UNT aims to fit pay with goals

[MeanGreen61]

Football: UNT aims to fit pay with goals

Study: Football salaries rank second in Sun Belt

08:52 AM CDT on Thursday, September 8, 2005

By Brett Vito / Staff Writer

In terms of wins and championships, the North Texas football team’s coaching staff has no rival in the Sun Belt Conference.

That isn’t the case when it comes to coaching salaries, a study conducted by the Denton Record-Chronicle using the Freedom of Information Act shows.

UNT has boosted its coaches’ salaries over the last few years, but still ranks second to Middle Tennessee, the Mean Green’s opponent in its season opener on Saturday.

The study shows:

n MTSU’s coaching staff is making a total of $871,000 with an average of $72,333 going to each assistant coach. UNT’s staff is drawing $774,000 with an average of $63,278 paid to each assistant. The Mean Green’s total jumps to $823,000 if a series of guaranteed incentives for head coach Darrell Dickey are included in the total.

n UNT ranks third in assistant coaches’ salaries behind MTSU and Arkansas State.

n Dickey ranks fourth in the league among head coaches with a base salary of $204,500, a total that includes a yearly annuity payment of $20,000 and a $6,000 car allowance. Guaranteed incentives for maintaining membership in the Sun Belt Conference and appearing on his weekly radio show push the total to $259,500. Dickey’s salary ranks second in the league if guaranteed incentives are counted as part of his base salary. Howard Schnellenberger of Florida Atlantic ranks first in the league at $272,863 in base salary while Florida International’s Don Strock is third at $250,000, both without incentives.

Some members of the UNT athletic department see those totals as a sign of rapid progress. Others view the data as an indication that the program still must improve its salaries to stabilize a Mean Green team that has won four straight conference titles.

“In every area, we are trying to make ends meet,” Dickey said. “We don’t have a lot of money here. It’s a tough situation. We have lost five coaches in the last four years. It’s a situation that hopefully we can address at some point because these guys have done a good job and have worked hard.”

Playing catch-up

One fact both the UNT administration and coaching staff agree on is the school is trying to make up ground quickly to put its football program on par with the rest of the teams in Division I-A.

UNT only returned to the top level of college football in 1995 and has been scrambling to make progress ever since by building facilities and improving its programs.

“We want to be a top Division I program and you need to be able to reflect that in everything you do,” UNT athletic director Rick Villarreal said. “Salaries are part of that. We want to be competitive and among the highest in the conference. We have made a lot of progress and our goal is to continue it, but at the same time we have built new facilities, put in new video equipment and upped the aid for fifth-year seniors. You want to get those salaries up there, but you also want coaches to have the tools that are necessary for them to be able to recruit and be successful.”

UNT opened a new $7.4 million athletic center this year that includes new weight facilities and a football practice field. The school also has begun raising money for a new football stadium. The athletic budget has increased from $7.2 million in the 2000-01 school year to $12.25 million for the fiscal year that ended on Aug. 31.

No program has shone brighter during that span than the football team.

UNT has won the Sun Belt Conference title and played in the New Orleans Bowl in each of the last four seasons. The Mean Green have drawn more publicity than ever before this fall because of the accomplishments of running backs Patrick Cobbs and Jamario Thomas, the last two national rushing champions. The duo has appeared on the cover of USA Today and also been featured in ESPN The Magazine and other national publications.

UNT booster and Houston furniture magnate Jim McIngvale named his friendship with Dickey as a key reason he donated $1 million toward construction of the Mean Green Athletic Center.

Rewarding success

The question UNT faces is how to reward its football staff for its achievements while also addressing the needs of other teams and building the overall program.

“We don’t look at it in terms of where we rank in the conference,” UNT offensive coordinator Ramon Flanigan said. “What we look at is we think we have done a good job here. We are compared to other teams’ win-loss record. If we are judged by that standard, then it would be fair to judge our compensation by the same scale.”

The success the Mean Green have enjoyed, working for Dickey and the atmosphere at the school are some of the reasons defensive coordinator Kenny Evans has stayed at UNT.

“Salaries are not the only thing, but sometimes it’s a little disappointing when you think things are going to happen differently, especially after four championships,” Evans said.

