Boston College selects former Patriots coach Bill O’Brien as its next head football coach

Bill O’Brien is headed to Chestnut Hill to become the next head coach of the Boston College football team, the school announced Friday.

O’Brien is the former offensive coordinator for the New England Patriots. He had previously accepted a new job as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for Ohio State University, but the Boston native is abandoning the Buckeyes for the Eagles.

O’Brien replaces Jeff Hafley who coached at BC for four seasons. Hafley left at the end of January to become the defensive coordinator for the Green Bay Packers.

Before coaching with the Patriots in 2023, O’Brien was a member of the teams’ coaching staff from 2007-2011.

O’Brien was last a head coach for the Houston Texans, where he went 54-52 from 2014-20. Since then, he has worked for Alabama and the Patriots as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.

O’Brien also worked for New England from 2007-11. In his second stint with the Patriots, O’Brien presided over an offense that struggled under 2021 first-round draft choice Mac Jones, whom he’d also coached at Alabama.

The Patriots went 4-13 last season and fired Bill Belichick, replacing him with Jerod Mayo.

Boston College earned six wins in each of Hafley’s first two seasons in Chestnut Hill, opting out of a bowl game in the pandemic-tainted 2020 season and then scratching from the 2021 Military Bowl because of a COVID outbreak.

BC went 3-9 in 2022, a season beset by injuries and the same quarterback shuffling that characterized much of Hafley’s tenure in the Heights. When the Eagles opened this season 1-3, Hafley’s job was in jeopardy; five straight wins earned them another bowl berth.

Bill O’Brien’s coaching history:

2023 Offensive Coordinator, New England Patriots

2021-22 Offensive Coordinator / Quarterbacks, Alabama

2014-20 Head Coach, Houston Texans

2012-13 Head Coach, Penn State

2011 Offensive Coordinator / Quarterbacks, New England Patriots

2009-10 Quarterbacks, New England Patriots

2008 Wide Receivers New England Patriots

2007 Offensive Assistant, New England Patriots

2005-06 Offensive Coordinator / Quarterbacks Duke

2003-04 Running Backs, Maryland

2001-02 Offensive Coordinator / Quarterbacks, Georgia Tech

1998-00 Running Backs, Georgia Tech

1995-97, Graduate Assistant, Georgia Tech

1994 Inside Linebackers, Brown

1993 Tight Ends. Brown

Source: Ohio State University

O’Brien is graduate of St. John’s Prep and Brown University.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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