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H I S T O R Y Kyle Brady reflects on his stellar career and an encounter with PSU's future coach END GAME K yle Brady didn't realize it at the time, but five years ago he saw firsthand the adaptable and ag- gressive offensive coaching phi- losophy that will mark Penn State's first football season in 47 years without Joe Paterno calling the shots. Brady, arguably one of the two best tight ends in Penn State history along with Ted Kwalick, was then in his 13th NFL season, but this was his first year with the New England Patriots. There was another new man about his age on the offensive staff, and both of them were learning what football was like in the orbit of Patriots head coach Bill Be- lichick. "Coach O'Brien was just breaking into the NFL, and he was soaking everything in," Brady said, referring to Penn State's future head coach, Bill O'Brien, then an offensive assistant on the Pa- triots' staff. "He's a very intelligent guy and knew an immense amount about football before his arrival. Like any per- son in their first year, he didn't say a whole lot, but he had an input into our offensive schemes and in the quarter- back [meeting] room." Brady also remembered O'Brien's personal side. "He really went out of his way to acknowledge me in particular," Brady recalled. "I was a new guy up there, too, even though I was an estab- lished veteran. I'd pass by and he'd say, 'Hi, Kyle, how you doing today?' He'd L O U P R A T O | B L U E W H I T E C O N T R I B U T O R give you a warm greeting, and we had a few conversations at lunch or wher- ever. He seemed like a genuine, down- to-earth guy." The 2007 season was Brady's only one with the Patriots and his last in the NFL, as he retired after its conclusion. New England's offense was not built around a two-tight end passing attack that year as it was in 2011, O'Brien's first year as offensive coordinator and play-caller. But Brady's description of the Patriots' offensive philosophy is reminiscent of O'Brien's recent com- ments about the offense he's planning to institute at Penn State. "Having [quarterback] Tom Brady there, I highly doubt they revamped the offense when Bill O'Brien took the reins," Brady said recently from his home outside Jacksonville, Fla. "I imagine they allowed O'Brien some lee- way. That's something Coach Be- lichick is very good at, letting his coaches call the plays – especially on offense, because he's such a defensive- minded coach – [and] being creative, figuring out personnel and positional mismatches going into a game. "They're a very good game-planning team. When they go into a particular week and they're facing an opposing team's defense, it's basically a chess game. They'll look at their personnel and say, what can we exploit with the strengths of our personnel and the weaknesses in their personnel? And they break it down not only by down and distance but by coverage tenden- cies and even on how a team will match up against certain personnel packages." As an example, Brady cites last sea- son's highly productive two-tight end passing offense featuring 6-foot-6, 265-pound Rob Gronkowski and 6-1, 245-pound Aaron Hernandez: "Typical- ly, when teams go with a tight end set, the opposing team's defense will put a heavier, less-mobile, run-oriented de- fense in the game because tradition- ally two-end sets have been heavier with two tanks in the game that try to grind the ball down the field. But when you've got two guys as athletic and with as much ability as Gronkowski and Hernandez, you can put them in the game and your whole playbook can be wide open. Gronkowski can beat safeties on that type of coverage. So, if you have receivers outside, they can be covered by cornerbacks, and when you get Hernandez on a safety or a linebacker, it presents serious mis- match problems. You can run the ball from that set, you can pass the ball, you can just about do anything." Brady said he would have relished the opportunity to play in O'Brien's system. As O'Brien explained it recent- ly, one tight end position is designat- ed the "Y" and is "a bigger guy [whose] No. 1 job is to block, and then run short and intermediate passing routes." The other tight end plays the "F" position and "is a move guy, little bit better pass receiver." "Any tight end would dream of play- ing in that offense [and] having that many opportunities to get the ball," Brady said. "And they're using them cre- atively, moving them around a lot. I know Hernandez, in particular, was more often the guy playing in that H- back type of role, moving into a slot po- sition and motioning. As a tight end, you want to have that role as blocker and runner, and it's even more fun when you get used in very creative ways." Brady, who played in the NFL at 6- 6, 278 pounds, said that in his final season he was definitely a "Y," but at various times in his career he played both positions. Brady was a first- round draft choice of the New York Jets – the ninth overall selection in 1995 – after an All-America season at Penn State. He was a four-year starter, but it wasn't until he signed with Jack- sonville as a free agent in 1999 that his receiving skills were truly utilized. In his four years with the Jets, Brady averaged 27 receptions and 237 yards a season. His best year was his last, with 30 catches for 315 Historian Lou Prato is the author of many books about Penn State sports. His latest book is "Game Changers: The Greatest Plays in Penn State Football History." 28 J U N E 1 , 2 0 1 2 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M

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