Penn State fans get more 'real' O'Brien on radio

Fans listening to the weekly Thursday night radio show with Penn State coach Bill O’Brien have gotten a bit more of O’Brien’s real personality in recent weeks.

That means answers at times come with attitude and even some critique of the questions themselves. Such an approach offers insight into O’Brien’s sarcastic and smart nature.

That’s a good thing, because fans want to feel close to the football program and its people. They want to feel like they know O’Brien, and they enjoy interacting with him in person.

Fans asking questions have not been mean-spirited or unappreciative of the efforts of the coach, or the team, either. So, when O’Brien gets tough on questioners it’s entertaining, but he also sounds a bit thin skinned.

He’s walking a fine line. It’s one thing to respond to a media member’s question in such a manner, but it’s another to do the same to a question from a fan who’s paying for dinner at the restaurant while “watching” the show and just wants to feel closer to the program.

Honestly, many questions from fans on Thursdays are as good or better than what media members lob at the coach -- especially one that a fan asked about the difference between coaching a college freshman quarterback (Christian Hackenberg) and a Super Bowl-winning, NFL all-pro (Tom Brady) that irked O’Brien last week.

It was a fair question, probably not worded as clearly as possible, but not bad nonetheless. It’s a shame O’Brien heard the question as an affront to his coaching prowess.

Make no mistake, O’Brien’s zingers make for good radio, and good live theatre, but not all fans have the thick skin necessary to trade barbs and some might not want to be the butt of a joke.

Surely SEC

With “College GameDay” on site at Alabama-Texas A&M and that game getting all kinds of attention this week, some fans might think the Southeastern Conference gets too much attention.

That’s just not the case because SEC fans drive college football viewership more than fans in any other region in the country.

ESPN research finds that 38 percent of “GameDay” viewers come from SEC states while no other region of the country accounts for more than 11 percent. Also, one mid-sized city -- Birmingham, Ala. -- almost invariably tops viewership of college football (and that’s almost any game on any network) on a given weekend.