Blue White Illustrated

The following are excerpts from Bill O���Brien���s news conference Feb. 6. Can you give us your general impressions about the class? We feel really positive about this class for many reasons. When I was hired here, the first thing we did after we met with our football team last year was that we began to delve right into recruiting. What we want here eventually is definitely a smart team, a high-character team, a big, fast, physical football team that can play in all kinds of weather. I think we���ve done that with this recruiting class. With the rules the way they are right now, the head coaches can only see these kids once off-campus. You have to give a ton of credit to our coaching staff. We have a great staff of recruiters and coaches and teachers and family guys, and [assistant coach] Billy Kavanaugh did a great job of organizing it all. You have to give those guys a lot of credit. What we did was we found guys who came from good families, who were smart guys that we think are tough guys that we know are going to come here and go to class and be good in the community. Time will tell, obviously, how good they all end up being. You never really know until they actually start playing for you. We���re excited about this class. Certainly we lost some kids because of sanctions. There���s no question about it. I���m not going to sit up here and tell you that the sanctions didn���t play a factor with some of the guys that we set out to recruit. But at the end of the day, all I���m concerned about are the guys who are here. How did you shift strategy after the sanctions were handed down? The strategy definitely changed. You go from thinking about 85 scholarships, signing 25 guys in a year, [to] immediately having to become a math- ematician and figuring out how, No. 1, you���re going to get to 65 by Sept. 1 of 2014, which is what we have to do; No. 2, thinking about how we can only sign 15 scholarship players; and No. 3, how much more important the run-on program becomes for us. There was a series of lengthy meetings with our staff, with myself, Billy Kavanaugh, Jimmy Bernhardt, who is my right-hand man here, discussing strategies, needs, all the things that go into a 65-scholarship roster and signing 15 guys [per year]. So the strategies definitely changed, and I feel like we���ve got a lot of bright guys here in this building, a lot of guys who are smarter than me who had some good ideas. The strategies will constantly be evolving, but we feel really good about how our strategy worked as it relates to today. Because of the limited scholarships you���re giving out, you can���t miss with guys, you have to be real careful. How did that change the way that you���ve approached recruiting over the last year? You���re right, you���re right. It���s almost impossible to do this, but you really can���t miss when you can only sign 15 scholarship players. We feel really good about where we���re at. But again, only time will tell. That���s when it becomes vitally important to be as thorough as you can possibly be in recruiting, as thorough as you can be within the rules of recruiting. You���ve got to do a great job of leaving no stone unturned. The next deal that becomes really, really important is the run-on program. We feel really good about that run-on program. Back in July, a couple of days after the sanctions, a group of guys came in here publicly and committed to you. How important was that? It was really important. That was an interesting day. When the sanctions came out, we had really good relationships with these families. Just like all coaches who are recruiting at these schools, you develop relationships with these families. It was neat getting to know their families, being in their hometowns, their homes. What happened in July was, we had these really good relationships with these kids who committed to us. They called, and they were upset. They Tim Owen CLASS ACT O���Brien said he feels positive about the Nittany Lions��� 17-member class.

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