"They didn't have to stay at Penn State, but they committed to each
other, they committed to Penn State, and they committed to our coaching
staff. I felt it was important that they understood that I was committed
to them. What are you if you're not a man of your word?"
-
Last night many Penn State football fans were torn to find out the Head Coach Bill O'Brien was leaving after two years to accept a head coaching position for the Houston Texans. I did not really know what to think at first, I was mad because in a selfish aspect, I did not want him to leave, but on the other hand, I understood or at least I thought I did, why he jumped on this opportunity. Take note to "at least I thought I did".
Lets start from the beginning. Bill O'Brien came to Penn State during its darkest days to accept its vacant head coaching position after 61 years of service by Joe Paterno. Penn State would later that year be hit with unjustified sanctions by the NCAA that included; 4 year bowl ban, reduced scholarships, and $60 Million in fines. O'Brien's task became more difficult than he possibly originally anticipated.
Penn State alum and fans were going to be entering the 2012 football season for the first time knowing that Joe Paterno would no longer be walking the sidelines as head coach, and felt the void with him not on it. Still, at the same time, Penn State loyalist, and sane truth seekers, stood behind Bill O'Brien, and believed or "BILLieved" in him and his efforts in trying to stop the bleeding that was happening at the university due to the slanderous and libelous hits from media outlets such as ESPN.
Penn State started the 2012 season bringing in 0-2, but would finish winning 8 of their last 10 games to finish with an 8-4 record, a record many thought would have been unobtainable due to the events surrounding Penn State. Alum and fans, though still heart broken at the mistreatment of Joe Paterno, were behind Bill O'Brien 150%! O'Brien was offered head coaching positions in the NFL after his 1st season at Penn State, by the Philadelphia Eagles and Cleveland Browns. Bill O'Brien declined the offers, saying "I'm not a one-and-done guy. I made a commitment to these players at Penn State and that's what I am going to do. I'm not gonna cut and run after one year, that's for sure." http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8811626/bill-obrien-remaining-penn-state-nittany-lions-coach
O'Brien restored pride in the Penn State faithful as they (at the time) felt self perseverance, knowing that O'Brien seemingly was committed to staying there. O'Brien even managed to recruit 5 star Quarterback Christian Hackenberg and 5 Star Tight End Adam Breneman despite the sanctions and reduced scholarships. Penn State finished the 2013 season 7-5 under O'Brien's ,with signature victories of #25 Michigan and #14 Wisconsin. If he had not already, O'Brien gained full support of everyone at Penn State, who were at the same time, still displeased of what happened to Joe Paterno.
O'Brien once again would be approached with an NFL head coaching opportunity, this time by the Houston Texans. Prior to the offer, O'Brien picked up key recruits for the 2014 class, including 5 star Defensive Tackle Thomas Holley and landed the top TE for the second year in a row in Mike Gesicki. There was no reason to think O'Brien would leave Penn State now, especially with all of the success he accomplished there in a short period of time under extreme circumstances. But hold everything folks, because this is where everything gets interesting, and once again the media comes in and makes sure it pitches the false narrative to make Penn State faithful look bad once again!
O'Brien this time, was weighing the options. Should he stay or should he go? Many players and recruits were reaching out to O'Brien wondering what his decision was. There were reports he told recruits and current players that he was not leaving for Houston and he would be back at Penn State. But in actuality, O'Brien needed to devise a plan to come up with the ultimate excuse of why he was leaving Penn State to paint an image of himself that best he could. Enter David Jones of PennLive who took O'Brien's bait, hook, line, and sinker!
In Jones' article (which you can read here, http://www.pennlive.com/sports/index.ssf/2014/01/bill_obrien_the_outsider_arriv.html )he stated that he spoke with O'Brien in early December, and that O'Brien was growing frustrated at the lack of leadership at Penn State and his duty to fulfill his job description as a football coach, not a university figurehead. O'Brien knew he had caught his sucker and found the outlet to use for his "reasoning" of why he was leaving Penn State. O'Brien would blame Joe Paterno supporters! The same Joe Paterno supporters that still "BILLieved" and supported Bill O'Brien to make it appears as there was still a "Penn State Culture Problem" According to Jones, O'Brien finally snapped when he had mentioned Penn Stater's were wondering and questioning the firing of Linebackers coach, Ron Vanderlinden (who was hired by Paterno back in 2000). O'Brien evidently stated
“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.”
