BC HC Bill O'Brien joins! What can we expect from the running game this season?

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College football is here! BC football hosts Fordham this Saturday! BC HC Bill O'Brien joins! What can we expect from the running game this season?

Transcript

00:00Bill. Hey, Greg. Hey, guys. How we doing? I got to tell you, the BC hype is real. I was at the

00:09Patriots premiere last night, an event that I'm sure you used to attend at various times.

00:16And they were asking the rookies to introduce themselves and where they played. And Jack

00:22Conley got a giant round of applause when he mentioned Boston College. So you're back over

00:28there, Bill. Nice. Jack's a great guy. I was happy to see him get on the practice squad.

00:35That's awesome. Great. Awesome for Jack. Bill, one of the things that I think, you know,

00:40obviously going into the season this year against Fordham that you guys did really well last year was

00:44your ability to run the football. You know, the kid turbo flashed with some of his explosiveness.

00:52What's your plan in the running game this year? I know you got the kid McDonald, who was pretty

00:57good for you guys last year. What's your expectations on your running game?

01:02Yeah, we got to be able to run the football. We, we, that's, that's who we are. That sets up

01:06a lot of things in this offense, you know, especially our play action game. We feel like

01:12it keeps us on schedule. We do. We have, we have some good backs, Wig. We've got Jordan

01:16McDonald, Turbo Richard, who you talked about. We got a, Alex Broom is back. We got, we have a

01:22freshman from Massachusetts. He went to BB&N. He's from, is, is, he's from Westford. His name's

01:28Bo McCormick. This guy's going to be a good player. So, you know, we've got some guys there

01:32that can run the football and our offensive line has played well this training camp. And,

01:37you know, we have to be able to run the football.

01:40Bill, you've made an emphasis leading up to the week one against Fordham about eliminating

01:45bad football, something that has plagued this program for the last decade. For you,

01:52how do you do that? Where does that start? And how do you make sure that bad football is

01:55something that's in the rear view mirror? Yeah, I mean, we have to drill it. We have

02:00to show it on film, meaning like, you know, we do, you know, tackling drills every single

02:05day that we're in pads. We do, you know, turnover drills, ball security drills. We've got

02:12to do that. And the games that we lost last year, we, I would say in some of those games,

02:16we basically gave the game to the other team by turning the ball over. And so like, you

02:22know, or, or even, you know, dropping an interception or not being able to recover a fumble or some

02:28stupid penalty or whatever it is. So, you know, we, we do, we have to eliminate those things

02:33and we show them, we, we drill it. And hopefully that shows up starting Saturday.

02:38Billy, you know, in the NFL, you always come into the season and say, all right, the goal

02:42is to win the division. And, and, you know, guys understand it is one game at a time.

02:46Is that approach the same way in college? Like, all right, the goal is to win the ACC,

02:51or do you just kind of let these guys know we're going to take it one game at a time and

02:56not even have them looking towards that?

03:01Like, I think like, I don't know, I'm, I'm not into goals as much as I am into getting

03:08better one day at a time. You know, I really believe that. Like, I think that these guys,

03:13especially college guys, I think in the pros, I think you can probably, you know, obviously

03:17you got to say, Hey, look, we got to win. We got to, you know, win all of our home games.

03:20We got to split on the road. We got to win the AFC East. Like I get all that. I really

03:24do in the NFL, but in college football, these, these kids are very, they're great dudes and

03:30they're very result oriented. And we got to stop being result oriented. We need to be able

03:35to say like, okay, look, this team that we're playing on Saturday, no matter who we're playing,

03:40let's play one play at a time. Let's not look at the scoreboard. Let's just get the call and

03:45execute that call to the best of our ability and then play the next play. It's really not

03:50a cliche. You know, I experienced this at Alabama. I mean, that was one of the reasons why

03:56coach Saban won so many games because they really bought into that. I think our guys are understanding

04:01that better. And hopefully that starts to show up on Saturday. Billy, when you were with

04:05the Patriots, Kendrick Bourne was on the roster. He was cut yesterday. What did, what did you

04:11like out of Kendrick Bourne's game? And what have you made, I know from afar, of Vrabel's

04:18beginning a couple of months as the head coach of the Patriots?

