Driving the Lane: Praising Bill O’Brien

Bill O’Brien is an absolute head-coaching god. The Penn State University head football coach showed once again Saturdaywhat an incredible impact he’s had on the Nittany Lions football program. He opted to forgo the obvious game-tying field goal in the fourth overtime against then-No. 18 University of Michigan and go for it on fourth and inches.

It was a decision reminiscent of his former boss in New England, Bill Belichick. He’s seen firsthand the fallout of fourth-down decisions that fail (See fourth and two in Indianapolis). But that didn’t scare O’Brien. This guy is the manliest football coach in the country. He’s the only person in the world with the balls to yell at the perfect human being that is Tom Brady.

Of course he would go for it on fourth down, and it didn’t really matter if he made it or not. It’s all about the winning attitude that he has brought to a hopeless football program.

When O’Brien took the job, I thought there was no way he could succeed — not that I didn’t think he was a great coach, but it was simply an impossible situation. He was taking his first head-coaching position at a place with an immovable dark cloud looming overhead and a bevy of NCAA sanctions to make things worse.

Don’t get me wrong — I thought that Penn State deserved to be punished with all the sanctions in the world. But the new hope that O’Brien has brought to this program is simply unbelievable.

To start, he had the challenge of convincing his current players to stay with the program. Without a doubt, I know I would have transferred at the first chance given to me. Secondly, he had the challenge of recruiting new players to a doomed program. On top of this, he had to deal with a loss of 40 scholarships over a four-year period.

Finally, he had the challenge of winning with a depleted team and the pressure of one of the most die-hard fanbases in the country. Last year was supposed to be a disaster. No one gave him a shot at winning eight games in his first year, and yet, somehow, that’s exactly what he did.

He could have used this brief success to earn a head-coaching job in the NFL. He could have bolted after one year and no one would have blamed him, but he decided to stick it out for at least another year.

And this year hasn’t been without its struggles. A home loss to the University of Central Florida and a 20-point loss to Indiana University weren’t a part of the plan for O’Brien. But it doesn’t matter because he’s already brought hope to a program when nobody thought it was possible.

It didn’t matter if he converted the fourth down Saturday. Just the attitude to go for it is all that the program needed. But the magic continued as his team came through for him. Indeed, they converted the fourth down and later scored to cap off an improbable 43-40 win against Michigan.

Penn State better get its wallet ready. O’Brien has done everything and more to deserve Nick Saban- and Urban Meyer-type money. This guy should be number one on the lists of all NFL teams needing a head coach, and Penn State should do everything it can to keep this guy because there is no better man for the job.

I hope he stays at Penn State. I want to see what he can do in a couple years when the NCAA sanctions are over. I want to see what he can do in five years when he’s finally been able to recruit the players he needs to run a high-powered offense. I believe Bill O’Brien could really transform this program from feel-good story to perennial powerhouse.

But once again, nobody would blame O’Brien if he leaves after this year. He has already done wonders for this program. He has done the impossible. He’s brought a new hope to a fan base that didn’t think they could ever recover from the Jerry Sandusky scandal. We will never forget those who were affected by this horrific incident, but Bill O’Brien has somehow brought a way of moving forward in a new era for Nittany Lion football.