superman7515
January 2nd, 2014, 07:59 AM
http://www.pennlive.com/sports/index.ssf/2014/01/bill_obrien_the_outsider_arriv.html
On Dec. 4, I was returning from Penn State’s men’s basketball game at Pitt when I had a 20-minute phone conversation with Bill O’Brien, who was himself driving on what he said was a recruiting trip.
It was then that I had a pretty good idea he might not be the head football coach at Penn State much longer. Because he told me so.
I was not at liberty to quote him then because the dialogue was agreed upon to remain strictly off the record. But it was clear to me when the call ended that O’Brien’s incongruous two-year marriage with Penn State was in jeopardy.
I initiated the conversation the day before on the way to Pittsburgh with the intention of interpreting the reasons for assistant coach Ron Vanderlinden’s departure from the program. O’Brien was very guarded about those reasons, repeatedly using non sequiturs and clichés in place of rationale. Meanwhile, Vanderlinden politely but firmly refused to talk about it, either. It sounded like a human-resources deal, both having agreed not to speak publicly.
I ended up ferreting out the most logical reasoning I could and wrote a subsequent column about it that both parties seemed satisfied with. I learned a while ago that if two opposite principals in a disagreement are unwilling to speak about its evolution or resolution, it’s best to discard any tangential interpretations from various third parties and leave it alone.
What I did confirm that day instead was how frustrated O’Brien seemed to be at Penn State. I grew to like the guy over two years because his personality is one I can understand. Like me, he tends toward boil-overs with multiple and often comical strings of F-bombs. While some people don’t understand that type of behavior, I think such venting is healthy as long as it doesn’t verbally abuse anyone. And O’Brien wasn’t venting at me, just to me....
Much more at the link...
On Dec. 4, I was returning from Penn State’s men’s basketball game at Pitt when I had a 20-minute phone conversation with Bill O’Brien, who was himself driving on what he said was a recruiting trip.
It was then that I had a pretty good idea he might not be the head football coach at Penn State much longer. Because he told me so.
I was not at liberty to quote him then because the dialogue was agreed upon to remain strictly off the record. But it was clear to me when the call ended that O’Brien’s incongruous two-year marriage with Penn State was in jeopardy.
I initiated the conversation the day before on the way to Pittsburgh with the intention of interpreting the reasons for assistant coach Ron Vanderlinden’s departure from the program. O’Brien was very guarded about those reasons, repeatedly using non sequiturs and clichés in place of rationale. Meanwhile, Vanderlinden politely but firmly refused to talk about it, either. It sounded like a human-resources deal, both having agreed not to speak publicly.
I ended up ferreting out the most logical reasoning I could and wrote a subsequent column about it that both parties seemed satisfied with. I learned a while ago that if two opposite principals in a disagreement are unwilling to speak about its evolution or resolution, it’s best to discard any tangential interpretations from various third parties and leave it alone.
What I did confirm that day instead was how frustrated O’Brien seemed to be at Penn State. I grew to like the guy over two years because his personality is one I can understand. Like me, he tends toward boil-overs with multiple and often comical strings of F-bombs. While some people don’t understand that type of behavior, I think such venting is healthy as long as it doesn’t verbally abuse anyone. And O’Brien wasn’t venting at me, just to me....
Much more at the link...