The Lions' Pride

Bill O'Brien is midway through Day 2 of the Coaches Caravan, and though most of his morning discussion with reporters at the Marriott Inner Harbor in Baltimore dealt with big-picture issues (recruiting students instead of football players, how he's settling into the job, etc.) there were a few items of interest:

-- O'Brien met Adam Taliaferro last night and got a signed copy of the former cornerback's inspirational book (O'Brien had already had his own copy and had started reading it, he said). He asked Taliaferro to come talk to the team sometime during training camp and plans to have up to a dozen speakers throughout the year give similar talks. His former boss, Patriots coach Bill Belichick, used to do something similar, bringing in the likes of Celtics coach Doc Rivers and Trinity squash coach Paul Assaiante, who led his program to more than 200 straight victories.

"I think it's important for different voices to be heard, and not just my voice, every single day in front of the team," O'Brien said.

-- O'Brien likes what he's seen on the field and in the classroom from true freshman TE Jesse James, who enrolled at Penn State in January, but wants fans (and reporters) to keep expectations in check.

"I think we've got to slow down on comparing him to Rob Gronkowski and guys like that. Those are Pro Bowl NFL players," he said. "But he's got a chance to be a really good player. He works hard and I've enjoyed coaching him."

-- O'Brien isn't worried about the depth at wide receiver provided players like Alex Kenney, Devon Smith and Brandon Moseby-Felder recover from minor injuries they suffered during the spring. Most Penn State receivers learned all three positions in a three-wide set under the previous staff, but so far the wideouts have been more specialized under O'Brien.

"It's very difficult in our system to learn all three positions, so we have a couple guys that we've asked to learn all three," he said. "We'll see how that goes over the summer. But there's certain guys we'll keep at one position, because we think it's better for them to stay at one spot, but most of these guys are learning two spots at least."

-- Curtis Drake handled the switch from receiver to cornerback "fine" this spring, O'Brien said, and his nagging left leg injury, which kept him sidelined for 2010 and five games in 2011, is "coming along."

-- There are plans in the works for a regular television show featuring O'Brien and some of Penn State's other coaches. He believes they'll have something more definitive in about a month.

"I definitely don't want it to be the Bill O'Brien show, that's for sure," he said. "The format is in discussion with myself and other people in the athletic program."