The Bill O’Brien Era at Boston College starts off with a bang.
In his first game as head football coach of the Eagles, O’Brien led his team to a stunning, wire-to-wire upset win over #10 Florida State, beating the Seminoles 28-13 on their home turf in Tallahassee, FL.
Monday night’s win marked the first time since 1976 that Boston College opened their season with a victory over a ranked opponent.
And if you needed any more context for how long ago that win was, the 14-13 victory came against an Earl Campbell-led Texas Longhorns, a player who made the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1991.
This is not your average, once-every-few-years upset win for Boston College.
This is a big deal.
“It’s really satisfying,” said O’Brien when asked about the win during an on-field interview with Scott Van Pelt on SportsCenter. “These kids, since the day we walked in here - which was seven months ago - they've given us everything that they've had. They're tough guys.
“We talked about winning it up front - BC, the tradition of offensive lines, defensive lines. We won the game up front. We established a line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, and I thought these guys did a great job. And I'm so proud of these guys, Scott. It's only one win, sure. But to come down here, and with all the work they put in - really proud of them.”
Both that offensive line and defensive line dominated on Monday night in their own right.
For the O-line, it was leading the charge on 263 rushing yards and 2 rushing touchdowns.
For the D-line, it was forcing FSU into bad-throw-after-bad-throw, and never allowing the Seminoles to get in a rhythm running ball, holding them to 21 total rushing yards on 16 carries as a team.
“The offensive staff did a really good job, the defensive staff did a really good job, the special team staff did a really good job,” O’Brien told the media after the game via Zoom. “And the players were able to carry out that - they executed, you know, which was the key.
“Boston College, you know, has to be known for its offensive line. We have a great tradition of offensive linemen here, and hopefully these guys can keep that going.”
On top of dominating the line of scrimmage, the Eagles’ secondary did a masterful job of limiting the Seminoles’ yards-after-catch all game long. This kept the FSU offense from ever truly clicking, as their few big plays were shortly followed by forced punts. The physicality that O’Brien had his team practice with throughout the preseason paid off in a big way on Monday.
“There’s some great athletes at Florida State, and I thought our guys did a really good job of tackling in space, and that was a big key,” said O’Brien. “That’ll be a big key for us the rest of the year; ball security, taking care of the ball on offense - which we did a decent job of that - and then tackling on defense. That’s going to be a big deal moving forward.”
Ball security is a lot easier when an offensive line is dominating the way Boston College was on Monday night.
A beneficiary of that push upfront was senior running back Kye Robichaux, who led all rushers with 85 yards on the ground. He accounted for two of the offense’s four touchdowns on the night - one on the ground, and one through the air.
“Really it starts off with the big guys up front,” said Robichaux. “Them boys work their butts off the whole summer, you know? We have extreme confidence in them. And at the end of the day, everyone has their job. And if you just do your job, dominate your box, you know - successful.”
But as we all know, the spotlight - win or lose - is going to be on the quarterback. And senior Thomas Castellanos rose to the occasion on the national stage, as ESPN’s broadcast was BC’s first national, stand-alone season opening broadcast since 1995.
The entire nation was glued to BC Football, and the dual threat QB delivered.
Castellanos accounted for three touchdowns on the night, two through the air and one on the ground. He was 10 of 16 passing for 106 yards, and picked up another 73 yards on the ground.
“You gotta give Tommy a lot of credit,” O’Brien said on SportsCenter of his second-year starter. “Tommy has worked very, very hard to get to this point. Obviously needs to continue that work ethic throughout the season, but he’s an electric player.
“He’s a guy that wants the ball. He’s a winner. He’s been a winner at every level. And, you know, we’re really excited and glad that he’s on our team, that’s for sure.”
On the other sideline, celebrated transfer quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei looked awful for FSU, going 21 of 42 passing, with a touchdown and a pick.
Uiagalelei, who once upon a time dominated BC while playing for Clemson, was denied almost everything between the hash marks, and consistently could not hit his receivers at the boundary.
On Monday night, the best quarterback on the field hailed from Boston, not Florida, and even garnered a comparison to former Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray from Van Pelt during his interview with O’Brien.
“He’s a very dynamic player,” said O’Brien. “You know, I think the key for us this year with him, you know, in the offseason was to say, ‘Look, here’s some things you can improve on - footwork, taking care of the ball, reading coverages, understanding our offensive scheme, protections, and things like that.’ He’s done a really good job of that.
“He has to, you know, stay consistent with that throughout the year. Because like I said in the beginning, it’s only one game. Look, I’m not trying to take anything away from the win. It’s a very important win for BC and where we’re at. But it’s just one game, and he really played well in that game. He’s gotta keep that going.”
BC is on super short rest heading into their home opener on Saturday against Duquesne - an FCS school out of Pittsburgh coming off a 49-10 loss in their first game against Toledo.
But for 24 hours, he’ll let his team enjoy their historic win.
“24 hour rule, right Scott?” he told Van Pelt on SportsCenter. “24 hour rule - let them celebrate a little bit. We don’t get back until 4:30 in the morning. You know, we gotta turn around and they’ll have tomorrow off - it’s a mandatory day off. And then we’ll be back ready to go on Wednesday. But they got 24 hours, and they’ll celebrate.
“But I think it’s a pretty business-like team. We’ll find out though, right? We’ll find out. We’ve gotta be that way, but we’re looking forward to it.”
So for at least the next few days, Boston College will be a part of the Boston sports media landscape in a big way.
But it will be up to O’Brien and the upstart Eagles to keep it that way.