Updated at 3:52 p.m.
Bill O’Brien has waited his whole coaching career for this, 20 long years for a chance to call the shots on the sidelines.
Saturday is why he took a significant pay cut to be a low-level offensive assistant to Bill Belichick in New England, and, of course, why he accepted the job in January on the heels of the most horrific scandal in college athletics.
After eight months of re-polishing a program, upgrading the weight training regime, shuffling in a new coaching staff and implementing more modern offensive and defensive schemes, forging through the Freeh Report and NCAA sanctions, here is O’Brien, four days before his coaching debut, before Penn State opens a season with a coach other than Joe Paterno for the first time since 1965.
Finally.
‘I will certainly have butterflies before this game,’ O’Brien said. ‘I’d be crazy to tell you otherwise.’
So what to expect on Saturday when the Nittany Lions host Ohio?
‘I would never put a label on myself,’ O’Brien said. ‘I’m a coach that believes in sound offense and sound defense and playing good on special teams and not turning the ball over and not committing stupid penalties, and at the end of the day hopefully that’s a winning recipe.’
The narrative surrounding this week’s game is a galvanized team that stuck together despite significant NCAA sanctions and the freedom to transfer to any school and immediately be eligible to play. Myriad players said Tuesday via teleconference they are just anxious to get back to playing football. That’s why they signed with Penn State.
They also signed to play for Big Ten championships, and Penn State is about to embark on a three-month journey where its ending is already written. There is no Big Ten championship or bowl game.
‘Toward the beginning we were thinking about everything being a burden,’ senior defensive tackle Jordan Hill said. ‘Now, let’s just go play football.’
O’Brien sounds like he’d rather marginalize what Saturday means, and it’s no front. Facts are, 11 games follow Saturday. Names will be on the backs of uniforms each week. There is a winner and loser, and O’Brien is hellbent on doing the former a lot more than the latter because now, for the first time in a long time, performance dictates job status at Penn State.
‘The expectation, as long as I’m the head football coach here, as it’s always been, the expectation is to go out there and win,’ he said. ‘And I’d say that would be the same for every football program in America.’
Said senior linebacker Mike Mauti: ‘A successful season for us is to go out and compete the best we can, to do our best and fight for four quarters every Saturday. Losing is never going to be accepted at a place like Penn State. There’s too much riding on this. I think this team has a lot of special qualities that are going to go a long way beyond football.’
Most of those qualities were already established when each player made the decision to remain at Penn State. Saturday, they run out of the Beaver Stadium tunnel, past the Blue Band and amidst 100,000 fans.
Just like any other Saturday.
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Other highlights from O’Brien’s weekly Tuesday news conference and players’ comments in advance of Saturday’s season opener against Ohio at Beaver Stadium (noon, ESPN):
- Paul Jones is still the No. 2 quarterback, but freshman Steven Bench is pressing him.
- Defensive end Pete Massaro will play Saturday, but his reps during games and practice will be monitored moving forward, as is typical with most veteran players.
- Safety Jake Fagnano (hamstring) will play Saturday.
- O’Brien expects all freshmen listed on the depth chart to be ready to play and contribute on Saturday.
- State College native Alex Kenney is a candidate to return kicks, but O’Brien has not finalized who his return men are just yet.
- The defense does not have one singular play caller. It’s a no-huddle defense where everyone gets the signal from the sideline. ‘It’s going pretty well,’ senior linebacker Gerald Hodges said.
- Safety Malcolm Willis is still receiving treatment for his minor ankle injury that cost him a couple of practice days, but he will play Saturday.
