South Carolina and Miss. State tied for the bottom in football asst. salaries

[JerryBeeds]

Ledger-Enquirer.com | 05/27/2007 | From high to low (http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/sports/story/46110.html)

Success yields its rewards, particularly among salaries for the head football coaches and their assistants in the Southeastern Conference.In analyzing the salaries of 11 of the 12 schools -- Vanderbilt is a private university and does not provide those figures -- the most successful league teams over the last 5-7 years also have the highest paid staffs.
LSU, which won a national championship in 2003, leads the league with a budget of $1.88 million for its nine assistant coaches. Auburn is right behind at $1.87 million.
Alabama hasn't released figures for its newly hired staff, but Mike Shula's staff earned just more than $1.5 million a year ago, and it's believed that Nick Saban has a $2 million budget for his assistants, which would be the league high.
Those numbers are a far cry from the bottom of the league where Mississippi State and South Carolina reside.
Mississippi State and South Carolina each have a budget of $1.3 million for their assistant coaches. Mississippi's budget might be slightly higher after the contracts of three coaches * David Turner, Rockey Felker and Reed Stringer -- are approved.
There are reasons for that discrepancy, competitiveness being chief among them. South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier said it's based on several things.
"We don't have too many high-priced assistants right now, but I hope to one day," Spurrier said. "It's sort of based on performance and how much in demand that coach is. If a head coach is making $2 million, an offensive or defensive coordinator should be making a half-million themselves."
Kentucky moved up a couple of notches in the rankings after the administration handed out raises across the board. Kentucky had a budget of $1.3 million for its assistants but that jumped up to $1.5 million.

[Zee]

weird. That's even after Steve took a pay cut to pay his assistants more?

[palmettocock]

Didn't they all just get a raise?

[lacene]

Spurrier’s nine lieutenants will earn a combined $1.33 million

By JOSEPH PERSON - jperson@thestate.com

Steve Spurrier is not the only USC coach getting a raise this year.

Seven of Spurrier’s eight returning assistant coaches received new contracts with higher salaries, including a 25 percent bump for Gamecocks recruiting coordinator David Reaves.

USC released the contracts, which took effect April 1, to The State on Thursday.

The only assistant who did not get a new deal was defensive line coach Brad Lawing, whose salary was frozen after he committed a secondary NCAA recruiting violation last year involving current USC defensive end Travian Robertson.

Lawing, in his second year on Spurrier’s staff, received a built-in, $4,000 raise in accordance with the terms of his original contract.

Spurrier’s inaugural USC staff earned $1.24 million, roughly the equivalent of Spurrier’s original salary. Amid overtures from Miami and Alabama about those schools’ coaching vacancies, Spurrier received a $500,000 raise and a one-year extension in December that increased his annual compensation package to $1.75 million.

The Gamecocks’ nine assistants will make a combined $1.33 million this year.

“We don’t have too many high-priced assistants right now. I hope we do someday,” Spurrier said recently. “I hope our defense is ranked about one or two in the conference, and then we’ll have a $300,000 coordinator maybe. But it’s sort of based on performance and how much in demand that coach is. Simple as that.”

Several SEC coordinators have deals worth at least $300,000 — a list headed by LSU offensive coordinator Gary Crowton and defensive chief Bo Pelini, the league’s highest-paid coordinators at $400,000 each. (Alabama has not yet released the salaries of Nick Saban’s assistants.)

Defensive coordinator Tyrone Nix remains USC’s highest-paid assistant after receiving an 8 percent raise that took his salary from $180,000 to $195,000.

The 34-year-old Nix, who had discussions this past winter with Tulane, North Texas and UAB about head-coaching jobs, believes he could be in line for a bigger bump if the Gamecocks become one of the SEC’s top defenses under his watch.

“Whatever I receive (Spurrier) thought was the right deal for the moment,” Nix said. “When we start playing at the top of the conference defensively, who knows — there may be something else down the road.”

Reaves, 28, went from $96,000 to $120,000 after helping land the highest-rated recruiting class in school history. Reaves’ raise was accompanied by a title change: He was promoted from assistant to full-time quarterbacks coach.

Reaves also could have benefited from interviewing with first-year Oakland Raiders coach Lane Kiffin, Reaves’ brother-in-law.

Three USC coaches — Ron Cooper (secondary), Steve Spurrier Jr. (receivers) and John Hunt (offensive line) — saw raises in the 7 to 8 percent range to get to $167,000 a year. Shane Beamer, hired from Mississippi State to coach outside linebackers and help coordinate the special teams, will earn $120,000.

Running backs coach Robert Gillespie, the Gamecocks’ youngest assistant at 27, received an 18 percent raise, but remains USC’s lowest-paid coach at $85,000. Tight ends coach Fred Chatham’s 12 percent raise upped his salary to $145,000.

Officials removed supplemental, media compensation clauses from the contracts of Nix and Cooper. USC also broke from the recent trend of multi-year deals for assistants: All of the new contracts are one-year deals.

USC athletics director Eric Hyman said one-year contracts pose less of a financial burden in the event that a coach is fired.

“You just want to make it a win-win. You want to make it fair to your coaches, but you also want to make it fair to the university,” Hyman said. “It’s a balancing act there.”

The State Link (http://www.thestate.com/188/story/60983.html)

[Zee]

Didn't they all just get a raise?

I'm really referring to his first year he came here. This year I don't know. I believe his first year he was offered X amount, but agreed to take a portion out of that amount and distribute to his assistant coaches.