At Penn State, Bradley catches up with McGloin

MATT MCGLOIN has been at Penn State since the summer of 2008. Tom Bradley has been on the Nittany Lions' coaching staff for 33 years, plus 4 years he spent as a defensive back and special-teams stalwart for Joe Paterno in the mid- to late 1970s.

You wouldn't think that two individuals who have been around each other as long as these guys would suddenly need to become better acquainted, almost to the point where formal introductions were necessary.

But until he was named as Paterno's interim successor in the late-night purge of Nov. 9, Bradley had exclusively worked with the defense since 1988, the year after he spent his one and only season with the offense as wide receivers coach. "Scrap" knew everything there was to know about his guys on defense because, well, that was part of his job description. The players on offense? They were people he knew, but didn't really know, with the possible exception of guys he personally recruited. McGloin, the former walk-on from Central Cambria High in Scranton, was not one of those.

So when Bradley took over on short notice for Paterno, his longtime boss, he had a lot of decisions to make, and not much time to make them.

One of his first executive commands was to junk the two-quarterback rotation and name McGloin the full-time starting quarterback.

Another was to set enough time aside in his suddenly more hectic work schedule to chat up the players on offense with whom he admits to being far less familiar than those on defense. And chief among his new fast friends was the newly installed No. 1 QB.

It's still early, but McGloin and Bradley both agree a comfort zone has been established that might not have been there a couple of weeks ago. It's a level of familiarity between head coach and quarterback that is necessary if the 20th-ranked Lions are to upset No. 15 Wisconsin tomorrow afternoon in Camp Randall Stadium, advance to the first Big Ten championship game on Dec. 3 in Indianapolis and, who knows, maybe even to the Rose Bowl on Jan. 2 in Pasadena, Calif.

"I'm obviously not with him all the time," Bradley said of his efforts to get into McGloin's head to find out what makes him tick, and vice versa. "I do spend some time with him. I will continue to spend some time with him, to get to know him better, as I will with all the players on offense. It's the one thing I really have to catch up on."