STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Penn State assistant football coach Mike McQueary will not attend Saturday’s home game against Nebraska because of fears for his safety, the university said Thursday night.
“Due to multiple threats made against Assistant Coach Mike McQueary, the University has decided it would be in the best interest of all for Assistant Coach McQueary not to be in attendance at Saturday’s Nebraska game,” the university said in a statement.
McQueary’s enforced absence is the latest development in the unprecedented scandal that has engulfed the university following the arrest of former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky on child sex abuse charges.
The announcement came only hours after football coach Tom Bradley addressed the media for the first time, less than 24 hours after being named the interim replacement for iconic coach Joe Paterno who was fired Wednesday night after 46 years in charge.
The 55-year-old Bradley, who has been a member of the Penn State coaching staff for 33 years and replaced Sandusky as defensive coordinator in 1999, said he took the job “with very mixed emotions due to the circumstances,” but accepted it with “no reservations.”
Bradley said he spoke with Paterno, who he played for in the late 1970s, but declined to discuss details of the conversation.
“Coach Paterno has meant more to me than anybody except my father. I don’t want to get emotional talking about that,” Bradley said. “Coach Paterno will go down in history as one of the greatest men, who maybe most of you know as a great football coach. I’ve had the privilege and the honor to work for him, spend time with him. He’s had such dynamic impact on so many people and players’ lives.”
Bradley also announced at the time that wide receivers coach McQueary would remain on the coaching staff for Saturday’s game against Nebraska. That changed hours later, after social networking sites lit up with remarks from angry students and Penn State supporters calling for his dismissal.
McQueary was a graduate assistant in 2002 when he allegedly witnessed Sandusky having sex with a young boy in the locker room shower. McQueary notified Paterno of “what he had seen,” according to the grand jury’s findings, but he has still come under harsh public criticism in recent days for not intervening at that moment and for not notifying police.
According to ESPN, Paterno does not recall McQueary telling him that he witnessed a rape, but rather making a more vague reference to “fondling” or “touching” or “horsing around.”
According to the grand jury’s report, after speaking with Paterno, McQueary told athletic director Tim Curley and vice president for finance and business Gary Schultz what he saw in a separate meeting. Both officials have since been charged with perjury for lying about what they were told by McQueary and for failing to notify police of the alleged abuse.
The two stepped down from their positions to defend themselves in court. Sandusky, Curley, and Schultz have all maintained their innocence.
While not charged with any offenses, according to an NBC report, representatives of Paterno approached prominent criminal defense lawyer J. Sedgwick Sollers on Thursday. The report said Sollers and Paterno had not met and a formal retainer agreement had not been signed.
The developments have provoked a strong reaction from Penn State students, with police estimating that up to 5,000 took to the streets late Wednesday to express their anger over Paterno’s sudden and dramatic demise.
The protest turned violent at one point when a media van was overturned and car windows were smashed. Police in riot gear used pepper spray to disperse the crowds.
The State College Police Department was reviewing video footage in an attempt to identify suspects in the violence, a police statement said Thursday.
Meanwhile, the NCAA will conduct an inquiry into the scandal to see whether any rules violations occurred. Under Paterno, the Penn State program had prided itself on staying clear of NCAA violations.
“As the facts are established through the justice system, we will determine whether association bylaws have been violated and act accordingly,” NCAA president Mark Emmert said in a statement Thursday. “To be clear, civil and criminal law will always take precedence over Association rules.”
The US Department of Education announced Wednesday it would launch an investigation into whether the university violated federal law by failing to report allegations of sexual abuse on campus.