Bingo. He said it from day 1 on the job. He was crystal clear. Anybody that didn’t get that in the message was kidding themselves. He was willing to take a job that was toxic at the time. On top of that, he took the job while being told there wouldn’t be any sanctions. When the sanctions hit, I remember the talk was he could have left because of a loophole in his contract..he didn’t. He lost the top offensive player, Redd, in the free agency part of the sanctions along with others. He turned McGloin into the top passer in the B1G after a year of being a turnover machine with the previous coaching staff. He could have left after the first year for the NFL..he didn’t. He came back and did his job. I’m tired of hearing he left the cupboard bare. That is a misguided view. How was he supposed to fill a team with the 15/year, 65 total scholarship limits from the sanctions? He inherited a team with 85 scholarship players and and basically had to cut 20 guys while still “filling the cupboard.” How was that supposed to work? It’s probably the criticism that he continues to get that made it pretty easy to leave after the second year. Plus, this same crowd was constantly grumbling that he wasn’t honoring Joe publicly on a regualr basis. It didn’t matter who the coach was, they were in a no win situation. O’Brien made the most of the situation and did just fine by me.