Penn State Scandal: Will Mike McQueary Ever Find Another Coaching Job?

One of the figures who has been at the center of the sex-abuse scandal that has rocked Penn State is Mike McQueary, who served as recruiting coordinator and wide receivers coach before being put on paid administrative leave last week.

Back in 2002, McQueary is the one who initially informed former head coach Joe Paterno of an alleged sexual assault that he witnessed Jerry Sandusky committing on a young boy in the showers at the team’s facilities.

McQueary was a graduate assistant at the time, and while he did do the right thing by informing Paterno, many have questioned why the young coach didn’t report what he saw to authorities after seeing nothing being done about the situation.

In an e-mail he sent to some of his former Penn State teammates, McQueary cleared up the accusations that he did nothing to stop the attack he witnessed, saying “The truth isn’t out there fully, I didn’t just turn and run. I made sure it stopped.”

McQueary has received death threats since the scandal broke, and he certainly doesn’t seem to have many supporters around Penn State right now.

In his press conference today, interim head coach Tom Bradley announced that graduate assistant Bill Kavanaugh, one of McQueary’s former assistants, will now take over his duties as recruiting coordinator.

The question is, now that his reputation has taken such a public hit, will McQueary be blacklisted from coaching or will he ultimately be able to find another job?

While it’s probably best that he lays low for the foreseeable future, it’s not as if McQueary has done anything that should prevent a potential employer from hiring him. It’s really more about what he didn’t do that’s the problem in many people’s eyes.

It may be tough for McQueary to find a high-profile position immediately, but by all accounts, he did a pretty good job as a recruiting coordinator. All you have to do is look at some of the high-caliber recruits that Penn State has been able to land recently (Justin King, Derrick Williams, Rob Bolden) to see that.

If McQueary wants to stay in coaching, there will likely be a job he can find, even if it as at a smaller school to begin with.

In time, the anger towards McQueary will eventually subside and he should be able to ease back into a normal life of coaching, even though his relationship with his alma mater will likely stay strained forever.