BTN.com staff, November 10, 2011
The announcement that Penn State assistant coach Tom Bradley is now the interim head coach of the Penn State football team is the latest in a whirlwind of events swirling around Penn State University. Late Wednesday night the Penn State Board of Trustees announced that Joe Paterno and Graham Spanier had been fired, a stunning development that brought reaction from players and came on the heels of the news that the 84-year-old Paterno had hoped to remain and retire at the end of the season. Our TV crew on Big Ten Football & Beyond covered it all Wednesday night.
On Thursday morning, Bradley spoke with reporters (watch the press conference video here, read the transcript here) as well as Bradley's one-on-one interview with BTN's Rick Pizzo. As our own Tom Dienhart writes, Bradley has a long history with the Nittany Lions but whoever takes over this program after this season will have a huge set of challenges in front of them. During our continuing Thursday morning coverage Dave Revsine, Gerry DiNardo, Howard Griffith and Glen Mason analyzed the news of the hour and spoke with former Penn State stars D.J. Dozier and Michael Haynes. Find BTN's rolling coverage of this story with our BTN.com?s posts, updates from the Associated Press, more Dienhart analysis, and all of our related video.
Later Thursday the president of the NCAA released a statement on the latest development and shortly after that Nebraska AD Tom Osborne did the same regarding Saturday's game at Penn State. Also, Pizzo talked with Joe McIntyre, a Daily Collegian Football Writer, about the reaction the from the Penn State student body following Joe Paterno's firing.
The Big Ten Network will continue to cover this story Thursday night on BTN Live where we've been monitoring Twitter or the latest fan reactions. Join us again on Friday with The Big Ten Football Report, and on Saturday with our pre-game show beginning at 10:30 a.m. ET. Got a question for our BTN.com senior writer? Send it in here and he'll answer the best ones every Wednesday in his Big Ten Mailbag.
