(Image Source: ESPN)

BY MADISON MACK
ANCHOR ALLIE SPILLYARDS

With a new coach in place, Penn State University is looking to start the healing process. This weekend, the university named current Patriots’ Offensive Coordinator Bill O’Brien as its 15th head football coach, replacing the legendary Joe Paterno.

But the announcement has been met with more criticism than support. ESPN explains.

“…clearly this thing goes on for almost two months. Dave Joiner continued to show confidence every public appearance saying the search was going well. So there was this sense from a lot of people, probably not realistically, that they would be able to hit a home run with this hire. Then they hire Bill O’Brien and there was this immediate deflation.”

“And you think his offenses weren’t all that great at Georgia Tech, his offenses weren’t all that great at Duke, and you wonder what kind of head coach he’s going to be, I think that part frustrated a lot of Penn State fans as well.”

O’Brien served as an assistant coach at Georgie Tech, Maryland and Duke before joining the Patriots in 2007. Shortly after the Penn State announcement, Pennsylvania affiliates WFMZ and WHP took to the streets to get the fan perspective.

“I don’t think he’s got the quite the experience were looking for at Penn State. I’m a huge fan and I’m expecting the next four-to-five years to be in the dump”

“We were hoping that it would be a well-known name, something people could get excited about.  Something that would bring that great reputation of Penn State football back into the media.”

On College Gameday, Penn State Alum Todd Blackledge echoes suspicion.

“I understand Bill O’Brien probably understands football very well. But I think understanding Penn State and what Penn State is all about and what Penn State needs to go forward from here is equally important as what he knows about football so that leaves me with a little bit of a question mark. I’ve never met him, I don’t know anything about him, I don’t know about his personality. I certainly hope it’s a good decision but I have questions at this point.”

But, are fans’ expectations too high to begin with? Sports Illustrated’s Stewart Mandel says people are nuts if they thought the school could land a big name coach during the scandal.

“But the point is they were never going to get someone who jumped off the pages.
People were nuts if they thought amidst the continuing scandal that’s going to continue hovering over this program for the next several years, that a Chris Peterson or a Dan Mullen or any sort of established college coach was going to voluntarily step into this role knowing the obstacles they were going to have to face."

“Well first of all he’s successor to JoePa that’s a piece of this, the guy after the guy and you never want to be that. We’ve forgotten that. You don’t want to be Zook after Spurrier.”

And a writer for Central Pennsylviania’s The Sentinel says the lack of support for O’Brien will only make Penn State’s woes worse.

“The deck is stacked against O'Brien, and to make matters worse he doesn’t have the support of many of the former players nor fans. … O’Brien isn't who I initially wanted, but he’s the coach we got. It’s time to support him and support the Lions like never before. We have our leader. Once we accept that and embrace him, the healing can finally begin in Happy Valley.”

Bill O’Brien will finish the season with Patriots before joining Penn State.