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Expectations high for former Penn State Football coach Bill O’Brien

By Evan Smith

Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel and Texans Head Coach Bill O’Brien talks before the game at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tenn., Sunday, Dec. 15, 2019.Gw47853
Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel and Texans Head Coach Bill O’Brien talks before the game at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tenn., Sunday, Dec. 15, 2019.Gw47853 /
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ESPN’s Paul Finebaum believes that former Penn State Football head coach Bill O’Brien may be the best Offensive Coordinator in the Nick Saban era at Alabama.

O’Brien, the former Nittany Lions Head Coach from 2012-2013, replaced interim HC Tom Bradley after Joe Paterno was fired.  Despite losing his opening game to the Ohio University Bobcats, O’Brien steadied the ship at Penn State, and won the Big Ten Coach of the Year and the Bear Bryant Coach of the Year Award in 2012.  He finshed his time at Penn State 15-9.

After coaching in the NFL for the Houston Texans from 2014-2020, Bill O’Brien was hired by Nick Saban at Alamaba earlier this year as the Offensive Coordinateor and Quarterbacks coach.  And Paul Finebaum has lofty expectations for O’Brien, saying he has the chance to be the best offensive coorinator Nick Saban has ever hired.

That’s quite a statement, considering Saban’s previous Offensive Coordinators like Lane Kiffin, Steve Sarkisian, Mick Locksley, and Jimbo Fisher.

"Finebaum, speaking on WJOX’s The RoundTable, stated: “I have a hunch that Bill O’Brien may end up being the best offensive coordinator that Saban has had.  I know that’s a mouthful considering everything we all know, but he is at such an interesting point in his career that he knows this is his transition moment.  He does a great job here and the world is his oyster.  I mean any job.”"

Finebaum went on to say that Nick Saban took a good long look and said “this guy is special.”

Despite significant Crimson Tide fatigue across the nation, we will be watching closely this fall and it will be interesting to see just how successful O’Bren becomes in Tuscaloosa.

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