INDIANAPOLIS -- When the letters of intent start rolling off the fax machine this morning from recruits who will be asked to rebuild both the Penn State program and its image, Joe Paterno's successor will be halfway across the country getting the New England Patriots ready for Super Bowl XLVI.
When Bill O'Brien takes over at Penn State next week, it will be the first head-coaching job for the Patriots' offensive coordinator. But O'Brien knows all about rebuilding.
He was one of the country's top young offensive minds when he was ensnared in the George O'Leary resume controversy at Notre Dame in 2001. Forced to hit the reset button on his career, the fast track to a head-coaching job became a meandering road.
But after five years under Bill Belichick in Boston, O'Brien landed one of the premiere jobs in college football, albeit under trying circumstances. Before O'Brien begins the process of moving the Nittany Lions out from under the cloud of the Jerry Sandusky sexual assault scandal, the dismissal of Paterno and then his death, he has one game remaining with the Patriots.
It's a fairly big one.
"This is a week for the New England Patriots," O'Brien said Tuesday.
O'Brien, 42, spent last week in State College attending memorial services for college football's all-time winningest coach and a man who was Penn State's coach longer than O'Brien has been alive.
"There's a guy that has been the head football coach there for 46 years. It was a very emotional time for that team because he recruited those guys and he was their head coach," O'Brien said.
O'Brien was headed with O'Leary to another of college football's storied programs when Notre Dame backed out of the deal after learning of inconsistencies in O'Leary's resume. O'Brien returned to Georgia Tech, where he retained his offensive coordinator title under new coach Chan Gailey.
Patriots offensive quality control coach George Godsey was Georgia Tech's quarterback during O'Brien's first year as coordinator. Only now that he's in coaching can Godsey understand what a "life-changing" event the Notre Dame debacle was.
"To watch him handle that situation - it's obvious in the coaching ranks he's well respected - he just continued to work hard," Godsey said.
O'Brien left Georgia Tech after a year on Gailey's staff to accept a job at Maryland as Ralph Friedgen's running backs coach. O'Brien moved again in 2005, switching ACC schools to become the offensive coordinator at Duke under Ted Roof, who worked with O'Brien at Georgia Tech.
The Blue Devils went 1-22 in O'Brien's two seasons. In his last game, the Blue Devils scored 44 points - and lost by a point to North Carolina.
"Great kids, tough situation," O'Brien said of his time at Duke. "Didn't win a lot of games, but I felt like we got better. And at the end of the day, I never regret going there."
With Patriots assistant coaches generally off-limits to the media, few New England fans knew much about O'Brien until his sideline shouting match with quarterback Tom Brady during a December win against Washington. But Belichick liked O'Brien's background and his intelligence - like Paterno, O'Brien played at Brown - when he hired him as a low-rung offensive assistant in 2007.
"He loves football. He'll work very hard at football," Belichick said. "He's a smart guy, dedicated."
Belichick said he has the "utmost respect" for the way O'Brien has handled juggling two jobs since he was hired at Penn State on Jan. 6. Sixteen days after O'Brien was named his successor, Paterno died of lung cancer at 85.
"Last week was all about coach Paterno. Just an amazing coach that meant a lot to that community and meant a lot to college football," O'Brien said. "We're going to work extremely hard to uphold the standards of excellence that he set there and blaze our own trail there. It's a new era of Penn State football that will start after Sunday."
