Penn State telling recruits "national search is on" for new coach
Penn State interim head coach Tom Bradley and interim athletic director Mark Sherburne held conference calls with recruits and their families Thursday night and told them the "national search is on" for a new head football coach. This according to Joe O'Connor Sr., who was on the call on behalf of his son Joey. An offensive lineman from Windsor, Colo., Joey O'Connor became the first player to decommit from Penn State on Thursday night.
Penn State telling recruits "national search is on" for new coach
Penn State interim head coach Tom Bradley and interim athletic director Mark Sherburne held conference calls with recruits and their families Thursday night and told them the “national search is on” for a new head football coach.
This according to Joe O’Connor Sr., who was on the call on behalf of his son Joey. An offensive lineman from Windsor, Colo., Joey O’Connor became the first player to decommit from Penn State on Thursday night.
“The main message was 'we’re working through the issues and obviously we’re at a loss for what the direction the university is going in right now with the football program,'" Joe Sr. said of the conference call. "'But there’s opportunity for the coaching program, [it’s] going to be evaluated swiftly and quickly and the national search is on.' And that was about it.”
Earlier on Thursday, Bradley was asked about the possibility that the entire football staff would be replaced amid the scandal that has rocked Penn State.
“That’s a decision that is up to the Board of Trustees and Penn State University,” he said. “It’s not my decision. I’ve been asked to do a job and I’m going to do it.”
O’Connor, who alerted offensive line coach Bill Kenney of his decision around 7 p.m. Thursday, said Penn State is not out of the picture. After discussing it with his parents for three hours Wednesday night – starting when then-head coach Joe Paterno under the impression he was retiring at the end of the season and concluding after Paterno had been fired – O’Connor thought it was best for him to open up his recruitment and focus on his current football season.
“It’s a huge shock,” O’Connor said of the scandal at Penn State. “The first thing I think is my heart goes out to those families and those victims. They’re in my thoughts and in my prayers. It’s shocking and it’s almost surreal. You sit back and you’re like ‘Holy cow, this is actually happening.’ ”
Both scout.com and rivals.com rank O'Connor, who had verbally committed to the Nittany Lions in June, a four-star recruit. His father fully supports his son’s decision to decommit.
“Based on the extremely quick turn of events that has happened in the last five days, your expectations as a parent go from complete buy-in and respect and then all of a sudden everything is just exposed for what it is,” Joe Sr. said. “It’s just such a tragedy up there for those little kids and those parents. We would have to associate ourselves with something like that so you have to really take a good hard look at your values.”
--Jake Kaplan
The search is pretty easy, he lives in State College and just a few blocks from the stadium. Walking distance at that...— Kitsune Hazard- Well said. — lmcpsu
- If they want to win right away, they will bring in Mike Leach. But I realize that winning is not the priority right now, and I also realize that even if it was, Mike Leach wouldn't be hired at PSU in a million years.— Penfold18
- This kid did a better job of handling this crisis than all the old men at PSU. I'm wondering how anyone with any knowledge of the acts is still working for PSU, public university.— Fritz and Alice
mike leach is a fruitcake...if you think that's the direction they need to go in after this mess you are crazy. big deal..some fat kid from colorado decommitted--dime a dozen. the football program is too important to the university, to the big ten to think its going to get the death penalty or some sort of horrid retribution from the NCAA.- Mike Leach? Urban Meyer would be the off the charts pick. Throw all the money in the world at him.— birds748
- Bill Cowhers is the only coach around who can JoPa's momento.— Wally Hitchcock
- how about someone with honor and dignity John Cappaletti— collfan
- Mike McQ needs to find another career. His coaching days are done. He will be a worse lightning rod than Micahel Vick wherever he goes.— Col. Nathan R. Jessup
- Joe did what the law required ,report it to your direct line authority ,now the they want everyone to follow up.We are a country of laws Joe followed the law and now he's the bad guy cut me a break ...Why did the Att. General wait 5months to release the report ????Why did the current Gov. not do anything he knew ..the board of trust-less at Penn State knew ....And they fire Joe Pa ..— Homes
- Mike Haywood, Todd McNair, and Butch Davis are all available and would fit in well, except they don't rape little boys. Hmmm it will be tough to fill JoePa's shoes. It's tough to find a good pedophile coach these days.— damnels
- Sometimes you do more than just follow the law or act in a chain of command. You think for yourself and you act based on what you think is right in critical situations. I'm a doctor and if I see someone in an auto accident, I pull over to help, even if the law doesn't require it.— frinkie
- kill two birds with one stone and send andy reid to penn state? mike leach? at least he might have locked Sandusky in a shed. maybe Al Golden can leave the upstanding Miami program he's cleaned up and come up to tarnished Penn State- that would be ironic.— jim715
- question is, after they set aside a ton of dollars for the lawsuits, how much money is left for a high profile coach? then again, hiring such a coach is the only way to restore the football program quickly and keep that cash-cow from falling apart. think a dropoff in penn state merchandise sales are coming. though no cheap tickets for the Nebraska game on stubhub.— jim715
- I like golden for the job but they might need a complete outsider given the duration and depth of this mess. Golden did an amazing job reviving a dead temple program but they had a completely different set of challenges. He's also made nice work of the Miami mess, although its still early in that process.
