Penn State Football: O’Brien Keeps Positives In Mind Following Win

Winning has always come naturally to the Penn State football program. Each season expectations are set high both by those directly involved with the program and those just observing it.

For the most part those expectations have been met and as a result Penn State football has grown over the years to become one of the most successful college football programs in Division I history.

So when the Nittany Lions beat Syracuse last weekend there was little cause for celebration in large part due to the continuing expectations that winning will still be the norm in Happy Valley. 

That may very well be true. A talented cast of coaches and hard working players to boot has made Bill O’Brien’s first year (plus one game) in Happy Valley a memorable one for fans. However, for all of those positives, Penn State football faces an uphill battle game after game, for what very well could be the next five or more years.

O’Brien knows this, and despite all of the odds faced on Saturday the Nittany Lions still won, something fans can be thankful for. 

“We went into the game at MetLife Stadium with a true freshman at quarterback,” O’Brien said Tuesday at his weekly teleconference. “I think it was 104 degrees on the field throughout the game. We didn’t have our best wide receiver for the first half because of what I decided to do there.

“Defensively we put the defense into some tough situations. We did this with 65 scholarship players. We’ve got a very tough, resilient football team. Personally I’m going to try to do the best I can to improve this week as a head coach and do a better job offensively, defensively and special teams. But to me, I just think we should be talking about (the positives) a lot.”

And that’s where O’Brien gets it right. No matter how easy winning has been for Penn State in the past, each win in the “new era” of NCAA sanctioned football is a reason for O’Brien to celebrate, and he’s hoping fans celebrate too.

“But winning, winning, winning is the most important thing, and we won the football game. Winning is like salt water, it cures everything. And you’re from Pennsylvania so you don’t even know about saltwater, but I’m from the Cape,” O’Brien said laughing. “Winning’s the bottom line and we won the football game. I thought it was just collectively a good team effort.”