The Sports Monitor

I agree Joe Paterno had to go at Penn State. Tom Bradley was the logical choice to fill in while the university conducted a search. However, John Smallwood from the Philadelphia Daily News thinks Bradley would be the best choice as the replacement. Penn State needs a clean break from all things Paterno. Bradley has done the right things as the interim coach, but any reminder or link to Paterno or Sandusky needs to go away. If that means losing Bradley, so be it.

It had to happen. Penn State needed to get rid of coach Joe Paterno. I don't care how many wins he has or how much money he has given to the university. Joe had to go. Did Paterno do the minimum required in the scandal that's rocked State College? Apparently. But there was a moral obligation, too. Paterno had the power to stop Jerry Sandusky but failed. Paterno's a man that was bigger than anything at State College. He called the shots there, and he knew it. He was even defiant earlier Wednesday. Check out his statement: "At this moment the Board of Trustees should not spend a single minute discussing my status. They have far more important matters to address. I want to make this as easy for them as I possibly can." Joe thought he could go when he wanted. The school's trustees thought differently. They rightly showed him who was in charge. In my opinion, Paterno was all about Paterno, building a legend, setting records and coaching for...

First, let me be up front and say I wanted to see Penn State assistant coach Tom Bradley as the new Pitt football coach. Why athletic director Steve Pederson bypassed Bradley, we might never know. It could be because WTAE-TV reported -- erroneously -- that Bradley was the next coach. It could be the Penn State ties. It could be because so many people were pulling for him and Pederson won't be told what to do. Bradley's recruiting skills were so appealing, and the idea that he might take away many from the Penn State staff had to please Pitt fans as well, knowing that JoePa would be left scrambling. But it wasn't to be. Todd Graham is your new Pitt football coach after accepting the job Monday night. As a side note, did anyone else immediately think of Alex Rodriguez's announcement during the World Series a couple years ago when the Graham hiring came about on the same day of the national championship? I guess that's one way to maximize interest to recruits...

Depending on your choice of news, either Tom Bradley is the next Pitt coach, will be the next Pitt coach or is the leading candidate to be the next Pitt football coach. Whatever the case, it looks like Pitt is zeroed in on Bradley, despite the other names (Sal Sunseri, Teryl Austin, Paul Chryst, Todd Graham) being mentioned as possible successors to the short-lived Mike Haywood experiment. Much to my dismay, Pitt doesn't want Rich Rodriguez. Bradley would be a solid second choice. It didn't seem that way the first time around. When Bradley contacted Pitt about getting an interview he was turned down. My problem with the ascendancy of Bradley is this: If he wasn't good enough for an interview the first time around, why is he now the leading choice? The short answer is, it's just Pitt. Dan Rooney recommended Pitt look at Bradley. It wasn't enough to impress athletic director Steve Pederson. For some reason, Pederson saw something in Haywood that not many ot...