Morning Wrap: NCAA Bluffed Penn St Into Accepting Sanctions

((ht: cbssports.com))

Oh, great. The NCAA did something stupid again. We are shocked.

A group of NCAA internal e-mails shows that their may have been some deceit involved when the organization levied one of the strongest penalties of all time to Penn State back in 2012 on the heels of the Jerry Sandusky scandal.

The revelations here aren't that stunning. We knew going in the NCAA was moving into uncharted territory by sanctioning a school for the criminal acts of one guy and for the allegations of a cover-up.
That had never been done before, which most of us knew.

What we didn't know is that the NCAA had some trepidation about it.

One of the e-mails, from then director of enforcement Julie Roe Lach to VP of academic and membership Kevin Lennon stated; “I know we are banking on the fact school is so embarrassed they will do anything, but I am not sure about that, and no confidence conference or other members will agree to any of that. This will force the jurisdictional issue that we really don't have a great answer to that one.”

They guessed right. Penn State basically said "Do what you will". The school was slapped with a $60 million fine, a bowl ban until 2017 and limited to 65 scholarships for the football team.

Those sanctions will be lifted after this year.

The NCAA did respond to the accusations that they singled out or targeted Penn State by saying essentially the conversations, debates are a part of the discussion over the merits in taking such actions. They were not out of line nor did they indicated a vindictive nature.

We agree.

It looks kinda bad, but to take action, such a discussion needed to be had.

Did they (the NCAA) take advantage of a situation? Probably. Did they have to act and act decisively, absolutely. The Penn State folks still consider it an assault on them. And maybe to an extent it was. But what was uncovered there had to be addressed and measures had to be taken in order to make sure it would never happen again.

Deal with it.

Maryland Refuses To Shake Hands With Penn State Before Coin Toss

Maryland head coach Randy Edsall has always said Penn State will be the Terrapins Big Ten rival.  After the shenanigans today before they game I would say it's on.


Of course it adds to the intrigue that Penn State head coach James Franklin was the "head coach in waiting" at Maryland back when he was on then head coach Ralph Freigen's staff.

The pre-game hand shake refusal by the Terps was something Franklin had not seen on a football field.

"I guess we all have a choice and option to do whatever they want to do." Franklin said.  "They decided to start the game that way. That’s their prerogative. I’ve never been apart of that. In 20 years, I’ve never seen that before."

Maryland head coach Randy Edsall did apologize for his team's pre game actions.

"First of all, let me just start off by saying that I want to apologize to the Penn State fans, to their team and their university for what took place at the beginning of the game." Edsall said.  "That is not who we are. Our emotions got the best of us and we've got to be above that. I know Kevin Anderson, our athletic director, talked to their athletic director and president as well. Like I said, I want to apologize for that and I feel bad about that.

Never seen this. RT @MattGlenesk: Seriously, Maryland? No handshake? Welcome to B1G, clowns. http://t.co/JNcjeIg3CD pic.twitter.com/9YR8NWTccG
— Gregg Doyel (@GreggDoyelStar) November 1, 2014

Wow… nice hand shake by Maryland. Said nobody. http://t.co/tBryAKgDX7
— Matt Yocum (@MattYocum) November 1, 2014

Dear Maryland football team. You are classless. I hope you lose every game for that no handshake crap. #maryland #PennState
— Cary Whitt (@CaryWhitt) November 1, 2014

Maryland kids refusing handshake, Penn State fans booing hurt MD kid. Big 10 should have stayed 10 teams. #Purdue
— Chris ODonnell (@chrisod) November 1, 2014

Penn St. Postseason Ban Lifted

It appears the harshest of the penalties being served by the Penn State athletic program in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal are being lifted.

The NCAA announced Monday afternoon they've lifted the postseason ban they placed on the Nittany Lions. In addition, they will get the scholarship restrictions placed on them lifted after the current season ends.

Saying the school has made "Remarkable Progress" in making the changes prescribed after the horrific Sandusky case, the NCAA Board of Directors moved to take immediate action.

What they don't get back: The 112 forfeited wins. However, the NCAA is willing it appears to let the state of Pennsylvania keep the $60 million in fines levied against the state's largest school.

