Bradley Takes Over as Penn State Coach at BetLM

Bradley Takes Over as Penn State Coach

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. – Tom Bradley’s eyes welled up when he was asked about his for­mer boss.

“Coach Paterno has meant more to me than any­body except my father,” Penn State’s first new foot­ball coach since 1966 said Thurs­day. “I don’t want to get emo­tional talk­ing about that.”

There is not a per­son in Happy Val­ley more loyal to Joe Paterno than Bradley, now the Nit­tany Lions’ interim coach. The 84-year-old Paterno was fired late Wednes­day night by the school’s board of trustees amid claims that he and other uni­ver­sity offi­cials did not do enough to report alle­ga­tions of sex­ual abuse against for­mer assis­tant coach Jerry San­dusky, who is charged with assault­ing eight chil­dren over a 15-year-period.

Bradley’s feel­ings about Paterno are unwavering.

“Coach Paterno will go down in his­tory as one of the great­est men,” said Bradley, who has played and worked for Paterno for the last 35 years. “Most of you know him as a great foot­ball coach. I’ve had the priv­i­lege and honor to work for him, spend time with him. He’s had such a dynamic impact on so many, so many – I’ll say it again– so many peo­ple and play­ers’ lives.

“It’s with great respect that I speak of him, and I’m proud to say that I’ve worked for him.”

Bradley, once con­sid­ered the favorite in-house can­di­date to suc­ceed Paterno in more rou­tine fash­ion, was given the job of lead­ing the Nit­tany Lions on Wednes­day night with his school in turmoil.

“We’re obvi­ously in a very unprece­dented sit­u­a­tion,” he said, sit­ting in the same spot where Paterno held court with the media for years. “I have to find a way to restore the con­fi­dence … it’s with very mixed emo­tions and heavy hearts that we go through this.”

His­tory shows that replac­ing a revered and beloved coach can be one of the most dif­fi­cult jobs in col­lege football.

When Ohio State was look­ing for a replace­ment for Woody Hayes, fired after punch­ing a Clem­son player dur­ing the 1978 Gator Bowl, the story goes that Lou Holtz, then the coach at Arkansas, was asked about the job and said: “I don’t want to be the guy who fol­lows Woody Hayes. I want to be the guy who fol­lows the guy who fol­lows Woody Hayes.”

Earle Bruce was the guy who replaced Hayes. Bruce was coach at Iowa State before being tapped by his alma mater in 1979. Like Bradley, Bruce worked and played for the man he was replac­ing. The Buck­eyes faith­ful were skeptical.

“It’s always dif­fi­cult to replace a leg­end because you’re always going to be com­pared to that leg­end,” said for­mer Ohio State All-America line­backer Chris Spiel­man, now an ana­lyst for ESPN who is work­ing the Nebraska-Penn State game in Happy Val­ley on Saturday.

Bruce said he was for­tu­nate because he had the sup­port of the per­son who mat­tered most.

“To tell you the truth, coach Hayes made it an easy tran­si­tion,” Bruce said in a phone inter­view Thurs­day. “The one thing you do need if the guy is going to be there, he bet­ter be sup­port­ive or that’s bad.”

Bruce went 81–26-1 in nine sea­sons at Ohio State, a ter­rific suc­cess at many schools. But he never won a national title and he never reached the sta­tus of Hayes with the Buckeyes.

It’s been worse for others.

Ray Perkins lasted only four sea­sons after he replaced Paul “Bear” Bryant at Alabama in 1983. Bryant retired after the 1982 sea­son and died a month later. Frank Solich was Tom Osborne’s hand-picked suc­ces­sor at Nebraska in 1998. Solich made it six years and went 58–19, but the pro­gram clearly slipped dur­ing his tenure.

Bradley might not get more than four games– Saturday’s against Nebraska, road games against Ohio State and Wis­con­sin and a bowl game.

Still, he had no reser­va­tions tak­ing over after Paterno’s 46-year tenure on the side­line, even in these grim days.

