Penn State defensive coordinator Bob Shoop will remain a member of James Franklin‘s coaching staff in Happy Valley. The two Penn State coaches took to Twitter late Wednesday night to drop those not-so-subtle hints.
Franklin tweeted the message he tends to share anytime a new recruit commits to Penn State.#WeAre...Better #107kStrong #PSUnrivaled
— James Franklin (@coachjfranklin) January 8, 2015
Not too long after Franklin’s tweet, Shoop sent this message out to his followers, which appeared to explain the previous tweet from the head coach...
Shoop reportedly interviewed with LSU head coach Les Miles earlier in the day about the vacancy at defensive coordinator at Baton Rouge. Shoop reportedly had interest in the position, but it was unconfirmed if he was considered a leading candidate for the job.
While there has been no confirmation on what it was that led to Shoop deciding to stay at Penn State, long-time Penn State beat reporter and columnist David Jones of The Patriot News shared his reaction to the news, with a suggestion Penn State went to the bank to keep one of the top defensive coordinators in State College.Be assured PSU did what was necessary to keep Bob Shoop and it was substantial. We’re in a different age at PSU, one of marketplace realism.
— David Jones (@djoneshoop) January 8, 2015
Penn State does not share salary information for coaches, although it has widely been suspected the school did not necessarily pay top dollar to keep assistants on the staff. Much of the precedent for that logic was taking the lead from previous head coach Joe Paterno, who received a far lighter paycheck than many other big name coaches around the country. Paterno’s staff was generally built with coaches with Paterno connections, but this is a brand new era for Penn State, and the Big Ten. With Ohio State getting things started with investing in Urban Meyer and his staff and Michigan ramping up the momentum with Jim Harbaugh and his soon-to-be-assembled staff, Penn State is entering a new era as well and will have to allocate funds in order to keep up.