TOM O'BRIEN

Age:  60

School:  NC State

Alma Mater:  Navy, 1970

Conference:  ACC

Salary:  $1,100,000

Official Bio:   www.gopack.com

Years Coaching:  11

Career Record:  80 - 52  .606

Years at School:  1

Record at NC State:  5 - 7  .417

2007 Record:  5 - 7   .417

2007 Cost per Win:  $220,000

Attorney/Agent:   

Contract: 

December 2008 Buyout:  $2,160,000

Coaches Hot Seat Analysis

It must have been quite a shock to the NC State players when they got their first experience under Tom O'Brien after the Chuck Amato days in Raleigh.  Chuck Amato is a good football coach, but as a head coach at NC State his approach was a lot more "live and let live," compared to the hard nosed "we are here to do a job and to do it well" of O'Brien and that had to be quite a shock to the Wolfpack players.  There are a lot of different ways to coach a football team, from Pete Carroll's high enthusiasm to Bobby Petrino's no-nonsense approach, and it has been proven that championships can be won with all different styles of coaching.  The one common thing among all very good head football coaches is their ability to get individuals to dedicate themselves to the success of the team over the concerns of their own petty interests.  It is very hard in a country like America where the individual is so celebrated and even idealized, to get football players to place all of their focus on being part of a team, but the very best coaches figure out ways to do just that.  Anyone that has spent time watching USC practice and play under Pete Carroll has seen a coach that has gotten his players to buy into the idea that there are bigger things in life than oneself, and that by working together to achieve a common goal they can all be champions.  Tom O'Brien at Boston College and now at NC State has taken his experience at the Naval Academy (both playing and coaching), in the Marines, and under George Welsh at Virginia to apply his very particular style of coaching, which is big on team building and short on individualism.  Coming off the Amato years, O'Brien faced a huge challenge at NC State in getting the players to view the world in a much different way, and the 1-5 start in '07 certainly showed the difficulty that O'Brien was having in getting through to his players.  Evidently, something did click with the Wolfpack players about midseason, because NC State went 4-2 in their last six games, with only a very bad loss to Maryland to finish the year.  We are going to be very interested to see how much progress O'Brien has had in changing the psyche of the NC State program in this offseason, because there is an opportunity for O'Brien and the Wolfpack to make a big jump in the ACC in '08. 

If the NC State players do commit to Tom O'Brien, and when a coach is asking a lot of players that is not always a given, both current and future Wolfpack players will have an opportunity to win a lot of football games and play for championships in the coming years.  Tom O'Brien is not going to ask anything of his players that he has not sacrificed and done in his own personal and working life, and that is exactly where the rubber meets the road for the NC State football program going forward.  What Tom O'Brien is asking of the NC State players is very similar to what one of the greatest football coaches of all time said:

"The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand."  Vince Lombardi

Coaches Hot Seat Bottom Line

We predict that Tom O'Brien and NC State will have a 8-4 record in 2008.  The 2008 NC State season opens up very tough with a road game against Steve Spurrier's South Carolina team.  South Carolina got off to a great start in '07, and Spurrier will know that a win in this opening game against the Wolfpack will go a along ways to getting the momentum back for the '08 season.  In a very close game, we see South Carolina getting the win, which takes the NC State record to 0-1.  William & Mary visits Raleigh in week 2 and this should be an easy win for NC State.  After two games, the Wolfpack is 1-1.  The ACC schedule gets under way in week 3 with a trip on the road to play '08 ACC favorite Clemson.  This should be a closer game than expected, but we see Clemson getting the win, which takes the NC State record to 1-2.  Skip Holtz brings his improved East Carolina team to Raleigh in week 4 and this should be a very good game between these two ACC and Conference USA foes.  NC State should have a home advantage in this game, and we see them getting the win over ECU.  After four games, NC State is 2-2.  Jim Leavitt brings his USF team to Raleigh in week 5 and this should be another very good intersectional game between ACC and Big East teams.  In another very close game, we give the nod to the home team, and a win by the Wolfpack over the Bulls runs the NC State record to 3-2.  Boston College travels to Raleigh in week 6 and this game will certainly get a little extra attention from Tom O'Brien.  In '07 Jeff Jagodzinski and the Eagles spanked NC State in Boston, and the Wolfpack would love to lay a similar type score on BC this season.  In a 14 or so point margin, we see NC State getting the win over BC, which takes the Wolfpack record to 4-2.  Florida State visits NC State in week 7 in what may be Bobby Bowden's last season on the sidelines, and in another close game we see the Wolfpack getting a win over the Seminoles.  After seven games, NC State is 5-2.  In the last game of the '07 season Maryland dominated NC State in Raleigh (37-0) and the week 8 trip by the Wolfpack to College Park to play the Terps will be a very tough contest and important game for each team to win.  In what is going to become the norm in the ACC in the coming years, more competitive and closer games among conference teams, we see Maryland getting the win over NC State.  After eight games, the Wolfpack is 5-3.  David Cutcliffe hosts NC State in Durham in week 9, and the Wolfpack should be able to handle the Blue Devils pretty easily in this game.  After nine games, NC State is 6-3.  Week 10 brings Jim Grobe's Wake Forest team to Raleigh and this will be a game that O'Brien's Wolfpack team will have an opportunity to announce their arrival in the ACC.  Wake Forest should have at most 1 or 2 losses for the season when they play NC State, and in what should be a terrific ACC game, we see the Wolfpack getting the upset at home.  A win over the Deacons runs the NC State record to 7-3.   Week 11 is a trip to Chapel Hill to play cross-state rival North Carolina, and this should be the first of several good games between Butch Davis and Tom O'Brien in the coming years.  In '07 NC State got a big and very close win over UNC in Raleigh, and in what should be another close game, we give the Tar Heels with their home field advantage the win in '08.  After the loss to UNC, the Wolfpack is 7-4.  Randy Shannon and the Hurricanes arrive in Raleigh for the last game of the year, and this might be a very important game for Shannon to get his team some momentum for '09.  In a closer game than expected, we believe NC State will get the win, which will take their '08 final regular season record to 8-4. 

2008 Coaches Hot Seat Prediction:    8-4

Will Tom O'Brien be back for the 2009 season?      YES