Tom Bradley, longtime Penn St. Nittany Lions defensive coordinator, was introduced as the team's interim coach at a Thursday morning press conference. Bradley is taking over for Joe Paterno, who you may have heard has coached in Happy Valley for 61 years. Paterno was fired Wednesday night due to the ongoing Jerry Sandusky scandal.
"I take this job with very mixed emotions," Bradley said, seated in front of a blue Nittany Lions backdrop and wearing a gold tie. He mentioned team meetings, hearing from former players who will attend on Saturday, planned meetings with recruits, and a captains' gathering in preparation of the Nebraska game.
"The football part, we'll get working on that right away," Bradley said, "For now, you should know our team's thoughts and prayers are with those children and their families."
Bradley said Mike McQueary, the former GA who reported the 2002 Sandusky allegation to Paterno, will remain in his capacity as an assistant, but didn't say where he'd be positioned in the stadium. He also declared Larry Johnson and Ron Vanderlinden will take over as co-coordinators on defense.
When asked about whether Penn State will play any games after the Nebraska game, he boggled a little bit. "What do you mean?" he said, eventually saying the rest of the season is up to the school's administration, but he hopes to finish it out. He said canceling games hasn't been discussed.
"Joe Paterno has meant more to me than anybody but my father," Bradley said, adding that he's comfortably coached on the sideline before with Paterno either in the press box or unavailable.
He also said, "Coach Paterno will go down in history as one of the greatest men -- most of you know him as a football coach -- I've had the privilege to work with him. He's had a dynamic impact on so many, so many -- I'll say I, so many -- people and player's lives. I'm proud to say that I worked with him."
He was asked many times about Paterno's exit, but declined to comment on the investigation, Sandusky, McQueary's role, his own future as a potential non-interim coach, Paterno's firing and so forth, deferring the McQueary question to acting athletic director Mark Sherburne.
For more on the Nittany Lions, visit Penn State blog Black Shoe Diaries. Follow all of SB Nation's coverage of the Jerry Sandusky investigation in our StoryStream.
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Not to get all bloodthirsty-mob here, but there's no way McQueary can stay on.
Certainly not in his current position of recruiting coordinator. If Penn State can’t allow Joe Paterno to remain the face of the university to the world, it can’t have McQueary be its face to prospective players. How could anyone- potential recruits, their parents- take a promise of his seriously? The breach of trust is too great.
Sometime very soon we will get needed clarification about what exactly he told Paterno in 2002, but there’s no way around the fact that McQueary- a first-hand eyewitness- made himself an active participant in the cover-up by his subsequent silence. That he saw a man raping a little boy in the locker room showers, and (telling daddy and JoePa notwithstanding) continued to abide the rapist’s presence for another decade is mind-boggling.
11 01 10
Veni Vidi Vixi
by WhereThere'sAWillieThere'sAMays on Nov 10, 2011 12:33 PM EST reply actions
My God, what's the delay?
Is there even any question that this POS needs to go? For every child rape perpetrated by Sandusky after 2002- he bears responsibility!
McQueary demonstrates that his abject cowardice continues to this day. He is not man enough to admit that he failed as a human being, nor is he man enough to be ashamed of himself. He’s clinging to his job with every fiber of his being. Hiding. Praying, not for the victims, but that he somehow keeps his position. Disgusting!
McQueary’s indecent lack of immediate intervention enabled a pedophile to continue to abuse an untold number of children for years! There is no excuse. None. McQueary, himself, told the Grand Jury he observed the rape of a 10 year old child, with his own eyes! And he…..walked away.
Imagine what that little boy felt- watching someone who COULD HAVE BEEN HIS SAVIOR- abandon him. To save his career.
McQueary did NOTHING to insure the safety of a child being attacked, NOTHING to follow up on the health and welfare of that child, and NOTHING to bring a pedophile to justice and prevent other chidren from abuse and rape.
When it was discovered by authorities that McQueary had witnessed a rape, he was hauled before the Grand Jury and forced to testify. McQueary did not come forward on his own.
Daddy McQueary’s sickening excuses for his son, pleading for sympathy and time to “explain”, are outrageous! The whole damn family makes me sick!
PSU needs to send McQueary the message that his inaction, above all, was utterly unacceptable. He needs to be fired! Otherwise, McQueary becomes the “new face of PSU”. A coward- with no moral compass or ethics. An enabler to a pedophile.
MORAL CLARITY NOW!
by gotcha42307 on Nov 10, 2011 3:10 PM EST reply actions
I can understand the power of denial but...
I suppose that McQueary must have told himself all sorts of things to be able to sleep at night given what he saw in that shower and how little he did in response. Now that all of this is coming out, if I were him I would really be thinking about putting a gun in my mouth.
I am not trying to be extreme here but I honestly don’t know how a person could live with himself after doing as little as he did.
by Tractorr on Nov 10, 2011 3:53 PM EST reply actions
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