STATE COLLEGE — Arms crossed in front of his chest with the brim of a blue Penn State hat sitting low across his forehead, Tom Bradley kept his focus intently on his players at practice while shuttling quickly across the field.

The Nittany Lions’ interim head coach sure looked like someone determined to keep the job on a permanent basis.

Bradley said Monday he interviewed on Friday with the Penn State committee searching for a replacement for ousted Hall of Famer Joe Paterno, though he doesn’t know when the school might come to a decision.

Flashing his trademark dry wit, Bradley even quipped he tried to get a good word in with university president Rodney Erickson when Erickson congratulated players earlier Monday for academic achievements.

“I tried to schmooze him a little bit, I tried to give him a No. 1 jersey,” Bradley told reporters at No. 24 Penn State’s media day for the TicketCity Bowl on Jan. 2 in Dallas against No. 20 Houston. “Maybe that would help my cause.”

It was a light moment for a team and coaching staff that has otherwise endured an unimaginable amount of scrutiny since retired assistant coach Jerry Sandusky was charged Nov. 5 with the first set of child sex-abuse charges that dated back to 1994.

School trustees fired Paterno after a record 46 seasons as head coach amid mounting pressure that university leaders should have done more to prevent alleged abuse.

“We’ve had a bigger magnifying glass on us for the last two or three months than any team that’s ever played ... in the history of college football,” safety Drew Astorino said. “We better be used to it by now. If we’re not used to it than something’s wrong with us.”