When two of Texas’ new coordinators were hired away from their old jobs, it was assumed that the move entailed a healthy bump in pay.
Those assumptions have now been confirmed in a very big way.
In contract details obtained by the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News through a public records request, the salaries of Mack Brown‘s UT staff, including new co-offensive coordinator Bryan Harsin and new defensive coordinator Manny Diaz, were revealed and, needless to say, they’re real and they’re spectacular.
All told, Brown’s assistants will pull in $3.6 million in salary in 2011. At the top of the financial food chain are Harsin and Diaz, who will each make $650,000. Last year, Diaz’s predecessor Will Muschamp made $900,000, although he also carried the title of head coach in waiting; Greg Davis, who Harsin succeeded, made in the neighborhood of $480,000 in what turned out to be his final season in Austin.
In 2010, both Harsin and Diaz made roughly $260,000 at Boise State and Mississippi State, respectively. Their new salaries would’ve made the duo the ninth-highest paid assistants in the country last year based on figures available to USA Today.
Major Applewhite was named co-coordinator along with Harsin earlier this month but will make “just” $500,000 in 2011. The disparity in pay is likely due to the fact that Harsin will hold play-calling responsibilities. The new figure still represents a substantial raise for Applewhite, who will still coach running backs, as he made $270,000 last year.
Texas’ new position coaches won’t exactly be hurting financially, either, as they will make more than the vast majority of Div. 1-A programs are able to pay their coordinators.
When you add Brown’s salary into the coaching pool, Texas will be paying their staff nearly $9 million a year this season. That’s, ummm, substantial.
Then again, when you factor in their new deal with ESPN with every other revenue stream the school has at its disposal, that total’s merely a drop in an Olympic-sized pool flush with cash.