Bill O’Brien officially left the Penn State Nittany Lions on New Year’s Eve to return to the NFL coaching ranks. O’Brien was named as the new head coach of the Houston Texans on Tuesday night and it looks like a move that he has been longing for.
According to David Jones of PennLive.com, O’Brien was growing frustrated at Penn State and he was prepared to leave early last month.
“That’s why, in probably about a month, they’re gonna be —-ing looking for a new coach,” O’Brien told Jones on Dec. 4.
O’Brien was tired of the politics that are involved in the college ranks and he was tired of the “Paterno supporters” attempting to tell him how he should be doing his job.
“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,” he said. “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. . . .
“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.”
O’Brien did a fantastic job at Penn State and he made the team competitive despite all of the sanctions, but he wasn’t willing to play their game any longer.
Now, O’Brien will have the opportunity to take over a team with plenty of talent and add to the roster with the No. 1 pick in the 2014 NFL Draft. If O’Brien can lead the Texans like he was able to do at Penn State will little support, the fans in Houston will be thrilled.