HC of BC football Bill O'Brien joins! #NCAA What does O'Brien think of the current #Patriots staff?
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00:00Morning, Bill O'Brien.
00:02Morning, Greg.
00:03Morning, guys.
00:04How we doing?
00:04We're doing great.
00:05How are you?
00:07Gearing up for these snowstorms, man.
00:09Yeah.
00:10How about this?
00:11Looks like on Saturdays, Curtis is
00:14calling for 6 to 12 inches.
00:16So get ready for that.
00:19Nothing will ever compare to the blizzard of 78.
00:23Right.
00:24I remember it like it was yesterday, Bill.
00:27Tunnels.
00:29Tunnels.
00:30I guess I should do this for the record,
00:32because we've been talking about it.
00:34Are you aware of why Bill Belichick
00:36sat Malcolm Butler for the second half of the Super Bowl?
00:41I have no idea.
00:43I was dealing with my own problems
00:45with the Houston Texans.
00:47I don't remember that.
00:48I don't know.
00:48I have no idea.
00:49It was the full game, not the second half.
00:51Is it some kind of a thing?
00:52Is there some kind of like a gold encased layer
00:57deep in Gillette Stadium where they keep that secret?
01:01And at some point, if you have served the organization well,
01:06you are granted access to what it is?
01:09I guess you never got to that point.
01:12I'll tell you what.
01:14Look, I've never asked that question to anybody.
01:17But it was a place where, obviously, there
01:21were things that were very confidential.
01:23You knew certain things.
01:24You just did your job, Greg.
01:25You know what I mean?
01:26You really did.
01:27For example, like in the draft, you would do draft evaluations.
01:32But you never knew who they were going to draft.
01:34You know what I mean?
01:35You just handed in your evaluation,
01:36did the best you could, and that was it.
01:39You moved on to the next whatever you were coaching next.
01:41So it was just the way it was.
01:44Well, speaking of doing your job,
01:46I feel like a little shade was thrown in your direction
01:50by Matt Patricia, who I'm paraphrasing here.
01:53But when asked about the play calling
01:55when he was the offensive coordinator, he said,
01:58and not a direct quote, but, it got worse the next season.
02:01Oh.
02:01I'm sorry.
02:02I don't know if you heard that or not.
02:07Oh, yeah.
02:08Whatever.
02:09I mean, I get it.
02:10Yeah, it definitely got worse, Matty.
02:12No question.
02:14Bill, you broke some news about Dante Scarnecchio
02:20with the Patriots.
02:21What is he going to do for Mike Rabel and this team
02:23moving forward?
02:26Yeah, I was just on the podcast, and I was, I mean,
02:29I had Brian Hoyer on there.
02:30And we were just talking about how good Dante was.
02:33And I really don't know.
02:35I just know that he's always been involved.
02:38He was always a phone call away, right?
02:41Even when I was there in 23, you could call him and ask him.
02:47Adrian Clem called him to ask him how we did certain things
02:51back in the day.
02:53Dante is a legendary offensive line coach.
02:56In my opinion, he's like Dick LeBeau.
02:59He's a Hall of Fame assistant coach.
03:03And so to have a guy like that who
03:06lives nearby that has institutional knowledge
03:08of what you're doing, I think it's really good.
03:11So I don't know what he's doing.
03:13I guess I broke some news.
03:15But I think he's been doing that for a while.
03:19But you were gushing over the coaching staff
03:22that Mike Vrabel has assembled.
03:24You feel really good.
03:24Yeah, they have a great staff.
03:26I mean, I don't know if I would use the word gushing.
03:28But like, yeah, they have a great staff.
03:31They have guys that have experience, that have won.
03:37They have guys that, you know, Josh McDaniels,
03:41it's a great play caller.
03:42You have Doug Marone, who obviously I'm very biased,
03:46is a really excellent line coach.
03:49So yeah, I'm excited for them.
03:50I think they have a great staff.
03:53Yeah, no doubt.
03:54Billy, I watched the Patriots.
03:56I know you don't work there anymore.
03:57And you're at BC doing a great job.
03:59But I don't understand why they didn't build this type of staff
04:02last year with Mayo, a guy that was young, obviously
04:07relatively inexperienced.
04:09And they put a staff around him that
04:11doesn't resemble at all the one that Mike Vrabel
04:14has to work with.
04:15Do you have any insight as to why that might be the case?
04:19I think that's a great question.
04:20I mean, I really don't have a lot of insight.
04:22I think, look, I think, you know,
04:24look, to be honest with you, one of the differences
04:26is obviously you've got a very, and I've
04:29said this to you guys before, you know,
04:31when you're a first time head coach with no head coaching
04:34experience, and you're coming into a situation that is not
04:39a winning situation right away, I'm
04:42not sure how many guys were jumping at the chance
04:45to go coach, you know, at the Patriots at that time, right?