For those unaware, the Sandusky scandal refers to former long-time assistant coach Jerry Sandusky who was convicted of multiple charges of child molestation. During the investigation, it was found Penn State may have overlooked or not paid attention to the signs of a problem and covered it up. There was also a firm belief the football culture had overtaken the day-to-day life of the University and the people living in the community.

This years team under new Coach James Franklin is off to a 2-0 start and is likely to be a bowl eligible team with a shot at winning the blatantly mediocre Big 10.

Now they may get a chance to prove their worthiness on the field...

The talking heads of ESPN debate the merits of today's decision:

Report: O'Leary May Step Down from UCF, He Denies It

((ht: foxsports.com))

Hmmm, interesting. And a strange bit of timing.

A report by Fox Sports college football writer Bruce Feldman says he is being told that 68-year old UCF football coach George O'Leary is seriously thinking about retiring sometime during this football season.

Feldman elaborates by saying it could come after the Knights play Penn State in Ireland on August 30th. And if it were to happen, that O'Leary's chosen successor would be Assistant Head Coach Brent Key.

You can read Feldman's report RIGHT HERE

For his part O'Leary steadfastly denies the report and says he has no idea where it would come from. He told the Orlando Sentinel that "I've never spoken to Fox or anybody, I don't have any idea what that's about".

The Sentinel's follow up story is RIGHT HERE

We should add that O'Leary in May agreed to a contract extension that would run through the 2017 season and pay him $2 million a year. Short of health problems, we don't know why he'd want to walk away from that.

O'Leary took over at UCF in 2004 and has taken the Orlando area school to unprecedented levels of success. The Knights beat Baylor in the Fiesta Bowl this past year, their 1st ever BCS level bowl game victory.

Here's O'Leary and a handful of players talking about the upcoming season...

Vandy News: 3 Footballers Wouldn't Have Made Academics, Went To Happy Valley

((HT: The Dirty South Sports Report))

Here's another round from contributor Jackson Martin and paragraph 2 is the more interesting part...

The biggest news out of the AD office today is that Vanderbilt has offers from three different BCS schools to play a future home and home series with the Commodores. A potential matchup with Stanford — new Vanderbilt head coach Derek Mason’s former employer — is the most exciting possibility by far, but some fans would rather see less successful programs in Georgia Tech or Boston College on the schedule. Vanderbilt has never played Stanford in football, but has played Boston College three times (most recently defeating the Eagles in the 2008 Music City Bowl) and former SEC-member Georgia Tech 37 times (most recently in 2009).

Another potentially shocking story comes from our source who says, ”Three of the six recruits that Franklin ‘stole’ from Vandy were denied admission on academic grounds.” What isn’t known is the timeline here: did the recruits flip and then were denied by the school, or did they flip because they were denied?

Our source also told us, “DW and all SEC ADs are opposed to 9 game SEC schedule. Some coaches are in favor.” That’s unfortunate news to this writer, who would be in favor of adding an extra conference game so that teams don’t see non-rivals from the opposite division only once every six years.

A small bit of uniform-centric news: the team will not have names on the back of the jerseys in the fall. Former head coach Bobby Johnson was a big believer in the “team-first” mentality and didn’t have names on the jerseys either, though Franklin did put the names on the uniforms during his tenure.

Dime Store Analysis:

The HQ isn't all that shocked that coaches would have their prospects flip from old school to new school, but the timing will turn out to be interesting...

John Stuetz from the Daily Collegian detailed some of the flippers around National Signing Day and it included OL Chance Sorrell and Ashburn, Virginia QB Trace McSorely.

The others, according to the Collegian, are Tampa-Gaither DB Amani Oruwariye, The Lovett School (Atlanta) CB Grant Haley, and Park Ridge, Illinois OT Brendan Brosnan. LB Troy Reeder from Wilmington-Salesianum out of Delaware had an offer from Vandy as well.

Here's Franklin addressing his NSD2014 with the media...
((HT: Centre Daily Times))

Dottie Sandusky Still Believes In Her Husband

((HT: NBC News))

As well she should since they are husband and wife...

The wife of one of the most disgusting men in modern memory sat with Matt Lauer on NBC's "Today" Show and gave her thoughts on everything...

