Penn State Football: Joe Paterno's Replacement Must Not Come from Within

Penn State hiring Larry Johnson Sr. as their head coach would be a mistake. Whether they had anything to do with the scandal going on at Penn State or not, nobody from the current coaching staff should even be considered to replace Joe Paterno.

That's not a personal shot at Johnson or any coach on the staff. It's also not an implication that they had anything to do with any of Jerry Sandusky's alleged transgressions. I'll tell you right now that I don't believe that.

Heck, I'm certainly not a fan of Mike McQueary or Joe Paterno right now, but I don't believe they had anything to do with Sandusky's alleged actions. No, if those are true, Sandusky is just a sick guy who did some heinous things on his own.

But when a school has gone through as much as Penn State has experienced this season, they need a full change. 

According to a tweet from Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports, the Nittany Lions about to go down the familiar route. 

Johnson's been an assistant at Penn State since 1996. His son, Larry Johnson Jr. went to Penn State. Clearly, Johnson Sr. is familiar with the university and its high standards.

But that's the problem. 

This is a school that's already losing recruits. It may not be fair to the coaches that will be kept, but anyone who was at Penn State when the grand jury testimony came out will be linked to the scandal. There's no way around that.

Keeping an assistant coach is one thing. But making an assistant coach who was there during all of the alleged wrongdoing the head coach is another. 

Ultimately, this boils down to recruiting. If a recruit is being pursued by Penn State, they are being recruited by other Big Ten schools, as well as other elite programs throughout the country. 

If nothing else, it's going to come down to a subtle tiebreaker that Penn State will never win. This stuff is not going to be lost on the memories of any potential recruits for a long time. 

The best way that Penn State can remove itself from all of those problems is to break away 100 percent from the current coaching staff, at least as it relates to the head coaching position. 

That's not fair to guys like Johnson, but this is a matter of perception. What's fair and what's real are two different things. 

This program is going to have a hard enough time in the next few seasons anyway. The only way that they can make the future look good is to bring in a completely new coach. Penn State is best served to not let anyone from the current coaching staff force them to lose any tiebreakers.

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