It was about a year ago that Bill O'Brien left his job as the New England Patriots' offensive coordinator to take over the most heavily punished football team in NCAA history, but he is ready to turn the corner, ESPN reported.

Following the child sex abuse scandal that rocked the entire school, let alone the football team, the NCAA penalized the school heavily for having so many opportunities to report the abuse and failing to continually.

Amidst the investigation, Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno, president Graham Spanier and other were either fired or resigned on their own for knowing of the abuse committed by Jerry Sandusky and not alerting police.

O'Brien was hired as the Nittany Lions' head football coach after defensive coordinator Tom Bradley finished the 2011-2012 season as the interim coach. Those sanctions fined the team $60 million, took away 40 scholarships over a four-year probationary period and forbade Penn State from playing in a bowl game over those four years.

"We have to think about that as a staff," O'Brien told reporters Thursday on the second day of the Big 10 media event. "We can't stick our head in the sand and think everything is going to be glorious every single day. We understand that this is unprecedented, uncharted waters."

O'Brien led the Nittany Lions to a surprisingly successful season last year. They finished 8-4 (6-2 in the conference) and only allowed opponents to score 19.1 per game, good for 16th overall in Division I football.

"We don't see [the sanctions] as daunting," O'Brien said. "We just see it as a challenge that nobody has ever had to go through in coaching. Maybe we can write the roadmap for it."

Following the sanctions, the NCAA ruled that players could leave the team without any penalty to them. Offensive threats like starting tailback Silas Redd, who transferred to USC and first-string receiver Justin Brown, who left for Oklahoma, led a group of several departures, but the defensive core remained.

O'Brien's leadership was not just felt on the field, he lead Penn State to one of ESPN's top-25 ranked recruiting classes. He helped secure Christian Hackenberg, the top-rated pocket passer, and Adam Breneman, the number-one tight end out of high school.

"It was important that we showed how resilient we were as a football team and university," guard John Urschel said. "Coach O'Brien was the most critical piece. He was the rock and glue that held us together. I'd say it was his strength, determination and perseverance that got us through last year. I don't expect it to be any different this year."