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Saturday, December 23, 2000
Aloha Bowl Boston College coach Tom O'Brien finds himself in a ticklish situation as he prepares for Monday's 19th annual Aloha Bowl with Arizona State.
might be audition
for O’Brien
Boston College coach
to speak with Virginia
about coaching jobBy Paul Arnett
Star-BulletinFirst of all, the Eagles are coming off a so-so 6-5 season that ended with a 52-6 shellacking at No. 2-ranked Miami of Florida. Seems those 'Canes haven't forgotten that miracle 47-45 victory led by the Eagles' Doug Flutie in 1984.
Despite the lopsided loss, Boston College was selected by the Big East over Syracuse to represent the conference in the upcoming game with Arizona State.
But how well the Eagles do on Monday might not determine O'Brien's future at Boston College as much as it could with Virginia.
Reportedly, Cavaliers athletic director Terry Holland will meet with O'Brien as early as Tuesday to see if he would be interested in replacing the retiring George Welsh as head coach of a program he helped make successful.
O'Brien served as Welsh's quarterbacks assistant coach and offensive coordinator from 1991-96 before departing Virginia to be the head coach at Boston College. If he does well against ASU on Monday, it might close the deal for the Cavaliers. If not, it might end it, forcing Holland to look elsewhere.
O'Brien prefers not to talk about any of the speculation that has surrounded him of late. He had hoped Welsh would coach another five years before deciding to hit the beach for good. For him, the timing couldn't be worse.
"Right now, I'm the head coach of Boston College and that's where I want to be," O'Brien said. "It's unfortunate so much has been made out of it. My goal right now is for us to make up for that loss at Miami. This is a second chance for our players to go out on a positive note. That's what we're thinking about the most -- beating Arizona State."
The Sun Devils have a single-minded goal as well. Not only do they want to send nine-year head coach Bruce Snyder out with a victory, they want to play better than they did in last year's Aloha Bowl, won by Wake Forest, 23-3.
In that meeting, Arizona State was not only slowed by a bout of food poisoning, but with the fact nobody was in the stands. Most of the people who bought tickets were University of Hawaii fans who didn't show until the Oahu Bowl that afternoon.
"You don't want to use anything as an excuse because not everybody on the team was affected by the food poisoning," Snyder said. "But that didn't help us. Neither did the size of the crowd. In all my years of coaching, I had never seen anything like it. It bothered us. But so did Wake Forest. They were a better team than we thought."
Don't look for the Sun Devils to make the same mistake with the Eagles. ASU is well aware of Boston College's recent history as a power in the Big East.
This year's team is led by quarterback Tim Hasselbeck, running back Cedric Washington and free safety RaMon Johnson. Johnson is the team's leading tackler with 85.
Hasselbeck had a steady season under center, throwing for 1,810 yards and 16 touchdowns.
Washington will have to carry the load on the ground. Leading rusher William Green was suspended for breaking team rules, clearing the way for Washington, who overcame an early knee injury to rush for 676 yards and five touchdowns.
ASU counters with Pac-10 defensive player of the year Adam Archuleta, who led the team in tackles from his outside linebacker spot with 119, and Pac-10 freshman of the year Terrell Suggs, who had 10 quarterback sacks.
"This is one of the better defenses we'll face this season," O'Brien said. "They're very athletic with good team speed.''
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