SEC showing coordinators the money
The hours are lousy, you spend January listening to the automated voice on Garmin systems giving directions to an out-of-the-way high school, and fans will gripe the first time there’s a breakdown in your Cover-2.
But man, it pays to be a defensive coordinator these days.
Especially in the SEC.
Miles Loadholt, chairman of USC’s board of trustees, confirmed Tuesday that USC officials are negotiating a contract extension for Ellis Johnson, the Gamecocks’ assistant head coach for defense.
It’s a big deal.
The proposed four-year contract, which Loadholt said was “in the ballpark” of $700,000 per year, is in line with the money Tennessee and Georgia have been throwing around to find coaches to run their defenses this offseason.
Todd Grantham, way down Georgia’s wish list, still commanded a three-year deal worth 750K a year. That’s reportedly the same deal Kevin Steele turned down at Tennessee to remain at Clemson, where he received “only” at $200,000 raise to get to $575,000, according to reports.
Ever since the SEC signed its new TV deals with ESPN and CBS, it’s like the conference’s athletics directors have been playing with Monopoly money, at least where the salaries for assistant football coaches are concerned.
Blame Tennessee for starting the trend (Lane Kiffin gets blamed for everything else, anyway). After Kiffin came to Knoxville last year, he got his dad Monte a seven-figure deal to coach the Vols’ defense – taking the league’s arms race up a notch.
Where will it stop? With the SEC’s TV money flooding in, it probably won’t.
Word around the SEC is that when the ink dries on Kirby Smart’s new contract at Alabama, it will have seven figures under the compensation heading.
It’s the price of doing business in the Big Business SEC, where the cost of eggs keeps going up.
Is Johnson, officially the Gamecocks’ assistant head coach for defense, worth it?
Well, the Winnsboro native has done well recruiting the state (he landed Stephon Gilmore and DeVonte Holloman last year) and his defenses have ranked in the top 15 nationally and the top four in the conference in each of his first two seasons.
The four-year deal, if approved, would make it unlikely that the 58-year-old Johnson would leave to take another job because of the buyout (likely $700K for every year left on the contract).
The flipside is that USC would have to buy Johnson out if Steve Spurrier were to leave prior to the 2013 season. In the meantime, Spurrier knows he has a man he trusts running his defense.
And knows he will have him for four more years.
6 Comments to “SEC showing coordinators the money”
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USC football beat writer Joe Person has covered the Gamecocks since the start of the 2002 season. He's been on the college football beat since 1993. 
The SEC is throwing around money for defensive co-ordinators is just a case of paying them what they are worth. Not all SEC teams are living off the ESPN contract. In Georgia’s and Florida’s case, they are getting $11,000,000 and $10,000,000 per year respectively for selling their merchandising rights. Their athletic facilities are going to be the best in the SEC in the very near future.
You get what you pay for. In formula 1 racing Ferrari and Mercedes both spend hundreds of millions more on their teams than anybody else…the end result is total domination…everybody else are “Also-Rans”. Was talking to one of my Dr. buddies in Baton Rouge last week and he told me what he was paying for season tickets to LSU and let me tell ya Game Cock fans were getting a Bargain!!(If you think Louisiana is in better economic shape tha SC think again). So pay Mr. Ellis and lets get more coaches of his calibre and pay them too. I want a solid coaching staff that will stay not one that is a revolving door. GO COCKS!!
I think a better question to ask is Have head coaches been paid too much money and maybe coordinators too little? Coordinators in many cases do a lot of the heavy lifting coaches take credit for. They have been getting paid $350,000 while head coaches on the other hand have been making $2-4 million in most cases. I seem too remember a Ron Morris column saying the amount paid for Ellis Johnson when we hired him was too high and for too many years. Well Ron Morris wrote a column recently where he wanted USC to spend $40 million to renovate Carolina Coliseum for the Lady Gamecocks to play in a smaller arena. I think Hyman and USC are much better stewards of spending money wisely than some pundits give them credit for doing. Hopefully one day Dawn Staley will have more than 12,000 people see here team play and need our 18,000 seat arena like we did last night against KY in the mens game.
[...] he’s getting from USC? This writer says he’s recruited the Palmetto State well and he’s led two straight top 15 defenses.14. Devan Downey scored 30 points against Kentucky last night… which actually caused his [...]
I almost fell out of my chair when I heard that the Football Team NO LONGER gets Gatorade because of the cost. AD can pay out a bunch of money for storming the court but when it comes down to giving athletes something to help them train it comes up short. Disappointing to say the least.
Now if Spurrier would only get one we trust running his Offensive! The Offense is now and always has been under Spurrier “the problem”. Garcia is not serious enough about football for me to trust him for ONE more year. Life is to short to lose year after year with Garcia.
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