I’m not sure where you are going or what you are talking about here. My post was long, but I think you need to go back and read it more carefully. When they were 8-1 that was with Paterno in 2011 when the Sandusky story broke, not with O’Brien. So you are sort of making my point for me here by saying the 8-1 record was mostly luck.
You are trying to make the case that Penn State was the old “Penn State” of the 90’s and O’Brien dragged them down. It didn’t happen that way. They had already slipped under Paterno, and when the scandal broke they could have gone right into the dumpster. Instead, O’Brien took over and they did pretty much as well as Paterno had his last two years, 15-9 under O’Brien vs. 16-10 the previous two years under Paterno and interim coach Tom Bradley.
I’m not trying to oversell O’Brien as a candidate for the Nebraska job. I’m just pushing back against your less than factual opinions and “feelings” about what actually happened at Penn State.
O’Brien would not be my first choice, but aside from the risk that he would jump back to the NFL after a few years of success, I don’t think he would be a terrible choice.