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Filmmaker John Ziegler was with Sandusky and believes something is afoot and the former Penn State football coach was put away over financial gain by alleged victims. He also feels Joe Paterno did nothing wrong...

5 Top 25's Go Down In One Night...

It was not a night to be a ranked team in the world of college hoops...

Indiana fans wore hard hats at Assembly Hall as Indiana took care of 20th ranked Iowa 93-86
Will Sheehey scored a career-high 30
((HT: BTN))


And Penn State swept Ohio State with their win over the Buckeyes 65-63... and they stormed the court...
Surprising no one...
((HT: BTN))


Arkansas also got their season sweep over Kentucky with their overtime win IN LEXINGTON!!!

Which, the HQ is sure, has sent the entire Big Blue nation into some kind of histrionics
((HT: SEC on ESPN))
Houston's Danuel House scored 19 off the bench as the Cougars knocked off #21 Memphis 77-68 Mark Followill and Chris Walker discuss ((HT: CBS Sports Network))
And, finally, St. Louis' 19-game winning streak came to a screeching halt with their loss to Duquesne...
It was Duquesne's first over a Top 10 team since a 72-68 win over #9 Xavier on February 7, 2009, and it was DU's first road win over a Top 10 team since a 73-72 win at #6 Bradley on March 5, 1962...

Long Night For Ranked Teams In The B1G

((HT: BTN))

Two huge Big Ten upsets last night...

Penn State won in Columbus for the first time in a decade with a 71-70 win over Ohio State in overtime. DJ Newbill's jumper with two seconds left in overtime was the difference there...

And Northwestern followed with another huge upset, a 65-56 victory over No. 14 Wisconsin in Madison.
It was Northwestern's first win in Madison since 1996...



And Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan gave this answer when asked about the 3-point shooting of Northwestern that put the Wildcats out on the horizon early and kept Wisconsin doing nothing but catching up...

Players Committing To James Franklin And Not Vanderbilt

It was predictable that when James Franklin announced he was leaving Vanderbilt to become the new head coach at Penn State that the Commodore recruiting class fall apart.

It has.

A trio of Vanderbilt commitments have changed their minds and are following Franklin to Penn State. 

That trio is offensive lineman Brendan Brosnan from Park Ridge, Illinois, defensive end Lloyd Tubman from Louisville, Kentucky and another offensive lineman Chance Sorrell from Middletown, Ohio.

Those recruiting services that rank such things as top classes have dropped Vanderbilt considerably.

24/7 Sports.com is one such service that has Vanderbilt ranked 49^th nationally and 14^th, dead last in the SEC. 

Rivals.com has dropped Vanderbilt to 64 from the mid-20’s before Franklin’s departure.

Thursday Franklin was a guest on the Dan Patrick radio show and he was asked about the etiquette of taking recruits from one school to the other.

Franklin is dead on.  The relationship with the coaching staff will trump the academic reputation of any institution of higher education that competes in major college football.

Vanderbilt is a great school, its academic standing is exceptional but the University competes at the highest level in college football and in the football rabid SEC.

Franklin not only sold the school but those players felt a bond with their future head coach and Vanderbilt’s coaching staff before taking a class on campus. 

You can’t blame those commitments for following Franklin.

Vanderbilt will find a new head coach who will try to stop the bleeding with their recruiting class of 2014.

They better make a decision fast.

Dirty South Turns James Franklin's Departure Into An Outkast Tune

((HT: Dirty South Sports Report))

Here's J-Mart's riff on the James Franklin hiring by Penn State/departure from Vanderbilt to put a bow on the tenure and his change of address to Happy Valley...

The HQ wonders just how long it took him to figure out the iambic pentameter...

So...
Lehgo...



James Franklin has officially left Vanderbilt to become the head coach at Penn State. To cope we did the only thing we know what to do, so we wrote him an Outkast song.