04:48Now you've got Mike Vrabel, who's
04:50got a lot of experience as a player and as a head coach.
04:54And so, you know, it might be easier
04:57for a guy like Mike Vrabel to get those guys
04:59to come to work for him.
05:01So, you know, that's just the way
05:02it is relative to experience.
05:04I remember when I got the Houston Texans job,
05:06I only had two years of experience at Penn State.
05:09I mean, for instance, like, I tried to,
05:11I was hiring offensive line, trying
05:13to hire offensive line coaches, and, you know,
05:15many of those guys were either under contract
05:17or they were like, nah, I'm not sure.
05:19I like this situation better than yours, you know?
05:21So it's just tough when you're a first time NFL head coach,
05:24I think.
05:25Your guy, Shyme, from Shyme Island,
05:29had a lead this morning, which was that Jalen Hurts doesn't
05:32really get the credit he deserves.
05:34I don't want to paraphrase you, Shyme, but that's about it.
05:37Yeah, I feel like there's a double standard with how much
05:39he's been able to win over the last three years.
05:41I mean, this is his second Super Bowl now in three years,
05:43and yet he doesn't get talked about nearly as often
05:47or with nearly the frequency as some
05:49of the other upper echelon quarterbacks,
05:52even though all this guy does is win, whether people
05:54like watching it or not.
05:57Yeah, I agree with you, Shyme.
05:58I think there's, I don't really love this word,
06:00but I just don't know the word to use.
06:02But there's a lot of narratives out there in the sports world,
06:06because, you know, there's great coverage of all these,
06:10you know, these games and these leagues and NFL, NBA, all that.
06:14And so, you know, people just go with the narrative.
06:17And if you really, like, drill down and look at it,
06:19I mean, what Nick Ceriani's done,
06:23what Jalen Hurts has done, you know,
06:25look at what Jalen Hurts did in college.
06:28You know, he got benched at Alabama.
06:29He won at Alabama.
06:30Then he got benched for Tua.
06:33Then he transferred to Oklahoma.
06:34He won there.
06:36He's winning in Philadelphia.
06:37They run a style of offense that's
06:39very difficult to defend.
06:41I think it's going to be a great game.
06:42And I think you're right, Shyme.
06:43I think Jalen, to go to two,
06:46it's very, very difficult to get to a Super Bowl.
06:50And to go to two in the last, whatever, three years is,
06:53I mean, that's really impressive as a starting quarterback.
06:56Shyme also said your play calling was better
06:58than Matt Patricia's, just so you know.
07:01No, I would say that both offenses were terrible.
07:04Like, I didn't, I've been doing this 33 years, Greg.
07:09So I've had, you know, I've had,
07:12when I was there in 10 and 11,
07:13we had the best offense in the NFL, right?
07:16Like, okay, there's a correlation.
07:17We had Tom Brady, Gronkowski, Randy Moss.
07:20I mean, you know, we had the,
07:22some of the greatest players to ever play.
07:23I mean, so like, I think we should all just admit
07:25that 22 and 23 were probably two of the worst offenses
07:29in the last five years in the NFL.
07:31Do you ever, do you ever sort of get angry?
07:32I don't have a problem admitting that.
07:35Billy, do you ever get mad?
07:36I've been a part of the best offenses too.
07:38So I don't really have a problem admitting
07:40that the year that I was there was not great.
07:44Do you ever kick yourself for not kissing Bill Zasmoor?
07:47Maybe you would have had a career like Matt Patricia.
07:51No, I do.
07:53Like, I really did, you know,
07:55obviously I owe a lot to Bill and, you know,
07:59he did a lot for me promoting from within.
08:02He taught me a lot, but no, I'm not, yeah.
08:05Like I've told you guys before,
08:07I have a lot of professional respect
08:09and I consider Bill a friend, but you know,
08:12that's, I'm not probably as close to him
08:15as some of those other guys are,
08:16but that's, you know, that's great for them.
08:18It's awesome.
08:19So it sounds to me like you,
08:20so we should not just anoint the Chiefs
08:23as the winners of this football game Sunday.
08:26Like you think the Eagles have a pretty good chance.
08:32Yeah, I don't think there's any doubt.
08:33I mean, look, I'm, you know,
08:35when you can run the football like they can with Saquon
08:39and then, you know, have an offset there with Jalen Hurts
08:43and, you know, Devontae Smith and A.J. Brown
08:47and this, nobody talks about the tight end.
08:48Dallas Goddard is unbelievable.
08:52You know, look, they're going to have to deal
08:54with Spags' defense.
08:55That's a very difficult defense to go against.
08:57And obviously they're going to have to deal
08:58with Patrick Mahomes,
08:59but I just think it's going to be a great game.
09:02It's definitely the two best teams.
09:04All right, Bill, when you talk about coaches real quick,
09:08talk a little bit about Stretch.
