The premise is fairly simple. When you take your team to a championship in the SEC and play for a BCS title in your first year on the job, you get a raise. Auburn announced the details for a new contract for head football coach Gus Malzahn and his staff, as well as the contract for new men’s basketball coach Bruce Pearl. Malzahn received a two-year extension complete with a raise to $3.85 million in 2014 with a $250,000 raise each year following through 2019.
The details of the new contract for Malzahn were actually announced in December, although the details about the incentives in the contract are new information. According to the contract details shared by Auburn on Friday, Malzahn can earn $300,000 for playing in the national championship game and another $500,000 for winning it. Malzahn will also be due $200,000 for leading the Tigers to any of the top six bowl games.
Malzahn’s staff will also be taken care of quite well by Auburn. Offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee received a raise of $250,000 to up his salary to $600,000 with a two-year extension running through June 2017. Defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson remains the highest-paid assistant coach after receiving a raise of $50,000 to $800,000 with a one-year extension running through June 2017. The rest of the staff saw pay increases as well, which are detailed in this release.
Having the funds to keep a quality coaching staff together is important, especially for a team coming off as successful a season as Auburn is. What this staff does for an encore in 2014 should be quite interesting in a season when a number of SEC programs will be looking for some new leaders on the field.
It should also be noted that earlier this week Alabama made head coach Nick Saban an even wealthier man as well.