Awake or asleep – and he’s mostly awake — James Franklin is working hard for his money.
There’s a lot of work to do. And a lot of money.
Given Franklin’s take of $4.4 million per year, that works out to be $502 per hour, $12,054 per day and $366,666 per month.
There’s a reason for that: The sustained workload is unlike any Penn State football coach has ever seen.
Yes, Joe Paterno barnstormed the state with Jim Tarman and a suitcase of liquor bottles, wooing sportswriters and fans; spent an entire summer holed up in his home office on McKee Street listening to opera while scribbling out Penn State’s vaunted 4-4 defense; slept on a hotel cot in Allentown to recruit Matt Millen and Frank Case; and led a $350 million university-wide fundraising campaign.
Yes, Bill O’Brien spent his Penn State lifetime working under an interim president and A.D.; repeating the mantra, “We understand why we are in this situation”; leaving State College at 4:30 a.m. on a snowy, blowy February morning to take the hilly backroads through Ickesburg and Landisburg to a Carlisle chamber breakfast for 500 people, where he spoke on “Leading in a Time of Transition”
And yes, Joe and Bill were paid handsomely for their work.
After years of court battles, Penn State finally released Paterno’s salary in 2007 — $512,664. But that didn’t include income from radio/TV work or from Nike. That money wasn’t funneled through Penn State (it is now for Franklin, as it was for O’Brien). In all, by the time Paterno finished coaching in 2011 his annual football take from those three sources was closer to $2 million than $1 million.
In 2012, O’Brien signed for $2.3 million a year, but with a bonus and restructuring he made $3.44 million in 2013. (The Houston Texans paid Penn State more than $5 million in 2014 as part of O’Brien’s buyout, so it was almost a break-even proposition financially; either way, Penn State certainly got its money’s worth.)
MORE FRANKLINS
Now, Franklin makes more.
And yes, his job is tougher. So call a million or so of that salary combat pay.
Given the past few years, you’d think the bar would be set lower. You know what’s happened off the field, with the sanctions and the scholarships and the decimation of the roster. Here’s what’s happened on it: The Nittany Lions have had just three 10-win seasons since 2000, none over the past five seasons.
At those prices, Franklin not only to has rebuild Penn State football and bring the university together, he has to win big — and eventually better. Even though it has been quite some time since that truly happened with any regularity. So, in that sense, he is really building as well. A rebuild victory-wise won’t be enough. Over the past 15 years, Penn State’s average record in Big Ten Conference play has been 4.5 wins and 3.5 losses.
It’s been 38 games since Penn State was ranked in the Top 25, nearly two decades (217 games) since it was ranked No. 1 during the season (1997) and nearly three decades since it was ranked No. 1 at the end of a season.
Give Franklin credit: He’s trying to change that trend around – using an assortment of players, especially last year, that was yours (Joe’s), yours (Bill’s), mine and ours. Plus, there’s never-ending recruiting; camps here, there and everywhere (Franklin and his staff just came off a 4,000-mile satellite camp tour); the push for facility upgrades; the ongoing quest for #107kstrong; a restructured athletic department; and last, but never least, raising money.
On the Coaches Caravan trail, Franklin said he is proud of the progress the program has made.
“I think from what we took over, I feel really good,” Franklin said. “The lack of scholarships, the lack of depth, the amount of turnover that there’s been in leadership — not just in the head coaching position, but in the A.D. and president positions — all the turmoil that we’ve been through. All of those things play a role.”
THE COST OF VICTORY
True, at 7-6, Franklin cost about $643,000 a win in 2014 – that includes the $200k bonus for winning the Pinstripe Bowl (thank you very much, Sam and Christian). In 2014, Franklin was the eighth-highest paid head coach in college football. Among those ahead of him were Charlie Strong, who is trying to rebuild Texas and who cost $833,000 per win in 2014; Alabama’s Nick Saban, who cost $597,000 per win; and Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops, who cost $632,000 per win. Franklin’s two Big Ten brethren ahead of him were relative bargains. Michigan State’s Mark Dantonio cost $512,000 a win and Urban Meyer, who led Ohio State to a national title, cost a mere $312,000 for each of the Buckeyes’ 14 victories.
None, of course, faced the circumstances that Franklin, and O’Brien before him, did and have.
The day will come when Sandy Barbour will calculate the cost for wins as well. But not now. Now, Penn State is paying for more than just W’s. As it is, Franklin’s wins off the field are worth some serious coin. Attendance in Beaver Stadium was up 5,036 fans a game last season – at about $70 a head, that’s almost $2.5 million in revenue.
And Franklin has been cashing in on blue-chippers left and right. In February, he signed six of Pennsylvania’s top seven recruits, and five of New Jersey’s top 10 recruits, to finish 14th in national rankings. Now, for the 2016 class Franklin has commits from three of Pennsylvania’s top 10 high school seniors. He’s received commitments from the top players in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Maryland and New York, as well as the No. 2 high school senior in Michigan.
Franklin may be known for his inspiration, but it his perspiration that will ultimately get the job done, on and off the field. He’s hopeful.
As he said in the spring, “I think we’re closer to that than we’ve been in a long time.”
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