Bill O’Brien, Head Football Coach, Penn State University

I remember when Norm MacDonald “left” saturday night live and was replaced by Colin Quinn on the Weekend Update. Quinn opened with the monologue:

“You know how you go to your favorite bar, and your local bartender isn't there? You ask, "Where's Jeff?" "Jeff no longer works here, I'm Steve."...But you still want your drink? And even though Steve doesn't mix your drink the same way you're used to, like Jeff, you still like the same bar...Well, I'm Steve.”

It was a brilliant way to introduce himself as the replacement of a well-known and appreciated figure. Norm MacDonald is my favorite Weekend Update performer to date, so the brilliance of that intro struck me greatly.

And that was just a television show that is notorious for an ever changing lineup; replacing a cast member was completely normal. Imagine how hard it is to follow someone that people not only enjoyed, but someone that was beloved, mightily successful, revered, respected, and iconic. Imagine being the person who has to follow one of the most triumphant individuals in the history of the largest, most lucrative, most prominent collegiate event in the United States, a figure whose control and vision in the past fifty years single-handedly created thousands of new collegiate athletic jobs and millions, hundreds of millions, in revenue around the country.

Imagine having to be the man that has to follow Joe Paterno. 

In simply the most outright of circumstances, Bill O’Brien had to follow the most GIGANTIC career in college or professional football. The sheer magnitude of his fingerprint on the school, county, and state is epic to follow, let alone Paterno’s impact on the sporting nation. So much pressure. Replacing Joe Paterno is hard enough for anyone, but having to do so under the scrutiny of the most heinous scandal in football, sports, educational body, or anywhere is beyond imaginable.  

O’Brien had a responsibility to millions. His facilities were crammed with media from the moment he was introduced as head coach in early January. The man had the pressure of developing an entirely new system of play, assisting his players in adopting and adapting his vision and scheme, and fostering relationships through the character he needed to instill in players he was meeting for the first time--in football, trust and faith in team culture is integral for success; afterall, you are putting your body on the line.

And if the epic culmination of negative media, fan, local, and national attention wasn’t enough, Penn State football received one of the strongest chunk of penalties in NCAA history: over sixty million dollars in fines, the relinquishing of victories from a block of fourteen seasons, losses of upwards of fifty scholarships, and most detrimental to O’Brien’s success, a four year postseason ban. How blindingly difficult will it be to recruit players without the opportunity to do the very thing upon which their entire seasons are based? 

Unreal.

Because of this ban, of course, O’Brien lost ten players to school transfer, including two immensely talented ones, Silas Redd and Justin Brown, at major positions. Both transferred to teams ranked in the Associated Press’s Preseason Top 25, USC and Oklahoma, at #1 and #4 respectively (Silas Redd, the most high profile Penn State transfer, opted for USC, as they were a popular pick for the title game this year. USC went 7-5. Booya.) Several other players transferred to football powerhouses such as Texas and Florida State for the opportunity to play for the National Championship. But not only did O’Brien have to worry about his Penn State players fleeing campus for greener pastures on their own, there were reports that other teams were trying to lure his players away. Unreal, again.

Why do I appreciate Bill O’Brien? Because the Nittany Lions regular season is complete, and they went 8-4, 6-2 in their conference, which without sanctions--and with Ohio State’s troubles as well--would have them playing in their conference’s title game with the opportunity to play in a major bowl game. This means one very amazing thing to me: Bill O’Brien is the best example of the importance of will, respect, consequence, and responsibility in sports. Chances are he won’t win national coach of the year, as coaches with better records and national title game berths usually dominate voting. But he deserves it more than any of them. None of them had his shithole, deadend task. None them would’ve been patted on the back after a losing season, because it would’ve been expected and understood based on the situation. He would not take that crutch.

The loss of key players, loss of money, and the loss of scholarships to continue to build his program are all extremely major catalysts for failure at any level. The ultimate testament to a coach’s vision and culture and work ethic and faith is winning. Everything else is out of their hands, and his hands were more full than any pair anyway. The Nittany Lions were playing with a squad light on talent and absent of tangible goals, which means they were filled with respect and determination and pride for their school, their fans, their fellow students, and their coach, because without the chance to play in the postseason, that’s all they had. O’Brien had them playing for themselves and their school making them ambassadors, making the definitive statement that PSU needed the nation to understand so badly: this scandalous madness should not be generalized, because these crimes are our past, not who we are, and we will not lay down and quit.

That’s really what playing this game is all about: commit to responsibility.  

Pat Marino lives in New Jersey. Barry Sanders broke his heart in July of 1999.