RALEIGH -- There isn't a hint of nostalgia in Tom O'Brien's voice when he discusses this week's return to Boston College, where he spent a decade building the Eagles into a perennial powerhouse.
It's a "business trip" to "win a football game" -- at least until he starts talking about BC's defense, and then the N.C. State coach sounds downright wistful.
"They're a pretty good defense," O'Brien said Monday. "You talk about a defense, that's a defense they've been playing for 10 years now that's taken them to bowl games. They know the defense, they recruit to the defense, there's people that can play the positions that they ask.
"That's a little something we're caught in right now. We're about a year and a half into the defense, and we're trying to recruit and get lined up and get the people in the right [positions] and understand all the nuances of it. We'll fight through this thing."
Coming off back-to-back losses to Wake Forest and Duke that saw the Wolfpack savaged through the air, it's hard to blame O'Brien for casting covetous eyes at the way his former school does things.
Throw in Boston College's deep, talented offensive line and power running game, both of which O'Brien mentioned Monday, and it sums up what he established at that program and was expected to bring with him when he replaced Chuck Amato at State.
Now, halfway through his third season, it's hard to find evidence of much of that, a lack of progress that is as surprising as it is frustrating.
So far, O'Brien's most tangible achievement has been unleashing Russell Wilson (an Amato recruit) on the ACC. Injuries and attrition have slowed the building process to a crawl, which is how State finds itself a dismal 1-3 against FBS schools this fall.
At least the offense, where the Pack has started to run the ball more effectively as a complement to Wilson, is showing signs of progress.
State's defense is a mess -- to be fair, the loss of linebacker Nate Irving before the season was nothing short of catastrophic -- and the only solution appears to be time.
With four freshmen on the two-deep depth chart in the secondary, the raw material should be there for the future. But "raw" is exactly how fans felt watching Riley Skinner and Thaddeus Lewis pick apart the State secondary for 820 passing yards and eight touchdowns in the past two games.
More than that was expected of a team many thought could contend for the division title, even after Irving was lost for the season. Still, O'Brien insists this team is in better shape than a year ago, when the Pack was 2-4 but on the verge of winning its final four games on its way to the Papajohns.com Bowl.
"Most of the mistakes we've made are self-inflicted," O'Brien said. "A year ago, we had all the injuries in different situations, and our quarterback wasn't very experienced. ... Certainly, we've made strides.
"The problem we've had from the start is not being able to get people on the ground -- poor tackling."
There's no question that the calm, disciplined O'Brien is the right man for this job, even if it's taking him a little bit longer than anyone expected to recast his current team in the image of his former one -- particularly on defense.
He depicted that process at Boston College as a "10-year progression." Facing the possibility of a fourth straight losing season, N.C. State doesn't have that long to wait.
