West Virginia State athletic director Nate Burton said the school will move forward with its football coaching search at the start of the new year.
Burton said candidates will be brought in for interviews after the holidays.
The incoming head coach will be replacing Jon Anderson, who had been with the program for the last four seasons before leaving for the head coaching job at the University of Sioux Falls in South Dakota. Four assistant coaches followed Anderson out of Institute - defensive coordinator Nick Benedetto, wide receivers coach Matt Kloss, linebackers coach and special-teams coordinator Isaiah Jackson and offensive line coach and recruiting coordinator John Decoster - and the new coach will have to replace them once he's hired.
"We're going to start bringing some people in once we get back from break in January," Burton said. "It's tough, of course, to try to do all of that now with the holidays going on and the university being closed for break. But we're just trying to make sure we're looking at the right people as well, so we're excited to keep moving forward in this process."
Burton said State has gotten interest from coaches with a wide variety of experience levels, from high school coaches to coaches with NFL experience. As the school looks to make the hire, one priority is looking for someone who is able to come in and pick up where the previous staff left off, building on that progress and making strides toward putting forth the best product at WVSU.
Burton said the ideal candidate will be someone with some head coaching experience who knows the region well.
"To us, we just want to find someone who is going to be the right kind of person to keep leading this program," Burton said. "We'd like someone who knows the region, knows how to recruit in the region and is familiar with and may even have experience with the [Mountain East Conference]."
In the meantime, offensive coordinator and Charleston native John Pennington has taken the reins as the program's interim coach. Pennington has been the Yellow Jackets' offensive coordinator for the last two seasons and the relationships he has built with the players have helped to keep the team focused through the transition period.
"John has done a great job," Burton said. "All the kids know John really well and they trust him. The expectations here haven't changed. These kids all want to compete for a championship, and John is very passionate about this program and our student-athletes."
West Virginia State went 3-8 last season, finishing the year with back-to-back victories. The Yellow Jackets will return eight starters on defense and 10 starters to an offense that was second in the Mountain East Conference in passing in 2016.
Contact Michael Carvelli at 304-348-4810 or michael.carvelli@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @carvelli3.