Dickey signed a new contract this year that did not include a raise, although he did have a clause added to his deal that would give him a $100,000 payment if he completes his contract that runs through Dec. 31, 2008.

UNT’s assistant coaching staff received a total boost of $22,000 this season.

Villarreal received a $15,000 raise.

Villarreal said part of the reason UNT’s salaries trail those of Middle Tennessee’s coaches is that several members of the Blue Raiders’ staff have been at the school for extended periods, although Middle Tennessee’s highest paid coaches are relative newcomers.

Keeping them in the fold

Keeping his coaches has been a yearly dilemma for Dickey, who traces the problem partly back to the pay increases that are available for coaches who leave for staffs at higher profile schools.

The Mean Green have lost Gary DeLoach (UCLA), Freddie Kitchens (Mississippi State), Spencer Leftwich (Tulsa), Sam McElroy (Tarleton State) and Eric Wolford (Arizona) to other college programs over the last four years.

McElroy left UNT after the 2004 season to become a head coach. The other four coaches are working as assistants.

“It’s not just money,” Dickey said. “Guys leave for more established programs and better conferences. It’s part of the profession. I just hope we can hang on to coaches when it comes down to just a financial issue.”

The cost of turning over coaches is hard to quantify, but there is little doubt it has been a detriment to the Mean Green to some degree.

Most of UNT’s assistants who have left departed in the middle of recruiting season. When an assistant coach leaves while recruiting a player, UNT simply subs in another assistant to continue wooing the recruit.

The Mean Green’s offensive line has worked under three assistant coaches since 2002.

“It’s been a pretty smooth transition,” UNT tackle Joel Foster said. “You just have to get used to each coach’s personality. We have been pretty fortunate to have good assistant coaches.”

UNT has kept an impressive staff despite the challenge of ranking behind Middle Tennessee in coaching salaries and lacking a significant advantage over several other teams in the league.

“I am sure that at some point the salaries will match up with the other teams across the country,” Evans said. “We are having to make so many changes. We are improving our facilities, the school is growing like crazy, and we have to hire people in every area to keep up with it. Salaries are one thing they would like to address, but haven’t been able to yet.”

BRETT VITO can be reached at 940-566-6870. His e-mail address is bvito@dentonrc.com.

[j0nat8an]

pay these guys please! shoot, charge a fee to all students to guarantee that they contribute to the program. i'm so sick of the attitude of students being, "let's cut all costs so my tuition goes down". how does dickey not get a raise? this is pathetic. we're going to lose him one day and have to replace him with a scrub because we don't pay well. why is it that football fans can realize that the music department is important to our school, but why can't many music students (AND FACULTY) understand the important of athletics. this rant probably has less to do with the article, but it's an issue that gets me heated.

[PlummMeanGreen]

To quote meanjoe:

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If that happens in record numbers, then we can give all our coaches some much deserved pay raises. We should be #1 in the SBC in that dept, too.

I just don't think Brett Vito's report on our 2000-2001 athletic budget could even be close to accurate unless someone else on campus has been pulling our legs all the time about our actual athletic budget. That figure just seems way too low for that academic year, but I'm sure Vito had to see those figures somewhere as to write about them in his article, too. Yet it seems like we've been over $10 million for much longer than he reported, but (as always) I stand to be corrected.

[Guest Aquila_Viridis]

shoot, charge a fee to all students to guarantee that they contribute to the program. 

←

I don't think that's going to motivate the students. We really just need them to be there and be loud.

We do need to devote significantly more money to this aspect. When I saw what Tommy West is getting over here I nearly fell over. If this doesn't get shored up we will not be able to capitalize on huge opportunities.

The money needs to come from broad alumni support. NT needs to make very direct appeals to the alumni in general and explain why it is important. Let me tell you, Virginia LEANS on its alumni. There is no comparison in the respective efforts.

[FirefightnRick]

Be sure to tune in to watch the two most pathetically wealthy college programs in the nation go at it this coming saturday. Texas and Ohio State's combined athletic budgets exceed $160,000,000.

$70Mil total/$12 Mil for football for Texas

$90 Mil total/$16 Mil for football for OSU).

The NFL needs two more teams added to their league if you ask me.

Rick