Bill O’Brien
Bill O’Brien went 27–28 as a head coach, 2012–2026, at Penn State and Boston College. Wikipedia’s season articles record one season differently (2026, 2–3); by them his record is 26–28. Share
- Record
- 27–28 career
- Seasons
- 5
- Schools
- 2
- Final AP top 10
- 0 seasons
- Born
- Oct 23, 1969
- Best season
- 2012 8–4
Season by season
| Season | School | Record | Conference finish | Bowl | AP final | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Penn State | 8–4 | 2nd | |||
| 2013 | Penn State | 7–5 | 3rd | |||
| 2014–23: not a college head coach | ||||||
| 2024 | Boston College | 7–6 | T–8th | Pinstripe Bowl L | ||
| 2025 | Boston College | 2–10 | T–16th | |||
| 2026 | Boston College | 3–3 (Wikipedia: 2–3) | ||||
Each season links to the team’s season page; bowls and playoff games link to the game. Conference finishes from the Wikipedia article’s record table.
Players he coached
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Every player from his seasons with a Heisman top-five finish, a national award, consensus All-America honors or a first-round pick. Photos: Wikimedia Commons, free licenses; credits on each player’s page.
How his teams did
| Kind of game | Games | Record | Won |
|---|---|---|---|
| Against ranked teams | 13 | 4–9 | 31% |
| Against top-10 teams | 4 | 1–3 | 25% |
| Against rivals | 12 | 5–7 | 42% |
| Conference games | 35 | 16–19 | 46% |
| Bowls and playoffs | 1 | 0–1 | 0% |
| Decided by 8 points or fewer | 21 | 11–10 | 52% |
| At home | 32 | 20–12 | 63% |
| On the road | 21 | 6–15 | 29% |
| At neutral sites | 2 | 1–1 | 50% |
| As our Elo’s favorite | 28 | 19–9 | 68% |
| As our Elo’s underdog | 27 | 8–19 | 30% |
His own 55 games on file, 2012–2026, as played (vacated wins counted, ties as half a win). Ranks are the AP poll going into the game; rivals are the ones either program’s Wikipedia article names; favorite and underdog by our own Elo rating, which reads only scores.
Against other head coaches
| Coach | Record | Their schools | Games | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pat Narduzzi 2024–2026 | 2–1 | Pittsburgh | 3 | |
| Rhett Lashlee 2024–2026 | 0–3 | SMU | 3 |
Bill O’Brien’s record against the head coaches he met three or more times, from the games on file, as played.
Most-faced opponents
| Opponent | Games | Record |
|---|---|---|
| Syracuseseries | 3 | 3–0 |
| Pittsburghseries | 3 | 2–1 |
| Nebraskaseries | 3 | 0–3 |
| SMUseries | 3 | 0–3 |
| Wisconsinseries | 2 | 2–0 |
| Illinoisseries | 2 | 2–0 |
| Purdueseries | 2 | 2–0 |
| Indianaseries | 2 | 1–1 |
National coaching awards
The awards- 2012 Penn State: Bear Bryant Award
How he was hired
- Hired by Boston College for the 2024 season; he had been a offensive coordinator.
Power-conference head-coaching hires since 2010, with each coach’s previous job and ties to the school as collected by hand from Wikipedia: Hiring facts: M. Schuckers, cfb_coach_analytics.
Career
| Years | Team | Job | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | Brown | Tight ends coach | |
| 1994 | Brown | Inside linebackers coach | |
| 1995–97 | Georgia Tech | Graduate assistant | |
| 1998–2000 | Georgia Tech | Running backs coach | |
| 2001–02 | Georgia Tech | Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| 2003–04 | Maryland | Running backs coach | |
| 2005–06 | Duke | Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| 2007 | New England Patriots NFL | Offensive assistant | |
| 2008 | New England Patriots NFL | Wide receivers coach | |
| 2009–10 | New England Patriots NFL | Quarterbacks coach | |
| 2011 | New England Patriots NFL | Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| 2012–13 | Penn State | Head coach | |
| 2014–20 | Houston Texans NFL | Head coach | |
| 2021–22 | Alabama | Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| 2023 | New England Patriots NFL | Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| 2024–present | Boston College | Head coach |
Every job as the infobox of his Wikipedia article lists it (CC BY-SA), assistant jobs included.
