On the 31st of December, the Texans hired former Penn State coach Bill O’Brien.
O’Brien is a great coach. Of course it hurts to lose a coach like him, but really, some Penn State fans are being rather ridiculous. Now I’m not saying all Penn State fans are like this. I’m saying that there are a lot of people that now “hate,” or “have no respect for,” Bill O’Brien, and I don’t understand. Here, let’s put yourself in Bill O’Brien’s shoes.
O’Brien took the Penn State coaching job, a job that nobody else wanted because Penn State was in such a bad situation. I give him respect for that. He made it two years with this team, and the team performed well under him. He had two winnings seasons with teams that weren’t even good; he’s a great coach.
O’Brien did make some promises that he couldn’t keep, but there are explanations behind them. He did lie to two recruits just a few days ago, telling them that he was going to stay at Penn State. That was a lie, but maybe he thought he was telling the truth at the time. I think there’s a pretty good chance that that’s the case. You can’t tell me that you’ve never changed your mind before. Nobody’s perfect. O’Brien also stated two years ago that he was going to be the one to rebuild this team. Well, I think he’s done just that. He brought in great recruiting classes, ones that are better than any recruiting class that Joe Paterno had brought in recently. He, with his fantastic recruiting, has kept this Penn State program alive. He did an amazing job coaching at Penn State.
The NFL came calling to O’Brien; he entered those talks knowing that there will be more money involved. None of you can tell me that you wouldn’t rather get paid more for doing the exact same thing.
Also, some of you have yourselves to blame for this. There was a small portion of the fan-base, that O’Brien called “The Paterno people.” These were the people that stuck up for Joe Paterno, and never really accepted that he was gone. So, they would take it out on the new coach, Bill O’Brien. They would try so hard to drive him out of Nittany Valley. Eventually, they got their wish. Here’s an excerpt from an article by David Jones on Pennlive.com, that goes into more depth with this.
”
O’Brien’s ire also was raised that day by my suggestion that a faction of Joe Paterno-era loyalists seemed to me to be miffed by Vanderlinden’s departure or dismissal, depending upon their view, and that they might want some sort of explanation. The former linebackers coach had been the second-longest-tenured member of the staff, dating to 2000, one of only two remaining staff members hired by the legendary coach. This really got O’Brien going:
“You can print this: You can print that I don’t really give a —- what the ‘Paterno people’ think about what I do with this program. I’ve done everything I can to show respect to Coach Paterno. Everything in my power. So I could really care less about what the Paterno faction of people, or whatever you call them, think about what I do with the program. I’m tired of it.
“For any ‘Paterno person’ to have any objection to what I’m doing, it makes me wanna put my fist through this windshield right now.”
He was just getting started:
“I’m trying to field the most competitive football team I can with near-death penalty —-ing sanctions. Every time I say something like that and somebody prints it, it’s skewed as an excuse. And I’m not an excuse-maker. I’m trying to do the best I can for the kids in that program. That’s all I care about is the kids in that program. As long as I’m the head football coach here.”
I didn’t add exclamation marks where they could have been applied. Otherwise, it might look like something a fan texts after a frustrating loss – with strings of them (!!!!).
I didn’t print the quote right away, either. I did him a favor there. I thought it reflected momentary rage that I had partially induced from my own perception and it wasn’t quite fair.
But now that O’Brien has left and people want to know why, I think it makes sense to print it. It helps explain.
Anyway, I was already a bit stunned because the bombshell had come a few seconds earlier when O’Brien said, off-the-record: “That’s why, in probably about a month, they’re gonna be —-ing looking for a new coach.”
” – PennLive.com
Finally, I’d like to say that you all need to think before you go criticizing. If you take into consideration every thing that O’Brien did, you’ll find that there’s a logical explanation behind it all.
I, as a Penn State football fanatic, couldn’t be happier with the job that O’Brien did with the program. He had many reasons to leave. I can’t stay I would’ve stuck around any longer than he did, and I don’t think you can either.
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