Posted by Sabrina B. @gametimegirl
New England Patriots offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien has agreed to become the coach at Penn State, according to sources.
The Nittany Lions plan to make the move official with an announcement Saturday, the sources said.
Terms of the deal are unknown.
O’Brien will continue to serve as the Patriots’ offensive coordinator for the rest of the season, a league source told ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
O’Brien interviewed with Penn State on Thursday, his agent, Joe Linta, told The Associated Press.
This was O’Brien’s first year coordinating the Patriots’ high-scoring offense, but has he coached star quarterback Tom Brady since 2009. He spent 2008 coaching receivers.
“He’s been a great coach and friend. We have a great relationship; probably a very unique relationship in that we communicate all the time,” Brady said Sunday about O’Brien. “I always enjoy working with him and he’s done an incredible job with this team and this offense.”
The Patriots are off this week, and will host a divisional round playoff game next weekend. They went 13-3 this season, won the AFC East championship going away, and secured the conference’s No. 1 seed throughout the playoffs.
New England closed the regular season on an eight-game winning streak, and scored 513 points, the most in the AFC. Brady threw for 5,235 yards and 39 touchdowns, while being picked off just 12 times.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Brady said when asked if he would miss O’Brien’s coaching. “I hope he’s here for a long time and I told him that, too.”
O’Brien joined New England in 2007 following 14 seasons on the college level, including stops at Duke, Maryland and Georgia Tech. He played football at Brown — Paterno’s alma mater.
Paterno, Division I’s winningest coach with 409 victories, coached 46 seasons before being ousted by trustees.
Defensive coordinator Tom Bradley, who took over for Paterno on an interim basis, also interviewed. Bradley was on the road recruiting Thursday, the second of a four-day recruiting contact period. Another 16-day contact window starts Jan. 13.
“I believe the search is continuing and progressing very well as we hoped it would,” Joyner said during a taped segment at halftime of the radio broadcast of Thursday night’s basketball game between Purdue and Penn State. “I anticipate having a new head coach in place in time to take full advantage of the open period that’s coming up.”
Calls and emails of interest from qualified potential applicants were still coming in, Joyner said during the segment.
Former Penn State linebacker Brandon Short told USA Today on Thursday that members of the influential Lettermen’s Club have a meeting scheduled with Joyner for Friday.
“By not hiring Bradley or a Penn State what they have effectively done is turn their backs on 100 years of tradition,” Short told the newspaper. “Penn State never has been about winning football games. They didn’t recruit the best players — they recruited the best people. If you go to Penn State, you have a better chance of graduating.”
“We are strongly considering a move of that nature,” Short said. “We are not going to threaten anyone – we’re going to give Dave Joyner choices.”
Defensive line coach Larry Johnson also received an interview. Two persons with knowledge of the search also confirmed earlier reports that Paterno’s son, quarterback coach Jay Paterno, interviewed for the job. The persons requested anonymity because no one was authorized to speak about the search.
The Patriots are third in the NFL overall in scoring (32.1 points per game), and second in total offense (428 yards) and passing (317.8 yards).
Penn State finished a 9-4 campaign with a 30-14 loss in the TicketCity Bowl to Houston on Jan. 2. The Nittany Lions relied on defense much of the year after the offense struggled with a two-quarterback system.
WRITTEN BY Chris Mortensen is a senior NFL analyst for ESPN. Information from ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter and The Associated Press was used in this report & FULL STORY HERE
