Jeremy Pernell: The Case for Bill O’Brien

Former Penn State, Houston Texans head coach might end up being Trev Alberts’ best option

Scott Wachter photo-USA TODAY Sports

When parsing through the realistic candidates out there, I find myself circling back to Alabama offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien. If Trev Alberts isn't able to close the deal on Matt Rhule or entice Dave Aranda away from Baylor, I believe O'Brien is his best option.

Just like Matt Campbell, the 52-year-old O'Brien's move to the sidelines began immediately following the conclusion of his playing career. He was hired at his alma mater, Brown University, and spent the 1993 season coaching tight ends and 1994 with the inside linebackers.

He would spend the next three seasons as a graduate assistant at Georgia Tech. In 1998, he was promoted to full-time assistant and spent the next three years coaching the running backs (1998-2000) and was the Yellow Jackets offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach (2001), before adding the title of assistant head coach in 2002. During that time, he worked under prominent coaches George O'Leary, Ralph Friedgen and Chan Gailey.

Previous installments in this series • Sizing Up Matt Campbell • Proven and Pricey: Rhule, Aranda and Fickell • Intriguing Options: Leipold and Patterson • Parsing Nebraska Football’s Coaching Possibilities

In 2003, he rejoined Friedgen at Maryland and coached the Terps' running backs for two seasons before spending the 2005-06 seasons as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Duke. After more than a decade at the college level, O'Brien decided to leave for the NFL and joined Bill Belichick's staff with the New England Patriots.

O'Brien was a member of the Patriots' coaching staff from 2007-11. He was an offensive assistant when the team played in Super Bowl XLII. He was promoted to wide receivers coach in 2008 and then quarterbacks coach from 2009-10 prior to being named offensive coordinator in 2011, when he helped the Patriots reach Super Bowl XLVI.

On Jan. 6, 2012, O'Brien was hired as the head coach at Penn State. Former Nittany Lions coach Joe Paterno had been fired on Nov. 9, 2011, in the aftermath of the child sex abuse charges brought against retired longtime assistant coach Jerry Sandusky.

When O'Brien was being courted for the job, he asked about the possibility of the NCAA punishing the football program. Athletic director Dr. David Joyner reportedly assured him the NCAA would avert taking such actions. Whether this influenced his decision to take the job or not, we don't know. What we do know is that this was the first of many points of discord between O'Brien, Joyner and the Penn State Board of Trustees.

On July 23, 2012, the NCAA leveled historically severe sanctions against the school, leaving Penn State's football program to face a slow version of the death penalty. The original sanctions included the loss of 40 scholarships and a four-year postseason ban. Because of the sanctions, Penn State players were allowed to transfer with immediate eligibility. This resulted in an exodus of 15 scholarship players.

Following the Sandusky scandal, the program was a pariah among college football. O'Brien had taken over an absolute dumpster fire. Most observers didn't expect Penn State to be competitive for at least a decade.

The Nittany Lions saw their legacy come crashing down and needed a steady leader to right the ship. Nobody predicted what O'Brien would end up doing. His first season as coach at Penn State was far more successful than anyone anticipated. O'Brien went 8–4, which was the most wins for a first-year head coach in school history. He was named Big Ten Coach of the Year and was also awarded the Paul "Bear" Bryant College Coach of the Year Award and named national coach of the year by ESPN.

Penn State followed up its astonishing 2012 season with an equally surprising 7-5 season in 2013. In two seasons at the helm, O'Brien coached 26 All-Big Ten players, including nine first-team selections. Not only did O'Brien weather the storm at State College, he did a great job of shepherding the football program through unfathomable conditions and left it on solid footing. He deserves a ton of credit for his work in Happy Valley.

Contrary to popular belief and perhaps a little revisionist history, O'Brien had no intentions of leaving the Nittany Lions after two years. He had turned down overtures from the NFL and other colleges following his first season with the program. The Philadelphia Eagles, Cleveland Browns and San Diego Chargers were accompanied by schools such as Tennessee, Arkansas and Boston College. O'Brien turned them all down.

O'Brien planned on returning to Penn State for a third season and beyond. Ultimately, it was Penn State's administrative dysfunction that led to O'Brien accepting the offer from the Houston Texans. After the 2013 season, athletic director Dr. David Joyner failed to follow through on his promise to boost O'Brien's budget for assistant coaches' salaries, recruiting and facilities upgrades.

The Monday after the football season ends is traditionally when the athletic director sits down with the head coach to assess the season and plan for the next year. Joyner eschewed this and went on a hunting trip instead since it was the opening day of deer season. At the football team's 2013 senior banquet, the tension between O'Brien and Joyner was reportedly "palpable." After the event, Joyner waited more than a week to respond to O'Brien's request to follow up on his promises.

