Another Saturday, another loss for Bill O’Brien’s Boston College Eagles (1-9, 0-6).
This time, it came at the hands of SMU (7-3, 5-1), a team fresh off of upsetting No. 10 Miami 26-20 one week prior.
In a surprise to no, this one wasn’t that close.
45-13 was your final at Alumni Stadium, as BC’s defense was once again gashed all day long, allowing 574 yards of total offense to the Mustangs while accounting for 390 of their own - much of which racked up in garbage time.
It was a true “Best of the 2025 Eagles” in Week 11, as BC turned the ball over 4 times, allowed 8 sacks, and managed just 2.7 yards per carry. Add in O’Brien benching starting quarterback Grayson James after just their third offensive series of the day in favor of sophomore Dylan Lonergan - something he did the reverse of just one week prior - and it truly was a greatest hits album for one of the worst college football teams we’ve seen in a very long time.
All of this, sadly, occurred during the team’s “Red Bandana Game” - an annual tradition since 2014 where the team honors the late Welles Crowther, an American hero who saved lives during the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center on 9/11.
If you’ve never heard his story, I encourage you to stop what you’re doing and watch this award-winning piece from ESPN on his singular heroism:
BC’s special uniforms in Crowther’s honor are a part of one of the best traditions in all of college football.
But with the team having lost eight straight games heading into Saturday, going winless so far this season against FBS competition, there was a muted atmosphere to what should always be a day that BC’s fanbase packs Alumni Stadium with the national spotlight on them. Outside of the student section, I would estimate a little more than a third of the remaining 44,500-capacity stadium was empty, giving the country a visual representation of where things stand for a program that just one year ago had their arrow pointed in the right direction.
O’Brien may have gone viral on Tuesday for loudly proclaiming “the sun is up” for his program while chastising a reporter for asking if he had a message for the fans with his team in the midst of its worst season in almost 50 years, but it’s undoubtedly dark days for Boston College as they stare down the barrel of what would be only their second 11-loss season in the 91-year history of the program.
Postgame, it was back to the “Best of the 2025 Eagles” album, as O’Brien went back to the same refrain he’s been singing all season long.
“I told the team I have not done a good job this year,” O’Brien said on the tail end of an answer about lack-of-execution in the red zone. “And these kids, these guys, are fighting, and we got two opportunities left. This week is these seniors, their last home game. So we got to go out and we got to play hard for them.”
When asked what his message was to the team postgame with just one home game to go, it was more of the same.
“I tell them the same thing every week - I have not done a good job of coaching this team,” said O’Brien. “This team has not been coached very well. And I tell them, ‘Look, you guys got to keep playing hard.’ We got to coach better. I got their back, you know? I told them [that] this week is a big week, because it's the last game for a lot of guys in this room.”
Bill. We know.
Continually reminding the fans and media of the bad coaching job you’ve done this season doesn’t make the sting of 1-9 hurt any less.
We know the play calling has been bad.
We know the lack of touches at times for some of the best players on your team has been baffling.
We know all about the inconsistencies of how you handle key fourth down situations.
We know you haven’t made any changes to your coaching staff when there’s needed to be some sort of accountability on the defensive side of the football for the atrocity of a unit that’s been trotted out there each and every week.
We know you believe there’s a ceiling to what you’re able to accomplish at Chestnut Hill - you outright told us on Thursday when talking about NIL and the transfer portal.
We know all that.
This message, at least externally, is falling flat. And if it’s actually the same message you’re delivering internally as well, the results speak for themselves.
Saturday was the first time in the 23-game tenure of O’Brien’s time at BC where I half-expected to get an alert on my phone from ESPN’s Pete Thamel that some sort of separation agreement was in place for the 56-year-old and the university. Whether it was a firing, a resignation, a firing couched as a resignation - any of those scenarios felt, for the first time, possible.
To look that bad in front of a sparsely-filled stadium for the “Red Bandana Game” while repeating the same “I’m doing a bad job” rhetoric at the podium, I would not have blamed any of the parties involved for pulling the ripcord on the situation.
I’ve continued to be reassured behind the scenes by those close to the program that the school is content giving O’Brien his runway to turn this program around, meaning no changes would be made with three years and $15 million remaining on his deal.
I wonder if the vibe of Saturday has changed the game plan for O’Brien or the administration.
The former Texans head coach is now 6-15 against FBS competition in two seasons at BC. And since starting his first season at Chestnut Hill 4-1, O’Brien has gone 4-14 over his last 18 games, with one of those wins coming against FCS Fordham to open this season. That Fordham team is 1-9 on the year, good for last place in the Patriot League.
Life doesn’t get easier for the Eagles in Week 12, as they host No. 17 Georgia Tech (8-1, 5-1) for their final home game of the season. As of publishing, the Yellow Jackets are a 16.5-point road favorite at FanDuel. You can get them on the moneyline at -880, with BC sitting as a home dog at +580. The total is currently set at 55.5.
Listen to every snap of Boston College Football this season on WEEI, the Audacy app, and across the BC Eagles Van Wagner Sports Network.