Coach O’Brien Kicks Off Penn State Caravan Tour at LinesMaker

PHILADELPHIA (CFB/Newsfeed) — Dressed in a navy blue suit with a dark tie and a Penn State but­ton pinned near his heart, new Nit­tany Lions foot­ball coach Bill O’Brien kicked off the first leg of a nine-day, 18-stop bus tour in Philadel­phia on Monday.

Joined by head men’s bas­ket­ball coach Pat Cham­bers and field hockey coach Char­lene Morett, O’Brien received an enthu­si­as­tic wel­come from about 250 alumni, for­mer play­ers and sup­port­ers who attended the lun­cheon at the Dou­ble­tree Hotel.

“I know it’s a very spe­cial place,” O’Brien said. “What I try to do every sin­gle day is go in there with our staff and our play­ers, and work extremely hard to make sure that we carry on the tra­di­tion of win­ning foot­ball games and grad­u­at­ing players.”

It’s quite a task. After all, O’Brien replaced Joe Paterno, who died in Jan­u­ary at age 85. And he was hired two months after the child sex­ual abuse scan­dal that erupted fol­low­ing the arrest of Jerry San­dusky. A retired defen­sive coor­di­na­tor, San­dusky has pro­claimed his inno­cence while await­ing trial sched­uled to start in June.

But O’Brien is ready to move the Nit­tany Lions for­ward in this ultra-competitive land­scape that is col­lege foot­ball, while at the same time, embrace Penn State’s age-old tra­di­tion. It’s a dif­fi­cult recipe to mas­ter, but he’s intent on trying.

“I want them to know,” O’Brien said, “that I’m in charge of a foot­ball pro­gram that is part of a great ath­letic pro­gram that is a part of a very spe­cial university.”

Those on hand cer­tainly agreed Mon­day. And they were more than appre­cia­tive when hear­ing O’Brien, the for­mer offen­sive coor­di­na­tor with the New Eng­land Patri­ots, speak of the school’s long-standing sta­ples, includ­ing the sim­ple uni­forms and trav­el­ing on blue buses.

“That’s what makes Penn State spe­cial,” said Joseph Lally, a for­mer defen­sive end. “Rid­ing in the blue bus as a player is so excit­ing and moti­va­tional. Wear­ing those uni­forms made us feel pretty spe­cial, and they are the same, year in and year out.

“These are impor­tant traditions.”

After intro­duc­tory remarks by the coaches, O’Brien fielded the major­ity of the ques­tions from the generation-spanning fan base.

O’Brien has kept a busy sched­ule over the past few months as he has ingra­ti­ated him­self in the com­mu­nity, despite his New Eng­land roots. He has made numer­ous cam­pus appear­ances and talked with students.

Now, it’s his time to talk with for­mer play­ers and alumni who may or may not sup­port the pro­gram as much as in years past. So, he’s hit the road to meet and greet. For­mer player Adam Tal­i­a­ferro, whose recov­ery from a par­a­lyz­ing spinal cord injury gained national media atten­tion, thought the event rep­re­sented a good chance for the fans to have some qual­ity face time with the new leader.

“I’ve had the oppor­tu­nity to speak to Coach O’Brien a cou­ple times,” Tal­i­a­ferro said. “He’s a great guy, and I think he’s going to be a great asset to Penn State Uni­ver­sity. It was great that every­one got to see him, got to know him as a person.”

Tal­i­a­ferro added that the Penn State com­mu­nity shouldn’t be upset that O’Brien didn’t grad­u­ate from the school.

“When they first hired Coach O’Brien, I told him that all of us become Penn Staters at one point in our lives,” Tal­i­a­ferro said. “None of us were born Penn Staters. I’m of the mind­set that he’s our coach now. Let’s give him all the sup­port we can.”

While many of the stops are in regions with strong Penn State ties, many are also in impor­tant recruit­ing areas. Some sites are both. On Tues­day, in fact, the car­a­van is sched­uled to arrive in Bal­ti­more and Wash­ing­ton, D.C. There will be a stop in Rich­mond, Va., on Wednesday.

Near the end of the trip – being run as season-ticket sales con­tinue in State Col­lege – O’Brien will visit Hart­ford, Conn., the state that pro­duced top tail­back Silas Redd and line­backer Khairi Fortt. After that, O’Brien will visit Youngstown, Ohio, the home­town of for­mer star quar­ter­back Daryll Clark.

While other coaches will join O’Brien dur­ing the tour, only the foot­ball coach will be at each loca­tion. Clearly, he has the stage to show those “Penn Staters” just who he is, and what his pro­gram will even­tu­ally be.

“It’s a beau­ti­ful place here,” O’Brien said. “I was in the office the other day and (new offen­sive line coach) Mac McWhorter came in and said that he climbed Mt. Nit­tany on Sat­ur­day. When you get to the top – which I haven’t been able to do yet, even­tu­ally I will – he talked about the views and the peo­ple he met along the trail. It’s a great com­mu­nity here.

“It’s named Happy Val­ley for a reason.”