Saturday, January 21, 2012
R.I.P. Coach
Joe Paterno wasn't interested in succeeding and he wasn't interested in doing things the right way. Joe Paterno was interested in succeeding while doing things the right way. The legendary coach had a saying that I like quite a bit, if you're not improving you're moving backwards. Leave it to the greatest coach of all time to teach us more about life than he did about football. In football, if you improve your backfield, improve your receivers, improve your offensive line, improve your defensive line, improve your linebackers, improve your secondary and improve your special teams, there's no way your team isn't going to be better. Just like in life if you improve your relationship with God, improve your relationship with others, improve your work ethic, improve your mental health and improve your physical health, there is no way your life isn't going to be better. Working hard on improving multiple facets of one's life is the key to life in my opinion. For example, if you're so focused on your career that your relationship with your family suffers then you're not succeeding. No one ever said success was easy and no one ever said doing things the right way was easy. So certainly having success while doing things the right way cannot be easy. That's the thing about Coach Paterno, he knew it wasn't easy and yet he still expected those things from his players and all Penn Staters; that's why we're called Mighty Nittany Lions. If you do things the right way and work hard towards improvement you will find success. JoePa lived to be 85 years old, we should all be so blessed. On top of that, he left us with lessons that we can use to help improve our lives and the lives of those around us. Joseph Vincent Paterno may not have won the battle against cancer but if you look at all the lives he's touched you already know that he won the war.
Saturday, January 7, 2012
New Head Coach
New Penn State Football Head Coach Bill O'Brien - my thoughts
Let me preface this by saying the reason I haven't been blogging much is that I'm an optimist and Penn State football has been getting me down. When you have an 85 year old head coach and 3 of his 8 assistants include two 70+ year old buddies and his son, how can it not. Let's move forward.
I'm sure by now everyone is aware that the new Penn State football head coach is New England Patriots offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien, who I will from this point forward refer to as OBra. I want to hate the hire because they picked an NFL assistant. I want to hate the hire because they waited until January 6. You wait until January 6 for a Nick Saban, you do not wait until January 6 for an OBra. I want to hate the hire because I don't know how well this guy can recruit. I want to hate the hire because this guy has no ties to Penn State and this isn't his dream job so if he does well then he's going to jump ship to be an NFL head coach. I want to hate the hire because OBra's people are the ones who leaked the hire. I want to hate the hire because OBra's not a current big time college football head coach. And most importantly, I want to hate the hire because OBra's still going to be the offensive coordinator for New England until they get bounced from the playoffs. I want to hate the hire but I don't.
It's no secret changes needed to be made, especially on offense. We needed a new head coach, a whole new offensive coaching staff, someone to be special teams coach, a new recruiting coordinator and a new direction regarding our strength and conditioning program. Basically, in my opinion, we needed a whole new (offensive minded) coaching staff with the exception of DLine coach and linebackers coach. Well OBra decided to retain two coaches: defensive line coach Larry Johnson and linebackers coach Ron Vanderlinden. One could make the argument that each of these two men are the best in the country at their respective positions. I can't see a guy who runs a high powered NFL offense struggling to score points in college nor can I see him struggling to recruit players on that side of the ball. I also can't see a defensive with a staff that includes LJ and Vandy struggle either.
That leaves one question: can he recruit? Well, in an interview with rivals.com, stud athlete Stefon Diggs very much wants to hear from OBra. He's super interested. Diggs is scout.com's #9 ranked overall high school player in the country; rivals.com has him #8 overall. Depending on who you ask, Diggs projects at either running back, wide receiver or safety at the next level. If you ask me I see an offensive weapon in the mold of a Derrick Williams.
The knock on OBra is that he's arrogant. Well, so is just about every Penn Stater I know. I think this will be a good fit and I think WE ARE in for a treat when the Blue/White game rolls around on April 21.
Let me preface this by saying the reason I haven't been blogging much is that I'm an optimist and Penn State football has been getting me down. When you have an 85 year old head coach and 3 of his 8 assistants include two 70+ year old buddies and his son, how can it not. Let's move forward.
I'm sure by now everyone is aware that the new Penn State football head coach is New England Patriots offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien, who I will from this point forward refer to as OBra. I want to hate the hire because they picked an NFL assistant. I want to hate the hire because they waited until January 6. You wait until January 6 for a Nick Saban, you do not wait until January 6 for an OBra. I want to hate the hire because I don't know how well this guy can recruit. I want to hate the hire because this guy has no ties to Penn State and this isn't his dream job so if he does well then he's going to jump ship to be an NFL head coach. I want to hate the hire because OBra's people are the ones who leaked the hire. I want to hate the hire because OBra's not a current big time college football head coach. And most importantly, I want to hate the hire because OBra's still going to be the offensive coordinator for New England until they get bounced from the playoffs. I want to hate the hire but I don't.
It's no secret changes needed to be made, especially on offense. We needed a new head coach, a whole new offensive coaching staff, someone to be special teams coach, a new recruiting coordinator and a new direction regarding our strength and conditioning program. Basically, in my opinion, we needed a whole new (offensive minded) coaching staff with the exception of DLine coach and linebackers coach. Well OBra decided to retain two coaches: defensive line coach Larry Johnson and linebackers coach Ron Vanderlinden. One could make the argument that each of these two men are the best in the country at their respective positions. I can't see a guy who runs a high powered NFL offense struggling to score points in college nor can I see him struggling to recruit players on that side of the ball. I also can't see a defensive with a staff that includes LJ and Vandy struggle either.
That leaves one question: can he recruit? Well, in an interview with rivals.com, stud athlete Stefon Diggs very much wants to hear from OBra. He's super interested. Diggs is scout.com's #9 ranked overall high school player in the country; rivals.com has him #8 overall. Depending on who you ask, Diggs projects at either running back, wide receiver or safety at the next level. If you ask me I see an offensive weapon in the mold of a Derrick Williams.
The knock on OBra is that he's arrogant. Well, so is just about every Penn Stater I know. I think this will be a good fit and I think WE ARE in for a treat when the Blue/White game rolls around on April 21.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)