Make no mistake: O'Brien wants to win this game as much as any game he has coached in. His North Carolina State players will be aware of that, even though he'll try to keep them focused on the X's and O's.
That quote should scare any BC fan and anyone who has followed O’Brien’s career. Despite the endless list of games where his teams came up short, each year O’Brien’s team would seemingly win the game that mattered most to him. These games weren’t necessarily meaningful in the grand scheme but they either bought him cache or extracted some sort of TOB-related revenge. The bowls are another example of this. TOB was embarrassed in his first bowl, a shellacking by Colorado. After that BC became a third-tier bowl juggernaut.
Knowing all this, the BC game is setting up to be a typical TOB will win. Given his new position, he should probably spend all his capital on the UNC game. However, we Irish sometimes hold grudges above common sense. Here's a quick look back at TOB's "must win" games.
1997. No real classic TOB game. I think he was just trying to win any game. However, per the Globe article one of his “friends” (my guess is Petercuskie, Welsh or TOB himself) was quick to remind Blaudschaun of the big win over a 7-5 West Virginia.
1998. No big win, but the first glimpse of the Notre Dame obsession. BC was reeling heading into the game against a ranked Irish team. Five straight losses meant a bowl was unlikely and the unproven head coach knew he needed some good will. What happened? BC played the game of its season and nearly upset Notre Dame.
1999. In a generally good season and his first winning campaign, TOB notched his first win over Notre Dame. His ability to casually work this win into every conversation, recruiting story and interview should have been the first tipoff that he wanted extra credit for beating the Irish.
2000. No signature TOB win in a long season. His hopes at upsetting Notre Dame again took a hit when Tim Hasselbeck went down with an injury forcing him to start Brian St. Pierre.
2001. He beat Notre Dame in a Saturday night game on ESPN. It still took him until the end of the season (his 58th game as head coach) to finally beat a ranked team. Who says BC fans aren’t patient?
2002. An up and down season that included numerous Big East losses. However, in between two bonehead defeats to Pitt and West Virginia, TOB managed to beat an undefeated Notre Dame team in South Bend. While the skeptical message board guys were starting to get frustrated by the conference losses, the casual BC fans reacted in a way that would make Pavlov proud “wohoo! We beat Notre Dame!!!” TOB knew what he was doing.
2003. A near disaster of a season due to TOB and Bible sticking with Quinton Porter, only to be saved by the great Paul Peterson (but that is a story for another time). Focus on a stretch in October and November that would help determine the Big East. Oct. 18, a 39-14 loss at Syracuse. A reel gutless performance that TOB blamed on flight delays. Nov. 1, a 24-13 home loss to Pitt as he kept playing an ineffective QB. Nov. 8, a 35-28 loss to West Virginia. But the people weren’t noticing the Emperor’s clothes because during that stretch TOB managed to beat Notre Dame again on Oct. 25, 27-25.
2004. He played for OT against Pitt in a crushing loss. His team didn’t show up against Syracuse, but when he was down against Notre Dame the playbook got thrown out the window and Paul Peterson led a great comeback en route to a 24-23 win.
2005. No Notre Dame, no problem. TOB had a bigger personal score to settle against Al Groh and/or Virginia fans. Although he would never admit this in an interview, I have heard and believe that TOB always wanted to succeed his mentor George Welsh at Virginia. However, when Welsh stepped down, the UVA Administration barely even gave TOB a sniff at the job. So when he finally got the chance to take on the ‘Hoos, you knew he’d win. This game meant nothing to BC fans, but everything to TOB. The parrellels to this game and Saturday’s scare me.
2006. This lacked the classic “TOB will win at all costs” game. The rushing Matt Ryan back in time for Florida State has that feel but in fairness to TOB, I think Ryan and everyone around the program wanted him to play.
Despite BC being the heavy favorite, this game and any future game against an TOB coached team will always be dangerous for BC.
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12 comments:
Despite TOB's stance as a clean, "always-do-the-right-thing" kind of guy, this trend shows his true colors. Revenge is seemingly more important to him than overall success and program respectability. So yes, I'm a little terrified of this weekend's game, but I think there's a few things in our favor:
-some of the BC players are also out for revenge, for being abandoned by their coach with a game left last year
-NC St losing their RB and having some QB difficulties
-Spaz vs Bible is a pretty easy call
Still, I am wary. I also know I will despise whatever words come out of TOB's mouth after the game, regardless of the outcome.
Motivated TOB or not, there is absolutely no reason for us to lose this game. NC State is simply not a good football team. It was maddening seeing us lose to them last year due to coaching ineptitude, but now that the prime culprits are on the other sideline (TOB & Bible) I think we are going to see an asskicking of convincing proportions.
I don't think I can count the UVA game in there. I remember being at that game. The entire stadium and team was asleep until the Kiwi-Butler incident. Had that not happened, I doubt the game would have been a win.
Still, though, this is one of my fears - is TOB more focused on winning the UNC or BC game - as that will be where all his effort is spent for the season.
