Just The Facts – TOB

General NCS Football Tom O'Brien51

Now that multiple media outlets are reporting that Tom O’Brien will be the next head football coach for State, let’s gather up a few facts on the man. Here is his W/L record at Boston College:

Year

Win

Loss

Tie

1997

4

7

0

1998

4

7

0

1999

8

4

0

2000

7

5

0

2001

8

4

0

2002

9

4

0

2003

8

5

0

2004

9

3

0

2005

9

3

0

2006*

9

3

0

* Bowl
Game not included

 

For a historical perspective, here are the records for over 50 years of coaches at BC:

Coach

First

Last

Years

Win

Loss

Tie

Pct.

Michael
J. "Mike" Holovak

1951

1959

9

49

29

3

0.623

Ernie Hefferle

1960

1961

2

7

12

1

0.375

James
H. "Jim" Miller

1962

1967

6

34

24

0

0.586

Joseph
"Joe" Yukica

1968

1977

10

68

37

0

0.648

Ed Chlebek

1978

1980

3

12

21

0

0.364

Jack
Bicknell, Sr.

1981

1990

10

59

55

1

0.517

Tom
Coughlin

1991

1993

3

21

13

1

0.614

Dan
Henning

1994

1996

3

16

19

1

0.458

Tom
O’Brien

1997

2005

9

75

45

0

0.625

Here is BC’s Bowl History with TOB’s years highlighted:

W/L

Date

Opponent

Bowl

L

1/1/1940

Clemson (SC)

Cotton Bowl

W

1/1/1941

Tennessee

Sugar Bowl

L

1/1/1943

Alabama

Orange Bowl

L

12/18/1982

Auburn (AL)

Tangerine Bowl

L

12/29/1983

Notre Dame (IN)

Liberty Bowl

W

1/1/1985

Houston (TX)

Cotton Bowl

W

12/23/1986

Georgia

Hall of Fame Bowl

L

1/1/1993

Tennessee

Hall of Fame Bowl

W

1/1/1994

Virginia

Carquest Bowl

W

12/25/1994

Kansas St.

Aloha Bowl

L

12/31/1999

Colorado

Insight.com Bowl

W

12/25/2000

Arizona St.

Aloha Classic

W

12/28/2001

Georgia

Music City Bowl

W

12/26/2002

Toledo (OH)

Motor City Bowl

W

12/31/2003

Colorado St.

San Francisco Bowl

W

12/30/2004

North Carolina

Continental Tire Bowl

W

12/28/2005

Boise St. (ID)

MPC Computers Bowl

10:45 PM Update

BC Finishes in the Polls

Year

Record

AP Rank

Coach Rank

1939

9/2/2000

11

 

1940

11-0-0

5

 

1942

8/2/2000

8

 

1983

9/3/2000

19

20

1984

10/2/2000

5

4

1986

9/3/2000

19

18

1992

8/3/2001

21

21

1993

9/3/2000

13

12

1994

7/4/2001

23

22

2001

8/4/2000

21

23

2004

9/3/2000

21

21

2005

9/3/2000

18

17

TOB has finished in the top 25, three separate times at BC. State was ranked in the top 25 at the end of the season, once during MOC’s reign and once during Chuck’s.

Comments on this entry will be limited to facts about Tom O’Brien. If you insist on sticking your opinion in the post or wandering away from the expressed subject, your entire entry will be deleted.

Information summarized from the College Football Data Warehouse.

About VaWolf82

Engineer living in Central Va. and senior curmudgeon amongst SFN authors One wife, two kids, one dog, four vehicles on insurance, and four phones on cell plan...looking forward to empty nest status. Graduated 1982

General NCS Football Tom O'Brien

51 Responses to Just The Facts – TOB

  1. NCStateDud92 12/06/2006 at 10:30 PM #

    No facts. Try again.
    VaWolf82

  2. choppack1 12/06/2006 at 10:34 PM #

    I haven’t been able to verify this, but these semi-alarming results were posted on a previous thread:
    TOB All-Time Versus Temple, Rutgers, UConn, I-AA Schools, and any non-BCS program other than BYU or Boise State:
    38 Wins
    5 Losses

    TOB All-Time Versus All Other Schools:
    37 Wins
    39 Losses

    Tom O’Brien all-time against the AP Top 25:
    7 wins
    21 losses

    Tom O’Brien all-time against teams that finished the season in the AP Top 25:
    4 wins
    22 losses

    Tom O’Brien all-time against Miami, Virginia Tech, and Florida State:
    3 win
    15 losses

  3. sautz 12/06/2006 at 10:34 PM #

    4-22 against teams that finished in the top 25 in 9 years? I know it’s BC, but they are a few rungs up from, say, WFU.

    This needs some perspective. What has Clemson, State, UVa, etc done against the top-25 over the last 10 years?

  4. sautz 12/06/2006 at 10:37 PM #

    He was 5-3 in the ACC the last 2 years, with their 6 losses coming to ACC teams. They beat BYU in OTs this year.

  5. ThomYorkepack 12/06/2006 at 10:41 PM #

    You guys do realize that BC is a difficult place to win, right? Recruiting is tough due to high academic standards as well as no natural recruiting base. O’Brien is the best football coach BC has ever had, and he’s leaving there to come to NC State. I think that’s quite a statement about how high level coaches feel about the possibilities that exist with our football program.

    Question: how many coaches have good records against Miami, VT and FSU over the last 10 years? You can make a list of records for almost any coach against really good teams–and guess what? They are not that good. O’Brien has won 27 games over the last 3 years. Continuing to do that, with the new divisional format of the ACC, means that you will be playing for ACC titles some years.

