Dollar signs keep getting bigger for college football assistants (Fleck quoted)

BleedGopher

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per the Toledo Blade:

Woody Hayes had a salary of $43,000 in 1978, his final season as head coach at Ohio State.

OSU defensive coordinator Greg Mattison made eight times that amount last year — in bonuses.

There’s never been a better time to be an assistant coach in college football. Not just because of skyrocketing salaries, but also thanks to incentives that allow coaches to make hundreds of thousands of extra dollars.

The Buckeyes needed a Brinks trunk to deliver their performance bonuses. In all, it added up to $2,463,300 spread among the 10 assistant coaches. Poor wide receivers coach Brian Hartline only netted $117,300.

In 2013, five assistants made $1 million a year. In 2019, three made $2 million. Another 21 made at least $1 million. The proliferation has given assistants life-changing money while also altering the coaching landscape. Instead of leaving for head coaching positions at lower-level schools, coordinators and assistants are more inclined to stay at the Ohio States and Michigans of the world or bypass the Mid-American Conference.

“There’s assistant coaches now making $2 million a year. That’s a lot of money,” Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck said. “He’s an incredible coordinator, but now, all of a sudden, why would you take a job in the Group of Five? Most of those jobs don’t pay that much.”


Go Gophers!!
 

I suspect / think the coach as CEO and having less to do with the granular things like overall defense / offense and such is more common now.

That's not to say that didn't happen before, but I think there is more specialization now / recognition that if the HC is making calls on a lot of stuff ... he's probably missing out on crooting / not keeping up on strategy.

Building a team / building a staff / building a program is now more about finding the folks to help do it than actually doing it as a HC.
 

The money for coaches is growing at an insane rate. The downside for coaches is that the pressure to win fast is going up as well. That said, when they do get fired, they have made so much money that it probably stings a lot less than it used to.

Crazy that there are coordinators making 2+ million now. The Power 5 schools have such a huge advantage over group of 5 schools when it comes to hiring the best coaches. There is just no way for most of those schools to offer the kind of money that the Power 5 programs can.

If you are a coach without the burning desire to be a head coach you can make a lot of money as an assistant without all the pressure that comes from being the head guy.
 

The money for coaches is growing at an insane rate. The downside for coaches is that the pressure to win fast is going up as well. That said, when they do get fired, they have made so much money that it probably stings a lot less than it used to.

Crazy that there are coordinators making 2+ million now. The Power 5 schools have such a huge advantage over group of 5 schools when it comes to hiring the best coaches. There is just no way for most of those schools to offer the kind of money that the Power 5 programs can.

If you are a coach without the burning desire to be a head coach you can make a lot of money as an assistant without all the pressure that comes from being the head guy.
All pointing to the P5 becoming their own separate football division...
 




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