Blue White Illustrated

Penn State's new coaching staff scrambles to keep the Class of 2012 together A RUNNING START BY MATT HERB matt@bluewhiteonline.com State officials about the school's vacant head coaching position and was feel- ing good about his chances – good enough to begin reaching out to poten- tial assistants. One of the people he contacted immediately was Charles London. "He was here on his interview," Lon- O don recalled. "He called me and said, 'I think I'm going to be the next head coach at Penn State. Are you coming?'" Was he coming? Of course he was coming. "It was a no-brainer," London said. "I was pretty excited." London and O'Brien had gotten to know each other when both were at Duke in the mid- 2000s. A former Blue Devils tailback, London was serving as the team's running backs coach. O'Brien was the team's ambitious young offensive co- ordinator, and even though the Blue Devils didn't have the manpower to match up well with their Atlantic Coast Con- ference opponents, it was clear he was going places. "He was a very bright guy, a Brown ne of Bill O'Brien's first recruits was actually a recruiting coordinator. O'Brien had been talking to Penn CHARLES LONDON "I got here on a Tuesday, and I had to go out on the road recruiting the following Monday. Not a lot of time. I had to hit the ground running." tany Lions' running backs coach and their recruiting coordinator, taking over the latter position from assistant coach Larry Johnson and grad assis- tant Bill Kavanaugh, who spearhead- ed the team's recruiting efforts during the transition period that followed the arrival of the new staff. Five additional position SIGNING DAY 2012 THE STAFF coaches followed London, four of whom knew O'Brien from previous stops in his coaching career. New defensive coordi- nator Ted Roof was the Blue Devils' head coach when O'Brien was on the staff in 2005 and '06 and saw his pas- sion for the game and his tal- ent for evaluating players. "He's a very, very strong leader," Roof grad," London said. "We weren't the most talented team at Duke, but we al- ways worked hard and had some good schemes. I knew that one day he was going to be a head coach, and I al- ways wanted to work with him again. So when the opportunity presented it- self to work for him here at Penn State, I jumped on it." A native of Dunwoody, Ga., London had been working as an assistant coach on the Tennessee Titans' staff when O'Brien called. He is now the Nit- 26 M A R C H 2 , 2 0 1 2 said. "He's very bright, he relates well with kids. And I think he has a real knack for identifying the strengths of his players. He asks them to do things that put them in a position to be suc- cessful and doesn't ask them to do things they don't do well." After recruiting a staff, O'Brien's next challenge was to line up a recruit- ing class – a challenge that was com- plicated by any number of factors, in- cluding the fact that he was still working full-time as the New England Patriots' offensive coordinator. With O'Brien in Indianapolis preparing for the Super Bowl, the staff would con- vene via conference call every night and communicate through email and text messages. The result was a 19-member class that addressed some of the Lions' most glaring needs, particularly at tailback and in the secondary. The team also lost several of its highest-profile re- cruits during the eight-week period during which it lacked a permanent head coach, and it was punished ac- cordingly in the rankings, finishing 50th in Rivals' poll and 49th in Scout's. But the Nittany Lions were facing headwinds that were stronger than any they had ever faced before – stronger, maybe, than any school had ever faced – and still managed to keep the bulk of their class intact. O'Brien said he was pleased with what the Lions were able to accom- plish. "I think it went really well as far as the transition is concerned," he said. "I've got to give a lot of credit to the as- sistant coaches, especially Larry John- son, who I asked to oversee the [re- cruiting] transition period here. As ev- idenced by [signing day], he did a great job of keeping it rolling. The other guys came in there and hit the ground run- ning. "My big thing is you never judge a re- cruiting class until I would say two years into it. At that time, we'll be able to say it was a really productive class of good football players and guys who are doing the right thing off the field. We really believe that's what we have right now." One of the difficulties this year was that except for Johnson and Ron Vanderlinden, the coaches were re- cruiting players to a school that they themselves barely knew. Because Penn State's search extended into January, the staff was forced to hit the road before it even had a chance to get settled in at the Lasch Building. Lon- don was among those who had to hus- tle. "I got here on a Tuesday, and I had to go out on the road recruiting the following Monday," he said. "Not a lot of time. I had to hit the ground run- ning." Roof had a bit more familiarity with Big Ten football than some others, having served as Minnesota's defen- sive coordinator for a season. But he hadn't been in Beaver Stadium since he was a graduate assistant on Alaba- ma's staff in the late 1980s. He did know about Penn State, but mostly by reputation. "Obviously, coaching for a while, you 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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