Penn State head coach Bill O’Brien wasn’t huddled around a fax machine Wednesday, waiting for letters of intent to come in like many other college coaches.
He was out on a practice field in Indianapolis, worried about slowing down the New York Giants’ athletic pass rush and wondering how much of a factor Rob Gronkowski will be in the Super Bowl. At the end of the day, he received a master list of all the recruits the Lions staff signed.
Since O’Brien was hired as Penn State’s next head coach Jan. 6, he has been juggling his job as New England Patriots offensive coordinator and recruiting for the Nittany Lions.
But for a few more days, O’Brien’s focus will be on winning that Super Bowl ring as the Patriots and Giants get set to face off Sunday night at Lucas Oil Stadium.
“I’m very focused on New England. When you work for Bill Belichick, you are focused on one thing. That’s doing your job. He demands that out of you,” O’Brien said. “The detail that goes into putting game plans together for the players here, very, very smart players.”
O’Brien said he assigned defensive line coach Larry Johnson the job of overseeing the recruiting process in State College, and also was given an administrative assistant in New England to help him balance both jobs.
The Lions were able to sign 19 high school seniors and finished with the No. 48 recruiting class in the nation, according to Scout.com.
“I think [recruiting] went really well as far as the transition is concerned,” O’Brien said. “…As evidenced by [Wednesday], [Johnson] did a great job of keeping it rolling. The other guys came in there and hit the ground running.”
While O’Brien had support from his coaching staff in terms of recruiting, there’s one key Lion player who won’t be backing his new coach this Sunday.
Running back Silas Redd, who rushed for 1,241 in 2011, doesn’t have anything against O’Brien. It just happens that Redd is a fan of the Giants, O’Brien’s Super Bowl opponent. He won’t be rooting against O’Brien Saturday.
“I’m not going to because I still want to keep my job as a starter,” Redd joked.
Redd said he while he is a Giants fan, he will be interested to see some of the things the Lions offense will be doing under O’Brien.
And he wants to see that Super Bowl ring.
“That’ll be our offense. I won’t try to figure it out because I won’t know what’s going on, but I can learn some things,” Redd said. “Haven’t watched any. I’m sure there’s certain schemes they have that are set in stone. But you game plan with any offense, whether it’s West Coast or balanced.”