When Tom O’Brien was named head football coach at NC State on December 9, 2006, He became the 33rd head coach in the 115-year history of the program. O’Brien came to Raleigh after spending the past 10 seasons as the head coach at Boston College, where he won more games than any coach in BC history. His squads also boasted some of the nation’s highest graduation rates during his tenure there.

A 1971 graduate of the U. S. Naval Academy, O’Brien posted a 75-45 mark with the Eagles, engineering one of the most remarkable turnarounds in recent college football history. His 2006 squad won nine games for the third consecutive season and the fourth time in five years (the Eagles won their 10th game following O’Brien’s departure). It marked the sixth straight year and seventh time in eight years that BC had won at least eight games. The Eagles advanced to eight consecutive bowls under O’Brien’s tutlege and have won their last seven bowl appearances - the longest active bowl game winning streak in the country.

O’Brien led the 2006 Eagles to a 9-3 regular season record, with wins over six bowl teams. The 2006 Eagles became only the third team in school history to win 10 or more games in a single season and the senior class posted the most wins of any class in school history at 36-14.

O’Brien, 58, was the recipient of the American Football Coaches Association’s 2004 Academic Achievement Award for posting a 100% graduation rate. He received Honorable Mention status seven additional times during his tenure at BC. Boston College was ranked No. 1 in the country by USA Today when that publication recently re-ordered its 2005 regular season poll and the final 2005 Top 25 by APR score (Academic Progress Rate) to measure a combinationof athletic and academic success.

Before coming to BC in 1997, O’Brien served as the offensive coordinator at the University of Virginia for six seasons and had been a member of the Cavaliers football staff since 1982. Virginia was consistently ranked among the top offensive teams in the ACC during his tenure there.

By Al Featherston for theACC.com

Tom O'Brien learned discipline as a midshipman at the United States Naval Academy.

A legion of N.C. State fans hopes he puts that knowledge to good use as the new head coach of a team that has wrestled with a lack of discipline on the field for the last few years. Former coach Chuck Amato was an inspirational leader who brought plenty of excellent players to Raleigh - but the Wolfpack's chances of success were often undercut by a barrage of turnovers and penalties.

O'Brien, who moved to N.C. State last winter after producing eight straight bowl teams at Boston College, has already taken steps to instill his brand of discipline into the players he inherited.

Senior Defensive Tackle
DeMario Pressley

"We know that whenever you mess up, you have to pay the consequences," senior defensive tackle DeMario Pressley said. "He lets you know that you have not only disappointed him, but that you have let your teammates down. People need that sometimes.

"I fear him ... It's not really that you are afraid of him, but you are afraid of letting him down," Pressley added. "I think that's the way most players feel - that they don't want to let him down. That's the kind of coach that makes an impact."

O'Brien has a pretty good idea of what he's inherited at N.C. State. A year ago, the Wolfpack edged O'Brien's BC Eagles 17-15 on a 34-yard desperation pass from Daniel Evans to John Dunlap. It was one of the few bright spots for an N.C. State team that finished 3-9.

"I think our kids were embarrassed that they were 3-9 and they want to be a much better football team," O'Brien told the media at the ACC Football Kickoff. "They have worked extremely hard [in spring practice and in off-season drills]. Now, it is up to us to coach them up and get them in the right spots so that they can win."

But N.C. State's chances of improving on last year's sixth-place finish in the Atlantic Division depend less upon O'Brien's personal decisions than on his ability to instill the same kind of organization and discipline that marked his Boston College teams.

Just as an example - a year ago, O'Brien's Eagles ranked first in the ACC and second in the nation in turnover margin with 15 more takeaways than giveaways. In contrast, the Wolfpack ranked dead last in the ACC and 112th nationally in turnover margin with 11 more giveaways than takeaways.

"You coach hard not to fumble the football," O'Brien said. "I don't think there's any excuse for anybody fumbling the football and we don't accept any excuse for somebody fumbling the football. You're going to throw interceptions. If the quarterback is afraid to throw the ball and doesn't throw interceptions then you're not going to complete many passes, so interceptions are going to happen. Ball security is really important on the offensive side."

O'Brien was able to bring most of his offensive staff with him from Boston College, including offensive coordinator (and quarterback coach) Dana Bible, who has been with him since 1999.

Junior Halfback
Andre Brown

The new staff inherits a pair of powerful running backs in juniors Toney Baker and Andre Brown, who combined for 1,346 yards at almost five yards a carry a year ago. The receiving corps is deep and talented, although the recent loss of veteran tight end Anthony Hill, who will sit out the season after undergoing knee surgery, will hurt.

Still, O'Brien's first job is finding a quarterback he can count on. The Wolfpack has struggled to fill that position since Philip Rivers graduated after four record-setting seasons.

Evans, a junior from Raleigh, N.C., is the son of former Wolfpack star Johnny Evans. He earned the job a year ago when he beat O'Brien's Eagles in his first career start. He beat Florida State - with another fourth-quarter touchdown pass to Dunlap - in his second start. The Pack faithful were about to anoint the lightly recruited Evans as a miracle worker when he drove N.C. State towards a game-winning field goal in the final seconds of his third start, against Wake Forest.

But with 45 seconds left and the Pack perhaps 10 yards out of field goal range, Evans threw an interception that allowed the Deacons to hang on for a 25-23 victory. The young quarterback couldn't find the key to victory again as N.C. State lost its final seven games (by an average margin of 6.9 points - just one by more than a touchdown).

O'Brien, who certainly saw Evans at his best, has been careful to avoid designating his veteran quarterback as the preseason starter. He said recently that he won't release a depth chart until the week before the Wolfpack's Sept. 1 opener with Central Florida.

He wants to get a good look at the preseason competition between Evans and newcomers Harrison Beck, a sophomore who is eligible after transferring from Nebraska, and redshirt freshman Justin Burke, a prep All-American who was the Kentucky player of the year as a high school senior.

O'Brien and Bible had a lot of success at Boston College in finding quarterbacks to trigger the Eagle offense. Their immediate success at N.C. State is likely to turn on their ability to find a capable - and disciplined - quarterback out of that trio of candidates.

"I think what they have to do is get into the film room and spend a lot of time looking at the spring tape," O'Brien said. "They can go back and look at a lot of our BC tape and understand what Coach Bible is trying to get them to do. They're smart kids and they work hard at it."

Senior Darrell Blackman, a veteran wide receiver and one of the top return men in the ACC, said all the Wolfpack players are willing to work hard for O'Brien and the new staff.

"He is a man of few words," Blackman said. "It's a lot different than it used to be. We used to talk about things that were expected of us, but it was kind of redundant because we kept going over the same thing over and over. With Coach O'Brien, he gets straight to the point. He tells you what he wants, how he wants it done, now let's go do it. I think people are a lot more energized to get things done."

EXPECTED STRENGTHS: The running tandem of Baker and Brown ... the defensive front - despite the loss of four high NFL draft picks in the last two seasons, N.C. State is still loaded up front with Pressley anchoring a talented group ... the return game with Blackman, who was fourth in the nation in kickoff returns and has also returned a punt for a touchdown.

CONCERNS: Rebuilding an offensive line that lost three starters, including its best player in center Leroy Harris ... the kicking game after losing all-purpose kicker John Deraney, who handled every punt and placekick for the last two seasons ... plugging the gaps behind the defensive line after the graduation of three starting linebackers and two starting defensive backs.

EARLY BELLWEATHER GAME: Sept. 8 at Boston College. O'Brien has to take his new team to Chestnut Hill, where he coached the Eagles to 76 wins and eight bowl games in 10 seasons.