Despite all that, O'Brien's decision to leave for the Texans was not easy. It was made at the eleventh hour and after much hand-wringing. From the outside looking in, it looked like a classic case of an NFL coordinator getting a chance to lead a prominent college program, then jumping back to the NFL as soon as he's offered the opportunity to become a head coach. That was the perception, it just wasn't accurate.

O'Brien took over a Houston team that was coming off a 2-14 campaign in 2013. He coached the Texans to a 9-7 record in his first season despite having three different quarterbacks (Ryan Fitzpatrick, Case Keenum and Ryan Mallett) start games for him — barely missing the playoffs. O'Brien went 9-7 in Years 2 and 3 as well, reaching the postseason in both years. It was the first time in franchise history that the team posted three straight winning seasons.

In doing so, O'Brien became just the 14th coach since 1978 to begin his NFL head coaching career with three consecutive winning seasons.

Houston then went 4-12 in 2017 — O'Brien's only losing campaign in his six full seasons with the Texans. The team bounced back, however, going 11-5 and 10-6 over the next two years. Their 21 wins between 2018-19 were the second-most in a two-year span in franchise history.

In total, O'Brien won four AFC South titles and made two appearances in the AFC Divisional Round. Houston was one of just three teams in the NFL to win four division titles between 2015-19, with Kansas City and New England being the others.

What's not often mentioned is O'Brien had all of this success even though he worked with two different general managers. I believe O'Brien's downfall with Houston stems from the addition of personnel duties. The dual roles bogged him down and adversely affected his coaching.

In June 2019, Houston fired general manager Brian Gaine. Senior Vice President of Football Administration Chris Olsen took over the job on an interim basis, and O'Brien was given a much larger say in personnel decisions. In January 2020, the Texans announced O'Brien would be adding the general manager title to his head-coaching duties full-time. His personnel moves were resoundingly criticized.

O'Brien acquired offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil and wide receiver Kenny Stills from the Miami Dolphins in exchange for two first-round picks and a second-rounder. He shocked everyone by trading DeAndre Hopkins, one of the game's best receivers at the time, for running back David Johnson and a second-round pick. He traded away Jadeveon Clowney, who had been named to three straight pro bowls and was a second-team All-Pro in 2016, to the Seattle Seahawks for essentially a third-round pick. He traded a third-round draft pick to the Cleveland Browns for running back Duke Johnson. He traded a second-round pick to the Los Angeles Rams for wide receiver Brandin Cooks. He let Tyrann Mathieu go in free agency. Just all-around poor decisions.

It's a short list of coaches who have long-term success wearing both hats. In many ways the two roles are diametrically opposed to each other. The head coach is focused on the here and now, while often times the general manager is considering the future. It's a tough balancing act. How do you make a decision that helps you long-term if you're a head coach who wants to win now? How do you sacrifice the present for the betterment of the future when the coach in you prioritizes today over tomorrow? It's why the two positions are better left to separate people. Bill O'Brien was a good NFL head coach and a terrible general manager.

Despite having won his division four of the previous five years, O'Brien was fired by the Houston Texans in the early stages of his seventh season, after an 0-4 start in 2020. It's not an overstatement to say that O'Brien the general manager got O'Brien the head coach fired.

In January 2021, Nick Saban hired O'Brien to serve as his offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. O'Brien chose to join Saban's Alabama staff over several opportunities in the NFL.

“I think when Coach Saban reached out to me and talked to me about this job, while they were getting ready for the national championship game, I didn’t feel like, as I talked about with my wife Colleen and our family, I didn’t think it was anything that I could pass up," O’Brien said in an interview this summer. "To have the opportunity to work for the greatest college coach of all time, arguably one of the greatest coaches of any sport, I don’t think you could pass that up. To learn from him. To come into this program and see how he does things.”

“If I’m fortunate enough to have (a head coaching) opportunity again, and who knows if that will come down the pike, this will be an amazingly invaluable experience for me," O’Brien continued. "Because you’re able to watch coach every single day. Work with us as a coaching staff, work with the players, work with the support staff. And you know, the process is something that he talks about a lot, and you learn about the different processes within the program. And I think that’s something that has been invaluable to me and it’s something that I’ll hold dear to me for the rest of my career, this experience here.”

Alabama’s offensive coordinator position has gained the reputation for being a pseudo coaching rehabilitation clinic. Several prominent coaches have spent time on Saban's staff and have become much better coaches because of their experience.

After getting fired by USC, Lane Kiffin wound up with the Crimson Tide coordinating the offense from 2014-16. After going 26-13 in three years at Florida Atlantic, Kiffin is now in his third season at Ole Miss and currently has the Rebels 6-0 and ranked No. 9. Brian Daboll was a multi-time failed offensive coordinator in the NFL when he went to Alabama for a year in 2017. After moving on to the Buffalo Bills, he became one of the hottest coordinators in the NFL and is now the head coach of the New York Giants. Mike Locksley went 2-26 in two-plus seasons at New Mexico and was 1-5 as Maryland's interim coach in 2015 before joining Saban's staff in 2016. After three years in Tuscaloosa, Locksley returned to College Park to take over the Maryland program. He has made incremental progress with the Terps and now in Year 4 has the team at 4-2. Finally, Steve Sarkisian was fired as head coach of USC because of his problems with alcohol, and then was fired as the offensive coordinator of the NFL's Atlanta Falcons. He went to Alabama for two seasons and parlayed that into the head coaching gig at Texas.