04:21Yeah, look, I, look, I, I did. When I was there, KB did a good job for us. He hurt his knee

04:27against Miami, I would say about maybe three quarters of the way through the season. And

04:31that was tough. I mean, he, he was a good player, big guy, good hands, good route runner,

04:36you know, but in the end, I think what Mike is doing a great job of is, is, you know, it's

04:42his team. It's, it's his program. It's, he wants his type of players in there. And this

04:48has nothing to do with Bourne. I'm just saying overall, you know, Mike Vrabel is going to have

04:53a tough, physical, disciplined football team. And, you know, you may not see all the results

04:58right away, or you may see it, you know, it depends on how they play, but like, he's going

05:03to do it his way. And I think that he's going to do it with the type of guys that he, he really

05:09appreciates, which are tough, hard nosed discipline, put the team first type of guys that, you know,

05:15have the ability to laugh at themselves, but also have the ability to, you know, have that

05:20sense of humor, but also have the ability to go and show up every day at work.

05:24Bill, you brought up your offensive line. You guys lost a lot of guys last year going

05:27into this season with, you know, putting that offensive line unit together with a new quarterback.

05:33How difficult has that been? And I know you said that they've been playing well during

05:37training camp, but you expect good things out of them.

05:40I really do. I, you know, look, we, we did, we obviously lose an Ozzie, Drew, and then

05:46obviously Jack, you know, those guys are good football players. I mean, they're playing

05:50in the NFL. All three of those guys had good camps in their respective teams, but, you

05:54know, that's college football. Guys graduate, guys move on. You know, we have Logan Taylor,

05:59Jude Bowery. These two guys will play in the NFL. They're really, really good players.

06:03Eric Stoherty, our left guard, excellent player, young player. Dwayne Alec will be the center.

06:08He's a veteran player. He's played a lot of football here. Kevin Kline, he'll be the right

06:12tackle, and he's had a really good camp, and he's played a lot of ball here. So I have high

06:16expectations for the O-line. They're very well coached by Matt Applebaum. I like the system

06:21that we run, and, you know, that's college. You know, they graduate, they move on, and

06:25the next guy has to step up and play well.

06:28Bill, when you look at, excuse me, his second year, do you feel like your team is where you

06:36want it to be, or are you still trying to get the program to get that identity?

06:43Yeah, I think that's a good question. I mean, no, I don't think, you know, in the end, we

06:50have a lot of good young players. So, like, in this class of 25 that's here right now that

06:54we recruited when I got here, I think there's 27 kids. There's 10 Porto guys. Then we have,

07:01I think, I don't know, approximately 21 or 22 commitments in the class of 26. And then,

07:07you know, like, for instance, last night, I'm calling a bunch of class of 27 guys. You know,

07:11so it's an ongoing process. And look, we all, we're going to go out there and we're going to

07:18work very hard to win every game we play. We're not going up and down the schedule and saying,

07:22oh, we can win this one, but we might struggle on this one. We're going out to win. But over the

07:27course of time, you know, we're going to continue to, you know, build this culture, get our players

07:33in here and do things the way we believe, you know, in doing them. And hopefully that leads to

07:40winning. Bill, I don't know if you saw the news. Big, big story yesterday and today. Bill Belichick

07:47trademarking or attempting to trademark gold digger with his girlfriend. I don't know.

07:54You're famously, have you ever thought of trademarking teapot, you know, about your hothead or like,

08:01have you, have you, have you, do you have any applications that are pending that we should

08:05know about? I mean, you know, the teapot thing, I'm telling you, nobody believes me,

08:13you know, and I can understand why I guess, but like that was, I mean, that's kind of a

08:17exaggerated story, but, um, no, um, yeah, I don't just be careful if you were, I don't know if you

08:26were thinking of using it at all and any kind of BC merch or anything, but gold digger

08:31is, uh, Jordan has applied, applied for the trademark. So just stay away from that.

08:36If you, I don't know. I didn't, I did hear about that last night before I left here. I did hear

08:40about that. I mean, I mean, what a, that's unbelievable. Hey, Hey, God bless her. That's

08:47great. Kind of a swing and a miss by bears. If we're being honest, I mean, come on bears. Can

08:55you help me out here? I also too, before you go, uh, good news. We were, we talked to Mike

09:02Vrabel this week and, uh, his son who is on your staff was, uh, was reaching out to him

09:10and bemoaning the fact that, uh, things were not going the way he wanted to at a certain

09:14point. So that's a kid who's on the ball and reaching out to his dad for advice. So I just

09:19want to tell you about that. Yeah. Tyler's doing good. He's a great guy. And, uh, you

09:24know, he's, he's pouring himself into this coaching gig and, uh, it's good. We, we, we

09:29have a good staff. We really do. It's a, it's a staff that has good chemistry. They care

09:33about the kids and Tyler's fitting in very well. All right. Bill O'Brien, as always a

09:38pleasure and go get them. And.

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