Maybe now, the Bill O’Brien bashing will stop?

With Penn State’s apparent hiring of James Franklin as its new head football coach, it should.

Many of the Nittany Lion faithful were critical of O’Brien for bolting to the NFL after serving just two years of his contract at Penn State. But the man served his purpose in State College.

He served as a bridge between Joe Paterno and the next Penn State head coach. He also kept the program afloat by posting records of 8-4 and 7-5 despite the NCAA sanctions levied against it.

So O’Brien opted to return to the NFL. Most people knew that would happen eventually — including the Penn State administration.

No one close to the Penn State situation has any right to rip O’Brien for not honoring his long-term contract with the school. Franklin agreed to a long-term deal with Vanderbilt in 2012.

Right or wrong, it’s just the way things are in college football anymore. Coaches look out for themselves, not the institution with which it applied pen to paper.

It’s all about winning, or the almighty dollar — or both.

Louisville just brought back Bobby Petrino, who left them in 2006, only a few months into a 10-year contract he signed with the school to become head coach of the Atlanta Falcons.

Petrino then bolted the Falcons in the middle of his first season there, signed on with Arkansas and left there in disgrace after being involved in a motorcycle accident with his mistress.

Real upstanding guy, huh?

Petrino resurfaces at Western Kentucky, leads them to an 8-4 season, then bolts to return to Louisville, where he’s signing a seven-year contract to lead the Cardinals into the ACC.

No reason to believe he won’t honor that pact.

Alabama offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier left that position with a year left on his contract to accept the same role at Michigan. He didn’t even wart for a head coaching job to leave the Crimson Tide.

Again, that’s how it is.

Now Penn State is looking for a guy who will drop anchor in Happy Valley and lead the Nittany Lions back near the top of the college football world.

Franklin is 41 years old. He guided Vanderbilt to the first back-to-back nine-win seasons in the program’s history. He was 24-15 in three years there, 11-13 in the SEC.

In the two years before he got there, the Commodores were 4-20 overall with only one SEC win.

Franklin knows how to build a program. He’s also from Pennsylvania.

Franklin was also courted by the NFL and other major college programs before agreeing to come to Penn State.

Maybe this is his dream job. The Nittany Lion brass certainly hopes so.

It doesn’t want to undergo another coaching search three years from now.

John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle