For most people, Penn State football’s numbers in 2024 add up to 10-2 for the regular season. That sounds about right. But, there are some hidden numbers, stats and dollar figures that may impact a few things along the way.
Like: The Nittany Lions’ inexperience along the offensive line, runner-receiver-returner Nick Singleton’s potential for a historic breakout season and Penn State’s deep need for seasoned player leadership.
And, as a guy who likes to look at the dollars and sense of college football here and in the classroom, I’ve thrown in some numbers that show how the pay scale has skyrocketed for coaches and players.
For the players, I’m only looking at comp from the school, in terms of scholarships, educational support, etc. — a number that exploded over the past 15 years but has been hidden by the much-harder-to-quantify and flashier NIL and program guarantees. (A full ride is still a great deal, though I do think college players are owed a slice of the big dough.)
Here’s a look at 11 numbers that I hope will give some context to Saturday’s Penn State-West Virginia season-opener as well as the Nittany Lions’ 2024 campaign:
0 — The jersey number of linebacker Dom DeLuca. Penn State awards that number to its top special teams player — obviously DeLuca, who is on every special teams unit but field goal. When it comes to captains, 0 is the only 1 who is 2. That is, among the Nittany Lions’ six captains in 2024, DeLuca is the only one who has been a PSU captain before. Doesn’t matter to start the year, but may be crucial after/if PSU loses a game or two and is on the ropes.
2 — Two popular names have coached football at both West Virginia and Penn State. Longtime Nittany Lion defensive coordinator Tom Bradley was at PSU from 1979-2011 (and served as interim HC for part of ’11) after serving as a team captain as an undergrad. Bradley was associate head coach at WVU in 2014. Also on the staff that season was Ja’Juan Seider, Penn State’s assistant head coach and running back coach since 2018. Seider coached the Mountaineer running backs in 2013-2016 and was a WVU grad assistant in 2008-09. (Bradley went on to be the DC at UCLA, now a member of the Big Ten, and defensive back coach with the Pittsburgh Steelers.)
6 — The College Football Playoff ran for 10 years (2014-2023). Six times Penn State would have made the CFP if the field had been 12, which it expands to this season. Here is where Penn State ranked in the top 12 on those six selection days: fifth, 2016; ninth, 2017; 12th, 2018; 10th, 2019; 11th, 2022; and 10th, 2023. Penn State got as high as No. 4 on Nov. 5, 2019 — just days before it lost 31-26 at Minnesota.
7 — Seider played seven games for West Virginia as a backup quarterback in 1996-1998. His stats: 15 rushes for 4 yards, 7 of 16 passing for 133 years. As a senior, he transferred to Florida A&M and was one of the top QBs in the country, throwing for 2,622 yards and 27 touchdowns (with only four picks), and rushing for 740 yards and 14 TDs. Tom Brady was the 199th pick, by the New England Patriots, in the 2000 NFL Draft. Seider was No. 200, selected by the San Diego Chargers.
11 — James Franklin is beginning his 11th season as head coach at Penn State and in the Big Ten Conference. Among the 18 head football coaches in the Big Ten, only Kirk Ferentz, 69, (entering his 26th season at Iowa, 196-119) has been in the conference longer than Franklin, 52. When Franklin was hired on Jan. 11, 2014, he was Penn State’s fourth head football coach in 28 months.
This is stunning: Since then, four different Big Ten football programs have had five head coaches — Nebraska, Oregon, Rutgers and Washington. And six Big Ten programs have had four head football coaches — Illinois, Maryland, Purdue, UCLA, USC and Wisconsin.
32 — It’s been 32 years, nearly a third of a century, since Penn State last played football in Morgantown at Milan Puskar Stadium. That game was played on Oct. 24, 1992, a year before Penn State joined the Big Ten. Penn State entered the game ranked No. 14 and won, 40-26, as Richie Anderson ran 24 times for 133 yards and three TDs, and quarterback Kerry Collins was 15 of 30 for 249 yards and two touchdown passes.
43 — This is a vastly important and under-reported number. It’s the number of returning starts by a Penn State offensive lineman in 2024, which underscores the unit’s relative lack of crucial game experience. It is very low. By comparison, here are the top returning starts along the O-line, by year, under Franklin: 91 in 2016, 88 in 2017, 83 in 2022 and 82 in 2018. The returners this season: Sal Wormley (25), JB Nelson (8), Vega Iaone (5) and Drew Shelton (5). The huge losses, which cannot be overstated, are all in the NFL: Hunter Nourzad (40), Cadean Wallace (40) and Olu Fashanu (25). That’s a massive 105 starts gone from the O-line adroitly run by Phil Trautman, who will earn his money in 2024.
88 — All-time wins by Franklin (88-39) at Penn State, which ranks him No. 4. He’ll soon pass No. 3, Bob Higgins (91-57-11). Rip Engle (104-48-4) is No. 2, and of course Joe Paterno is No. 1 at 409-136-3.
4,512 — That’s the career all-purpose yardage (run, receive, return) by Blair Thomas over four seasons. He’s No. 4 on Penn State’s all-time list. Nick Singleton has a great shot to pass Thomas in 2024. No. 1 Saquon Barkley (5,538 yards, three seasons), No. 2 Larry Johnson (5,045, four) and No. 3 Curt Warner (4,982, four) will be tougher to reel in. Singleton enters 2024 with 2,782 all-purpose after two years. But, if you take his season-highs for rushing (1,061), receiving (308) and returns (349), he’d be at exactly 4,500 yards after this season — which will likely be his last at Penn State. I think new OC Andy Kotelmick’s presence and playbook may impact Singleton as much as anyone on the PSU roster, save for quarterback Drew Allar.
$245,000/$350,000 — That’s the overall value of a scholarship and supporting monies — not counting NIL — for a Penn State football player on a full ride. The first number is for in-state football players, and the second is for out of-state players. Those are the rounded number of the total value of a player’s educational experience. It is a package that includes tuition, fees, books and supplies (including an iPad), room and board, plus tax-free cost-of-attendance (COA) money and Alston educational support money. Again — this does NOT include NIL money. My numbers are based on those available on Penn State’s website and reports submitted to the NCAA by Penn State athletics. I first did this back in 2010, and the numbers back then were: $144,000 (PA) and $212,000 (OOS).
$70,211,250 — To be exact. With his Penn State paycheck on Friday, a day before the kickoff at West Virginia, Franklin will cross the $70 million earnings threshold at Penn State. This includes annual base salary, retention and performance bonuses through the end of the 2023 season, private aircraft hours (valued conservatively at $5,000/per hour), car allowance ($10,000 annually; my goodness, does he really need this from a university that is pinching pennies everywhere else?), and an annual $1 million life insurance policy that kicks off revenue.
