Bill O'Brien to Penn State: Nittany Lions Will Struggle Under New Regime

Penn State football took almost two months to make a decision, but they reportedly have finally found their man.

ESPN’s Chris Mortensen is reporting that New England Patriots offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien will be named head coach on Saturday morning.

It took them since November to find this guy?

O’Brien has been with the Patriots staff since 2007. He started off as an offensive assistant, then moved onto become receivers coach in 2008, quarterbacks coach in 2009-10 and offensive coordinator in 2011.

He held assistant positions in the collegiate ranks with ACC schools Georgia Tech, Duke and Maryland before the Pats.

There are three huge problems here:

1. O’Brien doesn’t have any sort of head coaching experience

How well can this guy lead a group of 80 young men? How well can he lead 80 men with the biggest collegiate scandal in history hanging over their heads?

O’Brien had every coaches' dream job as offensive coordinator of the Patriots. With Tom Brady in charge, it really doesn’t matter who has the headset.

Now he has to learn how to be a head coach on the fly under the extreme public scrutiny that comes with this gig.

2. O’Brien Has Zero Experience Recruiting in the Big Ten

He is an ACC guy at heart and now will be forced to compete against Urban Meyer and Brady Hoke for recruits? It’s just not going to happen. With the Jerry Sandusky stigma destined to cloud the school for years, Penn State needed a stronger personality with brand-name recognition.

Which leads me to my next point…

3. There Were Better Candidates for the Job

Tennessee Titans coach Mike Munchak was a candidate, while San Francisco 49ers coach Mark Roman was one as well.

Plenty of other coaches at smaller coaches were rumored to be on their radar. The key word is head coach.

There were much better options for the job and I think the Nittany Lions chose O’Brien in a clear panic move.

He’s not the best man for the job, and I can’t say the Penn State football program is in reliable hands. Sure, he could prove the curse of former Bill Belichick assistants wrong, but the odds are stacked sky high against him.

The good news is that he has no connections to the school; the bad news is that the team is destined to have a six-win cap for as long as O’Brien is in charge.