Penn St. Nittany Lions head coach Bill O'Brien coaches his first road game on Saturday against the Virginia Cavaliers. O'Brien was an assistant coach in the ACC for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, Maryland Terrapins and Duke Blue Devils from 1995-2006.
O'Brien talked about his past experiences coaching against the Cavaliers as well as the home atmosphere of Scott Stadium.
The Virginia teams that we played in the mid‑'90s, early 2000s were very similar; big, tall defensive linemen, offensive linemen, big DBs...I think they've got a great home field environment, atmosphere. It's a loud place. Our guys got to be ready for that. But I definitely see some similar qualities of the teams that we played.
O'Brien thinks that one of the keys to stopping the Cavaliers' offense is to maintain focus with as much motion the Cavaliers do.
I think, again, Coach Lazor does a great job with that offense of motioning and shifting and trying to keep people off balance with a lot of different looks; call it window dressing, but he does a really good job with that.
O'Brien also talked about how his team matches up against its ACC opponent.
Coach London has done an excellent job of putting together his style of team. They're a big team, they're a physical team. There's certain units on the team that are veteran guys that play extremely hard. It's going to be a big challenge for us.
The Nittany Lions play against the Cavaliers at Scott Stadium this Saturday. Kickoff is scheduled for noon and the game will be televised on ABC.
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