Following Steve Shephard’s sudden departure from the Penn State women’s gymnastics team, Athletic Director Tim Curley launched a national search for his successor. Today the Athletic Department announced that they have hired husband and wife duo Jeff and Rachelle Thompson as head and associate head coaches, respectively. Prior to joining the Nittany Lions, the Thompsons called Auburn University their home, running the women’s gymnastics program there. While at Auburn, Jeff Thompson was twice named SEC Coach of the Year, and led the Tigers to eight consecutive NCAA Regional Tournaments.

The Thompsons have big shoes to fill, during Shephard’s 18 years as head coach he sent the team to 8 NCAA Championship Tournaments and amassed a career record of 256-144-2.

The hiring of the Thompsons is the 4th head coaching hire that Curley and the Athletic Department have made this summer, and continues the trend of hiring big names in the field. It appears that Curley had decided to bolster our already strong non-revenue sports programs with his recent hires. I’ll leave it up to our commenters to make the obligatory “fire Ed DeChellis” remarks.