It's hard to believe some people are criticizing Bill O'Brien for leaving Penn State after two seasons to take the Houston Texans' coaching job. Quite simply, he left for what he considers a better job, and who can criticize that?
O'Brien deserves a ton of credit for his work in a short amount of time in Happy Valley. The overriding theme here is that the program is back on solid footing.
Coaches receive credit all the time for turning around programs that were a "dumpster fire." Look at Auburn's Gus Malzahn and the work he has done in a year's time with the Tigers. Well, O'Brien took over a tire fire that was built on a toxic waste dump.
That is not meant to make light of the situation at Penn State. The school went through a scandal with no precedent (and hopefully there is no school that will have to follow this blueprint ever again), and O'Brien did a great job shepherding the football program through unfathomable conditions.
The 2012 season easily could have spun out of control. Instead, O'Brien and his staff oversaw a team that incredibly finished 8-4, and along the way, they turned Matt McGloin -- a guy who looked more like a FCS player than a Big Ten player under the previous coaching staff -- into a good college quarterback; they also gave McGloin the tools to play in the NFL, where he started a few games for Oakland this season.
This season, O'Brien and his staff coaxed a 7-5 record out of a team that lacked depth and playmakers, and they also did expert work with true freshman quarterback Christian Hackenberg. After Ohio State's Braxton Miller, Hackenberg was the best quarterback in the Big Ten this season. And his upside as a pro quarterback is better than Miller's. Hackenberg is an excellent building block for the next coach.
The next coach will take over a team that will return at least 13 starters next season. He'll take over a program whose past two recruiting classes were vastly better than anyone expected. He'll take over a program that has a solid group of commitments in place for the 2014 recruiting class. He'll also take over a program that's now in the good graces of the NCAA; the organization eased up on some of its punishment this year and likely will ease up on even more next year -- to the point where Penn State seemingly will be eligible for the postseason in 2014.
As to who the next coach will be, that's the next fascinating chapter in this story. Already, some of the names being floated are recently fired Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Greg Schiano, current University of Miami coach Al Golden and current Tennessee Titans coach Mike Munchak. All three have Penn State ties: Golden is a former player and assistant, Munchak is a former player and Schiano is a former assistant.
But can Penn State really hire someone with ties to Joe Paterno -- and by extension, ties to Jerry Sandusky? Unless you're a Paterno loyalist, the idea that Penn State would hire a new coach with Paterno ties has to give you great pause.
Thing is, there seems to remain a vocal faction of Penn State fans who are -- for lack of a better term -- "loyal" to Paterno. A lot of those people seem to see the program through a sort of Paterno prism. That evidently was a problem for O'Brien, and it likely will be going forward for the new coach.
"You can print this: You can print that I don't really give a expletive] what the 'Paterno people' think about what I do with this program," O'Brien told David Jones of the [Harrisburg (Pa.) Patriot-News in early December. "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."
Non-Paterno-aligned names that could emerge as potential contenders are Vanderbilt's James Franklin (a Pennsylvania native), Mississippi State's Dan Mullen (there are people who will tell you Penn State is the dream job for Mullen, a Northeast guy), Ball State's Pete Lembo and San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator Greg Roman.
That each of the aforementioned quartet would listen intently to Penn State is because of the work O'Brien did in two years. The job is a good one again; it wasn't when O'Brien took over.
Mike Huguenin can be reached at mike.huguenin@nfl.com. You also can follow him on Twitter @MikeHuguenin.
