Penn State Coaching Targets: The Preferred List

Penn State's Pat Chambers resigned this week amidst NCAA probes, charges of racial incidents within the program and the need for a shakeup in an athletic department that's already suffered too many public relations nightmares.

What Chambers leaves behind is a Big Ten program that enjoyed its most successful season in nearly 20 years last year. They lose Lamar Stevens, their top player, to the NBA, but if Chambers proved anything positive during the last few years in State College, its that there are ways to be moderately successful. They won double-digit games in the conference for the first time since 2008-09, and were ranked in the AP poll as high as #9 in the country.

Chambers and his staff enjoyed a distinctly Philadelphia flavor with their roster, too, winning local recruiting battles and stocking up with talent closer to home. Those tactics bore results and will likely be a talking point for whomever takes the helm next. They need to continue their positive momentum in the City of Brotherly Love.

So who should take over for Chambers and be on the short-list of candidates for their hiring committee to consider? Basketball and non-basketball factors need to hold somewhat equal weight when replacing a controversial figure. Let's take a look at a few different targets:

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