O’Brien confirms O’Brien interest in Penn State

And the transfer plot thickens.

At Penn State’s pro day Wednesday, first-year head coach Bill O’Brien confirmed that former Maryland quarterback Danny O’Brien is interested in the Nittany Lions as a potential transfer destination. O’Brien, the coach, said that O’Brien, the player, had reached out to the program, but did not go any further so as to keep his coloring inside the NCAA lines.

Since announcing last month that he had requested and been granted a release from his Terps scholarship, at least 15 schools have expressed interest in the 2010 Freshman All-American. However, three programs have emerged as the perceived front-runners -- Penn State, Wisconsin and Vanderbilt. While the latter is viewed as the leader for the QB’s services due to the relationship between the player and the Commodores’ head coach, the pro-style offense being installed in Happy Valley and O’Brien’s connection to Tom Brady has turned PSU into major players for the transfer.

“I told the team I’ll do anything I can to improve the team within the rules,” Coach O’Brien told reporters.

For those curious, and to clear up some earlier Twitter confusion, it is not an NCAA violation for O’Brien to confirm O’Brien’s recruitment. From the 2011-2012 NCAA Div. 1 Manual, Article 13.10.2:

Comments Before Signing. Before the signing of a prospective student-athlete to a National Letter of Intent or an institution’s written offer of admission and/or financial aid, a member institution may comment publicly only to the extent of confirming its recruitment of the prospective student-athlete. The institution may not comment generally about the prospective student-athlete’s ability or the contribution that the prospective student-athlete might make to the institution’s team; further, the institution is precluded from commenting in any manner as to the likelihood of the prospective student-athlete’s signing with that institution.

Getting back to O’Brien, the player: his high school coach confirmed to CFT last week that the QB will take “three or four” official visits, although he politely refused to specify the schools on O’Brien’s vacationing to-do list. O’Brien is expected to take his first official visit at some point this week or, at the latest, next week.

A final decision could happen by mid-April, and should happen before the end of that month, the coach told CFT.