Virginia Tech Football: Hokies 2024 ACC opponent hires Bill O'Brien as head coach

Last week former Boston College football coach Jeff Hafley decided to leave Chestnut Hill, Mass. to become the defensive coordinator of the Green Bay Packers. That left a huge hole in February for a Power 5 school as spring workouts begin.

There were several names that were rumored to be Hafley's successor and Friday, the school announced that they hired a former college and NFL coach.

Boston College hires Bill O'Brien as head coach

Friday, Boston College announced that they hired Bill O'Brien as their next head coach. In the big picture, this is not a surprise hiring as O'Brien has college experience when he was at Penn State and Alabama with NFL stops with the Houston Texans and New England Patriots.

He spent this past season in Foxboro as the Patriots offensive coordinator under Bill Belichick and quarterback Mac Jones, but when Belichick was not brought back, O'Brien agreed to be the offensive coordinator at Ohio State, but the Boston native ended up becoming the top target of Boston College and they agreed to a deal this week.

This is not seen as a great Power 5 job for a head coach. Hafley made some strides in getting the Eagles to a bowl game in three of his four seasons there, but they have not been a big player in the ACC in some time.

This season, Virginia Tech went to Boston and rolled to a 48-22 victory over the Eagles for their first road win of the season on Nov. 11 and that started two wins in three weeks for the Hokies to become bowl-eligible. In 2024, the Hokies will host the Eagles in Blacksburg on Oct. 17, a Thursday night affair that will be the Hokies' first conference home game of the season.

Boston College has had some players enter the transfer portal after Hafley announced he was leaving and there might be more to follow, however, after beating the Eagles by 26 points in Chestnut Hill last season, they should be able to take care of business once again in 2024 at home.