Tom O'Brien to N.C. State? Didn't see that coming

Well, BC is the only thing in major college football in New England, save for UConn's occasional flurishes. It gives them visibility, even though they're the No. 5 team in Boston.

NC State is at best third in its home state. If Duke ever found a way to be slightly less miserable, they'd be No. 4.

 

Actually, NCSU isn't behind anyone in North Carolina. Chapel Hill comes and goes, Duke has been awful for a dozen years solid, and Wake Forest - like Duke - does more nationally than they do in North Carolina. So the state's ripe for the picking football-wise.

If O'Brien did recruit parts of Florida fairly well, that was one area Chuck Amato recruited worth spit. That was a carryover from his days in Tallahassee.

 

A buddy and me were in the bar tonight playing trivia and watching the WWL News to watch that crazy ass mob scene in Croatia(?) at a basketball game, when news broke that O'Brien got the gig. Buddy turned to me and said "Is O'Brien insane for heading down there to a rival conference school? I mean, it's NC State, not Alabama."

They must have offered him a lifetime supply of BBQ and pork rinds down in Raleigh to leave The Heights.

 

Don't forget tobacco ... cigarettes, snuff, chewing tobacco ... something.

Can't wait to see how the Wolfpack Club takes to this one. In case the Herb Sendek saga didn't sent the hint out, they're a peculiar bunch to say the least. Note to Lee Fowler: Might want to sign O'Brien before he's subjected to the third degree by Murphy and Friends the piranhas.

O'Brien didn't like the fact that BC was barely on the radar in the city, and additionally he was one of the lowest-paid coaches in the ACC. He'll get more in Raleigh, and while the Triangle isn't cheap, it is compared to Boston. To boot, NCSU and the other Triangle schools are much more prevalent on the scene than BC seems to be in Boston.

If he's half as disciplined as I recall BC being the last few years, he'll be a good choice. Chuck was too busy strutting, being an a_shole and too argumentative to the media and living in paranoia and denial to have enough sense to instill discipline in the players.

 

Is now the appropriate time to point out that he is 0-4 against new UNC coach Butch Davis? (from 1997-2000 when Miami and BC were in the Big East)

 

Sounds to me like reason enough to fire him right there.

 

The more I think about it, the less stupid of a move I think it is for O'Brien, for all the reasons my friend Sam mentions. Of course, Sam's just happy to get rid of Chuck Assmato, though.

Yeah, BC always would be No. 5 in Boston behind the four majors, but they did supersede the Celtics and Bruins when warranted. Part of the reason BC never was bigger was O'Brien's penchant for blowing the big game. There's no reason that team shouldn't have been in the ACC title game this year, except for that lame NC State loss.

I will say, though, that O'Brien allegedly had other opportunities to move on over the years, to schools that own a tad more prestige than Raleigh State.

 

I'll bet BC doesn't bring Dan Henning back.

 

Keep an eye on Bob Davie - he and DeFillippo have a history. Not saying it's the best BC can do, but the safest.

 

Don Brown at UMass, who also managed to turn around a moribund Northeastern program a few years back, might be a good choice. If you can recruit at Northeastern, you definitely can recruit at BC.

 

There is no freaking way the addled alumni of BC would sit still for hiring a coach from UMass.
My dear young man, it simply is not done.

 

Chet Gladchuck would have a heart attack. So would Billy Bulger, who still is putting pins in a Romney voodoo doll somewhere in his Southie mansion.

From a purely football and recruiting standpoint, though, it would make sense.