William James O'Brien (born October 23, 1969), is an American football coach who is currently the head coach at Boston College. 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 at the University of Alabama and 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 team.
O'Brien began his coaching career in 1993 at Brown University before spending more than a decade coaching in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). He joined the New England Patriots in 2007, eventually serving as quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator in 2011. In 2012, O'Brien was hired by Penn State to take over a program that had just endured a child sexual abuse scandal perpetrated by one of its former 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.
O'Brien's 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. 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.
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. Growing up, Bill played Little League. After graduating from St. John's Preparatory School in Danvers, he attended Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, where O'Brien played defensive end and linebacker for the Brown Bears from 1990 to 1992.
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. In 2002, O'Brien was hired as Notre Dame's offensive Coordinator before George O'Leary was dismissed. 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. Under Chan Gailey in 2002, 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.
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, he was promoted to wide receivers coach. O'Brien 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. He instead interviewed with Penn State staff on January 5, 2012, and was offered the head coach position and signed a four-year contract to become the Nittany Lions' coach. O'Brien continued as New England's offensive coordinator through Super Bowl XLVI.
O'Brien was hired as Penn State's 15th head football coach, replacing Joe Paterno, who had coached the team from 1966 until his dismissal in 2011. O'Brien was introduced as the head coach at a press conference on January 7, 2012.
Due to the Penn State child sex abuse scandal, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) sanctioned Penn State with a four-year postseason ban and loss of 40 scholarships over a four-year period on July 24, 2012.
In light of these NCAA sanctions, O'Brien issued the following statement:
"Today we receive a very harsh penalty from the NCAA and as head coach of the Nittany Lions football program, I will do everything in my power to not only comply, but help guide the University forward to become a national leader in ethics, compliance and operational excellence. I knew when I accepted the position that there would be tough times ahead. But I am committed for the long term to Penn State and our student athletes.
I was then and I remain convinced that our student athletes are the best in the country. I could not be more proud to lead this team and these courageous and humble young men into the upcoming 2012 season. Together we are committed to building a better athletic program and university".
Because of a clause in his contract, O'Brien received an automatic four-year extension that guaranteed an extra year for every year of sanctions put on the program.
In O'Brien's first game as Penn State's head coach, the Nittany Lions lost to the Ohio University Bobcats by a score of 24–14. His first win as the Penn State head coach took place on September 15, 2012, with a 34–7 win against the United States Naval Academy at Beaver Stadium, University Park, PA. Despite the fallout from the Jerry Sandusky scandal, O'Brien's first season as coach at Penn State was far more successful than anticipated and resulted in a final record of 8–4. He collected the most wins for a first-year head coach in school history and was awarded Big Ten Coach of the Year on November 27, 2012.