Associated Press
BOSTON ó Tom O’Brien and Frank Spaziani were assistant coaches at Navy in 1975 when they made each other a promise.
“It was probably one of those dumb things we did when it was 1975 where I said, ‘If I ever get a head coaching job, I’ll hire you,”‘ O’Brien said with a grin this week as he prepared to bring North Carolina State (3-3, 0-2 ACC) back to Boston College to face his former assistant. “He held (me) to what I said.”
O’Brien wound up bringing Spaziani in when he took over at Boston College in 1997, and the two worked together until O’Brien left to coach the Wolfpack in 2006. Spaziani took over as interim coach for a 2006 bowl game, which BC won, and then stuck around when Jeff Jagodzinski was hired as O’Brien’s replacement.
When Jagodzinski was fired for pursuing an NFL job last winter, Spaziani finally got his chance to be a head coach. And O’Brien wasn’t surprised.
“I wanted him on my staff,” O’Brien said. “I knew he was a great coach. I knew he was a good guy and a great friend ó somebody you can trust.”
Boston College went 75-45 in 10 years under O’Brien, reaching eight consecutive bowl games and winning six in a row while recruiting a steady stream of NFL first-rounders such as Matt Ryan, Mathias Kiwanuka and B.J. Raji. Jagodzinski took BC to the ACC title game in consecutive years, though the Eagles lost both times.