O’Brien Is Building a Solid Foundation at Penn State

The NCAA slammed Penn State with a four-year bowl ban and a loss of
40 scholarships over a four-year span in response to the sex abuse
scandal. Although O’Brien’s resume includes him working with The
Patriots and being the coach that once chewed out Patriots quarterback
Tom Brady on the sideline, he has had to sell himself to alumni and most
importantly his current team and potential recruits. With a four-year
bowl ban there were naturally defections by players from Penn State such
as running back Silas Redd who is now playing with The USC Trojans. In
spite of everything that has been thrown at him, O’Brien has exceeded
expectations in his first season in Happy Valley.

Through nine games The Nittany Lions have posted a 6-3 record
while they are currently in second place in The Big Ten Conference’s
Leaders Division. After consecutive losses to start the season against
The Ohio Bobcats and The Virginia Cavaliers, Penn State was expected to
go into the tank for the rest of the season, but they have shown the
world that they are fighters.

What has separated Brady from most NFL quarterbacks is his
poise and leadership. Now through O’Brien’s guidance the same thing can
be said about Penn State senior quarterback Matt McGloin. McGloin is
providing leadership on and off the field for The Nittany Lions. McGloin
was one of the first players to announce his intent to remain at Penn
State and he is enjoying a career year in the process. This season
McGloin has had career highs in completion percentage (62.1), passing
yards (2,436), and quarterback rating (138.0). Senior linebacker Michael
Mauti is carrying on Penn State’s name as “Linebacker U”. At 6’2″, 232
lbs, Mauti has the look of a typical blue-collar Penn State linebacker
in the mode of Paul Poslusny, Shane Conlan, Jack Ham, and LaVar
Arrington to name a few. On the season Mauti is Penn State’s leading
tackler with 83 and he leads the teams with 3 interceptions. Mauit’s
father Rich and his brother Patrick played for Penn State so he is proud
to keep the family tradition going at Penn State. Players such as
McGloin and Mauti will always be in Penn State lore because they took
the tough road which involved them staying in Happy Valley when they
could have easily gotten a bus out of town.

Now with three games
remaining Penn State will have a large hand in what teams will play in
The Big Ten Championship Game as they play The Nebraska Cornhuskers,
Indiana Hoosiers, and Wisconsin Badgers who are all in contention.
O’Brien still has a tough chore ahead of him because it will be
difficult for him to bring blue-chip recruits in due to the fact that
The Nittany Lions still have three more years of being ineligible for a
bowl after this year. O’Brien will have more success recruiting in a few
years due to his NFL background because players know that he can help
them as far as getting to the next level. The same way that Paterno
built a foundation at Penn State, O’Brien is building his own now.
O’Brien isn’t a quitter and you can see that in his football team.
O’Brien could have easily quit once the sanctions by The NCAA came down.
Players could have easily quit on Penn State as well. The community in
Happy Valley could have turned their backs on this team after they
started 0-2 this season. Like the old saying goes, tough times don’t
last, but tough people do. O’Brien is once again making Beaver Stadium a
happy place and he has once again made it cool to be associated with
Penn State.