ALTOONA, Pa. -- Thursday marked the 10-year anniversary of Penn State hiring Bill O'Brien as head coach, and tonight, he will battle for a national championship as Alabama's offensive coordinator against Georgia. When you think back on all the things that have happened to the Nittany Lion football program since O'Brien's hiring on Jan. 6, 2012, it's nothing short of remarkable how much things have changed.
Penn State was sorting through the fallout of the Sandusky scandal and would receive severe NCAA sanctions, leading many people to believe the football program would collapse and be irrelevant for a long time.