UCLA's Jim Mora on Tom Bradley: 'I stand by him'
Like Ohio State coach Urban Meyer did with Greg Schiano, UCLA head coach Jim Mora is standing by Tom Bradley.
Earlier this week an unsealed deposition showed that former Penn State assistant Mike McQueary said he spoke with Bradley, the longtime Penn State defensive coordinator who is now at UCLA, after allegedly witnessing Jerry Sandusky in a shower with a boy in 2001.
McQueary said Bradley was “not shocked” and that Bradley said Schiano – a former PSU assistant now at Ohio State – had told him about seeing Sandusky “doing something to a boy in the shower” years earlier. McQueary also said Bradley told him that “someone” saw Sandusky “doing something to a boy” in the 80’s.
In a statement released through his representation, Bradley denied McQueary’s claims.
“At no time did Tom Bradley ever witness any inappropriate behavior. Nor did he have any knowledge of alleged incidents in the 80’s and the 90’s. He has consistently testified as such,” a statement from Bradley’s representation said. “Any assertions to the contrary are false. When he became aware of the 2001 incident it had already been reported to the university administration years earlier.”
Mora said Bradley was “thoroughly” vetted before he was brought on by UCLA as defensive coordinator in 2015.
“I know this about Tom: He is a man of integrity,” Mora told ESPN.com. “He’s been vetted by a number of different people as well as UCLA – very, very thoroughly. It took us a long time to hire him because our university takes these things very seriously. So we went through the process of vetting his background and his stories and he made a statement and he stands by that statement and I stand by him. I feel comfortable with that.”
Bradley and Schiano (from 1990-1995) were both assistants under Sandusky, the PSU defensive coordinator from 1977 to 1999, on Joe Paterno’s Penn State staff. Bradley played at Penn State from 1975-1978 and joined the coaching staff in 1979. When Sandusky retired in 1999, Bradley assumed the defensive coordinator role and remained in that role until Paterno was fired in 2011 when the child sexual abuse allegations against Sandusky came to light. Sandusky was found guilty on 45 counts in June 2012.
In Schiano’s case, Meyer told the Toledo Blade “there’s no issue.”
“There’s no issue as far as I am concerned. I first heard about it several months ago and we had a long talk,” Meyer said Wednesday. “I’ve known Greg for 20-some years. I have as much respect for Greg Schiano as I do any person – not just any coach, any person. We had the chat and he told me everything that happened. He stands by his statement and we stand by his statement.”
Schiano released a statement to ESPN on Tuesday.
“I never saw any abuse, nor had reason to suspect any abuse, during my time at Penn State,” he said.
For more UCLA news, visit BruinSportsReport.com.
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Sam Cooper is a writer for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!
