Bill O'Brien on challenging Bill Belichick, Nick Saban as assistant: 'You better be careful'

New Boston College Eagles head coach Bill O’Brien has plenty of experience in coaching at both the NFL and college levels. That includes stints as an assistant coach under legends like Bill Belichick and Nick Saban.

Bill O’Brien reflected on those coaching tenures, having been the offensive coordinator for both coaches, while at ACC Media Days. In particular, he admitted that you have to be careful when you’re challenging coaches of that stature.

“With both those guys, I spent a longer time with Bill,” O’Brien said. “I was with Nick for two years. With both those guys, before you can even think about doing that, as long as you’ve proven your ability to coach the offense, to coach the positions on offense, then maybe you can go to them and say, ‘Maybe this might be a better way to do it.'”

Certainly, Bill O’Brien found success in both spots. He coached Tom Brady in his first stint in New England. Then, while at Alabama, he coached Bryce Young into being the first overall pick. Still, he still had to be careful in his approach.

“You better be careful,” O’Brien said. “That better be a better way to do it when you go to one of those guys because you’re gonna hear about it if it’s not.”

Bill O’Brien began his coaching career at Brown, his alma mater. From there, he took jobs at Georgia Tech, Maryland, and Duke before landing with the Patriots and Belichick. After that, he had head coaching stints with Penn State and the Houston Texans before returning to college under Saban.

“The staff meetings with both those guys were very challenging in intellectual ways. They were because both guys drove you. I worked for another guy Ralph Friedgen. I’ve had the gauntlet now. I’ve worked for Ralph, George [O’Leary], Bill, and Nick… I’m 54 years old. I look 74,” O’Brien said.

“It was great for me and my coaching career to work for those guys because they taught you in a way that you had to learn it. If you didn’t know what you were doing, you weren’t gonna last long and get embarrassed or whatever it is. So, I owe a lot to all of those guys. Yeah, it was challenging but learned a lot from them.”

Born in Dorchester, Massachusetts before being raised in Andover on Boston’s North Shore, Bill O’Brien is now at home with the Eagles, looking to return Boston College to prominence.