Jim Knowles contract: New Penn State defensive coordinator can eclipse $4 million with lucrative bonuses

It is believed that Jim Knowles’ base salary at Penn State already puts him atop the list of the highest paid assistants ever in college football, but a lucrative bonus structure could establish a high-water mark of more than $4 million for the Nittany Lions’ new defensive coordinator, sources with knowledge of the situation told CBS Sports. 

For context, the average Power Four coordinator made $1.1 million in base pay last year, according to USA Today. 

It is already public that Knowles will earn an average of $3.1 million in base pay annually over the three-year term of the deal. However, a complex and lucrative set of bonuses could net Knowles more than $1 million additional if Penn State wins the national championship.

The bonuses work this way, per sources: 

• 6% for reaching a bowl, or equivalent to $186,000 of $3.1 million. 
• 8% for making the Big Ten Championship Game, or $248,000.
• 21% for making a College Football Playoff semifinal game, or $651,000.

If Penn State wins the national championship, the bowl bonus goes away. By winning the Big Ten and national championship, Knowles would get approximately 39% in bonuses. Combined, those bonuses would equal $1.209 million and Knowles’ total maximum compensation would be $4.2 million. That total would be more than 83 FBS head coaches, per that USA Today database. 

Bonuses are common in coaching contracts, but in the competitive world of the sport at its highest level, Penn State apparently went to the top end of the market to land their man. The average salary for a Power Four coordinator increased 25% in four years  to that $1.1 million figure in 2024, according to USA Today. That number is higher than the average salary of a Group of Five head coach, per the newspaper, at $1.05 million. 

The paper lists LSU defensive coordinator Blake Baker as the nation’s highest paid assistant coach at $2.5 million per year. Knowles’ salary at Ohio State was listed third overall ($2.2 million). Knowles was one of six Ohio State assistants to make more than $1 million last season.

The 59-year-old just completed a season coaching the nation’s No. 1 defense for the national champions. He leaves Ohio State after three seasons. The former Cornell coach had similar success at Oklahoma State from 2018-2021. In those four seasons, the Cowboys defense went from 112th nationally, to 88th, to 44th, and then to No. 4 in 2021. That year, Oklahoma State won 12 games and played for the Big 12 championship. (Its Fiesta Bowl win over Notre Dame was also Marcus Freeman’s first game as the Fighting Irish’s head coach.)

If history is an indicator, Knowles should do well with those bonuses. Penn State has gone to bowls in 10 of the last 11 seasons (all under James Franklin). All of those seasons have come since the Jerry Sandusky scandal that prohibited the program from going to bowls for two seasons. 

The Nittany Lions are coming off a run to the College Football Playoff semifinals with nation’s No. 7 defense under former coordinator Tom Allen, who left for the same job Clemson. They last won the Big Ten in 2016.