Penn State Riots Will Hurt Nittany Lions in Search for New Coach

The Penn State scandal got even worse late Wednesday night, as students took the streets to protest Joe Paterno being fired, but their actions will have a far greater impact than they ever intended. 

It's obvious these students were not thinking when they started to riot on the Penn State campus, and because of it the Nittany Lions will struggle to find a new head coach.

It was already a mess at Penn State, but when they did this, it only made matters worse. 

Acting in violence is never the answer, and while some students were just trying to show support for Paterno, others took it too far and aided in the downfall for Penn State.

Replacing Paterno will not be easy, especially in light of this scandal. Getting past what former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky did is manageable because he is no longer a part of Penn State.

But when fans start acting very immature, it greatly hurts the university. You can't get rid of fans like you can an alleged predator.    

What coach is going to want to have these type of fans? 

Tom Bradley will take over as interim coach, but the Nittany Lions would be smart to hire the 2012 head coach from outside. 

That isn't going to be easy since fans vandalized their campus. 

A coach loves having passionate fans, and everybody knows that the Nittany Lions have great fans that love and support their team.

However, this incident is a huge setback in the search for a new coach. 

While Bradley will have to finish out the season, Penn State should be looking for a new head coach now. 

Unfortunately, these riots may prevent them from doing just that. There were college football coaches out there thinking to themselves that if Penn State called, they would consider, just because it is a storied program and it appears their will be no NCAA sanctions. 

But after what happened Wednesday night, several coaches will want no part of Penn State. 

Not all Nittany Lions' fans were out there, but because these were students rioting, it amplifies how bad the situation at Penn State really is, and it will be very hard to find a coach that wants to deal with that.