When Rodney Erickson became the 17th president of Penn State University, he promised to usher in a new era of transparency. Fifty-nine days later, Penn State fans were left with an undefendable public relations disaster following the hire of Bill O'Brien.
Thursday evening, ESPN reporter Chris Mortensen reported that New England Patriots offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien had reached an agreement with Penn State to be Joe Paterno's successor. Twenty four hours later, after arriving in State College, Penn State official have confirmed the report and have scheduled an 11 30 a.m. press conference this morning.
Patriots offensive coach Bill O'Brien arrived at the Penn State University Park airport's general aviation facility around 7:00 p.m. on Thursday evening in a night-time entrance that came just hours after interim head coach Tom Bradley had been relieved of his head coach duties by the university and Jay Paterno left the Lasch Building in tears. Read more after the jump.
On a night that was quickly overshadowed by football coaching news, Penn State (9-7, 1-2) put together their best performance of the year to dominate the Purdue Boilermakers (12-4, 2-1), picking up their first conference win by the score of 65-45.
After 58 days, Penn State appears to have found its successor to Joe Paterno. Sources have told Chris Mortensen that the current New England Patriots offensive coordinator will be named head coach, with an official announcement on Saturday.
Penn State lost the first ever College Winter Classic 6-3 to Neumann University, but the night stands out as what Penn State hockey is going to become.