[Hook]
Damn damn damn James
Damn damn damn James
Damn damn damn James
Damn damn damn James

[Verse 1 – Sleepy Brown]
Brand new suit & Lincoln’s clean
Leanin’ checking out the scene
Pennsylvania boys, cameras lit; ridin’ out talkin’ shit
Franklin where you wanna go?
You know the ol’ boys club don’t close ’til four
Let’s party ’til we can’t no more
Watch out here come the fans (Damn – oh lord)

[Verse 2 - Andre 3000]
As the plot thickens it gives me the dickens
Reminiscent of Dudley, a lil’ stadium
Nestled in the ghettos of Vandyville, USA
Via Nashville, Tennessee a lil’ spot where
Young men & young women go to experience
They first li’l taste of the SEC life
Me? Well I’ve never been there; well perhaps once
But I, was so engulfed in the tailgate
I never made it to the door you speak of hard core
While the David Williams sweatin’ out all the problems
And the troubles of the day
While this fine sun dressed girl fine as all outdoors
Lulls lukewarm lullabies in your left ear
Competing with “Wagon Wheel,” in the right
But it all blends perfectly, let the liquor tell it
“Hey hey look baby they playin’ our song”
And the crowd goes wild as if
Holyfield has just shotgunned a Natty Light
But in actuality it’s only about 3 P.M
And three freshmen just don’ got hauled
Off in the ambulance (sliced up)
Two kappas don’ start bustin’ (wham wham)
And one senior don’ took his shirt off talkin’ ’bout
“Now who else wanna fuck with Highland Quad?”
It’s just my interpretation of the situation

[Hook]
Damn damn damn James
Damn damn damn James
Damn damn damn James
Damn damn damn James

[Verse 3 - Big Boi]
Yes; when I first met my SpottieOttieCoachalicious Franklin
I can remember that damn thing like yesterday
The way he talked reminded me of a Nick Saban
Horse with skates on, ya know
Smooth like a hot comb in a black and gold suit
I walked up on him and was almost paralyzed
His words was flowing sweeter
Than a plate of yams with extra syrup
Eyes beaming like four karats apiece just blindin’ a Commodore
Felt like I chiefed a whole O of that Presidential
My heart was beating so damn fast
Never knowing this moment would bring another
Coach into this school
Funny how shit come together sometimes (ya dig)
One moment you frequent the bowl games and
The next four years you & somebody’s offensive coordinator
Raisin’ y’all own young team now that’s a beautiful thang
That’s if you’re on top of your game
And man enough to handle real life situations (that is)
Can’t gamble feeding a fanbase on that coach money
Might not always be sufficient but the
Pennsylvania State University & the people at State College
Didn’t call you back because you started 0-6.
So now you back in the trap just that, trapped
Go on and marinate on that for a minute

See the mind he has here...???

Penn State Makes James Franklin Hire Official

To the surprise of nobody...outside of a handful of people at Vanderbilt University, Penn State made it official early Saturday morning and hired James Franklin to coach the football team.

The only matter, which we reported on Friday, that slowed things down was getting the school's Board of Trustees to sign off on his salary. Which they did just after 9 a.m on Saturday.

And according to CBSSports.com's Bruce Feldman, the deal is a big one. 6-years for $27 million or $4.5 million a year.

Read more from the school their own-selves RIGHT HERE

The tradition of excellence continues: James Franklin named Penn State Football Head Coach. http://t.co/izmh08AILC pic.twitter.com/RkMSsxmuBT
— Penn State Football (@PennStateFball) January 11, 2014

Franklin has been one of College Football's hottest coaching commodities after leading the Commodores to 24 wins and three straight bowl games in his 3-years at the Nashville school.

He inherits a once storied football program that has suffered the past several years both before and after the Jerry Sandusky scandal and the passing of legendary coach Joe Paterno. The Nittany Lions are dealing with scholarship losses and several other punishments for the mess and to most outsiders are a few years away from returning to full strength.

The job came open after Bill O'Brien left to take the head coaching job with the Houston Texans.

Penn State will introduce Franklin to the world at 4:15 on Saturday afternoon.

According to Vandy AD David Williams, the two had a discussion at 1PM Friday afternoon. Williams said that, after a conversation he had with Franklin six hours later, it was his impression that Franklin was removing himself from the position of head coach at the university. Williams is disappointed with the decision, but is ready to move on.

Your Friday James Franklin Update (Or: Still Maybe...Maybe Not...UPDATED and UPDATED AGAIN)

Dirty South's Jackson Martin reports to OSG, with knowledge of people in the meeting that Vanderbilt head coach James Franklin just had with AD David Williams, that Franklin did not say he was leaving his current job...

Penn State is saying that there is a major announcement on campus at 4:15 tomorrow...

Franklin was supposed to meet with the Vanderbilt AD and the biggest Vandy booster, John Ingram, this afternoon, so take all this information at your own peril...

Here's fans reaction to the back and forth...
((HT: WTVF-TV))
NewsChannel5.com | Nashville News, Weather

More when we know more...

1700 UPDATE:

Citing a source, wkrn.com columnist Joe Biddle says Franklin received an offer to become Penn State's next head football.

After that, he got a counter offer from Vanderbilt to stay in Nashville. The Vanderbilt offer would pay him a higher salary.

According to Biddle, Franklin is currently weighing his options.

1800 UPDATE: Brett McMurphy is now saying that while Bill O'Brien made $3.82-million in his last season at Penn State while Franklin made $3-million in his last season at Vanderbilt.

The current number being floated around by Happy Valley is in the neighborhood of $4.5-million...

Also from McMurphy:

The Penn State compensation committee is scheduled to meet in a closed session at 8:30 a.m. ET Saturday to discuss a "matter of compensation," school spokeswoman Lisa Powers said. Sources told ESPN that meeting is about Franklin, who spent the past three seasons at Vanderbilt.

Powers said that following the meeting a brief public session would be held. The committee members are chairwoman Linda B. Strumpf, Kathleen L. Casey, Mark H. Dambly, Karen B. Peetz and Paul H. Silvis.

1845 UPDATE: Martin now reports, from people with direct knowledge of the meeting with Franklin and the University, that Vanderbilt has offered more, and it is now up to Franklin as to his next step...

1930 UPDATE: Jeremy Fowler over at CBS Sports, via his Twitter, says that Franklin's assistants don't know anything either...

assistants have heard nothing from James Franklin. "Sound of silence," one VU staffer said.

2045 UPDATE: From Jeff Lockridge at the Tennessean through his Twitter:

There's a team meeting scheduled for tomorrow morning at 8 on campus. Franklin expected to address players & coaches

Whatever that means... still no word on whether or not AD David Williams knows the end result...

Today in James Franklin to Penn State News: Stop Speculating, Just a Formality

((ht: statecollege.com))

Brother Jon did a great job on Thursday summarizing all the news related to Vanderbilt coach James Franklin and his pending move to Penn State.

But there was nothing etched in stone about any of it.

Well, this morning (Friday), there's more. It appears, despite Vanderbilt saying "He's still our football coach" and information from Vandy insider, the Dirty South Sports Reports Jackson Martin, the move IS going to happen.

Mike Poorman of StateCollege.com, the Newspaper in Happy Valley reports Friday morning that the Penn State Board of Trustees (yes, that board) is meeting on Saturday morning specifically to discuss a "compensation" issue.

Once the board signs off on the deal: It's done.

Read Poorman's story RIGHT HERE

At this point, we don't think there is any reason the deal won't happen. We also are quite amused at the hullabaloo the hire is generating. Yes, Franklin has been wildly successful at Vanderbilt and likely will do well in Happy Valley, but in the grand scheme of things, this is not a Texas hire or even Petrino returning to Louisville.

Still, we would advise our friends in Nashville, Vanderbilt in particular to get moving on the coaching search, waiting this long, thins the pool of candidates.

A lot.

It's done folks. Let's move on. 

DEVELOPING: Franklin Not In Happy Valley Yet... (UPDATED w/7PM Announcement...???)

OSG Sports sources close to the situation at Vanderbilt seem to contradict what Pennsylvania is saying...

Dirty South Sports Report's Jackson Martin is telling us that no one at Vanderbilt- players, coaches, sports information department included- have heard anything about an impending decision for Franklin going back home to take the head coaching gig at Penn State...

Earlier today, ESPN's Brett McMurphy discussed the idea with Jay Crawford that Franklin seems to be going north...


Greg Roman, Mike Munchak, and Al Golden are also candidates...

More when we know more...

