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level of football, and it's a league that I have a ton of respect for. Like I've said, I'm the head football coach at Penn State, and I'm looking forward to being the head football coach at Penn State. How did family considerations play a role in your wanting to stay here at Penn State? Well, anybody who's gotten to know my wife over the last year knows that Colleen is quite obviously the star of the family. I think [sons] Michael and Jack are close seconds there. But Colleen is a very bright person, and she's obviously the most important person in my life with my two sons. We had a lot of discussions, and we're very, very happy here at Penn State. We enjoy where we live. We love the schools here, we've made a lot of good friends here, we enjoy the staff that we work with here, and it's a fantastic place to live. It's a very unique place. It's great living in a college town. There's always energy. There are students here all the time and there's a lot of energy and great student body, and so it's just been a great year for us. Obviously there's some uncertainty over the direction of the administration here in the next couple years. Is that something that you're anxious to see resolved in terms of who will be the athletic director going forward and also when a new president is named how that affects you? I'm the football coach. I'm in charge of the football program. I'm going to do the best job that I can do for the football program. What I'll say about that is I have a lot of confidence in our leaders, Rod Erickson and Dave Joyner. I have good relationships with those two guys. We talk a lot, especially Dave and I. But I also talk to Rod a lot, and just knowing the intelligence level and the character and the leadership capabilities of those guys, I'm in line behind them, and I stand with them. So whatever people above me decide to do, I have bosses. That's who I work for, and I'm going to follow that lead. Maybe another year in State College will help the place grow on O'Brien and lessen the NFL talk. Maybe being another year closer to the end of the NCAA sanctions and by then being able to see a more equal playing field will work to Penn State's advantage. Unless the New England job opens (Bill Belichick is only 60 years old) figure O'Brien will still be at Penn State on Jan. 7, 2014. 2015 or 2016 or beyond? That's anybody's guess. NEIL RUDEL ALTOONA MIRROR A head football coach testing the NFL waters, wielding power and influence in the athletic department, and serving as the face of The Pennsylvania State University? Bill O'Brien meet Joe Paterno. What's old is new again. And even though O'Brien has been head football coach of the Nittany Lions for all of 369 days, he's come a long way in a hurry. His people and organizational skills, work ethic, confidence and success (again, meet Joe Paterno) have put him in a position similar to the one his predecessor occupied for decades: Big Bob On Campus. Just like Paterno early in his own head coaching career, O'Brien has a burning interest in being even bigger on the biggest football stage of them all, the NFL. And in terms of accumulating and using power, Penn State's last two head coaches, interestingly both from Ivy League Brown, were and have been very astute. MIKE POORMAN STATE COLLEGE.COM The least-negative effect of the Sandusky scandal is that it dragged the Penn State football program kicking and screaming into the 21st century, where football coaches are paid like CEOs and work hard in part so to put themselves in demand. No, Bill O'Brien might not be the head coach at Penn State beyond next year. That seems to at least be a possibility. But if you want a terrific football program, you need a terrific coach. And if you have a terrific coach, that's all part of the deal. DONNIE COLLINS SCRANTON TIMES TRIBUNE Those who want to give O'Brien sainthood for staying at Penn State need to realize he's no different than other major-college coaches, who routinely use leverage from outside interests to get bigger and better deals. LSU's Les Miles did it this offseason. So did Louisville's Charlie Strong. Oregon's Chip Kelly appears to be the latest. The coaches are smart. They either win or win bigger. That's America, right? We all want to do what's right – what's best – for ourselves and our families. The coaches who lose me are the ones who try to be devious about it. "I love coaching these kids," O'Brien said of his Penn State players. Sure, he does. Just not enough to flat-out turn down other potential opportunities in the NFL. RON COOK PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE The loyalty of his players and recruits through the past year made it impossible for him to leave now – and may hook him on a larger scale. If nothing else, he definitely has another year to become immersed into teaching and molding young men and helping haul a prestigious university out of its darkest time – things he cannot do in the NFL. Which means there is at least more time for things to play out. As in time for a new athletic director and president to be hired. Time for more of the Jerry Sandusky-related court cases to be finished. Maybe even for those sanctions to be reviewed and lessened. Time for another season to play out. That's what Penn State supporters should focus on – and feel good about. Because this recovery can only happen one step at a time. FRANK BODANI YORK DAILY RECORD

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