Penn State Nittany Lions to have Bill O'Brien as Head Coach – NFL News Update
According to news sources, New England Patriots offensive coordinator, Bill O'Brien, will be the new head coach for the Penn state Nittany Lions college football team after reportedly agreeing to a deal.
This information was revealed by the ESPN Network.
O'Brien had been earlier interviewed by the Penn State team on Thursday, January 5, 2012, as confirmed by his agent, Joe Linta. However, before leaving to join his new assignment, O'Brien will complete his season with the New England Patriots.
The Penn State management had been looking for a coach since the past two months after they had fired their former coach, Joe Paterno, over a child s*x abuse scandal that plagued their team back in November.
Paterno lost his job after failing to report the involvement of defensive coordinator, Jerry Sandusky, in the case appropriately. Paterno did not manage the incident well that drew in a lot of criticism from the community.
Consequently, the trustees of the state took action and Paterno was fired. However, he did not become the target of criminal investigation and managed to gain on lot of sympathy from his supporters who demonstrated asking for him to be reinstated. Paterno
had been serving with Penn State for 46 years.
According to other reports, O'Brien will also be interviewed by the Jacksonville Jaguars this weekend.
If O'Brien decides to land up with the Penn State, then surely that interview will not materialize.
Also, his decision to move out could possibly pave the way for the return of the now current St. Louis Rams offensive coordinator, Josh McDaniels, to the Patriots. McDaniels desires to make his comeback to New England from where he began his National Football
League (NFL) career.
The Patriots have fared well under O'Brien, managing to come at the top of the American Football Conference (AFC)-East, which certainly did not go unrecognised by Patriots coach, Bill Belichick.
“Bill does a good job. He works hard, he’s smart and he has got a lot of experience. He’s done different things here in terms of working with the receivers, working with the quarterbacks. I think he’s got a good understanding of what our system is, what
our players can do, and he’cs put them in good position to do it”, Belichick said.
O'Brien has a lot of experience at the college and pro levels. He spent 14 years coaching at the college level after which he joined the Patriots in 2007 as an offensive assistant.
He initially coached the receivers in 2008 after which he started coaching the quarterbacks including Tom Brady for the next two years. This season, he was appointed the offensive coordinator for the Patriots. O’Brien definitely carries with himself the
sort of experience that the Penn State has been looking for.
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