Houston Texans and Bill O'Brien reach an agreement

Filed less than two hours before the New Year (on the East Coast), ESPN NFL Insiders Adam Schefter and Chris Mortensen reported that Penn State head coach Bill O'Brien had reached an agreement to become the new head coach for the Houston Texans.

Filed to ESPN from me and @mortreport: Bill O'Brien has reached agreement to become the new head coach of the Houston Texans, per sources.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 1, 2014

The Texans will introduce their new head coach on Saturday.

O'Brien was the only serious candidate once Ken Whisenhunt's San Diego Chargers made the postseason, requiring assistant coaches (without a bye week) to interview on Jan. 12. The Texans wanted a coach in place well before that, removing Whisenhunt from consideration. So essentially this became O'Brien's job to lose.

But for O'Brien, it was time to go.

He had grown frustrated with the politics of college football, the Pro-Paterno crowd (I thought everyone was Pro Paterno) unhappy with what O'Brien has done in Penn State and even admitting to David Jones with PennLive.com that he was done.

The head coach vacancy is reduced to five.

Jay Gruden and Mike Zimmer are in play for the Washington Job and one site reported that Mike Zimmer will interview for the Minnesota Vikings position. The Cleveland Browns, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Detroit Lions are also looking for new head coaches.