1505 UPDATE: Jeff Lockridge of the Tennessean has word from campus via his Twitter...

#Vandy AD David Williams on James Franklin and Penn St. reports: "As of 1:45 p.m. Central, he is still Vanderbilt's football coach.''

1750 UPDATE: From Cory Curtis at WKRN-TV and his Twitter...

Source tells us Vanderbilt expects Penn State to make announcement by 7 PM.

Our Jackson Martin still maintains that no one on campus has any Franklin-based answers on a change of address or a lack of one... so, we'll go with that until we hear otherwise...

DEVELOPING: Franklin To Penn State...???(Updates)

((HT: College Football Scoop))

According to Scoop, the Langhorne native/Stroudsburg grad/Kutztown coach is heading home...

No particulars yet on contract, contract length, or a signing, but Scoop is confident this is happening as Franklin went 16-4 in his lst 20 games in Nashville...

Here's Franklin's last win on campus, the win over Houston in the bowl in Birmingham...
((HT: ESPN))


More when we know more…

More:

According to USA Today Sports reporter Dan Wolken, Franklin will take the job if he's offered and Penn State Athletic Director Dave Joyner went so far as to release a statement saying he anticipates having a coach in a "Couple of Days"

Read Wolken's full story RIGHT HERE

Vanderbilt's Athletic Director, David Williams is telling anyone that will listen that he expects Franklin to remain the football coach at the Nashville school.

CBSSports.com has more RIGHT HERE

Smart money says Vandy will counter and try to keep him, the question though is will it be enough?

Mike Munchak Fired By Titans After All

So, the rumors of Mike Munchak sticking with the Tennessee Titans were just that: rumors.

The Titans made it official on Saturday, announcing they've fired Munchak after 3 seasons at the helm.

Munchak leaves with a 22-26 record, but the part that gave the Titans pause was the team was not getting better. They by no means were the worst team in the NFL, but they never showed improvement and did not make the playoffs in any of Munchak's 3-years.

There are rumors circulating that Munchak was told in order to keep the job, he needed to overhaul his coaching staff. And supposedly, he wouldn't do it. But nobody has been able to confirm that actually happened.

He's also been connected with the head coaching job at his alma mater--Penn State. The Nittany Lions have been narrowing the candidate field with word leaking out yesterday that University of Miami head coach Al Golden will interview for the job, as will--allegedly, Vanderbilt coach James Franklin.

We are guessing Munchak will be added to that list.

Penn St Narrows Coaching Field: Golden and Others To Interview (Update: Golden Offered or Not)

UPDATE 5:00pm 1/3/14:

CaneSport.com reports Al Golden has been offered the Penn State job. If so, take what you read after the CaneSport tweet, with a grain of salt....

CaneSport has confirmed that Al Golden has been offered the head coaching job at Penn State. While expected to take it, no word yet from Al
— CaneSport (@CaneSport) January 3, 2014

However other reports say no. That it hasn't happened.

This isn't what they mean by casual Friday you guys. RT @djoneshoop NO ONE has been offered job. Report was wrong.
— Ben Jones (@Ben_Jones88) January 3, 2014

So who do you believe?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Earlier Story:

So who is it? Al Golden? James Franklin or Mike Munchak?

It depends we guess, on who's website or "expert" you believe in...

Reports are flying fast and furious that Penn State is quickly closing in on a new head coach.

The latest report....it comes from ESPN.com's Joe Schad who says University of Miami head coach Al Golden (a Penn State alum) has agreed to an interview:

Penn State source said Al Golden agreed to speak about the opening as early as today because "It would be coming home."
— Joe Schad (@schadjoe) January 3, 2014

And, there's more...

CoachingSearch.com, a very well connected website with lots of inside scoop on coaching moves, reports that Vanderbilt head coach James Franklin will be interviewed on Sunday.

Read that in their daily ticker RIGHT HERE

And ESPN.com's Brett McMurphy adds that Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Munchak, also an alum, and currently still in charge of the Titans, is also going to be interviewed for the gig.

So, does any of this make sense to you?

Golden, does because of his ties. And his apparent love for his alma mater. This despite an arguably better job with a very high profile team.

