Florida offensive coordinator Brent Pease was one of three Gator assistants to receive raises earlier this month. Now, assistants at Urban Meyer‘s new job, Ohio State, will be getting bumps in pay as well.
The Columbus Dispatch reports that three Buckeyes assistants -- defensive coordinator Luke Fickell, co-defensive coordinator/assistant head coach Everett Withers and offensive coordinator Tom Herman -- will see their salary break the $500,000 mark in 2013. Specifically, Fickell will receive $600,000, Withers will get $580,000 and Herman $550,000. The latter two are seeing an increase by $130,000 with Fickell actually receiving a pay reduction of $150,000 from the $750,000 he received in 2012. However, that was considered as additional compensation for his service as the Buckeyes’ interim coach and is still significantly larger than his 2010 salary of $275,000.
Ohio State’s six other assistants will receive more modest raises, with the largest one going to special teams coordinator and cornerbacks coach Kerry Coombs (up $25,000 to $300,000). Meyer himself will see a bump in base salary to around $4.16 million from $4 million.
Still, Ohio State assistants are nowhere near among the highest-paid in college football. Alabama’s Kirby Smart and Clemson’s Chad Morris are two coordinators in the million-dollar salary range. And all assistants are either on one or two-year deals.
“We want to be top of the pyramid, no doubt,” Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith said. “I don’t know exactly what the number is, top 10 nationally, but we’re about winning conference championships consistently and chasing national championships. And we want to be able to recruit the best and the brightest to do that. With that in mind, we have to be able to compensate those people at that level.”