09:10I know a lot of, you know, coaches,
09:13they have their guy, Bill Belichick,
09:16Bill Belichick had it with Ernie Adams.
09:19So for a lot of us that might not know who Stretch is,
09:23like give us some insight on how he seems
09:26like he is Vrabel's like right-hand man
09:29when it comes to a lot of decision-making
09:32and what makes him so special in that role.
09:35Yeah, I don't, first of all, full disclosure,
09:37I've only been around Stretch a couple of times.
09:40I have, you know, and he's been awesome.
09:43He's a very, very bright guy.
09:44He has knowledge of a lot of different things
09:47relative to football in an organization, right?
09:50You know, he has an understanding of situational football.
09:55He has a great understanding
09:56of how a football organization should be run
09:59from an operation standpoint, a travel standpoint,
10:02a schedule standpoint.
10:03And so, you know, everybody, like you said,
10:06that, you know, gets to that head coaching level,
10:10you have to have somebody like that
10:12because that's such a hugely valuable guy
10:15in your organization.
10:16Here, as you guys know, at BC, we have Bares Nigerian.
10:20I mean, it's such a valuable guy
10:22that can do a lot of different things.
10:24And so, yeah, I think Stretch brings a lot to the table
10:27and Mike has tremendous confidence in him
10:30and they have a great, you know, they have a great bond.
10:33Well, Bill, I appreciate you taking the time
10:36throughout the season.
10:36I don't know, are we,
10:38is this our last time with you this year?
10:40I don't know what the,
10:41I don't know what the schedule looks like.
10:42Are you available?
10:43Like, should we need, I mean, can we reach out randomly?
10:46I don't know what our arrangement is.
10:48Oh, no, I really enjoy, I really appreciate it
10:51because I do think that, and I appreciate Curtis,
10:55you and Courtney and, you know, BC alums and your support.
10:58I do think it's given BC a good platform
11:01and that's really what it's all about.
11:02I mean, I think we're trying to do some good things here
11:04and I really appreciate you, Greg,
11:06for making a spot for me on this.
11:08And anytime you guys, you know, if you have some dead air
11:13and you need to fill it, I'll be there.
11:15Oh, listen, I would hope,
11:17I want to do it again next season.
11:19I want to, I am still,
11:21I still have hopes of my moonshot
11:24and dropkick Murphys playing the alma mater
11:28at a game with listeners.
11:30I know Shyam is looking forward to being installed
11:33on the coaching staff after spring football.
11:37I heard from a bunch of high school coaches
11:41who listen to this show who cannot wait to hear you speak.
11:44I think, is it either tonight or tomorrow night
11:46you're speaking to a bunch of them?
11:49Yeah, tomorrow afternoon, we have the Glacier Clinic,
11:52which is at the Newton Marriott.
11:56And I think it's like a bunch of us
11:58from the staff are speaking.
11:59I think I'm speaking at like one o'clock
12:01and then we have other clinics.
12:02We have the Gillette Clinic later on.
12:04We have the big New England Clinic in Newport, Rhode Island.
12:07So we're like a traveling band.
12:10Do you need Shyam for any of those?
12:13I mean, I could definitely use Shyam to talk about the,
12:16you know, the trick plays and the gadgets
12:19and the shot plays that we're talking about putting in.
12:22Shyam, are you any closer to determining
12:24what your one play is going to be?
12:26Oh yeah, I got it.
12:27I'm pretty close to, I have pretty much nailed down.
12:30It's a flea flicker.
12:32I mean, you got any information on it for us, for Bill?
12:35I mean, it's a shot play, a play action shot play.
12:37We're running out of the pistol, Billy.
12:40It's a little East-West motion.
12:41I'm excited.
12:42Just a warning, Bill,
12:43Shyam has become a big skinny jean guy.
12:45So just prepare for that on the sidelines.
12:47I think Bill is too.
12:49I saw the picture of his podcast the other day.
12:50He's looking great.
12:51Okay.
12:52Yeah, right.
12:53Are you suggesting that Bill O'Brien
12:55was wearing skinny jeans?
12:58They looked form fitting.
12:59I don't know if they would be skinny jeans or not.
13:01You know, I'm not as good at identifying them as Courtney,
13:04but.
13:05That must've been the camera angle, Shyam.
13:08I wasn't wearing skinny jeans.
13:11Shyam, I'm not a big pistol guy.
13:14I'm not a big fan of the pistol.
13:15All right, all right.
13:16We can work on that.
13:17That's fine.
13:18Just do it from on the center, Shyam.
13:20Yeah, that's fine.
13:21I can do that.
13:22You can be Billy, Shyam.
13:23All right.
13:25All right, Bill O'Brien.
13:26You're the best.
13:27Thank you for everything.
13:28Thank you guys.
13:29Appreciate it.
13:30That is the great Bill O'Brien.