Coaching Carousel

Happy Monday!  There was some big news over the weekend and I wanted to quickly share my thoughts.

Apparently week 6 of the college football season is when you take a good long look in the mirror and decide whether you're comfortable with the coaching path you're on.  In 2 days, USC has fired their head coach, Lane Kiffin (they barely even let him get off the plane!), Connecticut has fired their head coach, Paul Pasqualoni (as part of an "overhaul"), and Texas is seriously considering dumping Mack Brown as their head coach (thanks to some vocal alumni like Earl Campbell).

Now don't get me wrong, all of these decisions are completely justified as each coach has more than under performed so far this season.  But my problem here lies more in the timing of all this.  If your coach is achieving less than stellar results on the field, at least let him finish out the season before you shit-can him.  Even a lame duck coach that knows he's gone at season's end is better than an interim coach.  Don't believe me?  Who's your favorite interim coach of all time (besides Tom Bradley)?  Don't worry, I'll wait... oh, you don't know any?  That's because firing your head coach and appointing an interim coach is quite possibly the worst decision you can make.  That's just science.

Whatever.  The good news is that there appears to be absolutely no desire to look for a new coach in Happy Valley anytime soon.  Outside of some initial hesitation about the dimple-chinned Bostonian, the Penn State community has embraced Bill O'Brien wholeheartedly since he came to town, and for good reason.  He has said and done all the right things since stepping foot on our scandal-rocked campus and quite magically set the Nittany Lions up for a bright future.  So I think it's safe to say Penn State is in good hands for the foreseeable future.  Isn't it nice to be on the other side of turmoil for a change?  Thank goodness there's always USC.

Great article about Bill O'Brien:
http://www.ydr.com/psu/ci_24202607/frank-bodani-its-whole-new-ball-game-obrien