Pats Offensive Coordinator O’Brien To Succeed Paterno, Reports Claim

Nearly two months after the beginning of its search for a new head football coach, Penn State has selected New England Patriots offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien to replace Joe Paterno as the head football coach at Penn State University, ESPN.com has reported.

Like Harvard coach Tim Murphy, who was rumored to be a favorite for the job earlier in the process, O’Brien has Ivy League connections, having played and coached at Brown.

With 19 years of coaching experience at both the collegiate and professional level, O’Brien is the third consecutive Penn State coach to have Brown affiliations. Paterno also suited up for the Bears between 1946 and 1949, and his predecessor, Rip Engle, coached Paterno at Brown.

O’Brien’s selection marks the end of a wild search that began following the Jerry Sandusky scandal and Paterno’s subsequent dismissal. Murphy—known for his historic success on the field and his clean track record off of it—was almost immediately named as a favorite, with one betting site even giving the 18-year Crimson coach 4-1 odds of nabbing the post.

Yet throughout the process, Murphy insisted that Penn State never contacted him, a claim corroborated by Russ Rose, the Penn State women’s volleyball coach and a member of the six-person search committee. Recently, Murphy disappeared from any rumors and was replaced by many others, including Boise State coach Chris Petersen and O’Brien.