The Ever-Changing Penn State Coaching Search. Or is it?...

[Ragar]

The telling thing in all of this will be O'Brien's staff, wheter or not he's been told/asked to clean house completely.

The Short comments should be responded to by Joyner indicating that "every coach, player, fan of Penn St. has been tarnished by the Sandusky allegations, and the University needed a clean slate to begin anew. If Short and the LEtterman Club cannot accept that, it says a lot about their character." End of Story.

[Trumpetbdw]

And most of the Penn State community will get behind O'Brien over time. Unfortunately, he's drawing the ire of many because most feel correctly that the search was botched by Joyner. But just because the search was botched doesn't mean O'Brien wasn't the correct hire, or that he won't have support and given a chance to prove things on the field. I hope for his sake that people don't rush to judgement and understand that this is a project that will take a few years. I'm not 100% sold, but I'm talking myself into him, and am certainly willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. It's not a home run now, but perhaps he's just one of those guys whose power will continue to develop.

[wxwax]

Contract details have not been released, and I wouldn't expect them to be. That's not how Penn State handles things, as everyone here is very aware of by this point.

Thanks for putting so much time into the write-up, Trumpy.

One of my beefs with PSU is that it's a public university, supported by tax dollars. Documents like a coach's contract should be publicly available, should be known by the people paying his salary. I understand that the state legislature had given the school a waiver on some public disclosure laws. I understand there might be an effort to reverse that. Hope it works, it would for the school's good.

WRT Richt, I would only say that the complete and utter absence of any rumors about that down here make it unlikely. The scrutiny college football gets down here is pretty intense. False rumors fly all the time. For Richt to have talked to Penn State, for people at Penn State to be talking about him, but for nothing at all to come out down here... well, something's wrong with that math.

What's interesting is that your list has three very big names and then... a relative nobody. Seems odd.

[darvon]

The university confirmed that O’Brien signed a five-year contract that will be worth $2.3 million annually and will include built-in five-percent raises per year.

A reasonable sum for him.

[Trumpetbdw]

Thanks for putting so much time into the write-up, Trumpy.

One of my beefs with PSU is that it's a public university, supported by tax dollars. Documents like a coach's contract should be publicly available, should be known by the people paying his salary. I understand that the state legislature had given the school a waiver on some public disclosure laws. I understand there might be an effort to reverse that. Hope it works, it would for the school's good.

WRT Richt, I would only say that the complete and utter absence of any rumors about that down here make it unlikely. The scrutiny college football gets down here is pretty intense. False rumors fly all the time. For Richt to have talked to Penn State, for people at Penn State to be talking about him, but for nothing at all to come out down here... well, something's wrong with that math.

What's interesting is that your list has three very big names and then... a relative nobody. Seems odd.

The Richt thing was silent up here as well. Honestly, I mentioned him 3 years ago to a friend as a possibility, and was surprised when some people started putting the very minute pieces of info together suggesting that it may be him. I was thrilled. PSU kept everything silent, and no one leaked anything, partly because all candidates were told that if any info leaked, they would immediately be disqualified (which is another reason I was reading a bit into PSU's silence on O'Brien). Plus, it did Georgia or Richt no good to let anything out. My guess is the only reason he was mentioned for Texas A&M, for example, was because of Texas A&M. Whether or not there was real interest on his end we won't know, but my guess is not.

This info can all be found, I'm sure, somewhere. No one is keeping it silent any more, although no one will advertise it either, similar to other searches at other schools after the fact. If I had a link, or ever find a link, I'll send it, but I got my info elsewhere. There was a confidentiality agreement everyone had to sign on any specifics, which became null and void when the contract was signed, so now names can be leaked. I don't expect that anyone around Georgia would believe that Richt was involved, especially as the top choice, but there is absolutely nothing that would suggest my information is wrong.

As for the other big names...
-Gruden had too many demands, probably beyond asking for more info on Sandusky, but certainly considering PSU's stance, it's pretty obvious that was a deal breaker. But evidently the terms were agreed to, as I mentioned before, and it got derailed once they got to the details.

-If Paterno would have been allowed to finish the year, Meyer may have still chosen Ohio State over Penn State, but PSU would have definitely been in legit contention. From the sound of it, he and PSU were in communication prior to the scandal, which makes sense considering it was widely believed that this was Joe's last year anyway.

-Miles came in so late, it seems they just didn't feel like starting the process over for a whim that he may actually have shown interest for the right reason. If it were me, I'm thinking that maybe it would have been wise to at least reciprocate some interest to see if there was any chance. And I think if that ever gets leaked nationally, that will become the biggest gripe of PSU fans.


It does appear that Josh McDaniels is indeed joining the Patriots staff immediately, and that O'Brien will be going to PSU full time starting right about now. He just had his presser late this morning. I missed it, but apparently he did a great job. Slowly, I'm getting behind this selection. He must have really done a nice job selling the committee. And while I don't like the arrogance displayed by Joyner, I have learned that I should trust Ira Lubert's judgement. The first thing I ever heard about him was, "he never loses".


And 2 more names. I haven't heard anything about Tom Clements, and Greg Roman was interesting, but joined the process too late in the game to be seriously considered.

[Trumpetbdw]

A reasonable sum for him.

Thanks for finding that. That is about what I expected to hear. All that was mentioned previous was that his contract was "very fair".

[Trumpetbdw]

Oh, and Bill Parcells was contacted at one point as well, although no one other than the direct search committee knows exactly why.

[Trumpetbdw]

Looks like McDaniels is coming aboard today, although it's not to immediately replace O'Brien, as he'll finish out the season (even more reason to root for the Steelers next week).

I am now officially all in on O'Brien. I'm not sure if he was a great coordinator or not, and I'd lean toward not. But he seems like a born leader. I particularly liked his comments on two questions. One was dealing with why he's sticking around NE until their season is complete. I'll paraphrase, but he mentioned how you can't sit in a room of college football players and preach commitment to them when you yourself backs out on a commitment you've made to an organization. The other comment I liked was when he addressed his interest in pro jobs vs. college. It seemed like an unscripted answer that seemed to show where his passion truly lies.

I hope he's in this for the long haul, but I'm fully behind him at this moment. It was easy to see in the press conference exactly what they see in him. If you get the chance, check out the link.

http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports...state-presser/

[Pruitt]

From The Onion:

STATE COLLEGE, PA—New head coach Bill O'Brien held an introductory press conference Saturday in which he explicitly promised to never, ever uphold the traditions and values now equated with Penn State football. "I'm very familiar with the principles established within this program, and I can assure everyone out there that those will be completely wiped away," O'Brien said sternly, adding that legacy, history, and culture are also very important things for a new coach to restart from scratch. "If Joe Paterno taught us anything in his 46 years here—you know what, on second thought, let's just remember that football has been played here for a long time, and continuing to play football is something I feel strongly about." O'Brien then spent a full minute shaking his head, sighing loudly, and occasionally rubbing his temples, before turning his attention back to reporters and saying, "This is really going to suck, isn't it?"