CHICAGO – Bill O’Brien is looking straight ahead. It’s the only choice he really has at Penn State.

The questions keep coming and he doesn’t flinch: How will he handle what has become one of the most difficult jobs in college football? How about other schools trying to lure his players away? How can he make do with reduced scholarships and no bowl appearances the next four years?

“The measure of a man is how you overcome adversity,” O’Brien said Thursday at the Big Ten media day where the majority of questions centered on the plight of the Nittany Lions in wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.

The NCAA delivered crushing sanctions to the program earlier this week and now the Nittany Lions have to get ready for a season where victories will be secondary to the heart they show on the field.

“I talked to them about — without a shadow of a doubt — they’re going to be able to play six to seven bowl games per year in front of 108,000 screaming fans in Beaver Stadium and I expect it to be 108,000 fans in Beaver Stadium,” O’Brien said.

It’s time, he said, to move on.