LOS ANGELES -- UCLA coach Jim Mora and Ohio State coach Urban Meyer defended their assistants, who were alleged to have had knowledge of sexual abuse perpetrated by Jerry Sandusky at Penn State in the 1980s and '90s in documents released this week.
Tom Bradley, Mora's defensive coordinator, and Greg Schiano, Meyer's defensive coordinator, were both Penn State assistants under Joe Paterno during Sandusky's tenure. Both denied the allegations from a 2015 deposition by ex-Penn State assistant Mike McQueary that became public Tuesday. McQueary told Paterno he saw Sandusky rape a boy in a shower in 2001 and was a key witness in the Sandusky trial.
"I know this about Tom: He is a man of integrity," Mora told ESPN.com at Pac-12 media days Thursday. "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 left Penn State in 2012 and worked a single season at West Virginia before being hired at UCLA before the 2015 season.
Meyer told the Toledo Blade that he stands by Schiano, the former Rutgers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach who was hired by Ohio State this offseason.
"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 told the Blade. "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."
According to the documents, McQueary said that Bradley was "not shocked" when told of the shower incident. Bradley "said he knew of some things" about Sandusky dating to the 1980s, McQueary testified.
Bradley's representative Brett Senior issued a statement Tuesday afternoon.
"At no time did Tom Bradley ever witness any inappropriate behavior," it read. "Nor did he have any knowledge of alleged incidents in the '80s and '90s. He has consistently testified as such. 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."
McQueary also said that in the '90s, Schiano saw Sandusky in the shower with a boy.
Schiano told ESPN on Tuesday: "I never saw any abuse, nor had reason to suspect any abuse, during my time at Penn State."
Mora said Thursday that he's not only standing up for his assistant coach.
"My first thought is always towards the victims," Mora said. "It always has been as a father. That's where my mind goes first. This has been drawn out a long time, and every time that a story resurfaces, I'm sure that it creates more pain for the victims."