Tom Bradley: Nothing Should Be Held Against Penn State's Interim Coach

Now what?

When it comes to the Penn State football program, this is a question that hasn't been asked in decades. Joe Paterno had been the head coach of the Nittany Lions since the mid-1960s, and under his watch the football program blossomed into a national powerhouse.

All of this is in the past. In the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal that has rocked the university, Penn State's Board of Trustees announced Wednesday night that Paterno was out as head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions. His reign is over.

Tom Bradley's reign, brief as it may be, will begin on Saturday against Nebraska. He has been named the interim head coach in JoePa's absence, and it is his responsibility to make sure the Nittany Lions finish what they started.

That Bradley was chosen to take over at the helm is not a surprise. He's been a Penn State assistant for over 30 years, and has served as JoePa's defensive coordinator since 2000. Coincidentally, he is the man who took over for Sandusky when he retired abruptly in 1999.

No doubt you're going to hear a lot of people point that out in the next couple of days. Come to think of it, you're probably going to hear people start questioning what exactly Bradley knows about Sandusky, and whether or not he played a role in the alleged cover-up stemming from the infamous 2002 incident.

But beyond speculation, we have nothing to implicate that Bradley played a role in the Sandusky debacle. As such, it would be foolish, indeed even cruel, to view Bradley as a villain. For the time being, he is simply a head football coach.

And he should be treated as such. It feels odd to bring it up, but the Nittany Lions are in the middle of a very good season. They're 8-1, and in fine position to earn a spot in the Big Ten Championship Game. If all goes well, they could be playing in the Rose Bowl come January.

A lot of people are going to be rooting against them. I can understand why people would want to do so, but only to an extent. We're not talking about a college football scandal. We're talking about a scandal going on around a college football team. As I've said many times, the football team is an innocent bystander.

This is especially true now. There is no longer an alleged bad guy at the head of the Nittany Lions. There is just a regular guy named Tom Bradley, and it's his job to make sure the Nittany Lions do what they're supposed to do: win.

If that's what they end up doing, try not to be outraged.