Penn State paid Brent Pry top 10 coordinator salary in 2021-2022, financial documents show
Brent Pry led one of the nation’s best defenses in 2021, and Penn State paid him handsomely to run it. The university released its mandated right-to-know law report for the 2021-2022 fiscal year, which ran Jun. 1, 2021 through June 30, 2022, recently. It includes information on the school’s top 25 earners in any given fiscal year. Pry was on it, as he made $1,626,237.
The figure made him the third-highest-paid employee at Penn State during that fiscal year. The Altoona, Pa., native, who, of course, left the Lions in Nov. 2021 to become the head coach at Virginia Tech, checked in only behind head football coach James Franklin, who made $6,166,339 during 2021-2022, and Penn State Health CEO Steve Massini, who made $2,095,427.
Two other members of the PSU athletic department round out the top five of the top 25 earners list for the referenced fiscal year. Former men’s basketball coach Micah Shrewsberry made $1,512,015. And, one-time athletic director Sandy Barbour made $1,483,301.
Franklin, Pry, and Shrewsberry all made the bulk of their money in extra pay. Pry earned $812,322 of his $1.6 million and change in bonus and incentive pay. Shrewsberry picked up $1,020,181 of his $1,512,015 in that category. And, Franklin led the way with a whopping $5,137,430 coming from bonuses and incentives.
Penn State made Pry a top-paid coordinator
The Penn State Athletic Department has long kept its coordinator and assistant coach under wraps. Besides this mandated right-to-know law report, it does not have to release the information. However, programs in other states do, which gives us a comparison point for Pry, even if it’s a couple of years old.
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According to USA Today, Pry would have been the eighth highest-paid coordinator in college football during the 2021 season. He would have slotted in ahead of Alabama defensive coordinator Pete Golding, who made 1.625 million that year, and behind Georgia defensive coordiantor Dan Lanning, who made $1.7 million. The leading coordinator from a pay perspective that year was Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables, who brought in $2.5 million.
Pry’s defense was fantastic in 2021. It was sixth in the nation in scoring defense and the third-best red zone unit in the country. That’s all true despite the team finishing with just a 7-6 record. That year, Penn State allowed the seventh-fewest points in the country but scored the 90th fewest.
Basketball salary sees a boost
We do not know what Shrewsberry made during his last season at Penn State before leaving for Notre Dame at the end of the 2022-2023 season. But, we do know new coach Mike Rhoades will make more than double in year one what Shrewsberry made during the 2021-2022 fiscal year. The Lions will pay the Pa., native and first-year leader $3.4 million during the 2023-2024 school year.
