Despite what interim head coach Tom Bradley announced earlier Thursday, a central figure in child sexual abuse scandal at Penn State will not be performing his normal coaching duties this weekend.
In a statement, the school announced that it has “decided it would be in the best interest of all for Assistant Coach [Mike] McQueary not to be in attendance at Saturday’s Nebraska game.” The university cited “multiple threats’ that have been made against the wide receivers coach.
The school did not release any plans for the two remaining regular season games and any postseason contests, which would all take place away from Beaver Stadium.
It was reported earlier today that the school’s Board of Trustees were concerned for McQueary’s safety and wanted him “off the field”. An unnamed board member also told the Allentown Morning Call that the board does not plan on firing McQueary or asking him to step down.
McQueary, who’s come under intense criticism in recent days, testified in front of a grand jury in January that he witnessed former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky sodomizing a 10-year-old boy in the showers of the Lasch football building in 2002. Instead of calling law enforcement, McQueary called his father and then took the information to Joe Paterno the next day.
Nobody associated with the university forwarded that information on to either the school’s police force or local law enforcement, which ultimately led to the dismissals of Paterno and president Graham Spanier.