Bill O'Brien reflects on what his time at Penn State did for him

Bill O’Brien inherited one of the most difficult coaching challenges in recent memory when he took over as the Penn State football head coach in 2012. Replacing legendary coach Joe Paterno in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal, the deck was certainly stacked against O’Brien and Co.

Especially because the NCAA sanctions against Penn State also allowed the players to transfer without penalty. As such, O’Brien can claim he was one of the first coaches to manage the transfer portal, to an extent.

“Penn State meant a lot to me,” O’Brien said in an interview on the ESPN College GameDay podcast. “When we went to Penn State, it was a terrible time. We don’t need to revisit that. But, we were probably the first team that really had to experience ‘the portal.’ Because when the sanctions came out, the guys at Penn State, they could go and go anywhere they wanted. That team that was taking them could go above 85 just to make room for them. So we had to recruit our own team. And I’ll never forget that”

But within that came a lesson the new Boston College head coach will bring with him at his new stop.

For all the player movement and pursuit of NIL money that coaches have decried in recent years, O’Brien, who comes from a stint in the NFL most recently, believes building a core of players who are about the team and program is key.

He saw first hand just how valuable it was at Penn State in turbulent times, and thinks a similar foundation will serve Boston College well.

“And I think, at the end of the day, what I learned about that place was how important the team was. Some guys left, but the guys that stayed were very much into the team aspect of things, they were good kids, they loved to practice and they were proud to play for their institution. And that’s the same thing relative to what we have here at Boston College,” O’Brien said.

Despite their disparate success on the football field in the last decade-plus, O’Brien thinks the two institutions, Penn State and Boston College, are relatively similar in ways that can be to the Eagles’ benefit.

“And what I learned was we had great kids there, very similar to what we have here right now. Love football, love their school,” O’Brien said.