It’s now a headline on ESPN.com – Boston College head coach Tom O’Brien will leave to coach Atlantic Division rival NC State. It looks as if we may get a formal announcement as early as tomorrow.
As SFN noted earlier today, we agree with the apparent decision of the NC State search committee – Tom O’Brien is a better hire than Paul Johnson. And pretty much everyone agreed that Johnson would be a good hire, and clearly an upgrade over Amato.
I don’t want to repeat too much of the logic from the above-linked post. Suffice to say – those who claim Tom O’Brien is “Herb Sendek v. 2.0” are simply wrong, in our estimation. According to SFN’s sources, Coach O’Brien sought out the NC State job with the same vigor and tenacity as did Jimbo Fisher. He really wants to be here, and I think it’s safe to assume it’s because he believes he can elevate his success to a whole new level at NC State. He can go from “pretty good” to periodically competing for the ACC title, and regularly make good bowls (as even his current level of performance would land NC State in good bowl games). His floor essentially is identical to the Dick Sheridan level of performance, and few Wolfpackers complain about that era. And that’s not to say we expect that to be his ultimate ceiling – there’s every bit as much reason to hope for upside from TOB as there was with respect to PJ. I don’t think O’Brien would have made this move if he didn’t think he could take it to the next level at NC State. We should be honored and very enthusiastic that such an accomplished, respected coach feels that way about our university.
Please feel free to share your opinions below (don’t forget to contribute more facts at VaWolf’s thread below). We hope that even those fans hoping for Johnson, Fisher, or somebody else will be fair and rational about this hire. At SFN, we couldn’t be more excited about ushering in a new winning era of NC State football.
