Comments on: Report: no out in O’Brien’s Penn State contract

By: granadafan

granadafan — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 18:28:28 +0000

Of course the NCAA has to punish the schools. They are the employers and have to be held accountable. They received hundreds of millions of dollars in donations and built fabulous facilities. If the schools were no punished there would be no incentive to comply with rules. They’d just let the coaches run rampant recruiting wise with lots of extra cheating benefits and just “fire” the coach. There HAS to be consequences.

By: gifforrh

gifforrh — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 18:09:09 +0000

Quite honestly unless Mr. O’Brien wants to relegate himself to a caretaker, I believe he is doing himself and his family a disservice by staying. He is giving up a promising career in the NFL or major college program to continue in a position where he has no opportunity to achieve the provisions of his contract because of the sanctions. (I am certain any quality football organization could mitigate the penalties in his contract with PSU ) In addition he will be going from dealing with All-Pros at New England to second or third tier football players who will not be able to play at the level necessary to successfully implement his offensive schemes. He had nothing to do with PSU and although altruism is the Kool-Aid of the day he needs to think of what is best for himself and his family. The longer he stays at PSU, the more difficult it will be to move to a quality program. Of course if his career aspirations are to work in a lower stress job with little chance of advancement, he is probably in the right place. And I am a PSU graduate with season tickets.

By: CBFAN

CBFAN — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 17:38:08 +0000

I can’t imagine any of the players would want to stay at this point, unless maybe they are going into their senior year or are not good enough to transfer and play at another school.

By: raysfan1

raysfan1 — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 17:33:33 +0000

I feel (a little) bad for the guy. His contract is not up for renewal until the probation is done. However, he really should have been able to anticipate something like this.

I agree with ‘eers above to an extent. I doubt O’Brien will be the head coach in 5 years. However, for the RichRod example to work, someone else has to want him bad enough to help pay the exit penalty. O’Brien simply does not yet have the kind of track record RichRod did when UM went after him, so that scenario is unlikely. I also don’t think he has much shot at putting up eye-popping numbers at PSU the next few years either. I think the most likely is he either gets let go at some point and goes back to the NFL as an assistant coach, or leaves on his own to go back to the NFL as an assistant in after 3-4 years when the exit fee won’t be so high.

By: mvp43

mvp43 — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 17:33:28 +0000

Well, on the brightside all he needs now is 299 wins to surpass Paterno…

By: rickrock6661982

rickrock6661982 — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 16:39:58 +0000

Bill needs to pull a George Costanza in trying to get fired.

No one would blame him and it would be funny to watch.

By: mountaineer50415

mountaineer50415 — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 16:12:30 +0000

Are you kidding me. When did a contract stop any one. Can we have a comment from RichRod?
If he wants out I believe there is a lawyer somewhere that can get him out. If he stays, just maybe some of the kids will stay also.
Can not immagine anyone with a pro dream staying. But you never know.

By: muir6

muir6 — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 16:08:27 +0000

Weak right on not even funny

By: j0esixpack

j0esixpack — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 16:00:51 +0000

Maybe he wanted to be there come hell or high water –

But I get the feeling O’Brien and his agent screwed up on this one by not only failing to give him an “out” that would have paid him well even if the program were suspended – but by screwing up even more by forcing O’Brien HIMSELF to pay out millions if he wanted to get on with his football coaching career.

It seems to me if they had correctly gauged the potential of the program being suspended, this contract would read very differently.

By: righton989

righton989 — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 15:47:50 +0000

Mike McQuery ready to offer his coaching, recruiting and leadership qualities to rebuild Penn State’s reputation. Mike’s commitment is evident when he tells the coach, “I’m ready to walk that Second Mile with you.”

By: alligatorsnapper

alligatorsnapper — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 15:35:24 +0000

With Penn State players now allowed to leave and a reduction of scholarships from 25 to 15, with the $60 Million fine to establish a fund to help those children who suffer sexual child abuse, and the other sanctions will truly make O’Brien’s next 4 years or more at Penn State quite a challenge. This directly affects his team (or the team he is left to coach).

There are a few coaches nearby who will try to gobble up all the cream of Penn State’s offense and defense. If O’Brien can do reasonably well, he needs a bonus, just like Al Golden needs one for handling the mess he inherited. It is going to be a rough next 4 years or more for O’Brien.

By: huskersrock1

huskersrock1 — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 15:16:09 +0000

This has the makings of a movie about O’brien trying to get fired.

By: houndofthebaskervols

houndofthebaskervols — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 15:14:43 +0000

That explains the look on OBrien’s face. “I signed what???” LOL

Well it looks like PSU at least has a head coach for the next several years, now where are the assistants going to come from ?

By: rajbais

rajbais — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 15:06:55 +0000

You see people!!

That’s why suspending the program because of a predecessor’s offense was a bad idea!!!

O’Brien is a person too and deserves praise for not seeking a sleazy sneak-out clause in his contract!!!

Give this guy a chance and some courtesy for a change!!!

My God!!! If everyone was so smart they would’ve known that Joe Paterno was behind all this crap before the Freeh Report!!! Then the pressure to suspend football would’ve made more sense because you don’t have to hire a coach or recruit players!!!

Again, Jerry Sandusky’s mess was a personal and individual problem and not a football team problem!!! Teams have coaches and players and if it were a football team problem players would’ve been implicated and eventually punished by the NCAA as well!!!

By: bustermcthunderstick1

bustermcthunderstick1 — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 14:50:11 +0000

I would love to sit here and comment on this but I now have a chance to be a starting “whatever I want” at Penn St once all of these players bail….

By: bauman007

bauman007 — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 14:46:58 +0000

If you think about it though, he has all the pressure of winning off of him, however he’s got a tough road ahead to recruit.

By: stoutfiles

stoutfiles — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 14:43:07 +0000

All the players should leave. No one should want to play for such a dirty school right now.

By: allmyteamsareterrible

allmyteamsareterrible — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 14:42:43 +0000

Good luck Mr. O’Brien, the Lord knows you’re going to need it.