Penn State Basketball: 12 candidates to replace Micah Shrewsberry as head coach

Dan Earl

We’re getting through a lot of names on today’s list with varying levels of likeliness to be hired, but it’s important to include a few people directly connected to Penn State. This next head coach has been decently success as a D1 head coach and starred for the Nittany Lions several years back, but he might not necessarily be ready for this kind of step forward.

Earl was a point guard at Penn State, starting for four years for the Nittany Lions while also missing a few seasons due to injury. After a short professional playing career, he’d join the Penn State bench as an assistant before following Ed DeChellis to Navy. His own head coaching career started in 2015 at VMI, and he made decent progress with the Keydets by the end of his tenure. Just last season he was hired by Chattanooga and won 18 games in his first year leading the Mocs.

Having just taken over in Chattanooga less than a year ago, it’s unlikely that Earl would leave at this point, but it’s even less unlikely that Penn State would bring him aboard right now, even if he is a former star guard. Earl is a rising name, but he’s spent his head coaching career in the SoCon and has work ahead to prove himself. Don’t be shocked to see Earl as a considered name in a future coaching search, especially with his connections to the school.