clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Virginia’s Bronco Mendenhall is the second-highest paid among new coaches in 2016

BYU's Bronco Mendenhall Named As Next Virginia Head Coach Photo by George Frey/Getty Images

According to information compiled by CoachingSearch.com, Virginia’s Bronco Mendenhall is the second-highest paid new coach in 2016 among those whose contract information is known. Georgia’s Kirby Smart, at $3.75 million, is the top-paid new head coach. This information doesn’t include any bonuses, incentives, and so forth.

Here’s the full information, which doesn’t have information on private universities, although it’s been reported that Miami’s Mark Richt is making over $4 million this year. The ACC’s other new head coach, Syracuse’s Dino Babers, also didn’t have publicly available salary information.

School 2016 Coach Contract Length (Years) 2016 Salary Previous HC Salary
Georgia Kirby Smart 6 $3.75 million $4.1 million
Virginia Bronco Mendenhall 5 $3.25 million $3.1 million
Virginia Tech Justin Fuente 6 $3.2 million $2.7 million
South Carolina Will Muschamp 5 $3 million $4 million
Maryland D.J. Durkin 5 $2.4 million $2.1 million
Missouri Barry Odom 5 $2.35 million $3.7 million
Iowa State Matt Campbell 6 $2 million $2.2 million
Rutgers Chris Ash 5 $2 million $1.2 million
Memphis Mike Norvell 5 $1.8 million $1.4 million
UCF Scott Frost 5 $1.7 million $1.8 million
Minnesota Tracy Claeys 3 $1.4 million $2.5 million
Illinois Bill Cubit 2 $1.2 million $1.6 million*
East Carolina Scottie Montgomery 5 $1 million $1.4 million
North Texas Seth Littrell 5 $822,800 $720,000
Texas State Everett Withers 5 $650,000 $427,000
Toledo Jason Candle 5 $650,000 $495,000
UTSA Frank Wilson 5 $650,000 $425,000
Georgia Southern Tyson Summers 4 $500,000 $500,000
Southern Miss Jay Hopson 4 $500,000 $700,000
Ball State Mike Neu 6 $425,000 $517,000
Bowling Green Mike Jinks 5 $410,000 $413,000
Hawaii Nick Rolovich 4 $400,000 $637,000
Louisiana-Monroe Matt Viator Not public Not public $360,000
BYU Kalana Sitake Private Private Private
Miami (FL) Mark Richt Private Private $2.5 million
Syracuse Dino Babers Private Private $1.2 million
Tulate Willie Fritz Private Private $926,000
USC Clay Helton Private Private Private

From the information available to us, Virginia’s Mendenhall, at $3.25 million, is one of just nine coaches to make more than the school’s previous head coach — Mike London used to make $3.1 million at Virginia. Virginia Tech’s Justin Fuente is one of those nine; he will make $3.2 million compared to predecessor Frank Beamer’s $2.7 million. Fuente ranks third on the salary list, but has a six year contract compared to Mendenhall’s five.

Mendenhall continues to make more than his Hokie counterpart, which shouldn’t come as too great a surprise considering Virginia’s athletic revenue is reported to be $91.3 million per year (29th in the country) compared to Virginia Tech’s $80.2 million (40th).

Is Virginia leading the way by showing its willingness to pay for a coach to lead the program back to national prominence? Or should the Hoos have scaled back pay until there’s a proven product on the field?