A famous Lion returns: What Bill O'Brien to Ohio State means to Penn State football

Bill O'Brien will finally make a grand return to Beaver Stadium.

Of all things, though, the lionized former Penn State football coach will be doing it as a member of the Ohio State Buckeyes.

O'Brien's hiring as Ohio State's offensive coordinator this week will provide yet another intriguing layer to the Nittany Lions' most highly-anticipated − if not most critical − home game of the 2024 season. The Lions may well need to beat OSU on Nov. 2 to cement a spot in the expanded, 12-team playoff.

Of course, Penn State hasn't defeated the Buckeyes, home or away, since that titanic upset in Beaver Stadium in 2016 − three years after O'Brien left to become the head coach of the Houston Texans.

O'Brien was expectedly successful doing what he talked about always wanting: to lead an NFL team. He won four AFC South titles with the Texans − one of just three NFL teams to do that from 2015-2019 (Kansas City and New England).

A tumultuous 4-12 season in 2020 precipitated his departure from Houston, and now he's returning to the college game, once more. He spent the 2021-22 seasons leading Alabama's offense under Nick Saban before a one-year reunion with the New England Patriots and Bill Belichick.

Ohio State head coach Ryan Day lured O'Brien, a sudden coaching free agent, to run his offense, just like he's done everywhere since 2011.

But this new Ohio State-Penn State connection does provide some intriguing footnotes.

The last time O'Brien coached in Ohio Stadium?

Penn State fans may well remember one particular image from that late-October night in 2013 − amid one of the worst defeats in school history.

Ahead 56-7, Ohio State coach Urban Meyer challenged a first-down spot for the Lions, who, by then, were relying on a little-used, backup quarterback.

The first down mark was overturned, the Buckeyes got the ball back − and O'Brien seethed. He walked a few yards onto the playing field and stood there, arms crossed, staring across the field at the Buckeyes' sideline.

The Buckeyes rolled to the 49-point victory.

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But O'Brien will be remembered most for leading Penn State football through the aftermath of the Jerry Sandusky scandal and NCAA sanctions. His team stunned the college football world with two winning seasons and national coach of the year honors despite player departures, limited scholarships and a bowl ban.

Though O'Brien lost both of his games to Ohio State, he did produce several memorable victories, including season-enders against Wisconsin and a four-overtime thriller vs. Michigan.

His 2012 team is memorialized on Penn State's Ring of Honor at Beaver Stadium.

He bridged the gap to longstanding head coach James Franklin. The two became friends while working on the same coaching staff at Maryland two decades ago.

For the next nine months, the Buckeyes and Lions will continue restructuring themselves with new coordinators as they prepare to make a run at the top of the expanded Big Ten.

Their Nov. 2 game should be a penultimate meeting for both teams.

It certainly will resonate on a more personal level, too. It will be O'Brien's first game coaching at Penn State − the place he's called "football heaven" − since Penn State's overtime loss to Nebraska.

That came on another November day, 11 years before.

Frank Bodani covers Penn State football for the York Daily Record and USA Today Network. Contact him at  fbodani@ydr.com and follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @YDRPennState.

This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: How Bill O'Brien joins Ohio State, will return to Penn State football