Jim Grobe is such a man. He still has five years left on his contract at Wake Forest and he's making almost $3 million a year there so he wouldn't come cheap. Maybe he couldn't be persuaded to leave. But if you talked him into it, you'd be getting a man for your money not just a guy in a ballcap.
One of the reasons Bo Pelini beat out Grobe for the Nebraska job three years ago was that he insisted on taking his entire Wake staff with him including the strength coach. At Halloween, he gives candy bars to his players as a little running joke. He's known to bring morning donuts for his coaches. He goes for a walk with his wife Holly most every lunchtime.
I know about Grobe from Ohio where he led a program in utter disrepair to nouveau success in the late '90s. Then he did the same thing at Wake, taking the Deacs, picked last in the preseason, to an unheard-of BCS bowl in 2006 after which he was named Bobby Dodd national coach of the year.
Grobe doesn't move around much. He has coached at three places in 27 years – Air Force, Ohio and Wake. That's the sort of stability Penn State needs. And I know he'll turn 60 this winter and he hasn't had a winning season in three years at tiny Wake. That's not what you're buying. You're getting a good man with unimpeachable integrity who's always done more with less. And a guy whose assistants and players swear by him.
