ALTOONA, Pa. -- Bill O'Brien's first game as Penn State's head coach came against Ohio to open the 2012 season. And it was disappointing, with the Nittany Lions getting stunned by the MAC team, 24-14.
Things turned brutal the following week in what will always be known as the Sam Ficken game, when the kicker struggled mightily in a soul-crushing 17-16 loss at Virginia.
At that point, the entire world doubted Penn State football, which was coming off the Jerry Sandusky scandal and severe NCAA sanctions, and was pretty much left for dead by many people around the country.
Then Bill O'Brien saved the program.
We're not going to revisit all of those dark days here. Instead, we'll keep it mostly on football, particularly that Ohio game. The Bobcats return to Beaver Stadium on Saturday for the first time since their historic 2012 upset, and there's little chance for a sequel since Penn State is favored this week by 24.5 points.
We really had very little idea what to expect from O'Brien and that 2012 Penn State team. There was still talent on the squad, because O'Brien, Michael Mauti and Mike Zordich had shown tremendous leadership in helping convince most of the top players to stay, but a lot of people were thinking Penn State was headed for a 3-9 kind of season.
Losing to Ohio only reinforced that possibility for some.
Looking back, it was not much of an upset. Ohio was only a 6-point underdog, and this is part of what I had written in my preview for the Altoona Mirror:
The Lions cannot take Ohio lightly, and they won't. This isn't some run-of-the-mill MAC team that's a cupcake opener. Bobcats went 10-4 last season, won bowl game and have a lot of experience. They don't hope to win this game. They expect to win.
Matt McGloin and the Penn State offense got off to a good start in building a 14-3 halftime lead. But you could sense it at the stadium that there was just so much emotion and energy exerted by the Lion players in the first half that they pretty much ran out of gas trying to prove the whole world wrong right away.
Ohio wound up having a great second half, Penn State suffered some injuries that depleted its depth even further, and the Frank Solich-led Bobcats won the game. I posed this thought in my game recap that day: The question now becomes how big of a loss it could turn out to be for Penn State.
"I don't have any trepidation," O'Brien said after the game.
"Everyone's fine," offensive lineman Donovan Smith said.
"We're going to put this behind us," Mauti said.
They did, in fact, put the loss behind them and should have won the following week in a nice showing at Virginia. But Ficken missed four field goals and an extra point in an excruciating loss to the Cavaliers.
What O'Brien and the Lions pulled off the rest of that season is the stuff of legend. They regrouped, won five straight games, beat Wisconsin in OT in the finale and finished 8-4. O'Brien was named the Bear Bryant national Coach of the Year for his incredible effort in not just keeping the ship afloat at Penn State, but far surpassing any and all expectations under enormous adversity.
So now, here we are 10 years later, and I am 1 million percent convinced that O'Brien's legacy at Penn State is one of remarkable accomplishment and that he should be universally respected by fans.
An overwhelming majority of Penn State fans, I believe, agree with me. But there are those out there who still hold some kind of grudge against O'Brien for one of several reasons, presumably believing either:
1. That O'Brien merely used Penn State to get an NFL head coaching job and that he should have remained loyal for more than two years, after asking the players to do so, or ...
2. That somehow he disrespected Joe Paterno or his legion of supporters in some way
O'Brien made this infamous comment, to David Jones of PennLive, which ruffled a whole bunch of feathers:
“You can print this: You can print that I don’t really give a ---- what the ‘Paterno people’ think about what I do with this program. I’ve done everything I can to show respect to Coach Paterno. Everything in my power. So I could really care less about what the Paterno faction of people, or whatever you call them, think about what I do with the program. I’m tired of it.
"For any ‘Paterno person’ to have any objection to what I’m doing, it makes me wanna put my fist through this windshield right now.”
For better or worse, despite his accomplishments on the field at Penn State during two trying years, that comment probably still lingers with some fans and clouds their judgment about O'Brien's legacy. After becoming head coach of the Houston Texans, O'Brien said this on ESPN's "Mike & Mike in the Morning" when asked if the "Paterno people" played a role in him leaving Penn State:
"Nah, that's not accurate at all. I felt that I had a ton of support at Penn State. My staff had a lot of support at Penn State. You know, I regret that that conversation even took place. I do, I regret that. But I know that I had a ton of support there. Penn State is a special place. I believe in what we did at Penn State. I think Penn State, the football program is in a better spot now than it was two years ago."
The Penn State program absolutely was in a better spot when O'Brien left than when he arrived, and there are few coaches anywhere who could have done a better job than he did during those extremely difficult times.
Then James Franklin came on board in 2014 and worked wonders, winning the Big Ten championship in 2016. Franklin no doubt deserves an incredible amount of respect for bringing Penn State back to national prominence so quickly.
None of that would have been possible without O'Brien and the leadership he showed while at Penn State, and how that helped save the program from falling into the abyss the way many believed it would.
O'Brien had success as a coach with the Texans, although not as as GM, which wound up being his downfall there. He's now in his second season as offensive coordinator at Alabama, and there's a good chance he will get another chance to be an NFL head coach.
Nobody could have predicted any of what wound up happening with O'Brien and Penn State when Ohio visited 10 years ago, and then won the game.
In many situations, 10 years can fly by in a hurry. But it sort of seems like a lifetime ago in this case regarding O'Brien and Penn State.
That's a testament to just how far the program has come since those dark days, and it never would have happened without Bill O'Brien.
