BOSTON (AP) - Tom O'Brien won't coach Boston College in the Meineke Bowl after taking over Friday as head coach at North Carolina State.

Frank Spaziani, the Eagles' defensive coordinator under O'Brien the past eight seasons, will serve as interim head coach against Navy on Dec. 30 in Charlotte, N.C. O'Brien's been at BC for the past 10 seasons.

''I want to thank Tom for 10 really, really great years at Boston College,'' BC athletic director Gene DeFilippo said Friday night, about an hour after North Carolina State announced O'Brien's appointment. ''He left this program in a lot better shape than the program he found.''

BC went 4-7 in each of O'Brien's first two seasons as coach before starting a stretch of eight consecutive bowl games, culminating with this year's game. The Eagles have won their last six bowls.

''We're going to go quick, but we're not going to hurry'' in finding a new coach, DeFilippo said.

He also said he and O'Brien agreed that ''it was in the best interests of everybody'' for O'Brien not to coach in the bowl game.

AP-ES-12-08-06 1937EST