Yes, that’s right. NC State chose to hire Tom O’Brien as it’s next head football coach. This is being reported by several media outlets, including David Glenn of the ACC Area Sports Journal/850 The Buzz, ESPN, and Yahoo Sports. O’Brien was the mystery candidate all along, and it leaves us with several questions.

What happened last night to close the deal for O’Brien? Something did, because Lee Fowler cancelled his meeting that was scheduled for today with Jimbo Fisher. Reports were that Jimbo was going to bring Bo Pelini with him. Paul Johnson was all the rave. Norm Chow was still on the list. So what did Tom O’Brien do to sell himself to NC State?

Is the answer to that question in the staff that he will bring with him? And just who will he be bringing in with him?

Is Tom O’Brien going to coach BC in it’s bowl game? If so, won’t that hinder recruiting for both schools?

Is it wrong to hire away a coach from another ACC school, who is also in your division?

I have to say, that for some reason I have not been high on O’Brien as a candidate. I think it’s because he is 58 and can only be here for a maximum of about 10 years. However, when you look at what he did with BC you can easily see why he was an “A” list candidate. He is the antithesis of Chuck Amato. His teams play disciplined and he wins a lot of games. His record against top opponents is not all that stellar, but he was also recruiting football players to come to Boston for college.

Despite my initial dislike of Tom O’Brien, which is founded on absolutely nothing and will be thoroughly researched before changing my mind, I have to say that this is a home run for NC State. They got a coach who is well respected across the country, and that has a track record of winning. They chose O’Brien over many well known coaches, and did not get publicly embarrassed like they did in the basketball search. They went without a coach for less time than any of the other “big name” schools, and Miami and Alabama are still on the clock.

So congratulations to NC State and Tom O’Brien.

It was a busy day for the coaching search at NC State today. Early in the day ESPN reported that Paul Johnson was the target for the Pack. They were a little bit behind on the story, of course, as Dave Glenn had already informed us of that yesterday. The guys over at State Fans Nation talked about it in length today, as did the blog on 850 The Buzz.

My take on the search right now is as follows:

Since I do not know who the surprise names could be that are out there,
I’ll have to concentrate on the ones that I do know.

Paul Johnson is the leading candidate in my eyes right now. He is young (49), and has been around the block and back already. He wanted the UNC job, reportedly, and is obviously interested in the State job. One thing this tells me is that he may want to come home to NC. Of course it could mean he wants to step up in the college football world and make more money, too. He has won two national championships as a head coach. Say what you want about it being I-AA, but that is just as impressive to me because they have an actual playoff system. He knows how to build a team that can make it through the regular season, and a few playoff games as well. That tells me that he is one hell of a game planner, and what he has done at Navy only backs that up. It you want to read a good break down of Paul Johnson, check out what Tar Heel Fan put together during UNC’s search.

Norm Chow is not going to be the next head coach at NC State. The reason he cited when he left NC State the first time was that his family preferred to live on the West Coast. ASU and Stanford both have job openings. The thinking was that he would go to ASU, but my opinion is that he will land at Stanford.

Norm Chow Update – ESPN is reporting that Norm Chow has withdrawn his name from consideration for the NC State job.  This was expected, and I also expect to hear his name linked to Stanford really quickly.

Jimbo Fisher is going to be the next head coach at West Virginia. Rich Rodriguez is going to take the Alabama job, and then Jimbo will pack his bags and head home. It’s perfect, if you think about it. I’m not just talking about from a humor standpoint either. Jimbo will be able to build a solid staff, and he’ll ultimately do a good job for the Mountaineers.

Update on Jimbo Fisher: Apparently Jimbo expected some sort of meeting with Lee Fowler yesterday. That meeting was reportedly cancelled. It looks like Jimbo Fisher is no longer a candidate for the head coaching position. Perhaps now he will start lobbying for the OC job instead.

Jim Donnan has also reportedly thrown his name into the hat. Donnan played for State, which is a huge plus in my book. He too has won a I-AA natty and coach of the year award. He was fired at Georgia in 2000 for putting together back to back 8 win seasons in the SEC. If Donnan can build a solid staff, I think he would be a potential home run for the Pack. He’s currently my sleeper pick for the job.

Houston Nutt is currently the head coach at Arkansas. His name has popped up in association with the NC State job a few times now, and if he could bring prized defensive coordinator Reggie Herring back to Raleigh, it would be a steal in it’s own right. Not a lot is out there on Nutt’s candidacy, so we do not know how serious of a candidate he is but if you look at what he has done with Arkansas in the SEC you will quickly realize that he could bring NC State to the next level. He’s young (49) and has shown that he can build a program and sustain it.

Tom O’Brien’s hat has been thrown into the ring as well. There is a rumor that he will be named the new coach. While O’Brien has been known to have interest in the job, I have been hesitant to list him as a candidate. I do not have anything to base this on, it’s just my feeling that he will not be the guy that gets the nod. The Football Rumor Mill feels differently, however. It should be noted that the Football Rumor Mill also expects Schiano to be named the next coach at Alabama, which is in direct contradiction to what I expect to happen. O’Brien is 58 years old, so his age may be a factor.

Without knowing more than I know right now, my vote goes to Paul Johnson. I am going to update this later, with some more information on the candidates.

Okay, I have had a night to sleep on this and put some more thought into it. My opinion is that if NC State hires either Paul Johnson, Jim Donnan, or Houston Nutt the Pack will have hit the proverbial home run. There are a lot of other names out there, like Glen Mason and Mike Sherman, but unless one of them is the “mystery” candidate I do not see them generating much buzz. It is amazing how much interest this job has created, especially with the Miami and Alabama jobs being open at the same time. It is my opinion that Chuck Amato may not have been a great game coach, and he may not have been a great manager when it came to his staff. Chuck did, however, help build the program to where it is today, which is a far cry from where he picked it up.

FYI, if you happen to be doing a Google image search on Paul Johnson, make sure you put Navy in the search line as well. Paul Johnson was also a contractor in Iraq who was beheaded, and the pictures that come up are horrifying.