good Georgia defense. The Alabama offense is still one of the best in the country in the 2022 season because of that, O'Brien is being listed among coaching candidates for different jobs around the country.

So the question is, would Bill O'Brien be a good fit with Georgia Tech? I actually think he would. Would he take the Georgia Tech job? That I am not sure of.

I think with his experience previously at Georgia Tech and the tough rebuilding job he had to do at Penn State, this might be a good fit. O'Brien has had success at just about everywhere he has been and might be the guy to drag Georgia Tech out of where they are currently. He is a good offensive coach, even though Alabama fans get frustrated with his offense sometimes. He is a proven quarterbacks coach and a consistently good play caller, which is part of his appeal.

With the Nebraska job already open and Wisconsin coming open yesterday, O'Brien might decide that he likes those opportunities better. There are already reports that he is high on Nebraska's list.

Alabama OC Bill O'Brien, Kansas HC Lance Leipold and Iowa State HC Matt Campbell are reportedly all on Nebraska's head coaching shortlist, per @BruceFeldmanCFB. pic.twitter.com/qKFFEfPBYY
— PFF College (@PFF_College) September 21, 2022

There is also the possibility that O'Brien wants to go back to the NFL. Whether it is the NFL or other high-profile coaching jobs in college, O'Brien is likely to be in high demand. One of the concerns with the Georgia Tech job is whether they would be able to pay a proven coach enough to make them want to take on the job. If they don't, then O'Brien is likely not a serious candidate here because he is going to have other opportunities.

This search is still in its early stages and there are going to be plenty of rumors to be coming and other jobs to come open and you will likely hear O'Brien's name connected to several of them. Only time will tell if he is a serious candidate at Georgia Tech.

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