James Franklin comments on Bill O'Brien's early success at Boston College

Penn State head coach James Franklin isn’t surprised by the initial success his predecessor, Bill O’Brien, is having at Boston College.

“I’ve known Bill for a long time,” Franklin said this week, when asked about O’Brien’s 2-1 start leading the Eagles. “I’ve known Fitz (Craig Fitzgerald), his strength coach, for a long time. We were all at the University of Maryland together. Me and Bill lived in the same neighborhood. His wife and my wife were good friends. Obviously I’ve followed his career in the NFL and now back at BC.”

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Franklin took over for O’Brien as the Nittany Lions’ head coach in 2014 and has since led the program to five 10-plus-win seasons, all but one of which ended with 11 wins.

Meanwhile, O’Brien’s hardly stayed put.

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After O’Brien replaced Joe Paterno and helped Penn State right its ship in the wake of Jerry Sandusky’s crimes, he went back to the NFL and coached the Houston Texans to four AFC South division titles and, in turn, playoff appearances. Then he enjoyed success under Nick Saban as Alabama‘s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. It was in Tuscaloosa that the helped quarterback Bryce Young win the Heisman and post a 47:7 touchdown-to-interception ratio while leading a Crimson Tide offense that ranked sixth nationally in points per game (39.9) and reached the national title game.

O’Brien returned to the New England Patriots in 2023, once again serving as Bill Belichick’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. This past winter, the Boston native briefly became Ohio State‘s new OC but then pivoted and pursued the BC head coach opening after Jeff Hafley left his post for the Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator job.

“For a short period of time, he was also in our conference at Ohio State,” Franklin said, “and now back at BC, which, for a lot of those guys from that part of the country, BC is like a dream job. It’s interesting. I’ve talked to a ton of guys, that BC job is a very desirable job.

“And if you know Billy’s background, it makes a ton of sense. So when that hire happened, when that whole thing went down, I thought it was a win-win for both BC and Billy. He’s got a really mobile, dynamic quarterback that had really done some nice things last year. And when you got that piece of the puzzle, you can build from there. Billy’s got tremendous experience doing that so it’s been cool to watch it and happy for those guys, and not surprised.”

That mobile and dynamic quarterback is Thomas Castellanos, who has 10 total touchdowns through three games, including an upset win over then-No. 10 Florida State and a battle with then-No. 6 Missouri last week.

O’Brien has been the architect of a handful of rebuilds. His latest is already well on its way in Chestnut Hill. Franklin wouldn’t have expected anything different.