Boston College Athletics
O'Brien Calls Temple 'A Very Athletic Team'
October 05, 1999 | Football
Oct. 5, 1999
Excerpts from BC Coach Tom O'Brien's weekly BIG EAST teleconference
Q: Please recap the Northeastern game and give your thoughts on the matchup with Temple.
A: We were excited to win, especially since it was my first win in the month of October. We got to 4-0 and won three non-conference games, now we come back into the conference. We know, going to Temple, they have had some personnel struggles with injuries, but they are still a very athletic team that has given us problems in the past, and Coach Wallace does a great job down there. We are looking forward to preparing this week and going down and playing Temple.
Q: Is there a feeling on the team and in the coaching staff that there is something magical happening there, or are you more businesslike about it, one game at a time?
A: I think we are very businesslike about it, we understand that we are still not a very talented team. We have had to play six or more true freshman this year and we are still not a very deep or experienced team. Every week was a learning adventure. The best thing going for us right now is that we have six seniors on defense, which is more than I have had in my previous two years combined. And the defense is playing exceptionally well with the help of some of the redshirt freshmen and true freshmen on special teams. We have played much better on special teams. So those two phases of our game have been strong so far this year.
Q: How much of your 4-0 start do you attribute to the opponents and how much do you attribute to just the improvement of your team?
A: I think it is a combination of both. We have played better and we have been better.
Q: It seemed as though Northeastern came in with a lot of emotion, and you guys having to struggle in that game was that a good thing in terms of telling the players where they are and where they need to be.
A: No it is not. I said after the game, I think it was true, we never played a 1-AA team and I think we played extremely tight. We thought we were supposed to be doing better, and then we dropped the ball and then we dropped another ball. I was most disturbed with the way we ended the game. We put our backups in the game and we ran the ball and we fumbled. Our second group of defense, a lot of the young kids got in there, played and stopped them but then we came back and fumbled again. We gave them a chance to score a touchdown there at the end. It would have left a much better taste in our mouths to finish the game without fumbling and doing some of the things we did. I think offensively it might have been a step back, but again we scored on defense and we scored on special teams so that is a step forward for those guys.
Q: Having three of five turnovers for TDs, is that one of the better performances for your defense?
A: Absolutely, it has never happened since I have been here. BC was Northeastern's game of the year and we knew that coming in. We just did not handle the ball well at the end of the football game, which left a bad taste in our mouths once the game was over.
Q: Is there anything you miss about being a coordinator?
A: Well, I do not call many plays any more and that was always fun - the day-to-day game playing, and getting into game day and having control of the game and calling the plays. And the way things click. That is probably the biggest thing I would miss. The hardest thing about being a head coach is you do not spend a lot of time coaching or in meetings with your players any more. When you are meeting with a player, generally something bad is going on. They come in and see you when nice things are happening but you are not involved in the hands-on coaching as much as you are too many other administrative things.
Q: Is it harder to be a coordinator now than it was back when you were first promoted to that position?
A: I do not know that. The toughest thing about being an offensive coordinator is everybody knows what you should have called or you should have done. The defensive coordinator, all they say to you is "you should have blitzed or you shouldn't play prevent defense because you prevent yourself from winning." Everybody knows when you should be passing or running the football.