Franklin however does NOT make sense. Yes, he's from the area, but why would he leave an SEC team that he's had huge success with to take another rebuilding job? Sure, that SEC job is Vanderbilt and yes, Franklin's name comes up for every high profile job. But we just don't think this one makes sense.

As for Munchak, much like Golden, he makes some sense. He's got ties, he's now got the coaching experience. No, he hasn't been incredibly successful with the Titans, but he hasn't been a failure either. You don't often hear of NFL coaches with jobs stepping back, but the Titans are still evaluating Munchak's job and whether or not he'll still have it next season.

Expect something to happen fairly quick. We're guessing Penn State will wait until after Monday's BCS title game to make the announcement, unless it leaks first. But we are very confident it will happen soon and one of these guys is likely to be the hire.

While You Were Celebrating: Texans Hire Bill O'Brien

There's a really good chance, unless you stayed home Tuesday night you missed the revelation that the Houston Texans have hired a new coach.

That coach, Bill O'Brien, now formerly of Penn State and previous to that, 5-years as a disciple of the Belichick, in the New England Patriots system.

O'Brien became THE hot coaching commodity after steering Penn State to a 15-9 record over the past 2-years despite a loss of scholarships and the general craziness surrounding the school in the fallout after the Jerry Sanduksy scandal.

The Texans, with 2-hours to spare in 2013, secured their immediate future in 2014, as O'Brien will become their 3rd head coach ever.

Read more about the hire from Chron.com RIGHT HERE

O'Brien does not have a lengthy background as a head coach. His 5-years in the NFL were as an assistant and the Penn State job was his first leading a team. The consensus by most was that he'd be ready for the task and with Houston, he inherits a team that has the coming years #1 draft pick. The Texans were expected to be a playoff and possibly a Super Bowl contender, but the season was a complete and total failure which led to the dismissal of Gary Kubiak. In addition, he goes to a franchise considered one of the best run in the league.

The team is expected to make a formal announcement of the hire by Friday.

MInnesota Beats Penn St and Destroys Trophy (w/bonus Jerry Kill Dancing)

So, Minnesota Golden Gophers, just a couple of years ago, you were won of college football's worst teams.

You then hired a coach with epileptic seizure issues and lo and behold, he's turned your program around.

That coach, Jerry Kill has struggled with his health to stay on the sidelines with his team. But he was in a booth over the field on Saturday as his Golden Gophers won their 4th straight Big 10 game, beating Penn State 24-10.

The win moved the Gophers to 8-2 on the season and 4-2 in the Big 10. A pretty big bowl game is in site for the team.

But the game was not without adventure. Well, okay, it's more like after the game, when the team went to celebrate with the Governor's Victory Bell Trophy.

That celebration didn't go so well. At least for the now-in-two-pieces trophy.

(Check out this GIF courtesy SBNation)

As for Coach Kill, well, aside from feeling good about how well his team is playing, he appears to be feeling better physically too.

Check out this video of him in the locker room after the game--very little else needs to be said about this dance….

ICYMI: Penn St Beats Michigan in 4 OT's

Four overtimes. It's the type of game that exhausts players, coaches and fans.

And after Saturday, both Sports writers and Penn State fans are calling it one of the greatest upsets ever.

We are just calling it a pretty good game.

Penn State (4-2) beat Michigan (5-1) Saturday 43-40 in 4....yes, 4 overtimes. The game ended after Michigan kicked a field goal in the top of the 4th OT, Penn State got a 2-yard TD run by Bill Belton to win it.

And the chaos ensued. The biggest win for the Nittany Lions in Bill O'Brien's 2-years at the helm. Yes, it was a very good win for an improving Penn State team over what was, but shouldn't be a ranked Michigan team. But what leaves us scratching our heads is the description of it being a huge upset.

It wasn't.

Penn State isn't as bad as the team that lost to a very good UCF squad. Michigan, hasn't been impressive, yet they were somehow undefeated. But they are Michigan, so if the record is over .500, they get ranked.

The other qualifier is this: They both play in the god awful Big 10. Yes, the Big 10. We aren't comparing the 10 to say, the MAC or Conference USA or even the AAC (the aaack). But of the power conferences, no they aren't very good.

Anyway, enough of that, your highlights from ESPN: