It’s 2021 and Penn State offensive analyst Danny O’Brien is tucked deep in his sweatshirt just a few days before the Nittany Lions face Maryland in College Park.
In a not so different world, O’Brien would have called Penn State home a whole decade earlier, this time as a quarterback looking to close out the final chapter of his college career.
Because life was different for O’Brien back in the early 2010s, he had been named the ACC Rookie of The Year and a Freshman All-American after throwing for 2,438 yards as the starting quarterback at Maryland. The offensive coordinator of that same Maryland team? Up-and-coming assistant coach James Franklin.
But when Maryland eventually fired head coach Ralph Friedgen and Franklin departed to Vanderbilt, O’Brien was left trying to decide what was next for his own career.
So he visited Penn State.
That visit marked one of many moments in 2012 Penn State fans might recall from such a unique time in the program’s history. It was the dawn of a new era under head coach Bill O’Brien, paired with an equally fiery quarterback in Matt McGloin, each set to face the uncertainty of what lay ahead. Then seemingly out of the blue, Penn State was hosting a rising star, and he was set to visit the exact same day the media was scheduled to watch a small portion of the Nittany Lions’ practice.
The gates opened, and in rushed the cameras looking to find O’Brien – both of them.
“I remember being swept away,” Danny O’Brien said some 10 years later. “Obviously Penn State is what it is for a reason and Coach O’Brien at the time was unbelievable. Going up the road from College Park to State College, it was a great experience man. That was a really great weekend, watched a lot of Patriots’ film, I remember that. Obviously 10 years later to be back here is pretty special. So we can’t predict 10 years later I’m back where I probably should have been.”
Of course big name recruits and possible transfer targets visit Penn State all the time, but nothing compared to O’Brien’s visit – especially as he put on a Penn State jacket – the wardrobe change sending Twitter and a universe of message boards into a frenzy. Was O’Brien coming to Penn State? Was he going to help the Nittany Lions climb out of a dark moment in the program’s history?
O’Brien laughs about it now, because yes he remembers the jacket all too well.
“I remember it was really warm in College Park that morning when I left and drove up and then when I got there, it was cold,” O’Brien said. “I don’t know if it was the mountains or the wind or whatever. And I came in a t-shirt and I just remember being really cold, so we got the jacket.”
According to Weather Underground, the high in State College on March 26th, 2012 was 54 degrees, almost 10 degrees cooler than back home in College Park.
O’Brien would eventually end up at Wisconsin but the marriage only lasted seven games before he was eventually benched, the impetus for another late-career transfer. Whether it was following in the shoes of NFL bound Russell Wilson the year prior and the expectations that came with that, or simply not quite the perfect fit, O’Brien moved on to Catawba College, a Division II school in Salisbury, N.C.
All this begs the question: how close was O’Brien to attending Penn State? The Nittany Lions would perform admirably under McGloin and eventually freshman star Christian Hackenberg, but O’Brien was a great “what if?” in Penn State’s post-sanction history books.
“Honestly really close,” O’Brien said. “I think the timing of it. To be honest, looking back on, it kind of threw me off with everything going on and some guys leaving that program at the time. And then me just leaving a place that had a lot of people leaving, but really close. There was a point in time where [visiting Penn State] was going to be the only trip I took. But obviously it all works the way it does. I do think I’m back where I should be now, but I remember I was really close to coming.”
In the professional ranks O’Brien would eventually end up in Canada, both as a player and eventually as a coach. Working on the sidelines had always been a dream of O’Brien’s and he was finally getting to live out that dream. Even so there was always the allure of coaching the game at the highest of levels.
And all the while O’Brien was still in touch with Franklin, now well underway at Penn State and one of the most well compensated coaches in the game, no longer an up-and-coming face in the profession.
“He’s so great with building lifelong relationships with people in general. It’s one of many things that I’m so impressed with him about,”O’Brien said of Franklin. “Me and him, we’ve stayed in touch [even when I was up in Canada] and visiting him and popping in for practices. So we’ve kept in touch my entire time in Canada, pretty consistently. So it’s awesome to be able to be reunited in this way.”