  6. MatSci94 12/06/2006 at 10:42 PM #

    Penalties, average (this past season)

    BC 6.08 penalties for 45.08 yards per game

    NCSU 7.17 penalties for 58.00 yards

    http://web1.ncaa.org/d1mfb/natlRank.jsp?year=2006&div=4&rpt=IA_teampenalties&site=org

    also BC total stats at

    http://web1.ncaa.org/d1mfb/2006/Internet/ranking_summary/2006000000067.HTML

  7. NCStateDud92 12/06/2006 at 10:44 PM #

    Try Again? Ok fine, BC under O’Brien is 27-9 in the last 3 seasons

  8. MrPlywood 12/06/2006 at 10:53 PM #

    Wow. That was fast. And ironic that he’s coming to State. Without the last second TD by State, BC is 10-2. And they lost at Miami by 3, so 11-1 was not that far away. That is a real “season of inches”.

    BC scored more than 24 points 6 times this season. They averaged 30 points in winning games, 27 points a game overall.

  9. packk 12/06/2006 at 10:55 PM #

    Posts with no facts about TOB get deleted.
    There are plenty of other places to post opinions
    VaWolf82

  10. Mr O 12/06/2006 at 11:03 PM #

    Question about facts if allowed?

    Can someone find the rankings of the teams he lost to in the top 25? It would be interesting to break that down further to losses vs. top 10 teams and losses vs teams ranked 11-25.

    I think I saw that at least 15 of his losses were against top 10 teams.

    The losses can be gathered from the site linked above. Then you would have to go to each team’s page and see if the losses occurred to a ranked team or not. This process would take more time than I am willing to invest because once you get the info, you still need to get the same thing from other teams in the middle of the ACC to generate some type of meaningful comparison. We need a site like kenpom.com for FB so that this type of info is easily retrieved.

  11. packk 12/06/2006 at 11:05 PM #

    Post whatever you want somewhere else. This entry is intended to collect facts about TOB

  12. Buck 12/06/2006 at 11:07 PM #

    On his early years at UVA…

    O’Brien joined the University of Virginia staff prior to the 1982 campaign. He coached the Cavaliers’ guard and centers before being promoted to offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in the spring of 1991.

    Following Virginia’s 1994 season, he switched from quarterbacks coach to offensive line coach while remaining as offensive coordinator.

  13. Buck 12/06/2006 at 11:12 PM #

    Also…the guy can obviously coach an O-Line because some of the backs who have rushed for 1000+ yards include less than heralded runners:

    Mike Cloud, 1998; Cedric Washington, 1999; William Green, 2000 and 2001; and Derrick Knight, 2002. And undoubtedly some others since then.

  14. cornellpackfan 12/06/2006 at 11:12 PM #

    packk don’t get angry this post is moderated by VaWolf82 and not SFN, and VaWolf clearly stated that this is not a normal SFN post and any comments not directed to purely facts about TOB would be deleted.

    Thanks, I was beginning to think that no one could understand what I had written. There are many places to argue opinions. I wanted some help gathering pertinent info about TOB.

  15. curtis 12/06/2006 at 11:14 PM #

    Conference Record:

    37-34

    He didn’t exactly set the world on fire when it mattered.

  16. cornellpackfan 12/06/2006 at 11:15 PM #

    TOB will upgrade our O-line, discipline, his penalty levels for his teams are significantly lower, and he has managed to win at a school that other than doug flutie’s heroics has not experienced significant national prominence.

  17. justaguy 12/06/2006 at 11:16 PM #

    TOB’s recent teams have done better than expected.
    ’04 pre-season not ranked, finished 21 in both polls
    ’05 pre-season ranked 22/22, finished 18/17 in the polls
    ’06 pre-season not ranked, currently 23 in both polls

  18. Buck 12/06/2006 at 11:20 PM #

    On the academic succes shown by his teams at BC…

    “In 2005, Boston College was ranked number one in the country by USA Today when the paper re-ordered the final 2005 football Top 25 by APR (Academic Progress Rate) score to measure a combination of athletic and academic success. BC was one of six Division I-A institutions with a football graduation rate of 90% or better, along with Duke, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Southern Methodist University and the University of Southern Mississippi.”

  19. justaguy 12/06/2006 at 11:23 PM #

    ”
    N.C. State was able to lure O’Brien away from Boston College with a significant salary increase. O’Brien was making approximately $750,000 at the Big East Conference school in Chestnut Hill, but will receive more than $1 million at the Atlantic Coast Conference school in Raleigh, N.C.
    ”

    http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/2006/12_06-54/NAS

  20. choppack1 12/06/2006 at 11:24 PM #

    The consecutive 9-3 finishes are encouraging. The performances in the “big game” – last year’s FSU game and Wake Forest this year is worrisome.

  21. cornellpackfan 12/06/2006 at 11:28 PM #

    TOB had a 100% graduation rate in 2005. A rate that is higher than the general rate for Boston College, and number one in the country.

    in 2005 BC led the ACC in total offense while also leading in rush defense

    3 of the 11 times that BC has won more than 9 games per season came under O’Brien—4 of 12 including this season

  22. Woof Wolf 12/06/2006 at 11:31 PM #

    BC scored 26.1 points a game this year and gave up 14.7. Considerably better than our 17.5 points for and 21.8 points against. That’s a margin of +11.4 for BC and -4.3 for us against essentially the same competition

    But Michigan who finished 2nd in their conference scored 30.17 points per game and gtave up 14.6.

  23. Mr O 12/06/2006 at 11:31 PM #

    TOB is 30-9 in his last 39 games for 76.9%.

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Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. StateFans Nation » Blog Archive » Very Close to Official - O’Brien New Leader of the Pack - 12/06/2006

    Tjg3y4 Very informative article post. Cool.

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