SCRANTON, Pa. – I am beginning to understand the rock-n-roll lifestyle.  That this epiphany would come on a bus full of Penn State coaches and school officials may surprise you. Not us.

I am beginning to understand the rock lifestyle because at 4:40 pm ET Thursday we have piled out of that bus – our bus, The Magic Bus -- for purposes of playing Genetti Manor. The multi-purpose reception hall in Scranton will host more than Penn State fans tonight for the 11th of 18 stops on the Penn State Coaches Caravan.

That’s the sanitized name of this nine-day, 18-stop outing. We Keystone State rock-n-rollers should call it the BOCCMBTOA (Bill O’Brien Coaches Caravan Magic Bus Tour Over America).  As the 14 of us inspect Genetti Manor, the moment has the feeling of a sound check. What’s this place going to be like when it’s full? Are we going to rock the house?

Who are we, anyway? We are … Penn State.

That refrain has been heard more than once these past two days since I joined the tour. By now I do feel like one of them. At least enough to exchange more than business cards. I know Gottfried, the bus driver, who transported Joe Paterno around since 1980. Gottfried has made 14 trips to Alaska with his bus company out of State College having both driven Nittany Lions and seen mountain lions.

I know Roger Williams, the alumni director who oversees 570,000 Penn Staters. I gave Roger this nugget that suggests Paterno’s Grand Experiment may live on: In the history of the wire service era (since 1936) only two AP national champions have never had an NCAA major football violation – BYU and Penn State.

I know golf coach Greg Nye whose Rust Belt teams have been surprisingly competitive against Sun Belt powerhouses.

I am getting to know Bill O’Brien, the reason we’re all here.

Wednesday night the BOCCMBTOA took over a ballroom of the New York Sheraton hotel where the Beatles stayed when they came to New York 40 years ago. We were right around the corner from where the Fab Four first played in this country. (David Letterman’s Ed Sullivan Theater.)

Then we collapsed into the Magic Bus for the two-hour ride to Hartford, minus the rock-n-roll debauchery. At that stop Thursday afternoon, O’Brien was ambushed by a long-lost uncle at the appearance. “Ambushed” and “long-lost” not being hyperbolic terms.

“He hadn’t seen me for years,” said John Murphy, a 62-year-old lawyer from Jamestown, R.I.  “When I heard his name [at Penn State], I was apprehensive. He’s coming in the footsteps of such an icon. But he’s ready.”

That’s why Murphy drove two hours to see his nephew sporting a “We Billieve” T-shirt.

The cities all begin to blend together after a while. Except that Scranton, tonight, is unique. There is a reason Genetti Manor is considered “multi-purpose”. On one wall you can see pictures of brides from weddings past and an ad for a May 19 cage fighting match.

The room itself looks like someone moved the reception scene from The Godfather to Pennsylvania coal country. The joint is kitschy, retro. It’s also $75 a head to sit in the front row next week to watch Joel Roberts vs. James Cianci.

“It’s going to be a tough night,” Scranton native/quarterback Matt McGloin observed on Thursday, “Scrantonians are tough people.”

But on this night Scranton turns to goo. O’Brien gets three standing ovations, the first one before the salads are picked up.

Across every state, at hundreds of colleges, coaches are gritting through these grip-and-grin tours. This one, as you should know, is different. This is an extended wake for JoePa blending into a hopeful, apprehensive welcome for O’Brien.   

The loved Paterno. They’re feeling out the new guy.

That’s the purpose of the BOCCMBTOA -- to introduce O'Brien. Scranton is bigger, perhaps,  than anything that might occur on this tour. For 34 years, the local alumni chapter has laid out the rubber chicken for their beloved Nittany Lions.

There are former players in the crowd. The acting AD Dave Joyner has arrived because it’s … Scranton. JoePa himself hadn’t been here since 2008.

“Why wouldn’t you want this job?” O’Brien said. “This is the greatest college football job in the country.”

If this were a real concert, they’d all hold up the cell phones for a encore.

“May Bill O’Brien become a legend in his time,” a cleric says during the invocation.

No pressure, coach. Just go win 409 games or so. The Magic Bus may conk out but rock-n-roll will never die.