Posted on 12/26/2013 11:25:45 AM PST by FlJoePa
The shroud of intrigue surrounding impending NFL head coaching vacancies has again descended upon Happy Valley. The rebuilder and savior of Penn State football, the 44-year-old Bill O’Brien, has resurfaced as one of the hottest candidates. And why not?
O’Brien has been a feel-good story for a fan base still reeling from the unthinkable. But with his dream job within reach, how long will he last at a college program saddled by the NCAA’s bureaucratic limbo? The NFL keeps calling. Multi-million dollar contracts are to be negotiated. Sunday afternoons beckon like a siren.
“Sure, it seems like a no-brainer,” says Jim O’Leary, O’Brien’s high school coach and longtime mentor. “But I think those who know Bill know the decision is not that easy.”
O’Brien’s name has been on the lips of NFL executives since he led the Nittany Lions to an 8-4 record and was named the Big Ten’s Coach of the Year in 2012; he’s now 15-9 through two seasons. The Texans and Vikings have reportedly reached out this season. But two factors could sway O’Brien to put his dream job on hold. He made a commitment to Penn State and is under contract through 2016. There is also the difficulty of uprooting his family, which he rarely discusses—and never unsolicited.
O’Brien and his wife, Colleen, have two sons: Michael, 8, and Jack, 11, who has a rare neurological disorder called Lissencephaly. Jack cannot walk or talk. He has seizures nearly every day.
(Excerpt) Read more at mmqb.si.com ...
In the end, I don't think he's going anywhere soon. He's made a commitment to Breneman and Hack and also the next PSU QB in Michael O'Connor out of IMG in Bradenton.
We'll see though.
I also think that PSU has learned their lesson about allowing a coach to stay in place for 50 or 60 years.
Peter King is a moron....three months ago he was proclaiming the majority of NFL teams had removed Johnny Manziel from their draft boards and wouldn’t touch him....
Peter King is so consistently wrong he should write a political column for the NYT.
Have you seen any confirmation that BOB successfully renegotiated the buy-out clause in his PSU contract? I read that he was attempting to do so, which would have made it easier for him to jump to the NFL.
Like you, I think he stays put..
If a team is willing to offer him 7 million I could hardly blame him for going. But personally I think he wants to get 5 years in before leaving. My guess is he realizes the NFL may not be a long-term gig and wants a track record that will allow him a second chance should he fail in his first NFL role.
Is this the same guy who always seems to peg in the Cowboys to make the Super Bowl every year?
If O’Connor red shirts, and if Hack leaves after 3 years that would give him 3 years as the starter.
didn’t he have the Buffalo Bills in the Super Bowl two years ago??
btw- he was all over the trayvon martin case on his twitter, decrying the “unjust not-verdict” of zimmerman...
I hope that is the case. The days of building an untouchable football empire not subject to the true light of day should be done. And at Penn State especially.
And Matt Schaub’s last pass was........AN INTERCEPTION!
The days of building an untouchable football empire not subject to the true light of day should be done.
...realizing that I’m late to this thread, but of course you’re correct, and the truly sad thing is that without a persistent young boy who was denied twice by Pennsylvania’s Byzantine beaurocracy before getting a grand jury convened, we’d all still know nothing about this situation...and Sandusky would still be a demigod in State College...and quite obviously this became part of the PSU administrative calculus when trying to figure out what to do with this clown...let sleeping dogs lie, I think is the phrase...
...for that reason, I doubt anyone will ever find that those in power at PSU ever sat down and said ‘let’s cover this up for the sake of of our reputation...’ because, as logic would have dictated to them, ‘we won’t have to’...
...as I write, O’Brien has apparently left PSU, and some talk surfaces that he didn’t want to deal with the Paterno faction there...don’t know how true that is, but anybody trying to replace Joe was going to need the thickest skin imaginable...even after all this time, still a shame about Paterno...all he accomplished, and what posterity will remember is his top lieutenant thought so little of him that he put his personal lusts above his honor, and stabbed his mentor in the back, dragging his name into the mud with him...
It will not however get through to those that still worship Paterno. The whole thing was a CF waiting to happen and it did. Paterno had much to do with building the insular system that led to this mess. That too should be a lesson. Kingdom building will eventually fail.
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