NFL analysts and Patriots fans New England seems to have unanimously approved the decision to hire Bill O’Brien Tuesday as the next offensive coordinator.
But Alabama fans seem happy to see O’Brien leave his post as the Crimson Tide’s offensive coordinator. Don’t believe us? Check out the reaction on social media to the news of O’Brien’s hiring in New England:
So what is going on here? Why is there so much disdain for O’Brien among Alabama fans, and should Patriots fans see these reactions as red flags?
At first glance, O’Brien appears to have had little success at Alabama. The Crimson Tide went 24-4 in O’Brien’s two seasons in Tuscaloosa (13-2 in 2021 and 11-2 in 2022) and lost to Georgia 33-18 in the 2021 College Football Playoff Championship Game. Alabama’s offense averaged 477 yards and 41.1 points in 2022, which ranked 11th and fourth among all FBS teams, respectively, and quarterback Bryce Young won the 2021 Heisman Trophy. Crediting most of his success to O’Brien’s tutelage.
Sounds great, right? Well, not in Tuscaloosa, where two losing seasons are seen as failures. Alabama had lost just once in a two-game campaign in the past six seasons before O’Brien’s arrival, winning three national championships during that span. He also averaged 47-plus points and 500-plus yards per game under former offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian.
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AL.com’s Mike Rodak recently joined our Phil Perry on the Next Pats podcast. To provide some perspective on why Crimson Tide fans are excited to see O’Brien leave.
“People say, ‘Why hasn’t he gone yet?’ Because the fans don’t like it,” Rodak told Perry last week. “It’s a high-level score in Alabama, because the fans here expect them to win every game. They expect them to win by 40 points. They expect Alabama to score 50 points. That’s how things went down there for a while. Nick Saban…
“There seems to be a lot of fan anger and feeling that they don’t want him here anymore. It’s hard to ignore at this point. It was kind of explosive for a while and it’s definitely come to the fore now. So the fans are waiting for any word on where he’s going.”
In short, there is a very high bar for success at Alabama, and O’Brien fell below it. There should be no shortage of high-profile candidates to replace O’Brien as OC, so we can see why Crimson Tide fans don’t want him out.
While Alabama fans may be underestimating O’Brien, Patriots fans should still be glad to see him in Foxboro: The Andover, Mass., native should be a big upgrade from Matt Patricia and even had a previous relationship with the former Alabama quarterback. Mc JonesWho helped O’Brien master the Crimson Storm’s offense after being hired in January 2021?