Coaching tree
Worked under
- Mark WhippleBrown
- George O’LearyGeorgia Tech
- Mac McWhorterGeorgia Tech
- Chan GaileyGeorgia Tech
- Ralph FriedgenMaryland
- Ted RoofDuke
- Bill BelichickNew England Patriots
- Nick SabanAlabama
Assistants who became head coaches
- Elijah RobinsonTexas A&M
- Mac McWhorterGeorgia Tech, West Georgia
- Ron VanderlindenMaryland
- Ted RoofDuke
- John PerryMerrimack
- Paul PasqualoniSyracuse, UConn, Western Connecticut
- Rob ChudzinskiCleveland Browns
- Tim LewisBirmingham Iron
Worked under (8)
| Head coach | Team | Years | His job | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mark Whipple | Brown | 1994 | Inside linebackers coach | |
| George O’Leary | Georgia Tech | 1995–2001 | 1995–97: graduate assistant; 1998–2000: running backs coach; 2001: offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| Mac McWhorter | Georgia Tech | 2001 | Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| Chan Gailey | Georgia Tech | 2002 | Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| Ralph Friedgen | Maryland | 2003–04 | Running backs coach | |
| Ted Roof | Duke | 2005–06 | Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| Bill Belichick | New England Patriots NFL | 2007–23 | 2007: offensive assistant; 2008: wide receivers coach; 2009–10: quarterbacks coach; 2011–23: offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| Nick Saban | Alabama | 2021–22 | Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach |
Coached under him, later head coaches (8)
| Coach | With him | Head coach at | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elijah Robinson | Penn State, 2012–13: DCR and NFLL | Texas A&M | |
| Mac McWhorter | Penn State, 2012–13: offensive line coach | Georgia Tech, West Georgia | |
| Ron Vanderlinden | Penn State, 2012–13: linebackers coach | Maryland | |
| Ted Roof | Penn State, 2012: defensive coordinator; Boston College, 2026: defensive coordinator and linebackers coach | Duke | |
| John Perry | Houston Texans, 2014–16: tight ends coach; 2017–20: wide receivers coach | Merrimack | |
| Paul Pasqualoni | Houston Texans, 2015: defensive line coach | Syracuse, UConn, Western Connecticut | |
| Rob Chudzinski | Boston College, 2024–26: senior offensive analyst and offensive development | Cleveland Browns | |
| Tim Lewis | Boston College, 2024–25: defensive coordinator | Birmingham Iron |
Other assistants under him (11)
| Coach | With him | |
|---|---|---|
| John Butler | Penn State, 2012: defensive backs coach; 2013: defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach; Houston Texans, 2014–17: defensive backs coach | |
| John Strollo | Penn State, 2012–13: tight ends coach | |
| Larry Johnson | Penn State, 2012–13: defensive line coach | |
| Anthony Midget | Penn State, 2013: safeties coach; Houston Texans, 2014–17: assistant secondary coach; 2018–19: defensive backs coach | |
| Will Lawing | Penn State, 2013: graduate assistant; Boston College, 2024–25: offensive coordinator and tight ends coach | |
| George Godsey | Houston Texans, 2014: quarterbacks coach; 2015–16: offensive coordinator | |
| D’Anton Lynn | Houston Texans, 2018–19: assistant secondary coach; 2020: defensive backs coach | |
| David Corley Jr. | Houston Texans, 2019: intern | |
| Chris Rumph | Houston Texans, 2020: outside linebackers coach | |
| Matt Applebaum | Boston College, 2024–25: offensive line coach | |
| Joe Dailey | Boston College, 2026: wide receivers coach |
From coaches’ Wikipedia infoboxes (CC BY-SA) and each season’s article for its coordinators: an assistant’s seasons at a school count under its head coach in our records; jobs in the NFL and elsewhere, under the head coach whose own article lists the job that year. Names without a page here link to their Wikipedia articles.
Pay
| Year | School | Job | Contract pay | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | Penn State | head coachbonuses up to $200,000 | $3,282,779 USA Today via Leeds | |
| 2012 | Penn State | head coachbonuses up to $47,500 | $2,300,000 USA Today via Leeds |
The same USA Today database for 2006–16, from Michael Leeds’ replication data on Harvard Dataverse (CC0): the season’s contract pay.
Pay of public employees in their public job only: head coaches, and assistants in the seasons our records name them a coordinator, at public universities.
How he coached
O’Brien’s teams went for it on 31% of fourth downs and on 53% of those where the model said go for it, passed on 49% of plays and took 25.6 seconds a play, 2012–2026.
| Season | School | Went for it on fourth | When the model said go | Pass rate | Seconds a play | EPA a play | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 12 g | Penn State | 34 of 105 32% | 55% | 51% | 24.0 | +0.02 | |
| 2013 12 g | Penn State | 24 of 102 24% | 41% | 46% | 23.8 | +0.03 | |
| 2024 13 g | Boston College | 36 of 93 39% | 66% | 43% | 28.6 | +0.02 | |
| 2025 12 g | Boston College | 30 of 97 31% | 48% | 59% | 24.8 | +0.06 | |
| 2026 6 g | Boston College | 14 of 42 33% | 59% | 48% | 27.8 | −0.03 | |
| All 55 g | 138 of 439 31% | 53% | 49% | 25.6 | +0.03 |
His seasons as a head coach from 2004 on, from ESPN’s play by play: fourth downs where he went for it out of every fourth-down decision; how often he went when SportsDataverse’s fourth-down model said going for it was the better call; the share of his offense’s plays that were passes; seconds of game clock per offensive play (lower is faster); and expected points added per offensive play (EPA, a measure of how much each play moved the offense toward points). The season in progress counts its games so far. SportsDataverse’s coach tendencies, from ESPN’s play by play; the EPA and the fourth-down model are SportsDataverse’s.