Football coaching staff's pay part of UH's upgrade strategy

Harry · October 19, 2015

This is a dated article, however I think it is worth another read. I hope North Texas will take this under consideration when they put together the compensation package for the next hire:

In the next step to a possible invitation into college football's elite fraternity, the University of Houston will open the checkbook and pay a record amount in assistant coaching salaries this season.
The nine full-time assistants on new coach Tom Herman's staff will earn $2.113 million, a 17 percent increase from 2014, according to contracts obtained by the Houston Chronicle through an open-records request.
The total - nearly $300,000 more than the $1.82 million from last season - puts UH ahead of a handful of schools from the Power 5 conferences based on the most recent salary-pool figures for last season.
Herman called UH "a sleeping giant in college football," with the recent shift in resources and upgrades aimed to make the school a more attractive option for the next round of conference realignment. Along with allowing assistant coaches to be paid more, UH opened $128 million TDECU Stadium last September and has plans for a $20 million football-only indoor practice facility.
"I think it's no mistake that at some point we aspire to be in a Power 5 conference," Herman said this week to a group of UH supporters at the Touchdown Club of Houston luncheon.
"I think at some point we need to match our resources with those goals, or else I don't know that you achieve this. It doesn't equate much."
The increase in salary pool was specifically earmarked to offer competitive salaries to coordinators. The three highest-paid assistants on Herman's staff are defensive coordinator/linebackers coach Todd Orlando ($501,000), offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Major Applewhite ($301,000) and co-defensive coordinator/assistant head coach/safeties coach Craig Naivar ($301,000). Orlando is the highest-paid assistant at a non-Power 5 school.
The remaining six assistants' annual salaries range from $116,000 to $205,000.
If you factor in the salaries for strength and conditioning coach, director of football operations, and quality control/graduate assistant staffers, the salary pool is $2.645 million.
Herman, who was hired on Dec. 16, received a five-year deal worth $6.75 million that includes an annual salary of $1.35 million, the most for a football coach in school history.
Big jump in AAC
Before Herman's arrival, UH's salary pool figure ranked near the bottom of the American Athletic Conference. Now, UH is at the top of the AAC.
"The University of Houston was behind in that regard," said Hunter Yurachek, UH's vice president for intercollegiate athletics. "We're playing catch-up right now. We are making an investment, but you can't do it in all areas at one time."
Herman and his staff have a combined 146 years of recruiting experience in Texas, 44 conference titles, two national titles, and four national championship game appearances.
"I think I'd be a lot more nervous had we not been able to find the nine guys and our strength coach," said Herman, who won the first College Football Playoff national title as offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach at Ohio State.
The $2.113 million salary pool would put UH ahead of Power 5 schools North Carolina ($2.051) in the ACC, Iowa State ($2.110) and Kansas ($2.105) in the Big 12, California ($2.081) in the Pac-12, and Purdue ($2.095) in the Big Ten, according to a review of an assistant coach salary database compiled by USA Today for the 2014 season.
read more: http://www.houstonchronicle.com/sports/article/Football-coaching-staff-s-pay-part-of-UH-s-6416369.php

Edited October 19, 2015 by Harry

UNT90 · October 19, 2015

While we fiddle fart around with an AD that wouldn't know his ass from a hole in the ground, Houston is doing everything possible to make a push for inclusion in the Big 12.

Some schools are serious about athletics, some schools are the University of North Texas.