College

Bill O'Brien Discusses Reasons For Leaving PSU, If Tom Savage Could Start For Texans

May 30, 2014 / 12:53 PM EDT / CBS Pittsburgh

PITTSBURGH (93-7 The Fan) – Former Penn State and new Texans head coach Bill O'Brien joined The Fan Morning Show on Friday to discuss his departure from PSU and his work with his new team.

"It was tough," O'Brien said. "I love Penn State. I love the kids there. Those guys gave us everything they had… for me personally, it was a combination of the National Football League was a place I was very comfortable in, and it was also probably most importantly about my family, what was best for my wife Colleen and my two sons, Jack and Michael."

"There's a little bit more time that you can spend with your family in the NFL," O'Brien said. "Especially, I would say, in the summer time coming up here where at the college level you have to do the camp scene, because that's such a huge part of recruiting."

O'Brien explained that there are a lot of things he liked about the Texans job, which fed into his decision to make the jump back to the NFL.

"It seemed like a good fit for us here," O'Brien said. "That's really the main reason why we did it."

He also had plenty of good things to say about former Pitt QB and Texans 4th round pick Tom Savage, saying that he heard nothing but good things about Savage at Pitt and has seen so many great attributes in Savage, remarking that Savage's car was in the parking lot as he pulled into the Texans facility shortly before 6:45 a.m. local time during the interview.

"We were impressed by his intelligence, his ability to communicate, his demeanor- I felt like he was a calm kid that was a competitive kid," O'Brien said. "At the end of the day, we felt really good about where he was when we picked him, and we feel like he has come in here and he's really worked extremely hard."

But O'Brien believes that any recently-drafted quarterback can benefit from waiting in the wings for a year, no matter what round they were picked in.

"I really think that it's important that that guy learns in his first year," O'Brien said. "I think it's very, very, very difficult to play quarterback as a rookie, especially in the first 6-8 weeks of the season in your first year. We've got veteran quarterbacks here… those guys are battling out for the starting job, and Tom's in there, and he's battling too, but hopefully Tom can come into this season and learn a lot, and run the scout team, and then go from there after this season."

The interview can be heard here:

Listen to Bill O'Brien 5-30

(Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)