Unlikely as number 1 Penn State are now Fined and Suspended for this season for failing to h….

Unlikely as number 1 Penn State are now Fined and Suspended for this season for failing to h….

Penn State football fans who have followed the program closely could not have predicted that their team would set the market for assistant coaches.

Yet the Nittany Lions recently made defensive coordinator Jim Knowles the nation’s highest-paid assistant, stamping their position in the financial hierarchy of college football.

Pat Kraft, Penn State Athletics Director, said the program is ready to do even more to win that elusive national championship.

“Look, I’m going to go get the best coordinators we can because I think you need to understand, the
coordinators set the tone,” Kraft said this week during his first media availability of 2025.

“It’s James [Franklin’s] team. James is the CEO.

And I think James has done a masterful job of building the best staff in the country and you got to pay market, right? I think when we get down to it, you look at the numbers, they are, but we can afford it.

We can go and do what we’re going to do. Why would I short-change it? You’ve got a chance to go get the best coordinator.

I think we have two of the best coordinators in the country.”

The investment, Kraft said, is in not only Penn State football but also in Franklin, who enters his 12th season as head coach after taking the team to the College Football Playoff semifinals.