Bill O'Brien (American football)

William James O'Brien (born October 23, 1969), nicknamed "the Teapot", is an American football coach who is currently the head coach at Boston College.

O'Brien was born on October 23, 1969, in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts to John O'Brien and Anne Murphy O'Brien.

He grew up in Andover, Massachusetts with his parents and two brothers, John and Tom.

As a child, Bill played Little League.

After graduating from St. John's Preparatory School in Danvers, O'Brien attended Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, where he played defensive end and linebacker for the Brown Bears from 1990 to 1992.

O'Brien began his coaching career in 1993 at Brown University before spending more than a decade coaching in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC).

O'Brien's first coaching position was at Brown, where he coached tight ends in 1993 and inside linebackers in 1994.

He then spent the next three seasons (1995–1997) as an offensive graduate assistant at Georgia Tech.

O'Brien then coached the Yellow Jackets' running backs from 1998 to 2000.

In 1999, running back Sean Gregory ran for 837 yards with six touchdowns.

The following year, running back Joe Burns ran for 908 yards with 12 touchdowns.

From 2001 to 2002, O'Brien served as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach and was named an assistant head coach for the 2002 season.

As offensive coordinator at Georgia Tech in 2001 and 2002, his teams averaged 31 and 21.5 points per game, respectively as the teams went 9–4 and 7–6.

In 2001, running back Joe Burns ran for 1,165 yards with 14 touchdowns and quarterback George Godsey threw for 3,085 yards with 18 touchdowns.

In 2002, O'Brien was hired as Notre Dame's offensive Coordinator before George O'Leary was dismissed.

In 2002 under Chan Gailey, running back Tony Hollings ran for 633 yards with 11 touchdowns, and wide receiver Kerry Watkins recorded 1,050 receiving yards and five touchdowns.

In 2003, O'Brien left to coach running backs at the University of Maryland, where he spent two seasons.

In 2003, running back Josh Allen ran for 922 yards and eight touchdowns while Bruce Perry ran for 713 yards and six touchdowns.

As offensive coordinator at Duke in 2005 and 2006, O'Brien's teams averaged 16.1 and 14.9 points per game.

In 2006, quarterback Thaddeus Lewis threw for 2,134 yards and 11 touchdowns.

He joined the New England Patriots in 2007, eventually serving as quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator in 2011.

After two seasons with Duke, O'Brien was hired by the New England Patriots as an offensive assistant on February 27, 2007.

On February 21, 2008, O'Brien was promoted to wide receivers coach.

He became the quarterbacks coach and offensive play-caller following the 2008 season after quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels left to become head coach of the Denver Broncos.

O'Brien was promoted to offensive coordinator in February 2011.

He spent six seasons coaching within the Patriots offense and four of those six seasons as the play-caller.

During this period, the Patriots offense had some of their most productive seasons as did quarterback Tom Brady.

The Patriots gave the Jacksonville Jaguars permission to interview O'Brien for their head coaching vacancy during the Patriots' playoff bye week; O'Brien was scheduled for an interview, but never actually interviewed for the job.

In 2012, O'Brien was hired by Penn State to take over a program that had just endured a child sexual abuse scandal perpetuated by one of its coaches.

In his first season as head coach, O'Brien led the team to an 8–4 record and won ESPN's National Coach of the Year award.

After the 2012 season, he garnered significant interest to return to the National Football League (NFL) as a head coach and interviewed with both the Philadelphia Eagles and the Cleveland Browns.

However, O'Brien decided to stay at Penn State, citing that it would send a poor message to leave after just one season.

After his second season, O'Brien left Penn State to become the head coach of the Texans.

His tenure with the Texans included a 51–31 Divisional Round loss to the eventual Super Bowl winning Kansas City Chiefs team after leading 24–0 in the second quarter, and a controversial trade of star wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins to the Arizona Cardinals.

Previously, he was the head coach of the Houston Texans from 2014 to 2020, and at Penn State from 2012 to 2013.

Prior to Boston College, O'Brien was the offensive coordinator for the New England Patriots.

After the Patriots parted ways with longtime head coach Bill Belichick at the end of the 2023 season, O’Brien was not retained by the Patriots.

In 2020, O'Brien was fired by the Texans, and was hired by Alabama to be offensive coordinator in 2021.

In 2023, he was re-hired by the Patriots to be the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.

Following the season, O'Brien was hired by Boston College to be their head coach.