How New Ohio State Offensive Coordinator Bill O’Brien’s Previous Offenses Have Performed

Some have celebrated the hiring as a coup for Ryan Day and the Buckeyes, landing a former NFL head coach to be a collegiate assistant. Others have sneered at the hiring, pointing to his struggles in his most recent job as the New England Patriots scored just 13.9 points per game this season – tied for the lowest mark in the NFL – with O’Brien calling the shots.

That said, Ohio State wasn’t likely to find an offensive coordinator who checks more boxes in terms of experience than O’Brien. His combination of experience as a head coach, offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach both in the NFL and in college, including experience in the Big Ten, is exactly what Day wanted in hiring someone to run the offense and call the plays for the first time in his head coaching tenure.

O’Brien’s track record as a coach has had its ups and downs, but there are successes one can look at to feel confident he has the chops to get Ohio State’s offense back to performing at an elite level, especially when paired with Day and all the offensive talent he’s inheriting in Columbus.

Over the past three decades, O’Brien has worked for two NFL teams and five FBS college teams, including five previous stints as an offensive coordinator and a pair of head coaching jobs with Penn State and the Houston Texans. To get a better idea of O’Brien’s track record, we take a look at how each of those teams’ offenses fared during his time on staff.

New England Patriots, 2023 (Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks Coach)

We’ll start with the bad news: O’Brien’s most recent offense was terrible. In a one-year stint with the Patriots – his second in New England – his offense was held 17 points or fewer in 12 of 17 games during the 2023 season as the Patriots went just 4-13 for the year. While he was expected to get the Patriots offense back on track after replacing 2022 offensive play caller Matt Patricia, they actually took a step back in terms of both points and yards per game.

O’Brien doesn’t deserve the brunt of the blame for those struggles, though. The Patriots had one of the worst quarterback situations in the league, with Mac Jones beginning the year as starter and Bailey Zappe finishing out the year under center. Their best wide receiver was rookie sixth-round pick Demario Douglas while their offensive line had holes to begin with and battled injuries all year.

How O’Brien’s offense performed with a distinct personnel disadvantage compared to most NFL teams isn’t particularly predictive of how his offense will perform with the talent advantage Ohio State will have this season compared to most college teams.

Alabama, 2021-22 (Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks Coach)

Some Alabama fans were happy to see O’Brien leave when he became the Patriots’ offensive coordinator, and his tenure in Tuscaloosa recently drew extra scrutiny when Crimson Tide quarterback Jalen Milroe revealed that O’Brien told him he should change positions. Statistically, though, Alabama’s offense was one of the best in the country in both of O’Brien’s years calling the plays.

Alabama quarterback Bryce Young won the Heisman Trophy in his first season being coached by O’Brien in 2021 when the Crimson Tide ranked sixth nationally in points per game (39.9) and seventh in the FBS in yards per game (488.2) and made it to the national championship game. They tied for fourth in the FBS in points per game (41.1) and were eighth nationally in yards per play (6.93) in 2022.

The Crimson Tide’s offensive performance dropped off sharply in 2023 following O’Brien’s departure – although Young’s departure certainly had a lot to do with that – as Alabama finished 58th nationally in yards per game (393.1) and 24th in points per game (34).

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Houston Texans, 2014-20 (Head Coach)

O’Brien’s offenses during his six-plus years as the Texans’ head coach could be described as consistently middling. They were never elite – none of them finished in the top 10 in either total or scoring offense – but the 2016 season, in which he took back offensive play calling duties from offensive coordinator George Godsey midseason, was the only year in which the Texans ranked lower than 21st out of 32 teams in either category.

In his four full seasons calling offensive plays as the head coach (2014, 2017-19), the Texans were mostly better than league average.

O’Brien helped lead former Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson to the three best seasons of his NFL career to date from 2018-20 (though O’Brien was fired four games into the 2020 season), as Watson made the Pro Bowl in all three years. O’Brien led the Texans to four AFC South titles in 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019.

