After Week 3, I wrote that Boston College’s 30-20 loss at Stanford was the program’s worst loss under head football coach Bill O’Brien.
Just three weeks later, and that distinction has been passed along to the Eagles’ 48-7 no-show at Pittsburgh (3-2, 1-1), in what might also be the most embarrassing loss in all of college football in Week 6.
After blowing three different leads against Cal (4-2, 1-1) coming off a bye in Week 5, Saturday’s game against Pitt became a rare early-season must-win situation for BC (1-4, 0-3). With the way their schedule shakes out the rest of 2025, their matchup against a mediocre Panthers team was going to be one of the last remaining winnable contests on paper for a team that has shown no ability to close out games over the first month-plus of the season.
Add in the fact that news broke on Saturday morning that Pitt would be giving their 18-year-old freshman quarterback Mason Heintschel his first career start, and BC officially had no excuses but to go out and play their best football of the season in an attempt to right the ship.
Instead, they played their worst game under O’Brien, and the fanbase is beginning to wonder out loud if the former NFL head coach is the right man for the job.
Heintschel was made to look like an old pro, carving up BC’s defense for 323 passing yards and 4 touchdowns, going 30 for 41 as a passer with a QBR of 87.9. He also added an additional 28 yards on the ground across 10 carries.
BC’s top two QBs, on the other hand, looked bad. Starter Dylan Lonergan struggled for a third consecutive game, going 9 for 18 as a passer for only 89 yards, good for a QBR of 21.6. He also ended with -20 rushing yards, being sacked twice (sacks count as rushing attempts in college football).
Worse than Lonergan was back-up Grayson James, who went 2 for 9 as a passer for 30 yards and an interception, good for a QBR of 3.7. Third-string QB Shaker Reisig looked good in garbage time, but to give any weight to his 3-3 for 70 yards and a touchdown would be a fool’s errand.
The Eagles couldn’t run the ball, either, combining for 27 total rushing yards across 24 attempts. With sacks counting as rushing attempts, Lonergan’s failings behind the line of scrimmage are baked into that number. Running back Turbo Richard, after accounting for 171 rushing yards on 15 carries against Cal in Week 5, was only handed the ball 6 times on Saturday for a total of 2 rushing yards.
They couldn’t throw. They couldn’t pass. They couldn’t defend.
The Eagles gave up on Saturday, plain and simple.
“I did a bad job,” O’Brien said postgame. “Did not have the team ready to play. I take full responsibility for what happened on that field. I've got to do a better job. I've got to figure out how to coach these guys better - how to, you know, get the staff and the players to understand how we want to play.”
O’Brien was asked in a follow-up why his team wasn’t ready to go on Saturday.
“I don't know,” he said. “I don't know. Again, that's my - yeah, I see you shaking your head, and I agree. I agree. I'm shaking my head too. And we'll figure it out.
“I've got to figure it out. It's on me to figure it out. Just not getting it done right now. I'm not getting it done so the players are fighting, and just for whatever reason, didn't have them ready to go today.”
Since former head football coach Ed Chlebeck started the first 18 games of his BC coaching career 2-16 back in 1978, 10 different men have held the head coaching gig on the Eagles’ sideline. Of those 10, O’Brien’s 8-10 record is the worst 18-game start for anyone at Chestnut Hill.
It’s not going in the right direction right now for O’Brien. Fans are getting fed up. The promise of a new BC under a name-brand head coach has not come to fruition, and the consistent blown leads that have led the Eagles to this position have the fanbase wondering if this staff will ever be capable of achieving that goal.
So let’s talk about the elephant in the room - O’Brien’s job security.
I’ve been told by sources close to the program that BC officials won’t be making any changes any time soon. Regardless of how things look this season, O’Brien has been given a five-year commitment from Boston College. They understood what he was inheriting, and planned to give him the runway to turn things around for a program mired in mediocrity for over 15 years.
With that said, I don’t know if any head coach at the FBS level can survive a one-or-two win season in today’s day and age of college football. And with BC’s only win on the year so far being a Week 1 rout of a bad FCS team in Fordham (1-5, 1-2), it’s as if the Eagles are sitting here winless with a gauntlet of a schedule remaining:
- Week 7 vs. Clemson (2-3, 1-2), a team with immense talent who has underperformed through the first month-and-a-half of the season
- Week 8 vs. UConn (4-2), a regional rival who would love nothing more than to beat a program who has always considered the Huskies a second-class citizen on the college football scene
- Week 9 at Louisville (4-1, 1-1), a team knocking on the door of an AP Top 25 ranking
- Week 10 vs. No. 21 Notre Dame (3-2). Is any further explanation required here?
- Week 11 vs. SMU (3-2, 1-0), another team with immense talent who saw themselves playing in the College Football Playoff just one season ago
- Week 12 vs. No. 17 Georgia Tech (5-0, 2-0), a team that has burst onto the scene in 2025, highlighted by their upset win at home over Clemson earlier this season
- Week 14 @ Syracuse (3-3, 1-2), a program that always gives BC a tough game regardless of their record
Help me find the wins here. Maybe UConn? A season finale win over the Orange? Someone please tell me where the Eagles find another W before their season comes to an end.
In the interim, O’Brien said postgame that he doesn’t plan to make any changes to the current construct of his coaching staff.
“I think we just all have to do a better job,” said the 55-year-old head coach. “I think we'll evaluate everything that we're doing, but I don't foresee me making any changes, you know, this year. No, not at all.
“We're going to continue to, you know, [to] work as hard as we can. And look, I get it. There's no excuses. I hope I'm making myself clear. You can put it out there. I've got to do a better job.”
The Eagles will attempt to bounce back in Week 7 against Clemson. An oft-forgotten rivalry trophy is on the line, with the two teams competing for the O'Rourke-McFadden Trophy each time they’ve faced off since 2008.
BC has lost 13 of their last 15 meetings against the Tigers, with Clemson having won each of their last 12 contests. They lead the all-time series 21-9-2.
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