Image courtesy of BC Athletics
In football circles around New England, the DiBiaso family name is royalty and it’s well-known nationally too.
Legendary head coach John DiBiaso has made numerous stops in his coaching career and has been extremely successful at each of them. Now, his son Jonathan is quickly ascending up the ranks and is widely considered one of the best recruiters in the nation.
After originally playing at Dartmouth before graduating from Tufts in 2018, the Everett native joined the BC staff through the 2020 season as an offensive graduate assistant. In 2021, DiBiaso went to Vanderbilt as an offensive analyst and in 2022 DiBiaso really developed into a high-level recruiter as an offensive graduate assistant at Pitt.
Last year he was an offensive analyst for the Eagles. helping Tommy Castellanos burst onto the national scene. This year he’s Bill O’Brien’s quarterbacks coach, working closely with O’Brien, new OC Will Lawing and the rest of the QB room.
DiBiaso had options elsewhere this offseason, but the allure of helping BC build back into what it once was and the opportunity to continue helping Massachusetts high school kids get on the map was too good to pass up.
“I’m from here. Born and raised Everett, Mass. There’s a lot of kids on this team that I’ve known since they were little kids whether it was from CM or that I’ve followed playing MIAA football,” he said on Monday. “It’s an opportunity for me to be close to my family. My parents are still here. I can be close to my friends I grew up with, but also help local kids, Help kids here achieve their goals.
“I went to high academic schools in college and you come to Boston College, you come to Boston College to play big-time football, to get an unbelievable education and to serve for others and help others. That checked all the boxes I looked for in a program I want to work for.”
Not only that, but the chance to coach with O’Brien and Lawing and learn from guys who have done it at the highest levels was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that DiBiaso didn’t want to miss out on.
“You talk about it, I talk about it…I believe in it, Coach O’Brien is the best quarterback trainer in all of football,” he said adamantly. “If I have the opportunity to learn from him and coach the quarterbacks how he does as a young guy, it’s an amazing opportunity and I’m excited about it. I’m going to run with it and give Boston College everything I have.
“Coach Lawing has been working with Coach O’Brien for 12 years. The one thing is, I’ve worked for some great coaches in the past, I’ve learned from great coaches in the past…but we’re going to coach the quarterbacks how Bill O’Brien wants us to coach the quarterbacks Coach O’Brien has coached the best in all of sports.
“He knows what it looks like. He knows how to develop them. That communication is key. I’m doing what those guys want me to do. I’m going to coach those guys hard. I’m going to critique them. I’m going to demand from them, and on game day they’re going to do what is taught. We believe in what we’re doing here. We believe in the culture that we have here. We believe in how we’re practicing. It’s going to carry over into August and September and we’re just excited for this season.”
As far as carrying on the family legacy, DiBiaso is working hard to be his own man, but also acknowledged that watching his father win numerous titles by building long-lasting relationships is something he wants to emulate as much as possible.
“I’ve been very blessed to work for great coaches at BC, at Vanderbilt, at Pitt, but my dad’s the best coach I’ve been around. He’s the best coach I’ve been around because he cares about the kids and it’s about the kids first,” he added.
“From a scheme standpoint, from a fundamentals and technique standpoint, I’m going to coach how Coach O’Brien wants me to coach. But, when it comes to relationships with players and building relationships with players, helping them get where they want to go in life and being there for them now as well as 15 years from now, that’s everything I learned from my dad with his experience at Everett, at CM now. At Weston, at St. Pat’s…like, players come back to see him and he has friendships with guys who he coached who are 50, 40, 30, 20, there’s guys on our team he talks to every week.
“Football is about relationships and helping kids and he’s had a tremendous impact on me and I’m lucky that I get to go home at night and see that guy and spend time with him on the weekends because he’s the reason why I’m at where I am now.”