Bill O'Brien details what Alabama, Nick Saban taught him

Bill O’Brien has been a busy man this offseason and was most recently named the new head coach for the Boston College Eagles earlier this month.

Taking over the BC program, O’Brien — who served two seasons under Nick Saban at Alabama as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach — might use some of what he learned when under the learning tree from the six-time national championship-winning head coach.

“I was very grateful to Nick for that opportunity — I mean, I didn’t have a job,” O’Brien told ESPN’s Pete Thamel. “They were playing in the national championship game against Ohio State, Steve Sarkisian was going to Texas after the national championship so Nick called and we were able to come to an agreement.

“I went there and I learned so much from Nick about discipline and organization. Every day has a theme. Being on time, everything running like clockwork. It’s gonna take a while to get that type of setup [at BC] relative to getting everybody on board, practice schedules, recruiting schedules, how he divided up his day.”

O’Brien most recently serves as the offensive coordinator of the New England Patriots. However, following the 2023 season, he was named the next offensive coordinator for the Ohio State Buckeyes but held that position for less than a month before becoming head coach at BC.

O’Brien brings significant experience as a head coach, having led both the Penn State Nittany Lions and the Houston Texans as a head coach in the past. His time in college came during the 2012 and 2013 seasons when Penn State was transitioning from the end of the Joe Paterno era. He had a 15-9 record during those seasons, which was considered a phenomenal job given the circumstances.

Still, after his NFL tenure with the Texans, O’Brien came back to the college football space when Saban asked him to be his offensive coordinator, where he stayed until his return to New England in 2023. It was a job he couldn’t pass up — and he certainly made the most of it as Alabama had a record of 24-4 and averaged over 41 points per game.

“I just learned a lot from just observing him. He’s the greatest college coach of all time, and I was grateful for that opportunity,” O’Brien continued. “There are some things you can do [at BC] relative to what he did there, you can’t do everything, but there are some things that I’ll take from my time there and I’m very grateful to him for giving me that opportunity.”