I'm posting the following from a user on the
Sports on Earth (don't ask me) website, because I think he or she does a good job summarizing things:
"[The story that O'Brien left in large part due to criticism and constant intervention from the so-called "Paterno loyalists"]...is a false narrative that [Harrisburg Patriot-News journalist David Jones] seems to have started, intentionally or not. This is not why he left. He left because he wanted to be in the NFL. That was true from the beginning and he never really denied it. Fine. That was always the main drawback with him, but when he was hired, we weren't in a position to be too picky.
As I understand it, BOB went off about the "Paterno People" after Jones asked him a leading question about why Ron Vanderlinden was pushed out. Which is a legit question and those of us who don't understand why he left are not asking because we're loyal to Joe Paterno. He was a good recruiter and a good LB coach. That's all. I wouldn't even say that he was a "Paterno Person." He'd only came in relatively late in the Paterno era and, as I understand it, was hoping to be a DC or a head coach elsewhere some day.
I think O'Brien may have overestimated how much opposition he was facing. All of the "Paterno People" that actually had the power to make his job harder are gone from the University. Joyner is not really a "Paterno Person," even though he played for him. He was one of the BOT members who voted him out so he hates hearing from Franco Harris etc as much as anyone. Rodney Erickson never gave much of a shit about football at all until he became interim president.
And nobody anywhere thinks that O'Brien is a worse offensive coach than what we had in the last decade with Paterno. The media was way more friendly to O'Brien then it was to late-era Paterno. Attendance was down, but that's because they raised the ticket prices and the team wasn't great. Not because of him. So really, his whole rant was just about a handful of cranks on the internet. If that really bothers him, he's in the wrong profession.
The only people who continue to beat the dead horse about Paterno's treatment are not employed by the university - Franco Harris and that crowd, or if they are employed by the university, they're hiding behind internet avatars. But they aren't mad at O'Brien. Even the loudest cranks on the BOT - Anthony Lugbrano - were very favorable to O'Brien.
The only person of any influence whatsoever that thinks PSU must hire a PSU grad in order to get somebody who "gets it" is Lavar Arrington, and while I like him a lot, he's just wrong on this one. But so what? Lavar doesn't even live here now.
There was a time when it was hard to find people to commit to Penn State unless they had a strong sentimental attachment to the place and some people carried the myth that only PSU people understood what it was all about, so PSU tended to hire its own. But that changed a few years ago. Whatever bad things Tim Curley may have done, he and a handful of rich boosters deserve credit for realizing that if PSU wants to win in a sport - and it does, in all of them - then the way to do it is to raise a lot of money and get the best coach possible, regardless. Give the coach the money and resources of a "destination job" and, if they can win, it will become that. That's how they got Cael Sanderson, Pat Chambers, Jeff Tambroni, Bob Warming and a lot of other great hires that most people don't know about because they only follow football and maybe basketball. Joyner has continued this policy.
However, football is different in that, no matter how great of a college job it is, it's not going to be the destination job for somebody who really prefers the NFL."
http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/66263042/#comment-1184431055