Well it's day two of the Dave Wannstedt replacement search, and what was Tuesday's speculation about Tom Bradley's interest level in the job might be turning into some legitimate smoke, as Paul Zeise, Pitt beat writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.
Tom Bradley - Defensive coordinator, Penn State - Don't laugh, I am told he'd be very interested in this job and frankly, Pitt could do a heckuva lot worse. I think that he'd be a fine coach, he'd recruit the area like crazy and his teams would be disciplined, would work hard. Of course, would Pitt hire a Penn State guy?
Of course, Bradley was passed on by Pitt athletic director in Steve Pederson in 1996 when Walt Harris was hired to replace Johnny Majors, but that was 14 years ago, an eternity in college athletics. We've exhausted the reasons why Bradley would be a good fit at Pitt here, so we won't get into that again, (although there's some good listening on this issue at Slow States).
Keep your eyes on the process, though. If Pitt expresses interest in Scrap, how he reacts to it could be very indicative of how he feels about his future at Penn State, even if nothing ends up coming of it. No reason to get paranoid, though. Penn State could survive a Bradley depature in the long term, though it'd be a very damaging loss for Paterno and his wish to return in 2011 in the short term.
Urban Retires
In case you didn't hear by now, Urban Meyer is retiring to spend more time with his family.
"I’ve not seen my two girls play high school sports. They’re both very talented Division I-A volleyball players, so I missed those four years. I missed two already with one away at college. I can’t get that time back."
I'm not going to lie, the moment that got me a little misty during Joe Paterno's 400th win ceremony was the part of the tribute video that showed Joe walking his kids to the bus stop and playing with them in his office. Joe has been a family man throughout his tenure at Penn State, right down to staying in Happy Valley rather than taking the New England Patriots job because Sue didn't want him to.
Considering Joe's comments the other day about his relationship with Urban Meyer, you've got to wonder if the old man gave him a nugget of family wisdom somewhere along the line.
Meyer will probably get some heat over the coming days, weeks and maybe even years to come for his decision to leave, and if he doesn't stick to what he said today by showing up somewhere else or even back at Florida six months from, he'll deserve it. But, if he really, truly means what he said, no one can fault him for leaving. He has nothing left to prove. He's a great college football coach. Time for him to move to another phase in his life.
Lee Praised
Former Penn State linebacker Sean Lee had a big game against Peyton Manning and the Colts the other day, and he's getting some love for it, even from his coach.