The man appointed Thursday to step in after Penn State's head football coach Joe Paterno was fired said the team's thoughts and prayers are with the victims of an alleged child abuse scandal at the university.

Paterno was fired along with university president Graham Spanier for failing to do enough to prevent the alleged abuse by former defensive co-ordinator Jerry Sandusky, who has been charged with numerous counts of molesting eight boys over a 15-year period.

Assistant coach Tom Bradley has been asked to step in on an interim basis, it was announced Thursday.

"I grieve for the victims, I grieve for the families. I'm deeply saddened by that... and the football part, we'll get working on that right away," he said.

"The whole team's thoughts and prayers are focused on the victims and their families."

On Wednesday night, rallies in support of Paterno grew violent with thousands of students chanting their support for the coach and toppling a television news van.

Police in riot gear eventually used pepper spray to disperse the crowd that had gathered in downtown State College, where the university is located.

In addition to kicking in the windows of a news van, some of the 2,000 demonstrators pelted at least one photographer with rocks.

Paterno, 84, had come under heavy criticism for not doing more to stop the alleged abuse by former defensive co-ordinator Jerry Sandusky.

The students quickly came out in support of Paterno, who has been at Penn State for more than half a century and is highly regarded throughout Pennsylvania.

"Joe Paterno is Penn State," said Richard Scarcella, a reporter with the Reading Eagle Newspaper. "He's been here since 1950 and he's helped build not only the football program but the university."

Paterno and his wife Sue have contributed money to help build the university library as well as a spiritual centre, Scarcella said.

On Wednesday, reporters attended a news conference at the university where most expected to be told that that Spanier was being let go.

The news that Paterno had been fired came as a complete surprise to many. Paterno had announced earlier Wednesday that he planned to retire at the end of the season, and admitted his handling of the allegations was one of the great regrets of his life.

That wasn't enough for university officials, who said the dismissal took effect immediately.

At least one of the alleged assaults by Sandusky took place in the shower at the Penn State football complex in 2002.

An eyewitness told Paterno what he had seen. Paterno then reported the allegations against Sandusky to university administrators, but not to police, who were never brought in to investigate.

"All indications are he really didn't do much," Cory Giger, of ESPN Radio said. "He didn't follow through time and time again, didn't call the cops, didn't make sure his superiors contacted the proper authorities and tried to press charges."

Tom Bradley was a senior member of Paterno's staff in 2002 when the incident is alleged to have taken place.

Ex-NHLer relates personal story

Sheldon Kennedy, a former NHL player who revealed his own story of sexual abuse at the hands of his coach, said that the explosive reaction in the U.S. about the Penn State scandal isn't surprising.

When Kennedy went public with his own story of abuse at the hands of notorious ex-coach Graham James, the reaction was just as seismic.

"When we look at 14 years ago, when my story broke with hockey in Canada, it's a lot similar to the Penn State thing. It's the same sort of eruption: ‘Oh my gosh, I can't believe this happened,'" Kennedy told CTV's National Affairs.

Since coming forward with his personal history, Kennedy has become an outspoken advocate for victims and for increased public awareness.

One key plank in Kennedy's work is to empower adults and other potential witnesses to do the right thing when cases of sexual abuse become apparent.

Kennedy said that in some situations, adult bystanders don't have the confidence to come forward and report high-ranking colleagues who may be involved in sexual abuse.

"The whole goal is to empower the bystander," said Kennedy.

Despite the angry response to Paterno's firing, Kennedy said that Penn State officials did right by cleaning house and aiming to start fresh.

"I do believe they did the right thing, sometimes doing the right thing isn't easy."

With files from The Associated Press