Nick­named “Scrap” for his scrappy style on spe­cial teams while a player at Penn State, Bradley is known for his ani­mated machi­na­tions on the side­line while call­ing plays or mov­ing defend­ers around the field.

But he showed lit­tle emo­tion dur­ing the half-hour news con­fer­ence except when talk­ing about Paterno, Divi­sion I’s win­ningest coach with 409 vic­to­ries. Bradley had been JoePa’s top field lieu­tenant the last 11 years.

In recent years, when var­i­ous health prob­lems have rel­e­gated Paterno to watch­ing games from the coaches’ box instead of being on the side­line, Bradley has been in charge on the sideline.

“It will be busi­ness as usual on that side­line on Sat­ur­day,” he said.

The 55-year-old Bradley said he found out he was the new coach while watch­ing game film. He called Paterno about 11 p.m. Wednes­day, but declined to say what they discussed.

“I think that’s per­sonal in nature,” Bradley said.

Bradley encour­aged Penn State stu­dents, some of whom scuf­fled with police Wednes­day night after Paterno was fired, to act with class at Saturday’s game. He also said his team, which had met ear­lier in the morn­ing, would be ready to play.

In the days since San­dusky, Paterno’s one­time heir appar­ent, was charged, the scan­dal has claimed Penn State’s sto­ried coach, its pres­i­dent, its ath­letic direc­tor and a vice pres­i­dent. San­dusky has denied the charges against him through his attorney.

“We all have a respon­si­bil­ity to take care of our chil­dren. All of us,” Bradley said.

Bradley replaced San­dusky as defen­sive coor­di­na­tor fol­low­ing the 1999 sea­son, and tes­ti­fied before the grand jury that indicted San­dusky and two other uni­ver­sity offi­cials, who are accused of fail­ing to notify author­i­ties about alleged abuse. The new coach declined sev­eral times to answer any ques­tions about his involve­ment or tes­ti­mony, finally say­ing he had been advised not to by attorneys.

Bradley’s blue-and –white roots go back more than three decades. He went from spe­cial teams cap­tain to grad­u­ate assis­tant in 1979, and has been in Happy Val­ley ever since. He took over as defen­sive coor­di­na­tor after San­dusky resigned in 1999, and the No. 12 Nit­tany Lions (8–1) are third in the coun­try in scor­ing defense (12.4 points per game) this year. They rank eighth in total defense (282.3 yards per game).

“I am who I am, I’m not going to change,” Bradley said. “I’m not going to pre­tend I’m some­body else.”

Bradley grew up in John­stown, a west­ern Penn­syl­va­nia min­ing town, as the sec­ond old­est of seven kids (three boys and four girls). His father, Jim, played bas­ket­ball for Pitts­burgh but, like many Irish Catholics, the Bradleys’ foot­ball alle­giances were to Notre Dame. The Penn State con­nec­tion started with his older brother, Jim, who played defen­sive back for Paterno from 1973–74.

Tom played defen­sive back from ‘77–78, and his younger brother, Matt, was a line­backer from ‘79–81.

“If anybody’s groomed for the job, it’s him,” said for­mer Penn State defen­sive end Aaron May­bin, now with the New York Jets. “He’s been around there about as long as just about any of the other coaches. He’s going to be as famil­iar with the staff as any­body else that they would be able to find in such short notice to han­dle the job the rest of the year. I’m sure he has the team’s sup­port and everything.”

Bradley acknowl­edged the mag­ni­tude of the job ahead of him, say­ing he had not slept. Asked when he might, Bradley flashed one of the few smiles of the morning.

“Do I look that bad?” he said.

Ralph D. Russo reported from New York. Sports Writer Den­nis Waszak Jr. con­tributed from Florham Park, N.J.

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• Penn State Coach Paterno Says He Will Retire at Season’s End
• O’Brien Adds 2 to Penn State Staff
• Knight Calls Paterno His ‘Hero,’ Blasts Media and Penn State Trustees

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