In his first season as Alabama's offensive coordinator, O'Brien helped guide the Crimson Tide to an appearance in the national championship game and helped Bryce Young win the Heisman Trophy.

Despite his longtime reputation for being one of the best offensive minds in the game, O'Brien has been on the receiving end of criticism from some Bama fans because of his — in their words — conservative playcalling. I tend to think this is a byproduct of a three-year run that saw Alabama's offense clicking at a historically prolific rate. Between Mike Locksley (2018) and Steve Sarkisian (2019-20), Alabama averaged 524.8 yards per game and 47.1 points per game.

In 2021, under O'Brien, the Crimson Tide ranked seventh nationally in both yards per game (488.2) and passing yards per game (338.2), while ranking sixth in scoring (39.6). Halfway through the regular season this year, Alabama is again seventh in yards per game (504), while ranking third nationally in rushing (257.5 per game) and fifth in scoring (44.3).

If you look at the numbers, O'Brien is exceeding his other predecessors. Lane Kiffin's three-year averages were 455.6 ypg and 36.9 ppg. Brian Daboll averaged 444.1 ypg and 37.1 ppg. Nobody was complaining about those two. It's hard to follow that run of dominance.

Following his first season in Tuscaloosa, O'Brien started getting looks from the NFL again. He was in consideration for the Jacksonville Jaguars job and was also courted by Bill Belichick to return to New England as his offensive coordinator. He turned down Belichick's offer because he gave Saban a two-year commitment.

O'Brien will certainly receive overtures again this offseason. He will likely have opportunities in the NFL and college. He's a rare candidate who has enjoyed a lot of success at both levels. Along with Nebraska, you'd have to assume Georgia Tech would be extremely interested. O'Brien is going to have options, and that includes staying with Saban.

O'Brien could be a home-run hire in Lincoln. He's been mentored by the two best coaches of all-time at their respective levels in Bill Belichick and Nick Saban, and both have been effusive in their praise of his coaching and value to their staffs.

In terms of his potential as a college head coach, O'Brien's time around Saban in particular has been inestimable. You can't place a high enough value on spending two years on his Alabama staff. The opportunity of an intimate look at Saban's blueprint and to be part of his process — Saban's mysterious, ultra-effective corporate-athletic philosophy. Everyone who has been exposed to it has come away from the experience a better coach. Bill O'Brien is more accomplished than any of his predecessors. He'll be able to take what he's seen and adapt it at his next job. O'Brien could really hit his stride taking over another college program.

A place like Nebraska can offer the kind of resources that would allow O'Brien to implement similar foundational pieces. A state-of-the-art support staff and recruiting operation. O'Brien's been around this now. He knows the value of it. Correction, he knows the necessity of it. Mickey Joseph gave a great quote after he was hired at Nebraska, "I do believe that Kirby Smart said it best: 'Coaching can't outcoach recruiting.'" Nebraska's next head coach needs to have a well-oiled recruiting operation. O'Brien's time in the NFL and at Alabama gives him a unique perspective on that.

And it's not like he'd come to Nebraska as a novice. We can go back and take a look at his time at Penn State. Their sanctions limited the pool of players O'Brien and his staff could target. Many kids weren't looking at Penn State because of the penalties the program was facing. When picking through the ones that would, O'Brien and his staff needed to make sure they were the right kids. He couldn't afford to take a chance on anyone with character concerns, no matter how talented they were. Not in that environment.

Despite the crippling limitations, O'Brien's first recruiting class was ranked 33rd according to the 247Sports Composite. Going by its average recruit ranking, however, the class was ranked 25th. Simply remarkable. Penn State's 2014 class was ranked 24th nationally. Seventeen of the 25 members were committed to O'Brien before he left for the Texans.

At Penn State, O'Brien hit the traditional Big Ten hotspots like Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, while also going into Florida, Virginia and Maryland. His time at Alabama and with the Houston Texans gives him name recognition and should open doors all over the country, including the state of Texas and the Southeast.

If given the budget, which shouldn't be a problem at Nebraska, O'Brien could go out and put together a really good staff. His time in the NFL, SEC, Big Ten and ACC should provide him with a nice network of coaches to approach. O'Brien might not be the "sexy" name out there that Husker fans are pining over, but he could be exactly the coach Nebraska needs.

---

Get your Huskers tickets from SI Tickets here.

---

---