Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1541276
D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 5 2 3 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M The 2025 season marks the second time that the Nittany Lions have turned to a Penn State lifer with Western Penn- sylvania roots to guide the program through a turbulent period. After Joe Paterno was fired on Nov. 9, 2011, amid rapidly escalating fallout from the Sandusky scandal, defensive coor- dinator Tom Bradley was named interim head coach. Bradley was a Johnstown native who went on to become a special teams standout for the Nittany Lions in the late 1970s. He ended up spending most of his professional life in State Col- lege, first as a graduate assistant with the program, and, starting in 1980, as a full-time member of Paterno's staff. Bradley coached the specialists, wide receivers, defensive backs and outside linebackers at various points in his career before taking over as defensive coordinator in 2000. For many years, Bradley was presumed to be Paterno's eventual successor, but the orderly succession plan that the Nittany Lions' longtime head coach might have envisioned went disastrously awry when the scandal broke. Bradley became the Lions' head coach when interim university president Rodney Erickson called him during a late-night film session in preparation for that week's game against Nebraska. At an emotional news conference the fol- lowing day, Bradley vowed to do whatever he could to help the Lions get though the difficult days ahead. "We're obviously in a very unprecedented situation," he said. "I just have to find a way to restore the confidence and start a healing process with everybody. I'm going to try and go about it." Penn State went 1-3 during Bradley's brief tenure as head coach, with its lone victory coming at Ohio State, a 20-14 de- cision that still stands 14 years later as the last PSU victory in Columbus. He stepped down on Jan. 7, 2012, the same day that Penn State hired New England Patriots offensive coordi- nator Bill O'Brien as Paterno's full-time successor. Bradley's resignation brought an end to a 32-year career with the Nit- tany Lions, the only program he had ever worked for. After spending the next two years doing color commentary for CBS Sports, Bradley got back into coaching, first oversee- ing the defensive line at West Virginia and later becoming defensive coordinator at UCLA. He returned to his home state in 2018 when Mike Tomlin hired him to serve as the Pittsburgh Steelers' defensive backs coach. He ended up spending three seasons in that role. Though his head coaching career at Penn State consisted of just four games, Bradley remains a beloved figure for his decades of loyalty to the Nittany Lions and his stewardship of the program during the most difficult period in its history. In an appearance on "The Penn State Football Letter Pod- cast" last December, Bradley reflected on his long tenure in State College. "It was a special place with special people," he said. "I had opportunities to go other places, but in my mind, they weren't a better fit for me than Penn State was." — Matt Herb Another Interim Coach Led Penn State Through Its Most Difficult Crisis Tom Bradley was in his 32nd season as a full-time Penn State assistant when he was named interim head coach in November 2011. PHOTO BY JOHN BEALE