Texans Hire Bill O'Brien as Head Coach

[chuck]

Originally Posted by Joshua

I like it hope it works out

Who the hell knows how this will turn out but at least it appears that he offers a very different personality to the two prior coaches and that can't be bad. Judging from what has been said and written he'll stress intelligence and accountability, two things that the Texans have not enjoyed in over-abundance.

[BigBull]

I just hope O'Brien makes good choices for oc and dc.

[Keith]

Interesting local article on O'Brien and an interaction between him and a reporter a few weeks ago. O'Brien said right around the same time the Texans lost a second time to the Jags he would be gone from PSU in a month.

I grew to like the guy over two years because his personality is one I can understand. Like me, he tends toward boil-overs with multiple and often comical strings of F-bombs. While some people don’t understand that type of behavior, I think such venting is healthy as long as it doesn’t verbally abuse anyone. And O’Brien wasn’t venting at me, just to me.

Some of his frustrations revolved around what he saw as the lack of leadership at Penn State and his desire simply to fulfill his job description as the football coach, not university figurehead. ...

He’s made no secret that the NFL is his destination. He adores the pro game, the purity of it, without the university politics and pretense of the college version.

http://www.pennlive.com/sports/index...der_arriv.html

[Warren]

Here is an in-depth profile of O'Brien written before his first season at Penn State.

To kick off the speculation about his staff, based on past connections I'll toss out the names of Mark Whipple as a possible QB coach (if he doesn't get the UMass job) and Pat Hill (recently fired by the Falcons) as OL coach.

[Keith]

I know someone interested in the special teams job but can't say (sorry for the tease). Would be great to have him here though.

As for DC, I don't think either Eric Mangini or Romeo Crennel have direct connections to O'Brien (both were gone from NE when O'Brien was there), but both are apparently available for hire if desired. Mangini is currently an offensive consultant (ironically enough) for the 49ers while I don't believe Crennel is employed anywhere right now.

[WMH]

@MarkBermanFox26: NFL sources: new Texans head coach Bill O'Brien agreed to a 5 year contract.

[HPF Bob]

Part of the reason Houston sports continues to seem minor league is that they never hire top guys who have held the job before. O'Brien fits the trend. Dom Capers and Phil Garner were seemingly the exceptions to the rule but typically it's "first time NFL head coach" or "first time MLB manager". Really hard to expect champions from people who need their own learning curve.

Anyway, best of luck to "The Dimple" or (now that I've read the comments above) "The F---ing Dimple". Just don't talk like that around Mr. McNair.

And Happy New Year, everyone. May 2014 be a huge improvement over 2013, especially for Houston sports teams.