STATE COLLEGE - Less than a week after Bill O'Brien left Penn State, most of his assistant coaching staff joined him.
The university announced that four assistant coaches tendered their resignations Monday. In addition, the entire three-man strength and conditioning staff led by the energetic Craig Fitzgerald, who revolutionized Penn State's strength program since taking over in 2012, will be joining O'Brien in Houston.
Officially gone from the coaching staff are defensive coordinator John Butler, running backs coach and recruiting coordinator Charles London, receivers coach and assistant head coach Stan Hixon and safeties coach Anthony Midget.
It is anticipated that all four will be named to the Houston coaching staff by O'Brien in the coming days.
In addition to Fitzgerald, assistant strength coordinators Dwight Galt IV and Sean Hayes also resigned, the university confirmed.
So, as athletic director Dr. David Joyner and his search committee contemplated the recent interview of Scranton native and former Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Munchak for the head coaching job, only three assistant coaches from O'Brien's 2013 staff remained at Penn State as of Monday night. They are defensive line coach and interim head coach Larry Johnson Sr., offensive line coach Mac McWhorter and tight ends coach John Strollo.
With the critical Jan. 13 start of the spring semester nearing for a handful of recruits planning to enroll early - and hoping to know who their head coach will be - things remained strangely quiet on the coaching search front amidst the defections.
With Miami coach Al Golden effectively removing his name from consideration Sunday, stating that he will stay with the Hurricanes, the only one of the perceived leading candidates for the job who has interviewed with the search committee is Munchak. The Pro Football Hall of Famer and former Nittany Lions great met with Joyner's team Sunday in Nashville, and it is said he is interested in returning to the college ranks for the first time since he left Penn State after the 1982 season.
Sources say Johnson, who announced Friday he would seek the position after 18 years on staff as a defensive assistant coach, could be interviewed as early as today. Joyner said Thursday that the search for Penn State's 16th head coach would ultimately be counted in days, not weeks.
None of the resignations that were handed in Monday were exactly unexpected, and none were long-time members of the coaching staff. Butler, London and Hixon came to Penn State initially as members of O'Brien's first staff in 2012, while Midget was hired as defensive backs coach last January following the departure of then-defensive coordinator Ted Roof.
Butler replaced Roof as defensive coordinator in 2013 and proved sometimes to be a target of fan frustration, especially after the Nittany Lions allowed more than 40 points in three consecutive games against Indiana, Michigan and Ohio State for the first time in program history.
Still, the Nittany Lions' young defense under Butler ranked a respectable 48th in the nation, allowing an average of 381.3 yards per game. It is expected he'll be named to O'Brien's Houston staff as defensive backs coach, the same job he handled at Penn State in 2012.
London coordinated the recruiting efforts that landed the Nittany Lions what was expected to be one of the Big Ten's top classes in 2014, and Hixon brought experience as a coach who has won national championships as an assistant.
But Fitzgerald might be the most difficult to replace. The boisterous strength coach modernized the program's strength program, placing the focus more on bench presses and power cleans than endurance training, which was the focus of the previous staff.
His energy played well with the young players who gravitated toward him, and the Nittany Lions' efforts in the weight room were credited with helping the team overcome scholarship reductions on the field in 2013.
"Of every guy on the Penn State staff, Fitz was definitely my favorite," Penn State linebacker commitment Jason Cabinda said on Twitter on Monday afternoon. "A shame I won't get to work with him."