O'Brien continued,
“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.”
Ironic O'Brien claims he is or was trying to do the best he could for the kids in that program and that was all cared about.
I will not be like the Mainstream Media and forget to leave out a portion of the quote as O'Brien had ended with "As long as I’m the head football coach here.”
The problem I have with this is that he told players he was staying, and he was committed to doing what is best, for them! O'Brien was recruiting players as recent as a few weeks ago when they landed Holley. He even picked up a player (Chasz Wright) who had committed to UConn on a scholarship, to walk on (or run on, as O'Brien referred to it as) at Penn State, and in time receive a scholarship there.
The reality of it is that O'Brien knew he would been seen as a liar and traitor by his deceitfulness to his players and recruits. If O'Brien truly wanted to leave for the Houston Texans job, he should have been honest and open with is players and recruits, saying "look I am leaving to pursue a dream of mine. I need to do what is best for me" Instead O'Brien decided and needed to beat around the bush until he could set a trap that someone would fall into, which is what David Jones did. Jones apparently held onto this off the record quote for a month before revealing what O'Brien had told him.
In actuality, it is possible that what O'Brien said to him is not even true. Not in the sense that he did not say what he said, but that he actually meant it, but knew it would give him the much needed and desperate excuse to paint over his lies. Once again, lies! Lies that O'Brien told his players, and even the players parents, and recruits he was staying at Penn State. Lies so that he could be seen as a martyr and not a traitor. Lies that in the end will reveal O'Brien's word is no longer good, no matter what coaching job it is, or where it is at!
Now that O'Brien's lies worked out for him, it gave the Mainstream Media more fuel to add to the fire to place the blame on Joe Paterno supporters or "Joebots" for O'Brien's decision to leave. The reality though, is what I stated throughout this entire peace, O'Brien wanted to leave, but already told his players he was committed to them. He then needed a patsy, he got one in David Jones. Then have that patsy smear Joe Paterno supporters once more because he knew how the media would look at him as a hero and not a villain that he truly is because he already saw and knew what they said and thought of Paterno. Finally, O'Brien would escape unscathed and have others pointing fingers at each other or the wrong people and finally set sail for Houston.
As for me, well I will keep it professional, at least in this article and say that Bill O'Brien is a coward who hid behind lies to cover his backside. (Trust me I actually have colorful words that I would like to say, but will refrain from doing so).
One more thing I hope people get from all of this is that they need to know how the media works. It will lie and twist the story around to fit it's narrative to generate traffic to their websites, creating revenue, knowing full well the society is lazy to do any real research of their own and will take whatever is spoon fed to them as gospel, just to keep their precious little journalistic jobs, (i.e. Sara Ganim). Even if that means smearing and slandering someone's good name at their expense.
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Jones has "reported" an alleged conversation between him and O'Brien. I suspected that IF O'Brien was going to leave, it was because of Joyner primarily, who is running Penn State sports into the ground, along with his other BoT puppet Erickson as "interim" president. (I think it is telling that even the corrupt, incompetent BoT didn't have enough faith in Erickson to make him president permanently!) These two incompetents must be a nightmare to work foir especially when it was Erickson who laid down like a cheap whore for the NCAA and allowed morons like Mark emmert to nearly destroy Penn State's football program. Can you imagine O'Brien's reaction to the sanctions and the consent decree? By then, O'Brien was in too deep into his 1st year to leave.
ReplyDeleteBut all the clever explanations aside, until O'Brien actually weighs in with his reasons, if he ever does, we may not ever know his REAL motivations for leaving. But the bottom line is this: As recently as a week ago, he convinced Thomas Holley to commit to Penn State. He convinced Holley that he was staying at State and that his commitment to his players is solid. Now he's bailing out on his commitment to those players to take an NFL job.
