PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — It was once considered one of the top college football programs in the country run by a legendary coach.

But Penn State is now immersed in scandal and a nasty cover up. How can a university recover from all this?

One public relations expert says it won’t be easy.

“There is no magic bullet,” Bob Oltmanns said. “There’s no magic statement. There’s no magic fairy dust that you can sprinkle over this to make it look better. You have to take a long term view.”

Oltmanns runs his own public relations firm and he’s impressed with how Penn State has rapidly responded to the scandal.

“Penn State deserves high marks in the aftermath of Jerry Sandusky’s arrest for how they have handled this, including the firing of the president and of Joe Paterno,” he said.

Oltmanns is especially impressed with the way the university hired Louis Freeh, launched an independent investigation and made it public.

“You couldn’t have asked for a more perfect person to conduct an investigation like that than the former director of the FBI who happened to have been a judge,” he added.

But more bad news is certain to come. Penn State will have to launch a years long public relations campaign to repair its badly soiled reputation.

And it will come at a big price. Penn State is currently paying a team of public relations counselors $250,000 a month.

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