Joe Paterno Fired: Why Rutgers' Greg Schiano Is Perfect Choice To Replace Joe Pa

Whether he should be held responsible or not, legendary Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno paid dearly for the alleged transgressions of his long-time defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky. Now, for the first time since 1966, a new face will patrol the Penn State sidelines as head coach.

In the interim, that person will be defensive coordinator Tom Bradley.

Bradley would seem to be little more than a quick fix for the remainder of the season. Ultimately, Penn State needs to find a coach that can help heal the ample wounds the school has suffered due to the Sandusky scandal.

That certainly won't be easy, and there aren't many candidates that will be able to pull it off.

The name that has been most frequently mentioned is former Florida head coach Urban Meyer. While Meyer would be a huge hire, it isn't realistic to think he'd come out of retirement to join a program in shambles.

With that said, there is only one possibility that would be considered a huge score for Penn State: Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano.

While Schiano isn't the biggest name, he is a fairly well-known coach in college football circles, and he is certainly well respected. Schiano has had pretty good success at Rutgers, but the hire would not purely be from a football standpoint.

Schiano has apparently been a model leader at Rutgers and hasn't been attached to any type of scandal. He appears to be a blue-collar coach that gets the most out of his players and represents his program well.

Despite the scandal that has engulfed Penn State, Schiano would likely accept a move to the university as he was an assistant under Paterno from 1990 to 1995.

As nice as it would be to get a huge name, Penn State simply needs a coach it can be proud of.

Nobody is going to make people forget about the Sandusky scandal any time soon, but Schiano would ensure that the program is squeaky clean and that his team is tough, hard-nosed and competitive.

Recruiting may suffer a bit at first, but Schiano seems to be the type of coach that could persuade players into attending Penn State. It won't be easy to get recruits to ignore what has transpired over the past couple days, but Schiano would surely let potential players know that everything is in the past.

Ultimately, Penn State is unlikely to attract too many high-profile coaches, but getting somebody like Schiano, who presumably cares about the university, would be huge.

While he's no Paterno, Schiano is an honest coach that can help restore some prestige to Penn State.