Bill O’Brien grew frustrated at Penn State

Nov 23, 2013; University Park, PA, USA; Penn State Nittany Lions head coach Bill O’Brien signals during the fourth quarter against the Nebraska Cornhuskers at Beaver Stadium. Nebraska defeated Penn State 23-20 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: Matthew O’Haren-USA TODAY Sports

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.

Topics: Bill O'Brien, Penn State Nittany Lions

Josh Sanchez

Josh majored in journalism at Seton Hill University and is currently Editor-in-Chief for FanSided.com and a member of the Football Writers Association of America. Prior to joining FanSided.com as editor, Josh was senior editor at NFLSpinZone.com, TheLandryHat.com, CagePages.com and NFLMocks.com. His work has been featured on various media outlets including: ESPN.com, SportsIllustrated.com, NFL.com, FOXSports.com and CBSSports.com. You can e-mail Josh at [email protected]

Scarlet

“the Paterno faction of people*, or whatever you call them”

Whether a conscious choice of words, or not: hilarious.

*One thing you DON’T call them: victims.
jwz

Please document this “lack of support” at Penn State of which you speak.
- Desertmer
  
  Yes PSU fans and Paternobots showed their utter disdain and hatred for Bill with their indiscriminate use of Billieve stickers and magnets all over their clothes and cars, their trekking up to Happy Valley to cheer on the team, the posting all over the Internet about How great Penn State is and what a great job BillO was doing…. Just terrible that lack of support. Bill has, ahem, a severe inferiority complex I fear….
Billyboy172

Where are the Paterno People trying to tell him how to run his program? I’d like to know. David Jones set that question up. He to wrote an article wondering why Vandy left. On all the PSU threads there were afew wondering why this happened but no sustained questioning. This was a hatchet interview. He asked an inflammatory question with no facts to back up what he was saying. Sound familiar? O’Brien knew he was leaving before this and this interview gave him his out. Instead of focusing on him giving his “Word” and focusing on the dirty way he left it has become an easy way to blame someone else. I guess those 110,000 that were at the Michigan game were yelling what plays to call. The idea the “Paterno People” weren’t supporting him is BS just like the “Culture Problem” BS.
- jwz
  
  Exactly. If you read the entire article– not just the paragraphs the media outlets decided to cut, paste, and publish– Jones states that he himself invoked O’Brien’s ire by suggesting that there were all these “Paterno-people” who were second guessing O’Brien. Jones initiated that part of the conversation– not O’Brien.
  
  It is also noteworthy that one comment O’Brien did make, about the lack of leadership at the University, was mentioned by not elaborated in any way by Jones. Since it’s obvious to anyone in the state of Pennsylvania that O’Brien is referring to the Board of Trustee, AD David Joyner, and acting president (and doing a poor job of “acting:) Rodney Erickson, and since PennLive have been staunch apologists for these people for the past 2 years, there is no way Jones or anyone else at the paper is going to criticize or question them.
  
  So the story is that the reporter has a 20-minute conversation with coach, doesn’t get too much he can use in an article, so he has to create a story by throwing out some suggestion about “Paterno-people” to a coach he already knows has a volatile temper. O’Brien reacts to reporter’s suggestion, reporter gets quotes and finishes story.
  
  I would suggest to any other media outlet that they need to check facts for themselves before re-printing anything that comes from PennLive or the Patriot News.
  - Lenny Pepperidge
    
    You simply must be the dumbest cult member out there. Seriously, do you even use your brain or does all wisdom simply flow from the teachings of Glorious Dear Leader Pa Joe Il.
    
    If O’Brien was talking about the administration, he would have said the “administration people.” He said “Paterno People” because that’s exactly who he meant–the sick dysfunctional Paterno Cult that is killing Penn State. You are the reason he left, and you are the reason no decent Presidential candidate is going anywhere near that job.
    - Nellie R
      
      No, he simply would not say it as he was still employed by them at the time. The reason he left he stated when he first arrived. It was his dream to be an NFL HC. Everyone at PSU knew it. Sorry you fell for the Jones Hoopla
    - jwz
      
      I’m sure you just saw the part that said “it was the Paterno-people” and you figured you didn’t have to read anymore. So, I’ll point this part out to you that either didn’t bother or were unable to read: “Some of his frustrations revolved around what he saw as the lack of
      leadership at Penn State and his desire simply to fulfill his job
      description as the football coach, not university figurehead.”
      
      Now, dear Lenny, whose responsibility would that leadership be? I’m flattered by your insistence that I wield such great powers to make a Division I football coach leave town. But it is clear to anyone with a 4th grade reading comprehension level (oh dear, that does leave you out, doesn’t it?) that the leadership that O’Brien felt was lacking should be coming from the Board of Trustees, Athletic Director, and temporary President.
      
      So let’s ask why Mr. Jones decided not to ask any further questions regarding this lack of leadership, or why he chose not to print any more of O’Brien’s remarks about it. Oh that’s right, because the Patriot News, Tom Corbett, and the rest of the BOT are the unholy trinity, sworn to cover each other’s posteriors to the bitter end. And that is what cause O’Brien to leave. Sorry you can’t deal with that reality, so you and Dave can keep coming up with stories about cults and secret handshakes and what not.
Lenny Pepperidge

The Paterno Cult is making that university completely toxic. The administration can’t find a decent President and were on the verge of offering it to a third tier medical school Dean who had to withdraw when it came out that he was padding his salary with money from companies doing business with the school.

What A-list Presidential candidate (or football coach for that matter) is going to go there and deal with the Paterno cultists and the Paterno truthers and the “Paterno was Framed” film makers….with Franco and Crazy Joe Lubrano and the Rallies for Resignation……with the zombie ex-players and the Paterno family lawsuits.

The school is quickly becoming a joke in academic circles if they can’t disassociate themselves from the Paterno cult.
- Nellie R
  
  What “academic circles” do you run in? Obviously not one that can tell fact from fiction.
- jwz
  
  According to your friends at the Patriot News, it’s only a handful of people who belong to this cult. But here you are with an entire list. I would say, considering you haters can’t even agree on the number of these alleged Joebots, or whatever you want to call them this week, your argument is pointless. You can’t have it both ways– say they’re an inconsequential group that nobody cares about one day, then say they’re a huge mob that is driving away head coaches and presidential candidates the next.
  
  If the BOT is unable to properly vet a candidate for president, that seems to be yet another problem with the leadership with which O’Brien was frustrated. How is this the responsibility of anyone else?