OPENING HIT: I remember Franco Harris as a Pittsburgh Steeler. He was smart and studious as a player -- everything he's not being now.

I'm not sure what Harris is doing.

I'm not sure Harris knows what he is doing. He's no longer the smart Steeler but something else. Loyalty is good but loyalty can also be dangerous and we're seeing that with Harris. In his stubborness to defend Paterno he's forgetting about the victims. Let me say that again. He's forgotten about the victims in all of this.

“A lot of the answers that we want from the university aren’t coming forward," Harris said on Thursday. "When they do say something, even today, what I most recently heard, they think we’re dumb. They want us to believe it was in the best interest of the school to fire Joe Paterno. No way was that in the best interest of the school.”

Actually, it was. The school had to clean house including Paterno. Remember, Franco, Jerry Sandusky is accused of sexually abusing ten boys over a 15-year period all under Paterno's watch.

Who else was going to pay the price? The janitor.

Yes, I remember Harris the Steeler. He was a smart player.

A lot smarter than he is now.

It's still stunning that it's true but it's true: a Patriots team source confirms that Patriots offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien has agreed to become the coach of Penn State.

It's rare for an NFL coordinator to make this type of move. It's happened before even with the Patriots but it's still rare. Most assistants like O'Brien want to become head football coaches in the NFL not college.

O'Brien's move is high risk/high reward. The Penn State job is one of the toughest now in football for obvious reasons. He could easily fail. But imagine if O'Brien turns things around there. He'd be an instant star and would have his picks of many great jobs in the NFL. If he wanted them.

And now the Patriots look for a new offensive coordinator.

An official announcement about O'Brien could come as early as Friday.

One NFC scout was asked how he felt about Joe Paterno leaving.

"I hate to see any of this stuff happening," the scout said, "but people in my line of work won't miss him."

The reason? Paterno was notorious for his abuse of scouts and personnel men who tried to interview players or the staff in preparation for the NFL draft and free agency.

None of this stuff compares to the grand ugliness that happened at the school regarding molestation charges but it does open a small window -- a tiny one -- into how tight control Paterno had at the school.

It wasn't unusual for scouts to set up an appointment to speak with a player or group of players, or even Paterno himself, only to find after traveling to campus Paterno would cancel all appointments.

Eventually, I'm told, scouts were only allowed to come on certain open dates. Sometimes they'd be allowed to watch practice, sometimes not. Paterno had his favorites and would let certain scouts he liked or thought were friends of the program have better access to the team than others.

"Penn State was one of the worst places to try and do your job," said the scout.

Dan Shonka, a former scout, tweeted recently: "I have received several e-mails from retired and present #NFL scouts that reminded me that #JoePaterno hindered us from doing our job at #PennSt How so? #CoachPaterno had a rule that scouts could only visit on open dates and watching prospects during practice was not allowed. Many #scouts blame #PennSt busts over the years on the lack of info #CoachPaterno let out..."

I know who can restore sense, order and decency to Penn State. I know the perfect candidate to rebuild the athletic department, the next AD. He'll never take it but if he did, Penn State would rebound quickly. No one would be a better hire.

His name is Ernie Accorsi. For those of you who don't know Accorsi, he took over the helm of the New York Giants from the late George Young and made the Giants champions again. Significant portions of the Giants team that derailed the perfect season of the New England Patriots were put together by Accorsi.

Accorsi has a long history of rebuilding going back to when he was the general manager of the Cleveland Browns. He was born in Pennsylvania (Hersey) and in the 1960s worked in the Penn State athletic department. He still has strong ties to the school.

Most of all, Accorsi is highly respected, comfortable with the media, smart, energetic and would be a good transition from this crisis to a more permanent figure. Again, he likely would never take the job, but it he could be convinced, Accorsi could be the perfect compass.

Currently Accorsi is a special advisor to the NFL.