MSU assistant coaching salaries: last in the SEC

[The Croom Diaries]

I know it's been said many times before, but I saw an article yesterday revealing MSU assistant coaching salaries to be 13th out of 13 (Vandy not included). And it was a good $300K (12%) less than UK who was 12th. This problem need to be fixed, and it's more important than Mullen getting a raise.

http://maroonandwhitenation.com/2013/12/16/msu-football-coaching-raises-gets-one/

[smootness]

Definitely an area where we need to improve and compete better. I would assume we will see this go up once the season is over; it better.

But just because we're 13th right now doesn't necessarily mean we aren't willing to pay our assistants. It just means that's what it cost to get the guys we have now.

Hughes, Turner, Knox, Koenning, etc. are good assistant coaches, and I'm glad we have them. But they're not in high demand, so as of now we haven't had to pay more to keep them.

Townsend is a 1st-year college coach, so he's never been in a competitive situation for salary in college. I'm sure we'll offer a raise to try to keep him. Same with Collins; we paid what it took to get him here, now we need to make sure we pay what it will take to keep him.

If Mullen left and we made a new hire and didn't get our top choices, we would probably bring in someone without an extensive history that cost a ton of money. We may only pay him $1.5 million to begin with. You could look at that and say, 'We're paying our HC less than any other school, how are we going to compete doing this?'; or you could say that we chose a guy and that's what it cost to get him. Once success comes and the coach becomes in demand, you pay more.

I guess my point is, your present salaries doesn't necessarily indicate what you are willing to spend; it indicates what it cost to get who you have now. Sure, over time, you have to be able to pay more to get better coaches. But our present salaries doesn't necessarily indicate our capability or willingness.

Take Florida. They aren't paying Muschamp a whole lot, but they obviously have the capability and would be willing to spend a lot more to get the right guy. But they felt like Muschamp was the right guy, and his present salary is what it took to get him; no reason to spend more if you don't have to.

[engie]

Assistant Total Salary Pool(on-field positions only) 2013 from SDS

LSU: $4,565,803
Alabama: $4,462,700
Auburn: $3,495,000
Texas A&M: $3,392,250
Georgia: $3,294,000
Arkansas: $3,233,000
Florida: $3,211,400
Tennessee: $3,170,000
South Carolina: $2,744,600
Missouri: $2,642,500
Ole Miss: $2,429,092
Kentucky: $2,425,000
Mississippi State: $2,167,775

[smootness]

Assistant Total Salary Pool(on-field positions only) 2013 from SDS

LSU: $4,565,803
Alabama: $4,462,700
Auburn: $3,495,000
Texas A&M: $3,392,250
Georgia: $3,294,000
Arkansas: $3,233,000
Florida: $3,211,400
Tennessee: $3,170,000
South Carolina: $2,744,600
Missouri: $2,642,500
Ole Miss: $2,429,092
Kentucky: $2,425,000
Mississippi State: $2,167,775

I'd like to see this jump up to around South Carolina territory, with the bulk of that increase going to Collins.

I think this is an area where State can really gain a competitive advantage; obviously other schools can pay more, but they aren't right now. We could even really jump up to Floridaish type money without too much of a problem, from my standpoint.

Even though schools are throwing some crazy money at coaches, I've often wondered why some don't throw even more. If you get a top coach, you will see obvious return on your investment, because good college coaches win no matter where they are, for the most part, and the revenues follow.

[Bass Chaser]

^^^^ I agree. I would like it to be around $2.8M.

Also wouldn't mind seeing incentives for all coaches based on SEC wins, bowl wins, etc.

[The Croom Diaries]

More specific to each coach:

Collins: $291K
Hevesy: $286K
Koenning: $286K
Townsend: $250K
Gonzales: $250K
Knox: $230K
Hughes: $227K
Turner: $200K
Sallach: $144K

[engie]

Proposal:

Collins - $500k
Hevesy - $300k
Gonzo - $300k
Townsend - $300k
Hughes - $300k(our best recruiter by far)
Turner - $300k
Koenning - $286k
Knox - $250k
Sallach - $150k

New price - $2.786 million

This moves us from 13th to 9th in the league in assistant salary pool.

Or we can go a bit higher or reevaluate how we divide the mone if we get rid of Sallach and/or Koenning...

[The Croom Diaries]

Proposal:

Collins - $500k
Hevesy - $300k
Gonzo - $300k
Townsend - $300k
Hughes - $300k(our best recruiter by far)
Turner - $300k
Koenning - $286k
Knox - $250k
Sallach - $150k

New price - $2.786 million

This moves us from 13th to 9th in the league in assistant salary pool.

Or we can go a bit higher or reevaluate how we divide the mone if we get rid of Sallach and/or Koenning...

I like that. I might be willing to skim a little more on Knox and Hughes (he isn't going anywhere with his son on the team) and maybe Turner to bring in a good special teams coach for $200-250K. But definitely Collins salary is ridiculous, we are playing him like a position coach. Smart, Chavis, Grantham, E.J., Snyder, and Lorenzo Ward all make at least $650K. There are SIXTY FIVE assistant coaches in the SEC that make more than Geoff Collins, our highest paid coach.

[engie]

It's almost time for an uproar about this.

New contracts are signed with us sometime very near the first of January. We need to continue to put the message out that our assistant coaching salaries are totally insufficient.

While we may hold Collins for another year at his current salary -- If I were him(and I love MSU more than I can imagine he does), I'd be floating my resume all over the place... We bump him to $5-600k and his potential suitor pool gets a whole lot smaller...