With the recent head coaching openings after the end of the NFL season, one of the hottest names in the coaching carousel was Penn State’s Bill O’Brien.
O’Brien decided to stay, and I strongly believe that he made a poor choice.
He did had a surprisingly successful season for the Nittany Lions, going 8-4 and winning the Paul “Bear” Bryant Coach of the Year award. This was done after the Jerry Sandusky scandal that rocked the school to its core, and led to a number of unprecedented sanctions levied by the NCAA.
O’Brien flirted with leaving the team, but decided to stay in the end, keeping his word of staying, but also after a significant pay increase of $1.2 million from a donor.
But the question I have is this, did he make the right decision in deciding to stay with Penn State?
If you ask me, O’Brien made the wrong decision in keeping his word and staying with the school.
His name will never be hotter than it is right now, and he has nowhere to go but down. Penn State but the team overachieved and had a relatively successful season after being left for dead following thhe scandal. But this is an anomoly, those sanctions are going to cripple the team in the upcoming seasons, which could extinguish the fire of the O’Brien name.
So instead of doing the smart thing and leaving the school for the NFL, he decided to do the honorable thing and be the noble captain who goes down with his ship. Loyalty will only get him so far, and I have a feeling that he will find that out sooner than later.