I don't care about what O'Brien has said in the past about wanting to be a head coach in the NFL, he took the Penn State job knowing full well that recruiting top players and committing to their education and football careers for 4 years was what THEIR needs and interest in coming to Penn State would be based upon. He just basically said, "Tough, I'm looking out for me, good luck, kid, I hope it works out for you." What classless, ridiculous BS! IF O'Brien is done at Penn State, I CANNOT and will not ever support him again. He's just a opportunistic carpetbagger who waltzed in to Happy Valley, said what he thought everybody wanted to hear, and was never really looking out for the best interests of the kids he recruited, like Chris Hackenberg, Mike Gesicki, and Thomas Holley. Had O'Brien waited until Hackenberg graduated, then no one could claim he didn't live up to his commitment. But 2 years is a half-assed commitment to the school and the players he recruited.
I knew he wasnt going to be there forever. I also knew it was his dream to have a head coaching job in the NFL. Im completely cool and fine with that. It's the lying to the players, recruits, and their parents that he would be committed to them if they were committed to Penn State
DeleteY'know guys, I would have liked for him to stay a couple more years... but whatever the reason, he's gone. Keep in mind that The Texans fired Kubiak on Dec 6, and Jones says his talk with O'Brien was Dec 4... so there's some suspicion there.
ReplyDeleteAlso, all coaches that have an eye on upward mobility toward the NFL are going to lie to their recruits... happens all the time. It's just that I hoped O'Brien would have more concern about what a delicate situation the PSU program is still in, and even if he doesn't stick around, he leaves in a better manner.
I hear what you're saying. But regardless, even if a common trend for a coach that is getting ready to move on is to lie to recruits, still does not make it right.
DeleteIt should never be "common" to lie. The buck stops with Bill on this one. I do agree that David Jones was the patsy and just wasn't smart enough to catch on to Bill's intent. Bottom line: Bill O'Brien lied to a lot of people, people who didn't deserve that from anyone. I'm anxious to see how many people think those lies are "morally" correct.
DeleteI agree with you 110%
DeleteWhy are people getting so upset over this? Coach O'Brien took on this challenge and helped bring some respect and stability to a program that nearly faced a death penalty. He has landed top recruits the last two years and those players will be the keys to success in the future. If any of you think for a minute that CEO's and managers don’t lie to their employees for the betterment of the business, then you are crazy. Like it or not college football is a business. How do you think it would go if O'Brien took the "moral" high ground as some insist in landing any recruits? Smart people make decisions based on the whole not just a piece of a program. The same reasons that players stayed and the same reasons that players signed on was for the University, the program and what they felt would be best for them. Bill O'Brien is the leader of the football team but he is just a piece of it and there are so many good candidates out there to replace him. Al Golden is a name on the list...if he leaves Miami to come to Penn State will these same people not embrace him because he lied to recruits that he would be staying in Miami? I highly doubt it. At the end of the day I thank Coach O'Brien for righting the ship and taking the reigns during the darkest times at Penn State and the football program and wish him luck in Texas. He laid the groundwork for PSU football to come out on the other side better. His leadership and understanding of the situation created the need for the NCAA to review and reduce sanctions. Penn State and the football program will continue to move forward and upward. I look forward to seeing who the new coach will be and personally hope it’s Golden or Schiano.
ReplyDeleteHe lied to recruits, then he blamed Joe Paterno supporters for his leaving. When in actuality all it was, is it was his dream to become an NFL Head Coach. Nothing wrong with that. But to tell his players he's committed to them because they're committed to Penn State and then lie to them about and to cover up his lies, instead of telling them, hey it's been my dream to become an NFL Head Coach and now I have the opportunity and need to do what's best for me. Instead he too blames the dead guy and his supporters of why he was leaving PSU. He spit in the face of the fans and hundereds of thousands of alums when he did that. The reality is we did support Paterno, but we also supported O'Brien, and if he was too blind to see that, then that's his problem and he will have to live with the consequences!
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