Penn State Names Interim Football Coach

As we reported yesterday, the Board of Trustees at Penn State ousted Joe Paterno, head football coach of 46 years, last night due to the child sex abuse allegations. In a press conference the Board of Trustees announced that Tom Bradley, who was on Paterno’s staff in 2002, will guide the Lions through the remainder of their 2011 season. He will be the first coach since Paterno in almost half a century. There are no official promises for Bradley as coach after the 2011 season. In a press conference this morning, Bradley says he is experiencing "very mixed emotions" replacing Paterno.

"We're obviously in a very unprecedented situation," a somber Bradley said Thursday morning. "I have to find a way to restore the confidence ... it's with very mixed emotions and heavy hearts that we go through this."

Bradley's Penn State roots go back many years. He went from special teams captain to graduate assistant in 1979. He took over as defensive coordinator after Sandusky resigned in 1999, and the Nittany Lions are third in the country in scoring defense (12.4 points per game) this year. He was Paterno's lead assistant on the field for the last 11 seasons.