Penn State Trustee Lubrano Criticizes Tennessee Decision to Rescind Schiano Offer

After the University of Tennessee backed out of its plan to make Greg Schiano its new head football coach, a Penn State trustee is speaking out, saying Schiano had ‘nothing to do with the Sandusky scandal.’

Schiano, currently defensive coordinator at Ohio State, was a Penn State assistant from 1990 to 1995. When news broke on Sunday that Tennessee was planning to hire Schiano, Volunteer fans protested, pointing to a second-hand allegation that Schiano may have been aware of an incident of child sexual abuse by Jerry Sandusky.

McQueary said in the deposition for a civil suit involving Penn State and its insurer that years after he reported it to Penn State officials, he told defensive coordinator Tom Bradley about the 2001 incident in which he says he saw Sandusky abusing a boy in a locker room shower. Bradley, McQueary said, told him he had heard a few similar reports, including one from Schiano in the early 90s.

McQueary claimed that Bradley told him that years earlier ‘…Greg had come into his office white as a ghost and said he just saw Jerry doing something to a boy in the shower. And that’s it. That’s all he ever told me.” 

Schiano and Bradley both deny any knowledge of abuse by Sandusky, and Schiano has never been accused of a crime or called to testify in any Sandusky-related civil or criminal cases.

Lubrano has been an outspoken critic of the Penn State-commissioned Freeh report on the circumstances around the Sandusky scandal (in which Schiano is not mentioned) and the handling of the fallout by board members and administrators in the wake of Sandusky’s arrest and charges against former university administrators.

He said that having studied extensively the details of the case, ‘I can confidently say that Coach Greg Schiano had nothing to do with the Sandusky scandal. Any stories about his involvement are completely uncorroborated and without basis in fact. To impugn Mr. Schiano’s character based on hearsay alone is irresponsible and unfair.’

Lubrano added, ‘It is disappointing that University of Tennessee officials have been influenced by the voices (and keyboards) of a grossly uninformed social media mob. Had they sought to understand the truth of the matter, and stood firm in their offer, they would have seen firsthand the benefits of hiring a man of high integrity and strong character.’

His full statement is below:

‘Southern Baptist Pastor Rick Warren famously said, ‘A lie doesn’t become truth, wrong doesn’t become right, and evil doesn’t become good, just because it’s accepted by a majority.’

‘My name is Anthony Lubrano and I am a Trustee at Penn State. I believe fervently in due process, no matter how politically incorrect that position can be.

‘Since becoming a Penn State Trustee in 2012, I have made it my life’s work to review, study and learn every detail of what is referred to as the Sandusky scandal. I have poured over depositions, attended nearly every court proceeding, and I am now in the process of reviewing all the source material Louis Freeh purportedly relied upon to prepare his report (which has since been discredited by every legal expert who has read it).

‘I can confidently say that Coach Greg Schiano had nothing to do with the Sandusky scandal. Any stories about his involvement are completely uncorroborated and without basis in fact. To impugn Mr. Schiano’s character based on hearsay alone is irresponsible and unfair.

‘It is disappointing that University of Tennessee officials have been influenced by the voices (and keyboards) of a grossly uninformed social media mob. Had they sought to understand the truth of the matter, and stood firm in their offer, they would have seen firsthand the benefits of hiring a man of high integrity and strong character.’