The biggest problem with Golden is that he's not a great game day coach And won't post enough Ws to satisfy the alums and regardless of what folks say now that's really what they want in the end.— owl87 - Penn State is playing football next season? Don't count on it. This scandal is just starting. When its all said and done football will be the least of the University's worries.— Wilhelm Von Humboldt
- I am really inuriated over the boards firing of Paterno, could have suspended him. But the last thing I care about now is who the future coach will be.
I want to know what happened in 1998, I want to know the 2nd Miles involvement, I want to know whom outside PSU knew what and when.
I think this goes beyond State COllege.
I am mad 61 years did not deserve a full investigation. The program will survive this. This whole thing needs exposed. No matter where it goes.
In the end, look at the polititians and columnists who did this for personnal gain. Not to protect anyone. Disgusting— UR2stupid - Penn State hasn't really been relevant on the national stage in years and this will only hurt their recruiting.— J.Bradley
- I'm with Homes. The state police took 3 years to investigate. Why aren't heads rolling there? And why is no-one talking about the Centre County DA or disappeared in 2005, his hard drive missing, probably murdered. He had been investigating Sandusky as far back as 1998. Why is it all about Joe Pa and his so called mistakes? The real bad guy is clearly Sandusky, then McQueary for not calling 911, then the state police and the now deceased Centre County DA for taking so long to act. And who killed the Centre County DA? This is pretty thick folks. It's not as simple as scapegoating the old man.— Midwest FA
- Hope that Boise State gets squeezed out again by the BCS. Not sure how much longer their coach can do with out being in an automatic qualifying BCS conference. Their possible move to the BCS is no answer either since there are no guarantees that the Big East keeps it's automatic qualifying status.
That said I would like to see them go for Kirk Ferentz, but I would guess poaching another Big Ten coach from a competitive program would be taboo.— chham57 - I hope every recruit reads the Grand Jury Report before committing. This the biggest coverup of all time ran deep in PSU.Penn State needs a hiatus from football. They need to put a priority on finding a coach for ETHICS AND MORALITY, before thinking about how do we get back to business as usual. I hope every recruit reads the Grand Jury Testimony before committing.— JusticeMann
- Read the Transcripts and the timelines, this is a coverup from every aspect of the program. There is know other way to couch it. JoPa failed morally in this without question, as did all the others. Worse than that they did their best to cover it up. Police were told to "drop the case". Classic case of protecting the program at all costs.— JusticeMann
- Easy choice...Tony Dungy.— mdriban
- The best person for the University from both a football and a PR perspective would be Urban Meyer. Not only is he a nationally recognized name for recruits he nationally respected for his ethics and morals. If there is one man who could replace Joe Paterno it is Urban Meyer.— blackknight
This season is Joe's fourth season on the paper's Penn State beat. He previously covered the Nittany Lions for United Press International from 1976 to 1984.
Emily Kaplan is the Inquirer’s fall intern covering the Nittany Lions. She is a senior at Penn State and has covered a variety of sports for the university’s student-run paper, The Daily Collegian. Over the last two years, she has reported for The Associated Press from State College.
A Montclair, N.J. native, she has also interned at MLB Network, NHL.com and covered the 2012 Olympics in London. Follow her on Twitter here @EKaplan24.
