"I would have liked to see us execute better in the second half," said O'Brien after Penn State fell to Ohio University. "However, in the grand scheme of things, I didn't play any role in allowing horrific crimes to occur today, nor did anyone in the athletic department — at least not to my knowledge. So, yeah, it was a good day."
Most Penn State fans felt the same way as their new coach.
"I'm overjoyed! What a game!" said Jason Scanelli, a 2008 grad. "I can't tell you how long I've waited to look at the bottom of my screen and see a Penn State score, win or loss, and not a breaking news scroll that made me nauseous. I'll take constant losing as long as none of that other stuff ever happens again."
O'Brien says he will watch a lot of tape this week looking for ways Penn State can improve on the field.
"But first we have a celebration parade to go to," he said. "For one day we were just a football team — a bad team, sure — but a football team. It was nice for once not to be a symbol of all that is wrong with the world. That's really all anyone can ask of us right now."
