Penn State Football: Bill O'Brien Likes His Quarterbacks, Believe It or Not

One of the unfortunate constants of the last two seasons of Penn State football has been the breathtaking ineptitude displayed by quarterbacks Rob Bolden and Matt McGloin, who waged one of the worst campaigns of "Who's the less incompetent QB?" since Steve Bellisari* and Austin Moherman inflicted themselves on an unsuspecting Ohio State fanbase in 1999.

New coach Bill O'Brien lost out on the sweepstakes for outgoing Maryland QB Danny O'Brien (no relation), so it's obvious that he saw some need for improvement and/or new blood at the position and he didn't get it. Life must go on.

Yet, now that spring practices are in full swing, O'Brien is evaluating his quarterbacks and we're seeing...optimism? Really? Yes, according to ESPN.com, O'Brien is optimistic:

While there have been expected growing pains, O'Brien saw encouraging signs in Friday's scrimmage. 

"It wasn't perfect," he said. "We threw interceptions, we fumbled the ball, we've got a long way to go. But you can just tell certain things were clicking. That was pretty cool to see." 

O'Brien doesn't expect to name a starter before the end of the spring -- he'd like to make a decision 2-3 weeks before the season opener -- but he will reduce the pool from three to two in the next two weeks. 

"One guy will have a decent day and the next day, a different guy will have a better day," O'Brien said. "But we give them a lot of reps, so they all have their chances."

Let's be clear: McGloin and Bolden have ranged from "mildly competent" to "really deserves to be benched for the rest of the season" over the last two years. Paul Jones is attempting to be the first quarterback to succeed after academic troubles since...who?

If O'Brien can get even a 130 passer rating out of one of those guys with at least 15 attempts per game, he should be in the short conversation for Big Ten Coach of the Year. No exaggeration. 

We're not holding our breath about that, though. Sorry, we've seen too much from these quarterbacks to start up with this optimism business.

*Incidentally, the last three coaches at Ohio State have all been fired after long, successful tenures; Woody Hayes punched a Clemson player and Jim Tressel set fire to his compliance notebook, but "three-year starting QB Steve Bellisari" might have been the worst transgression of the three. Nice work, John Cooper.