As the search for the next Louisville football coach continues, the list of candidates has somewhat solidified by a consensus of reporting. What everyone has to acknowledge — and leave some room for — is that there could be a mystery candidate or two out there that no one knows or is talking about.
But the potential candidates we do know about have some good information out there about them. Let’s run down their salary and buyout data.
Charlie Strong’s replacement should be in for a nice raise.
We know Louisville paid Charlie Strong handsomely, all the way up to $3.7 million before he hit the $5 million-a-year jackpot at Texas. It’s presumably unlikely the next coach gets that kind of money — if the salaries below are any indication of the kind of raise they’d get to come to U of L.
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As of Monday evening, the list had shifted and remolded itself a couple times. I’m not entirely sure I’d consider Rich Rodriguez a candidate anymore, but I’m not dumb enough to knock him off the list.
He’s the highest paid of the candidates we think we know. Jim McElwain’s right behind, and Chad Morris is making head coach money as the offensive coordinator at Clemson. He’s actually the highest-paid assistant in college football.
But McElwain’s the one with the big buyout.
Anyway, here’s the data found on USA Today’s coaching salary database. I used the Coloradoan for McElwain’s buyout number, the Tucson Citizen for Rich Rod’s buyout and our own Courier-Journal archive for Petrino’s.
Have at it:
Buyouts
Jim McElwain: $3 million
Bobby Petrino: $1.2 million
Rich Rodriguez: $1 million
Salaries
Rich Rodriguez: $2.15 million
Jim McElwain: $1.35 million
Chad Morris: $1.3 million
Bobby Petrino: $855,600
Pat Narduzzi: $557,000
Vance Bedford: $500,000
Shawn Watson: $500,000
Derek Mason: N/A
