How O'Brien Can Thrive at Penn State

by Cock D on Feb 1, 2012 6:01 PM EST

John U. Bacon (author of Three and Out, which covers the power struggle in Ann Arbor post-Carr) provides his thoughts on the organizational change between the Paterno era and the O'Brien era at Penn State. http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/daily-take/201201/how-bill-obrien-can-thrive-penn-state These points are essentially distilled from his book on Rich Rod but seem, generally applicable and salient to our current change. The points are all pretty good, but more than any, I hope they do a good long series of meet and greets (both public and with former players) to get him in front of the people who matter the most so we can get a feel for what he's all about.

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let's not repeat history

I live in Michigan and had a more or less a neutral sideline view of the Michigan-Rich Rod debacle. My boss is a Michigan grad and just yesterday I saw the Three and Out book on his desk – I’m going to borrow it from him this weekend. He said it should be required reading for our fan base, especially the lettermen and athletic department. He was pretty critical of Rich Rod and until having read the book; after reading he said he did a 180 on his opinion.

for my part, I’m already 100% behind Coach O’Brien, the new staff and team. So far they’ve given me no reason to do anything else. We are.

@DAWalenga

by dwlion on Feb 1, 2012 8:13 PM EST reply actions

We gotta support him

I will do so vigorously until he gives me reason to do otherwise.

Follow @hbeach08

"my dad says Michigan used to be good"

by hbeach08 on Feb 1, 2012 9:55 PM EST up reply actions 3 recs

Support.....

It is no secret that I have not been a fan of this hire……better men were told no thank you to an interview (IMO). I especially don’t like that BOB didn’t hit the ground running instead of staying with the Pats. The whole loyalty argument gets thrown out the window when discussing the NFL. Every organization in the NFL will resort to firing or cutting your ass mid-season, so when the PSU opportunity was offered to him, he should have been out on the recruiting trail trying to make nice with Cam and Armani rather than focusing on not burning any bridges with the Pats. All that said I will continue to be a fan and supporter of PSU as I have been since my father brainwashed me in the crib. As for success, the whole focus to hit the south is fine assuming they don’t let Urban rape and pillage recruits from PA. If BOB really wants recruiting success in S. Fla. he needs to get his ass on a plane and go make nice with OJ McDuffie. Next season sets up well for BOB as the D will be strong (expect a nice surprise in the secondary) and should be able to carry the team into the OSU game with 0-1 loss.

May the JVP way......success with honor forever be the Penn State way.

by pic15 on Feb 2, 2012 10:54 AM EST up reply actions

Yeah - I read the whole book

Back in October; in doing I thought this is huge for blueprinting the transition when Joe leaves. That came much sooner than expected (or wanted). Agree with your boss – a good read of that can keep us from going down that path.

by Cock D on Feb 1, 2012 10:07 PM EST up reply actions

As long as O'Brien keeps saying the right things,

coming off as a thoughtful, excitable, and yet humble human being, and graduating players, I’ll happily give him 3 years of my full support with the expectation that year 4 will at least show progress in the right direction.

He has to be given some leeway to not only be his own coach, but to fail a little bit as he makes the changes necessary to be his own coach.

Unlike the RichRod parallels, it seems like BOB’s new system isn’t going to rely on significantly different kinds of athletes at just about every position, so hopefully he can find enough success early that he never has to feel the immense pressure of a losing season (and the resulting hurt that puts on recruiting). Despite the scandal, BOB is probably inheriting a better situation than RichRod was too, in terms of starting with a team that outperformed expectations (and must be incredibly mentally tough by this point). And, I daresay that the circumstances around how we came to be without Joe means that Paterno’s supporters are less likely to reject BOB simply because he replaced THE guy. Anger at the replacement of Joe is squarely aimed at the BOT not the BOB… and BOB, in fact, becomes a bit of a sympathetic character in all of this because of his willingness to step into a rough spot. If Joe had been “forced out” and still alive after this year, at least a portion of our fanbase would have held that against whoever replaced him… especially if that replacement was NOT the blue-chip coach everyone wanted.

Thankfully I’ve seen the angst over this hire dissipate a lot in the days following his press conference. A win in the SuperBowl might further quiet the last rumblings of dissent about how the hire was handled. And then we can all let the healing begin…

by BNittsDeMilo on Feb 3, 2012 4:58 PM EST reply actions

All he has to do is

be himself. Penn State is as much about tradition than X’s and O’s, probably more so. He should, obviously, be respectful of that tradition and seems to be (i.e.: the uniforms). That said, he has to be himself. Any attempt to pander to the fan base will be seen as just that…pandering.

At the end of the day, I personally just want him to focus on the important things: graduating his players, holding his players to a higher standard of conduct and putting a quality team on the field. If he does these things, he’ll be fine.

Welcome Coach and Good Luck

by Keith Platt on Feb 7, 2012 10:48 AM EST reply actions