Penn State certainly took their time finding a new head coach to replace Joe Paterno and that exhaustive search has led them to...Bill O'Brien. O'Brien will take over as the first new head football coach at Penn State since 1966.I'm going to pause while some of you use Google to look up Bill O'Brien. He is the current offensive coordinator for the New England Patriots.
In case you aren't familiar with how former Patriots offensive coordinators have done away from the hub of the recording industry, a.k.a. Spygate, here's a few names for you.
 |
| New PSU head coach Bill O'Brien |
Charlie Weis coached five years at Notre Dame, compiling a record of 35-27. He started off with two strong seasons (9-3 and 10-3) with losses in the Sugar and Fiesta Bowls, but then he went 3-9. 7-6 and 6-6 over the last three seasons. He recently signed on as the head coach at Kansas.
Josh McDaniels compiled an 11-17 in two seasons with the Denver Broncos. From the start he mismanaged a possible trade with the Patriots for Matt Cassel and lost the trust of his quarterback Jay Cutler, who demanded to be traded. Missed playoffs in first season despite starting 6-0. The team was also involved in a videotaping scandal, which he clearly learned from Bill Belichick
Now we have Bill O'Brien who, like Joe Paterno, went to Brown University. That might have been a good school to hire from in 1966, but not sure how relevant they are in major college athletics these days.
O'Brien's coaching resume includes stints at Brown, Georgia Tech, Maryland, Duke, and the New England Patriots.
I love how Duke's offenses were terrible under O'Brien but he got hired to coach in New England and now gets some credit when really it's Tom Brady being Tom Brady. If Brady could magically regain some eligibility and come play for PSU, then we might have a strong hire here, but as it is I am extremely skeptical.
O'Brien intends to remain the offensive coordinator for the Patriots for as long as they remain in the playoffs. If that includes a Super Bowl appearance, then O'Brien won't take over fully until just two days before Letter of Intent day.
I realize the situation at Penn State made the likelihood of getting a big name coach very small, but there had to be coordinators out there, much like recent Pitt hire Paul Chryst, who would still welcome the chance to take over a program like Penn State that's in a major BCS conference and plays before one of the largest stadiums and fan bases in college football.
Do we really need a guy like O'Brien whose made to look better because he has a future hall of famer at the QB position?
As always I'll take a wait and see approach, but I just don't think this is the right guy to lead Penn State back to glory. I just don't know that PSU had much of a choice given who they finally picked.
2 comments:
You could have also thrown Eric Mangini's runs at NYJ and CLE or Romeo Crennel's run in CLE as well.
Yup but the sentence I wrote was about his offensive coordinators. Both sides of the ball, his coaches suck once they leave.
I guess they can't take the videotaping with them, oh wait. McDaniels tried that. Still couldn;t win in Denver.
Post a Comment