Penn State’s O’Brien to tour state

Associated Press

STATE COLLEGE, Pa.

Penn State coach Bill O’Brien’s responsibilities cover so much more than overseeing a football team.

It may not be part of the job description, but four months into his new job O’Brien has turned into a face of a program and school seeking to move forward from scandal. He’s hoping to soothe the concerns of loyal alumni shaken after the arrest of a retired defensive coordinator on child sexual abuse charges and the ouster of O’Brien’s predecessor — the late Joe Paterno.

The focus is on the current transition to a new coaching staff and the future of the program.

“I’m very proud to be here, and I can tell you why, because this university stands for everything that I’m about, which is the balance between academics and football,” O’Brien said Tuesday in addressing a regional meeting of Associated Press Sports Editors in State College. “You can win many, many games here. You can win championships here, and you can graduate kids here and the players that play here should be very proud that they are Penn State football players, and that’s where I would start.”

O’Brien is overseeing his first spring practice in the midst of his rookie year as a head coach. The primary responsibility right now is to get his players used to new systems, especially on the offensive side of the ball. The annual Blue-White spring game is April 21.

A four-month offseason follows, a period during which O’Brien plans to crisscross the state to talk to alumni. It’s part of his ongoing efforts to become more familiar to the Penn State fan base.

“No question,” he said Tuesday when asked if he felt responsibility to make peace with alumni upset by the scandal. “What I talk to [players] a lot about, and I would say this to alumni too ... is that our football players, our student-athletes, should have a tremendous amount of pride in being football players at Penn State.”