Bill O'Brien Bound for Happy Valley

It looks as though Patriots' offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien will step out of Bill Belichick's shadow and into Joe Paterno's. He's expected to be named the next head coach at Penn State. He was in State College, PA for an interview this week.

O'Brien went to Brown, just like Paterno. He's spent a number of years as an assistant in the college ranks at Georgia Tech, Maryland, and Duke.

There's no questioning his offensive credentials. He came to the Patriots in 2007 and the Patriots have been scoring in bunches since then.

The Patriots are going to have to replace him, of course. I don't think it will be too difficult. O'Brien was good at his job, but how hard is it to coach Tom Brady, Wes Welker, and Rob Gronkowski? And to be honest, I don't think the Patriots' offense was as good as it could have been this year. I'm not sure if that's O'Brien's fault or not.

But I don't think it will be too hard to replace him and continue to score points.