Why LaVar Arrington, PSU Alums Have Reason to Be Angry over Bill O'Brien Hiring

Penn State was finally able to hire a head coach to replace Joe Paterno. With the season over for the Nittany Lions, you'd think it was a good move so they could quickly focus on next season.

But now several Penn State alums are furious with the hire, according to Blue White Illustrated.

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"I will put my Butkus (Award) in storage. I will put my Alamo Bowl MVP trophy in storage," former Nittany Lion LaVar Arrington said. "Jerseys, anything Penn State, in storage. Wherever Tom Bradley goes, that's the school I will start to put memorabilia up in my home. I'm done. I'm done with Penn State. If they're done with us, I'm done with them."

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It seems like former Penn State players are angry because the hire was not done in-house. Joe Paterno was the head coach for so long and the school is huge on tradition, so they felt the next head coach should have been a Penn State guy.

Bill O'Brien has no ties whatsoever to the Penn State program. The only college programs he's ever coached were Brown, Georgia Tech, Maryland and Duke. He doesn't even have any head coaching experience, let alone head coaching experience at the college level.

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"I don't want to be affiliated with the university if they don't choose a Penn State guy because of our standards, our graduation, all the things that have been important... it's no longer Penn State, so we might as well be in the SEC," said former Penn State linebacker Brandon Short. "They are intent on turning it into a booster culture. Ira Lubert went out and purchased a national title with wrestling and he's under the illusion that he can do that in football. Well, ask (Redskins owner) Dan Snyder about that."

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It's pretty easy to see why these players are upset. A school that is as prestigious as they are, they don't do things like other schools do. They keep things the same as long as possible and when a coach is let go, they try their best to replace him with somebody in the family. They don't go out and hire the next available guy who should build their program back up.

But at the same time, the former players have to understand the circumstances. This wasn't just the program going out and replacing Joe Paterno. The Nittany Lions' options were very limited coming off of a sex scandal. There were only a handful of guys that would have even considered becoming the head coach at this time.

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"By these people making the decisions the way that they are making them, basically coinciding with everything that's being written about our university, if they get rid of Tom Bradley, that means they in essence have accepted the fact that we are all guilty," Arrington said. "You might as well call it all the same thing."

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It's awesome how everybody is supporting Tom Bradley, who really did the best he could handling a very difficult situation. But people like LaVar Arrington must understand that what Penn State is going through isn't something that happens every day.

You can't just ignore a sex scandal and pretend it never happened. Sure, there are coaches who had nothing to do with it.

But maybe hiring Bill O'Brien was the next step in moving forward.

Randy Chambers is a B/R Featured Columnist that covers College Football and the NFL. You can contact him @Randy_Chambers or [e-mail]