WATCH: Former Penn State quarterback Christian Hackenberg reveals hilarious story on Bill O'Brien leaving for NFL
Alabama Crimson Tide assistant football coach Bill O’Brien was once the man calling the shots for the Penn State Nittany Lions. But he left Penn State for the opportunity to become the head coach of the Houston Texans. During a recent interview, one of his former players, quarterback Christian Hackenberg relived the moment that he found out his former head coach was leaving.
“I was doing a keg stand, actually,” said Hackenberg. “I was doing a keg stand, and my phone starts buzzing, and I thought it was my buddy calling me from the house next door… picked it up, didn’t even look at the caller ID, (and said) hey, what’s up, what’s up. ‘Hack… I’m going to Houston.'”
“This is actually the first time I’ve ever told that story… but yeah man I was doing a keg stand up at JMU… Yeah so that’s how I found out, and then I walked in the house and it’s all over ESPN and it was super awkward the rest of the night.”
You can check out Hackenberg’s hilarious response in the video below.
More on O’Brien
O’Brien took over the program in 2012 after then-head coach Joe Paterno stepped down amidst a severe sexual assault scandal. During the two years that O’Brien was head coach of Penn State was while the school was banned from bowl games and had a significant amount of scholarships stripped from the school. Even with everything that was going on around the Nittany Lions football program, the former head coach kept the program afloat. During his time at Penn State, O’Brien went 15-9. and had it not been for the bowl ban, the Nittany Lions would have been bowl eligible.
O’Brien would be named the Texans head coach in 2014 and remain there until 2020, when he was relieved of his head coaching and general manager duties. O’Brien is currently a part of the Crimson Tides coaching staff. He is Alabama’s offensive coordinator and quarterback coach.