Penn St hires coach, demise becomes official

[e.bigelow]

OBrien has been a good position coach/coordinatoor for a while. Suppose the same may be said of Brewster about being a position coach. Whether he will be a good HC at PSU is hard to say. I think they may struggle for a little while before we see what type of program this guy wants to run.

 

[husker70]

OOH he was the Offensive Coordinator with the New England Patriots. When will people learn. Charlie Weiss, Romeo Crenell, Josh McDaniels, Eric Mangini. Should be fair warning, and to select someone with no head coaching experience? Does that sound familiar? I would love to hear the negative recruiting stories flying about this hire. Urban Meyer not only can choose Ohio and poach Pennsylvania. Michigan will be in play. Penn State has Akron on the schedule. You can bet Coach Bowden is smiling.

 

[Lakeville Goldy]

I just can't believe Penn State didn't make the obvious choice and sign Matt Millen.

I don't get why all these schools think that only one of their alumni can coach them. Joe Pa wasn't an alum, seems to me he did ok (Sandusky scandal not withstanding). Similar to Michigan with RichRod. To me it's like saying I won't date anyone I didn't meet at the family reunion. Sometimes some new blood is just the thing to rejuvinate the situation.

 

[Nate]

Rich Rod did ok at Michigan?

 

[Buttcheeks McGaffigan]

And who will be hurt the most by all this? The current players, who had/have nothing to do with it.

Does this group have another person in mind for the head coaching position? Either way, this is ridiculous.

Anyone else notice that this group seems to be more outraged at the coaching decision than the sexual abuse charges?

They've easily become the worst group of fans in the country. I'm sure it's a vocal minority, but their priorities are beyond shameful.

 

[beavergopher]

This guy is stepping into a hornets nest. Have to like a guy that wont take crap from Tom Brady.

 

[FireDaveLee]

They don't understand the meaning of "cleaning house," that's for sure.

In fairness, sometimes stuff like this happens at other places too (not the sexual abuse, but loyalty to a fault). I know of a famous Gopher football player from the past that doesn't have much involvment with the U anymore because they feel that Mark Dienhart was treated unfairly in the wake of the Clem Haskins scandal.

 

[corcoran1]

They don't understand the meaning of "cleaning house," that's for sure.

In fairness, sometimes stuff like this happens at other places too (not the sexual abuse, but loyalty to a fault). I know of a famous Gopher football player from the past that doesn't have much involvment with the U anymore because they feel that Mark Dienhart was treated unfairly in the wake of the Clem Haskins scandal.

I don't think Mark D was treated fairly either, but the nitwits who did it are gone. Holding a grudge forever is stupid. Many alumni contributed to a car they bought him when he left,; did not make it right, but did prove people associated with the school knew he had done a good job. The good news is he has done well and holding a grudge has not helped Mark a bit. I can understand it for a couple of years inthe Dienhart case, but at PSU, the administration is worried about getting killed in court, the Civil Rights Dept, and maybe by the NCAA or conference. They have no choice but to go outside. any research university that decides to flip off the Federal government is playing russian roulette.
That is exactly why the U settled the law suit with the Feds on the Najarian drug suit case. All of their Federal research grants would have been at risk. Any university president who gets several hundred million dollars of research grants cancelled will be an ex-president quickly.

 

[dpodoll68]

Penn St. hires a coach for $2.3 mil/yr - a coach with 19 years' experience (14 college, 5 NFL), and one who almost certainly would've been hired for an NFL head coach position had he pursued that avenue

Ole Miss hires a coach for $1.5 mil/yr - a coach with 19 years' experience (13 high school, 6 college (including 2 at an NAIA school that no longer exists)), and one whose claim to fame is that he coached Michael Oher in high school

We must remember, though - Ole Miss is a better job than Penn St.

 

[50PoundHead]

Former Penn State All-American linebacker Brandon Short told ESPN.com senior writer Don Van Natta Jr. that members of the influential Lettermen's Club have a meeting scheduled with Joyner for Friday at 1 p.m. ET.

"It's unfortunate that coach O'Brien ... has not been made aware of the implications of him being in this position," said Short, an investment banker. "I don't envy him at all. He doesn't have support of the vast majority of former Penn State players and the vast majority of the student body and the faculty won't support him. I feel sorry for him."

Short said some members of the group were considering a range of options to express their displeasure, including asking current players to transfer and recruits to de-commit. Short told USA Today they were mulling a lawsuit in an effort to bar Penn State from using their likenesses or images for marketing purposes.

"It appears as if it is Dave Joyner's intent to disassociate himself with everything related Penn State," Short told ESPN.com. "Then a group of former players will now disassociate ourselves from everything related to Penn State."

Wow

I was listening to Barreiro the other day and he really went after Short, Arrington, and company for their cluelessness. I agree, but I sure wish he would have gone after Adam Kelly with the same vigor during our last coaching search. I'm no Maturi bobo and he should be a target for an ample amount of wrath, but so often he's such an easy target that the local media goes no further in its analysis of a U sports situation.

I guess that brings me to the Dienhart situation and I'm glad he is doing well if that's the case. I know some guys who played football for him at St. Thomas and by all accounts he's a solid guy who was in a difficult situation dealing with a "rock star" coach and a couple of higher-ups who were more than willing to look the other way. Talk about an uncomfortable and unfair situation. Ultimately, that led to Maturi (and my point isn't either to defend Dienhart or deride Maturi here) and an administration that did not want a repeat of the Gangeloff saga and hence tightened the reins on the athletic department.

 

[CrocShots]

Ted Roof to be Penn St. Defensive Coordinator.

*snickers*

 

[1983]

No one with a proven track record wanted the job.

That pretty much sums it up. They do not need anyone associated with the program up to this point. They also could probably use the refresh or delete button on some boosters. as well.

 

[cncmin]

O'Brien would have got an NFL head coaching job this offseason. It's not too often that a guy chooses a college job over an NFL job. From the start PSU has focused on a lot of NFL coaches, starting with Munchak and then moving to the OC's from San Francisco, Green Bay, and New England. PSU appeared to choose O'Brien over the other 2 and I wouldn't be surprised to see the Green Bay OC end up with an NFL job.

Notre Dame took an OC from New England, so why not Penn State ?( I know it didn't work out for the Irish, but the point is they took a similar type of guy, a hot OC from the pros)

One real challenge for O'Brien moving to college wil be that the New England offense is insanely difficult for wide receivers and he has no prayer of implementing it in a college setting. In just the past 4 years, the Patriots have let go of 2 high draft picks (Chad Jackson and Taylor Price) because they couldn't pick up the offense. A few years ago, Joey Galloway couldn't pick up the offense and this year Chad Ochocinco has been unable to pick up the offense. Essentially the wide receivers have to make site adjustments on their routes which means they have to be able to read coverage at/after the snap and run the route that corresponds to the coverage.

I think your incorrect assumption here is that college players are for whatever reason stupider than NFL players. I don't think that's true.

 

[50PoundHead]

I don't think he's saying that. I think he's saying that pros spend a lot more time on football than college players do and there is only so much complexity you can incorporate into college football offenses and defenses.