Posted by Sabrina B. @gametimegirl

Penn State assistant coach Mike McQueary will miss Saturday’s game against No. 19 Nebraska after the school said he received “multiple threats.”

McQueary testified in a grand jury investigation that eventually led to child sex-abuse charges being filed against former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky. The ensuing scandal brought down longtime coach Joe Paterno, who was fired by the university on Wednesday amid growing criticism that he should have done more to stop the alleged abuse.

McQueary, who testified that he saw Sandusky sodomizing a boy in the shower, encountered similar scrutiny. The university’s athletic department released a one-line statement Thursday night saying it would be “in the best interest of all” if the receivers coach didn’t attend the season’s final home game at Beaver Stadium.

Earlier Thursday, coach Tom Bradley, named by the school to replace Paterno on an interim basis, said it was up to university administrators to decide if McQueary should coach. Bradley also said he was not part of any discussion about potentially dismissing McQueary.

Bradley said he is replacing Paterno with a heavy heart. He will coach 12th-ranked Penn State through the end of the season as the Nittany Lions vie for the Big Ten title and a Rose Bowl berth with three regular-season games to go. Bradley played for Paterno and has been on the staff for 33 years, and has been considered the leading in-house candidate to replace his Hall of Fame boss.

“I take this job with very mixed emotions due to the situation,” a somber Bradley said at a news conference. “I have been asked by the board of trustees to handle this. I told them I would do it last night. I will proceed in a matter that Penn State expects.”

“I have no reservations about taking this job,” he added.

Bradley said he called Paterno after the firings Wednesday night but declined to divulge what was said.

“I think that’s personal in nature,” he said.

However, when asked, he was clear about his admiration of and devotion to the man he is replacing for the time being.

“Coach Paterno has meant more to me than anybody except my father. I don’t want to get emotional talking about that,” Bradley said. “Coach Paterno will go down in history as one of the greatest men, who maybe most of you know as a great football coach. I’ve had the privilege and the honor to work for him, spend time with him. He’s had such dynamic impact on so many, so many, I’ll say it again, so many people and players’ lives.”

He added: “It’s with great respect that I speak of him and I’m proud to say that I worked for him.”

Paterno does not plan to interfere in the coaching transition and won’t show up at Beaver Stadium on Saturday out of respect for the coaching staff, a source told ESPN’s Joe Schad.

Paterno announced Wednesday that he planned to retire at the end of his 46th season, but the outcry following the arrest of former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky on molestation charges over a 15-year period proved too much for the board to ignore. Paterno was fired Wednesday night, as was university president Graham Spanier.

“The university is much larger than its athletic teams,” board vice chair John Surma said during a news conference. “The Penn State board of trustees tonight decided it is in the best interest of the university to have a change in leadership to deal with the difficult issues that we are facing.”

Paterno’s advisers have reached out to attorney J. Sedgwick Sollers, a prominent Washington D.C. criminal defense lawyer, about representing Paterno in connection with the scandal, NBC News reported.

Sollers has not met with Paterno and a retainer agreement has not been signed, according to the report. A spokesman for Paterno said “no lawyer has been retained.”

A source close to Paterno said he is concerned that he will face civil lawsuits in the case, according to NBC News.

Sollers, the managing partner in the Washington office of King & Spalding, declined to comment Thursday night, according to the report.

As word of Paterno’s firing spread, thousands of students flocked to the administration building, shouting, “We want Joe back!” and “One more game!” They then headed downtown to Beaver Avenue, where about 100 police wearing helmets and carrying pepper spray were on standby. Witnesses said some rocks and bottles were thrown, a lamppost was toppled and a news van was knocked over, its windows kicked out.

State College police said Thursday they were still gathering information on any possible arrests.

At a news conference late Thursday afternoon, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett asked Penn State students to refrain from the violence that wracked their town. He said students have the right to express their opinions, but not the right to violence.

Corbett said he supported the board of trustees’ decision to force out Paterno and Spanier, saying he’d lost confidence in their ability to lead.

Corbett, who is on the 32-member board along with 10 appointees, made the comments after a second day of private meetings of Penn State trustees.

Asked if he thought that Paterno and Spanier didn’t do enough to alert law enforcement out of safety of children, Corbett said he was disappointed in their actions.

“I support the board’s decision,” Corbett said. “Their actions caused me to not have confidence in their ability to continue to lead.”

On Thursday, the White House said President Obama’s thoughts and prayers are with Sandusky’s alleged victims and that, if the allegations are true, then “what happened is outrageous.”

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WRITTEN BY Joe Schad is a college football reporter for ESPN. Information from The Associated Press was used in this report & FULL STORY HERE