Penn State, 2012-13 (Head Coach)

O’Brien has never had a harder job than the one he took on at Penn State, where he replaced Joe Paterno in a time of turmoil for the program, which was hit with major sanctions after the NCAA determined that Penn State failed to take action to prevent child sexual abuse by former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky.

Although the program was hit sanctions that included a four-year postseason ban and a loss of 40 scholarships over four years (sanctions that were later reduced after O’Brien’s tenure ended), O’Brien led the Nittany Lions to back-to-back winning seasons, leaving Penn State with a 15-9 record after two years.

Penn State’s offenses in those seasons weren’t spectacular – the Nittany Lions ranked outside the top 60 nationally in points per game in both years – though they were good enough to rank fourth in the Big Ten in total offense in both seasons. Before his arrival, Penn State ranked 10th in the Big Ten in total offense in 2011; after his departure, Penn State ranked 13th in the conference in total offense in 2014.

Matt McGloin and Christian Hackenberg both had their best statistical seasons as Penn State’s starting quarterback while being coached by O’Brien, while Allen Robinson won Big Ten Receiver of the Year honors in both seasons.

Penn State had its best offensive seasons of the early 2010s with Bill O’Brien as head coach. (Photo: Mary Langenfeld – USA TODAY Sports)

New England Patriots, 2007-11 (Multiple Roles)

O’Brien’s most successful tenure as an assistant came in his first tenure in New England, during which time he helped lead the Patriots to two AFC championships and four AFC East titles in five years.

While he only held the formal title of offensive coordinator for the final year of that stint in 2011, when the Patriots ranked second in the NFL in yards per game (428) and third in the league in points per game (32.1), he was the de facto offensive coordinator as the Patriots’ offensive play caller and quarterbacks coach in 2009 and 2010. New England led the NFL with 32.4 points per game in 2010 and ranked third in the league in both total yards per game (397.3) and passing yards per game (277.3) in 2009. 

In his first year on staff as an offensive assistant in 2007, the Patriots had one of the most prolific offenses in NFL history, leading the league with 36.8 points and 411.3 yards per game en route to a 16-0 regular season.

While O’Brien’s most famous moment in New England may be his sideline argument with Tom Brady, they achieved great results together. Brady threw for a then-NFL record 50 touchdown passes in O’Brien’s first year on staff and threw for 5,235 yards – his highest total of his 20 years in New England – on a career-high 8.6 passing yards per attempt in O’Brien’s season as the full-fledged offensive coordinator in 2011.

Duke, 2005-06 (Offensive Coordinator)

O’Brien’s least successful tenure as a collegiate offensive coordinator came at Duke. The Blue Devils ranked second-to-last nationally in total offense (248.1 yards per game) in his first season as offensive coordinator and didn’t get much better in year two (105th, 283.4 yards per game).

Duke wasn’t any better in the years before and after his tenure, though, ranking dead last in total offense in 2004 and 117th in 2007. He was unsuccessful in fixing Duke’s offense, but his tenure came amid a 17-year stretch in which the Blue Devils failed to earn bowl eligibility once, proof that their problems at the time went well beyond O’Brien’s offensive coaching.

Georgia Tech, 2001-02 (Offensive Coordinator)

O’Brien got off to a solid start in his first year as an offensive coordinator at any level, leading a Georgia Tech offense that ranked 28th in the country in scoring offense (31.8) and 34th nationally in total offense (417.9) as the Yellow Jackets went 8-5.

The offense’s performance dipped in his second year calling the plays, finishing just 94th in the FBS with 21.5 points per game and 57th nationally with 374.7 yards per game. He left Georgia Tech after the 2002 season to become the running backs coach at Maryland for two years before getting back into an OC role at Duke.

While a drop-off in performance between a coordinator’s first year and second year isn’t what you want to see, there isn’t much reason to worry about how O’Brien’s first offenses fared more than 20 years ago, given that those declines have not been a trend in his more recent jobs.