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Penn State hires Patriots assistant Bill O'Brien

Great idea, hire the guy from the NFL team that recently got caught cheating. That will raise the bar for integrity at Penn State...
 
Dutchrudder said:
Great idea, hire the guy from the NFL team that recently got caught cheating. That will raise the bar for integrity at Penn State...
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On the other hand, nobody wanted this job. They were lucky to get somebody with as much experience as O'Brien.
 
Bruce Feldman ‏@BFeldmanCBS
Before James Franklin arrived, Vandy won 13 SEC games in 10 yrs. W/ JF #Vandy's gone 18-8 past 2 YRs & 9-5 in past 14 SEC games #PennState

BREAKING #Vandy coach James Franklin is expected to be the next head coach at Penn State, per source
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For those questioning why OB left, this paints the full ugly picture of post-Paterno Penn State...


Penn State's Administrative Dysfunction Pushed Coach Bill O'Brien Back To NFL
After days of dancing back and forth, with everyone from Penn State's fans to the trustees wondering if head football coach Bill O’Brien was going to stay or go, he finally ended the suspense: O'Brien announced he would be leaving State College after two seasons to coach the NFL's Houston Texans.

At first glance, it's an old story: An NFL offensive coordinator gets a chance to lead a legendary college program, then jumps back to the NFL when he's offered the opportunity to become a head coach. But after conducting hundreds of interviews inside Penn State's program to write my latest book Fourth and Long, and several articles, I can tell you it’s not that simple. Or, rather, it's almost that simple -- but it's not what you think.

Dig a little deeper, and you'll see O'Brien's decision -- made at the eleventh hour, after much hand-wringing -- was based as much on the appeal of the Texans' offer as it was the lack of leadership presented by Penn State...
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Probably no one felt this more acutely than the players on the 2012 team, Penn State's first after the dismissal and death of Joe Paterno.

"Who was stepping up and taking it?" 2012 senior Michael Zordich asked me. "We were. They never stood up for us. Not the president, not the AD. They were silent. Silent. Thanks. Who was standing up for us? O'Brien -- and that's it."
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The board's decision to hire [David Joyner, M.D.] a fellow trustee [as Athletic Director] attracted the attention of the Pennsylvania auditor general, who released a report in November 2012, stating it created "reasonable public perceptions of insider influence and conflicting interests.”

Penn State dismissed the AG’s concerns, but the players did not. After the 2011 team finished 9-3, without a permanent president, athletic director or head coach, the team captains called a players-only meeting to decide whether to accept the bid to the lowly TicketCity Bowl in Dallas. After a civil discussion, they decided if they represented Penn State's values, they had to go.

All seemed settled -- until Dr. Joyner addressed the team after their vote. According to over a dozen players present, he accused them of being "a bunch of children” for declining the bowl invitation, which prompted Gerald Hodges to stand up and demand Dr. Joyner show more respect. The two started walking toward each other, creating a commotion loud enough for assistant coach Larry Johnson Sr., waiting outside, to come into the room, hold Hodges, and literally escort him out.

Finally, when captain Devon Still told Joyner, "We already decided. We’re gonna go,” Joyner calmed down, and told the team they had their full support, but the players never bought it. After Joyner hired O'Brien, the players asked O'Brien to keep Joyner away from the team -- essentially banning him from their sideline, their locker room and their team meetings -- and Joyner obliged, not appearing before the team again until the 2012 senior banquet.
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When Dr. Joyner courted Bill O'Brien after the 2011 season... O’Brien was smart enough to ask about the possibility of the NCAA punishing the football program, but naïve enough to believe Joyner when he assured O’Brien the NCAA would steer clear.

On July 23, 2012, the NCAA leveled historically severe sanctions against the school for the Jerry Sandusky scandal, leaving Penn State’s football program to face a slow version of the death penalty. But O'Brien and a special class of seniors not only kept the team alive, they thrived, knocking off ranked teams en route to an 8-4 record.

Two days after Penn State finished the triumphant 2012 season by beating eventual Big Ten champion Wisconsin, ... his cell phone buzzed so often it almost fell off the edge of the table.

It wasn't friends or well-wishers calling, but athletic directors from Boston College, Tennessee, and Arkansas, and the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles, Cleveland Browns and San Diego Chargers. They all wanted to know one thing: What would it take to get O'Brien to jump?
...
While O’Brien's phone was blowing up, Dave Joyner was on a hunting trip. It was the opening day of Pennsylvania's deer season. When I asked O'Brien about this, he shrugged it off, but then-senior linebacker Mike Mauti did not.

"That enrages me," Mauti told me, in December 2012. "Let's lay it out there: He's the reason we did all this. They hire anyone else, this doesn't happen -- and who knows where the program is? He's it. If O-B leaves ... it's because they didn't do their jobs and do what's right."

Nonetheless, O’Brien declined the overtures from other athletic directors and the NFL, and stayed put in State College.
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To keep up with the never-ending arms race that is modern college football, O’Brien also received assurances from Joyner that he would increase the budget for assistant coaches' salaries, recruiting and facilities face-lifts -- the very things rivals Michigan and Ohio State already have.

O'Brien's players followed up their inspirational 2012 season with an equally surprising 7-5 record this year. After the NCAA greatly reduced Penn State's sanctions, and recruiting picked up accordingly, the program's future suddenly looked much brighter.

...according to insiders familiar with the situation, Joyner failed to follow through on his promises to boost O'Brien's budget for assistant coaches' salaries, recruiting and facilities. At the 2013 senior banquet, one witness said, the tension between the two men was "palpable. You couldn't ignore it." After the event, Dr. Joyner waited more than a week to respond to O'Brien's requests to follow up on his promises...

Given this, when the NFL's siren song resumed, O’Brien was ready to listen...
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What a mess... :mariopalm:
 
Playoffs said:
For those questioning why OB left, this paints the full ugly picture of post-Paterno Penn State...





Penn State's Administrative Dysfunction Pushed Coach Bill O'Brien Back To NFL













What a mess... :mariopalm:
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Thanks for posting that. Interesting.

It's academia. That world sucks. I worked in academia for a brief period, and I never will again. Ever. Some people are cut out for working in academia, some are not. Straight shooters like O'Brien are not a good fit for that crazy world. Too much politics and bs. Saw it first hand.


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Read an article about Joyner in Sports Illustrated a year or so ago about his path to becoming the AD up at Penn St. To me, it seems safe to say that this guy is a snake who would step on anybody to get what he wants.
 
bah007 said:
Read an article about Joyner in Sports Illustrated a year or so ago about his path to becoming the AD up at Penn St. To me, it seems safe to say that this guy is a snake who would step on anybody to get what he wants.
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Please don't insult the snakes.
 
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