The new man in charge at Penn State

After years of being mentioned as a possible successor to Joe Paterno at Penn State, Tom Bradley has the job after a stunning child sex-abuse scandal that has rocked college football.

The 55-year-old Bradley, Penn State’s defensive coordinator, was named interim coach by university trustees Wednesday night after they fired Paterno as public outrage intensified about the university’s handling of sex-abuse allegations involving former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky.

Bradley is in his 33rd year on Penn State’s coaching staff, and when Sandusky retired in 1999, Bradley took over as the Nittany Lions’ defensive coordinator. Bradley was a letterman for Paterno from 1977-78 according to his school bio and got his nickname of “Scrap” as a tenacious, undersized special teams standout.

Bradley was a graduate assistant at Penn State for a year before becoming a full-time assistant in 1980. He was co-head coach of the Nittany Lions along with offensive coordinator Galen Hall for part of the 2006 season after Paterno broke his leg in a sideline collision.

The Johnstown, Pa., native is an accomplished recruiter, especially in the Pittsburgh area, and has brought in some of the Nittany Lions’ best players.

“I think Tom would be a fine head coach,” Paterno told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2008. “Tom is a hard worker. He's smart. He works at it. He's got a good personality. I think he's got the stuff to be a good head coach.”

Bradley interviewed unsuccessfully for head coaching jobs at Temple and Pittsburgh before this season.

“I like what I'm doing and I'm happy with what I'm doing, so why leave?” Bradley told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2008. “Everybody says I have what it takes to be a head coach, but that's not going to define me as a coach.”

Instead, Bradley is now likely to be defined by the sordid circumstances that led to him finally succeeded Paterno.