Saturday, January 08, 2005

Where are they now - Bill O'Brien

The former Jacket assistant coach is now Ted Roof's offensive coordinator at Duke.

"I'll hopefully add some touches of my own like we did at Georgia Tech, but it will be very similar to what you've seen over the years with Coach Friedgen's offenses," O'Brien said. "He's a mentor to me; he's the reason why I have this opportunity. He taught me a lot of philosophies offensively, and owe a lot to him as far as my career goes. That was a tough choice for me, but he gave me his blessing.


"First and foremost, I'm here because of Ted Roof and my belief in him as a coach and his energy level and the things that we did together at Georgia Tech. ? I'm going to do my best to match Coach Roof's intensity level. I know he's a very intense coach, and I think one of the reasons why I'm here is he believes I can bring some of that energy to this program."


Here's another article on the same story.

The staff has a golden tint for certain, but whether it has a golden touch won't be known until next season. O'Brien is the fourth former Yellow Jackets assistant on the Blue Devils' staff.


O'Brien spent eight seasons at Georgia Tech, starting in 1995. He started as a graduate assistant but worked his way up to offensive coordinator in his last two seasons there in 2001 and 2002. He coached Georgia Tech's quarterbacks in those seasons also.