“I always knew that I wanted to coach and I was fortunate enough to play after high school and then fortunate enough to play in Canada for a number of years. But I knew when I was 12 or 13, that I wanted to be a college football coach at a high level, if possible. So it’s, it’s been a long time coming for me. I’m super excited and I’m extremely fortunate to start out at a place like Penn State, something that I don’t take for granted. Every time I walked in the building. Yeah, it’s been a long time coming for me and I’m just really excited.”
The arrangement now a futile exercise in not bringing your work home with you – because O’Brien lives in what amounts to the attic above Franklin’s garage. The two of them are not truly living together, but there is something funny about rolling out of bed and into the driveway only to run into your boss.
Then again, that assumes you’re ever leaving the office in the first place.
“He was more than gracious enough to let me crash there,” O’Brien said of Franklin. “We don’t see each other on a day-to-day at the house, as often as you might think, just because of the hours. I’m getting home pretty late and getting up pretty early and he is too obviously, running the show. So it’s been nice. I’ve just been super thankful for that much graciousness from him, but it’s been good. There have been a few times that I have been able to get in there into the house with him and the kids, that’s been pretty cool too.”
O’Brien admits that they have carpooled together across town to the Lasch Building if the day’s activities require it. The plan also isn’t to live there forever, O’Brien is simply waiting for his fiancé to cross the border so they can start their own life together.
But for now, yes, O’Brien lives above his boss’ garage. Thankfully it’s a nice garage and a nice attic, it’s the same one Franklin lived in during the COVID-19 pandemic to avoid potentially exposing his family to the virus after all.
Living arrangements aside, being at Penn State all these years later has been a blessing for O’Brien as he gets further into coaching. Penn State currently employs the likes of former NFL head coach Ken Whisenhunt as well as former NFL offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains in addition to longtime college head coach Larry Lewis and an army of analytics staff members. It’s a horde of people to learn from, a treasure trove of information for a young coach.
“I’m doing a lot of stuff just breaking down opposing defenses and doing self scouts – a lot of analytical work, honestly,” O’Brien said.
“It’s one of the reasons I’ve always known I’ve wanted to coach – just taking everyone’s approach and finding good ideas and then finding a way to teach it to the players and going out and executing it, it’s really gratifying. And yeah, I pinch myself every day, walking in at a place like Penn State, you’re competing at the highest level here and I love that type of environment. It’s awesome.”
Weekends like this one – a trip back down memory lane – are surreal for O’Brien. It has been a long 10 years, a long trek through the football ranks as a player and now as a coach. It was fun to relive memories when the Nittany Lions traveled to Wisconsin earlier this season, but not all memories are the same. It’s hard to top winning, hard to top personal achievements and awards. Those memories never leave you. Those memories were born at Maryland.
“It has been really cool,” O’Brien said. “Like more than I ever thought it would be going back to Wisconsin and kind of reliving some of the memories. It’s been very much a full circle experience for me, I’m just going through the ups and downs as a player and then kind of being on the other side. But now looking back and just being so grateful that I really had both ups and the downs, because it kind of shaped who I am. So going back to Wisconsin was really cool. I’ll say I have a little bit more history in graduating from Maryland and coming in with a lot of those guys.”
As for rooting interesting in the heart? Penn State fans don’t need to worry, O’Brien isn’t pinning away for the Terps to pick up a rare win in the series this weekend.
“It’s not a conflict at all – there’s something about when you go through spring ball and summer workouts and then training, those bonds you form,” O’Brien said. “The memories I had at both places were awesome, but it’s just so much different [in this role.]”
Ask O’Brien what is next for him and the answer is simply something in coaching. Football doesn’t allow for many longterm plans because it is such a fluid profession, but O’Brien knows what he loves, knows what makes him go in the morning and what he thinks about as his head hits the pillow.
“I think he’s got a really bright future as a quarterbacks coach, eventual offensive coordinator,” Franklin said all these years later.
Did O’Brien ever think he’d once again end up at Penn State bundled up watching the Nittany Lions practice? Probably not. But at least this time he owns his wardrobe.
