Bill O’Brien and James Franklin will forever be linked that the fact that both of them have been the head football coach at Penn State.
It’s not a job that many men have held.
Between 1950 and 2011, the only ones who did were Rip Engle and Joe Paterno.
O’Brien was Penn State’s first full-time coach of the post-Paterno era. That was daunting enough. But as everybody knows, he had to do it at a time where the program had been rocked by scandal and sanctions, which put it at another level. O’Brien not only kept the program afloat but kept it competitive.
The team went 15-9 over O’Brien’s two seasons. The whole world noticed that success, including the NFL.
After the Houston Texans hired O’Brien to be their head coach, Penn State hired James Franklin, who remains in Happy Valley more than a decade later.
Through Franklin’s first 10 seasons at Penn State, O’Brien spent time as an NFL head coach, college offensive coordinator and NFL OC. Now, he’s back as a college coach, and doing quite well. A big upset win at then-ranked Florida State that wasn’t even close propelled BC into the top 25 at No. 24, and Boston College kept that standing after a much more expected win over Duquesne. A win this week would shoot BC up the rankings.
Although close loss at Missouri this past Saturday knocked BC out of the rankings, O’Brien’s first season has been a success so far.
Franklin and O’Brien coached on the same staff at Maryland from 2003-04, so the two had a relationship well before either one came to Penn State.
So Franklin is enjoying the O’Brien’s succes.
Yeah, as you guys know, I’ve known Bill for a long time,” Franklin said at his weekly presser Monday. “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. I followed his career in the NFL, and now back obviously at BC. For a short period of time, he was also in our conference at Ohio State and now back at BC.”
Some may see Boston College as a step below places like Penn State but Franklin felt it was a great fit for O’Brien, who was born in Boston and grew up in Andover, Massachusetts (roughly a half hour away).
“For a lot of those guys from that part of the country, BC is like a dream job,” Franklin said. “It’s interesting. I talked to a ton of guys. That BC job is a very desirable job. If you know Bill, his 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.”
Franklin also credited Boston College’s quarterback, Thomas Castellanos, who has thrown for 589 yards, nine touchdowns and two interceptions through three games, also running for 73 yards and a touchdown on 14 carries at Florida State.
“When he’s got that piece of the puzzle, you can build from there,” Franklin said. “Billy has tremendous experience doing that. It’s been cool to watch it, and happy for those guys and not surprised.”
