Posted: Monday, January 9, 2012, 1:07 PM | 6 comments |
 

Reports add two assistants to O'Brien's staff

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Is Bill O’Brien the right man to be head coach at Penn State?
Yes. He’ll bring a dynamic offense and a new energy to Happy Valley.
No. He’s not a Penn Stater.
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The Penn State staff under new head coach Bill O’Brien continued to take shape Monday with reports identifying two new members.

John Strollo, the offensive line coach at Ball State, will be brought on to the staff, according to Kokomo, Ind., television station WIOU.

Stan Hixon, who has coached wide receivers for the last eight years with the Buffalo Bills and Washington Redskins, is being brought on as wide receivers coach, the Buffalo News reported.

O’Brien has worked with both Strollo and Hixon before. He and Strollo were on the same staff at Duke in 2005 and 2006 before O’Brien left for the New England Patriots. O’Brien and Hixon spent five years together (1995 through 1999) on the coaching staff at Georgia Tech.

Assistant coach Kermit Buggs, who worked eight years on the Penn State staff, the last five seasons as safeties coach, said on Twitter he will not be brought back.

“Just got the call this morning I’m not being retained. I thank all of my followers in the Penn State community,” he said in a series of three Tweets. “I thank coach O’Brien for giving me an interview and wish him the best of luck. To my players, Tnx and ‘make plays.’”

Stollo and Hixon would increase O’Brien’s staff to four. A pair of holdovers from the staff of Joe Paterno and Tom Bradley, defensive line coach Larry Johnson and linebackers coach Ron Vanderlinden, have been retained.

O’Brien, who is back with the New England Patriots to help them prepare for the start of their playoff run Saturday night against Denver, has said he wanted seven assistants in place by Wednesday to prepare for the resumption of recruiting on Friday.

--Joe Juliano
Posted by Joe Juliano @ 1:07 PM  Permalink | 6 comments
6
Comments   
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 2:36 PM, 01/09/2012
    Um, can they teach hoops too?. Less we forget, the Duke football team O'Brien OC'd went 1-22 in his two years and averaged 15 pts per game. These guys were on that staff.
    — mumf86
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 2:48 PM, 01/09/2012
    Dude. It's Duke. They don't get football players. Acting like that is a level playing field is beyond dumb. I'm sure Stan Hixon did such a terrible job in his career that he was snatched up by an NFL squad. And O'Brien is such a dunce that Belichick has him as OC. Because that only makes sense.
    — ant8817
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 3:11 PM, 01/09/2012
    I understand it is Duke, but the ACC is not the Big Ten from a competition standpoint so approaching a .500 mark should still be realistic gauge for success.
    — Blue and White
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 5:07 PM, 01/09/2012
    because he OC'd for a school that went 1-22 he's not a good coach? that's quite a leap... get a grip man, can we at least give him a chance.
    — nyphilliephan
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 7:45 PM, 01/09/2012
    Give Coach O'Brien a chance. Things were getting stale at PSU anyway. Younger staff hopefully will mean more talented recruits. PSU offense needs to get better. Coach O'Brien will visit the recruits unlike Paterno.
    — zeke128
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 9:03 PM, 01/09/2012
    Getting stale ! They've been stale for 25 years. O'Brien will do a great job ...
    — Gringo4


6 comments
About Joe Juliano
Joe Juliano has been a staff writer for The Inquirer for 20 years, covering college sports, golf and the Penn Relays.

This season is Joe's fourth season on the paper's Penn State beat. He previously covered the Nittany Lions for United Press International from 1976 to 1984.

Joe McIntyre is a senior at Penn State majoring in journalism. He covered the Penn State football beat in 2011 for the Daily Collegian. Follow him on Twitter here @JoeMcIntyre5.
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