Former NC State coach Tom O’Brien returning as TE’s coach for Virginia Cavaliers
Former North Carolina State head coach Tom O’Brien has accepted a position as Tight Ends Coach with Virginia. (Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports)
Tom O’Brien led the NC State Wolfpack to three consecutive bowl appearances, and four in the past five years. However, with increased expectations comes a far shorter leash, and that proved to be the case in his firing from NC State following a 7-5 record in 2012.
According to Chris Vannini of CoachingSearch.com, O’Brien will now be returning to an environment that proved far more hospitable than did the win-now Wolfpack.
O’Brien worked as the offensive coordinator and offensive line coach at Virginia from 1982 to 1996, when he was hired on as the head coach of Boston College.
After manning the helm of NC State from 2007-2012, O’Brien now heads back to the Cavaliers, as the team’s tight ends coach and assistant head coach.
In order to make the hiring a possibility, O’Brien and the NC State athletic department had to re-work the former coach’s buyout clause. Instead of the $1.2 million he would have been owed had he remained unemployed, O’Brien will instead be paid $200,000 by the school’s brass.
Only a very short time following the firing of O’Brien, NC State hired Dave Doeren, a former defensive coordinator at Wisconsin who took Northern Illinois to back-to-back MAC championships in his two seasons as head coach and a BCS Orange Bowl berth this season.
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