TOB has never faced an opponent as ramped up to beat him as he will face on Saturday. I think this game will be a slugfest and will be closer than many think/hope. But I think TOB has to be thinking in the back of his head this isn't going to be his year, but next year....
The majority of the TOB "signature wins" were either Notre Dame or his bowl game, both games that the players would be amped up to win too for obvious reasons (win the final game of the year, beat ND because - well, everyone wants to beat ND).
While TOB wants to win this game, I don't think his players are any more fired up than they would be for any other game. I mean, the guy has a personality of a dead fish, I doubt he's inspired his team to follow him into the trenches for the good fight in the few short months he's been there (how many player's names do you think he knows?)
Ultimately, I think this and the overall talent gap will secure the game for us. NC St. can probably hang for awhile, but BC will put them away in the end.
Lally is exactly correct. TOB wants to win it, obviously, but it's just another conference game to his players. This is why it's so important that BC's players and coaches have gone out of their way to avoid bashing TOB in the press; no need to get the NC State players, who are still in a honeymoon phase with TOB, fired up to beat our guys for dissing their coach.
Not only were all of TOB's "signature wins" games where the players were just as fired up to win, but most of them came in games where BC was equal or better in talent, or at worse slightly inferior. He never beat a team that had the kind of talent advantage over BC that we do over NCSU this year.
BC has the edge on the field, on the sidelines, in the stands, and emotionally. Don't see any way we lose on Saturday.
One game I might think fits into the unexpected win category was the Paul Peterson led upset of VT in Blacksburg. I was fortunate enough to see this game in person, but unfortunately was sitting in their student section. The VT fans showed some real class that day by throwing glass bottles and other garbage at us.
Your post simply does not hold up under scrutiny.
You say that "each year O'Brien's team would seemingly win the game that mattered most to him." But you can't identify such a game in several of the years. And what you're left with are bowl wins, notre dame wins, and one win against Virginia.
For Notre Dame, um, isn't that a rivalry game for BC? Is it unusual for players, coaches, everyone to be more excited and focused for a rivalry game, particularly a rivalry in which you feel slighted or you think it's a bigger rivalry than your opponent does? That wasn't a game that mattered a lot just to TOB, it mattered a lot to your whole program. (Plus, haven't I heard from BC fans that ND wasn't actually that good most of those years and TOB's success against ND was overrated?)
The bowl game thing is too ridiculous to even address. So the reason BC won against UNC in Charlotte in 2005 was because TOB lost a bowl game badly many years ago, so he wanted vengance. Right. That's purely your own nonsensical speculation. Again, a more likely explanation is that BC was usually better than their opponent because BC got shafted on bowl selection.
And the UVa game - as someone else mentioned, maybe it was the cheap shot on BC's best player that motivated the team, not TOB's jealousy over missing out on a job?And again, BC is the better team that game and playing at home.
Think about the logical extension of what you are claiming. TOB was normally a mediocre, conservative coach who played not to lose, but for those games he was "up" for he cut loose and did everything he could to secure a win. If that's so, why didn't he coach that way in the other games? Do you think he wouldn't have figured it out over 10 years and coached like that all the time? Instead, you say TOB "knew what he was doing" by beating Notre Dame but losing to other mediocre foes. It's absurd.
If NC State wins Saturday, it's not going to be because TOB has a grudge. It will probably be because 1) TOB and staff know the other team very well and devise a good game plan 2) NC State plays harder after getting embarrassed last week and/or 3) The sort of more or less dumb luck that usually comes into play in upsets (fumbles, special teams mishaps, etc.)
Full disclosure: I'm an NC State fan who is looking at your blog this week. I'm sure you are a reasonable, rational person in real life. But like most BC fans, that seems to fly out of the window when it comes to O'Brien, and this post is a perfect example.
Facts:
From 1987 to 1996...the 10 years b4 TOB BC's record was 51-62-2 and averaged 22.3ppg.
From 1997-2006...with TOB...BC's record was 76-45 averaging 26.1ppg.
In the 10 years b4 TOB BC had a grand total of 3 winning seasons. In TOB's 10 years they only had 8. Hmmmm.
In the entire history of BC football...all the way back to 1893 BC has had 8 consecutive winning seasons only twice. Once from 1913-1925 and again from 1999-2006.
But hey...never let facts get in the way of some good coach bashing.
Facts:
TOB @ NCSU: 0 Wins, 1 Loss
I disagree. I think that our failures in lesser appealing games is that TOB is a weak motivator. Most of our bad losses have been in November, when players are worn out and need a little extra push. The coaching staff never provided that. I just don't see a corelation there.
And as someone who had to attend games during the dark ages ('96-'99), I find it disappointing that this has deteriorated to a "Fuck O'Brien" chant. That was pretty classless.
But on a lighter note, it was comical to see him botch the QB decision again by starting Beck on the road in hostle environment. Classic TOB.
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