New Candidate Emerges For Penn State Coaching Vacancy

Everyone was sort of caught off guard by Ed DeChellis leaving Penn State for Navy a week ago, as no one thought we’d have a Big Ten job opening this late into the off-season.

At least not in basketball anyways. Sorry, Jim.

Jeff Lebo immediately emerged as a potential candidate, but now it sounds like someone else might be in the lead for the vacant position.

That someone is Ron Everhart, who is the current head coach of Duquesne. There are reports that Everhart will meet with Penn State officials on Tuesday, although there isn’t any information as to whether he’ll be offered the job or anything like that.

I know there were a few Nittany Lion fans who weren’t happy with Lebo as the new coach, and I’ve got a feeling they might not be too thrilled with this candidate either.

It’s not that Everhart is a bad coach. But that 83-74 record at an Atlantic-10 school probably won’t make him stand out to Penn State fans.

But as we all know, it’s not always about getting the big name coach. This is a business. You have to win more than just the press conference.

We also have to remember the timing of this situation. No one expected DeChellis to leave, and because of when it happened, there aren’t a whole lot of coaches out there looking for jobs right now. So Penn State officials haven’t exactly been able to just go out and grab who they want.

Jim Boylen is still being mentioned in the rumor mill, although we haven’t heard anything official yet as to whether he will meet with the school or not.

We do know that Everhart is going to meet with officials, which means that they are serious about him possibly becoming their new head coach.

UPDATE: Everhart has withdrew his name from consideration for the job.

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