PSU Coaching Search – Where Does Penn State Go From Here?

It has been nearly a half-a-week since Bill O’Brien announced his intentions to resign his post as head coach of the Nittany Lions football team and take the same post with the NFL’s Houston Texans.

Yesterday, Penn State AD Dave Joyner held a press conference to not only announce the resignation of coach O’Brien, but also to indicate the search for Penn State’s next coach would “…be very timely. Our anticipation is that we’ll be counting this in a matter of days rather than weeks.”  Two years ago, the head football coach search, which ultimately turned up Bill O’Brien took 40 days to complete.

With National Signing Day about one month away (Feb 5th), it is paramount that university have someone in place to stabilize the current class of recruits. So, to provide as much stability as possible, Dr. Joyner announced that longtime Penn State assistant coach Larry Johnson would take over on an interim basis.  This morning, Coach Johnson posted the following tweet/video:

So, with Coach Johnson holding down the fort for Penn State, where will AD Joyner and the search committee turn to find Penn State’s 16th head coach?  Here’s a brief list of the major names that have been mentioned most prominently with the Nittany Lions: