Once again, Clemson has one of the highest paid coaching staffs in college football.
Clemson’s 10 on-field coaches will make $8.145 million in 2020. Last year, Clemson’s assistant coaches made $7.41 million, which ranked second nationally.
Clemson University’s Board of Trustees Compensation Committee officially approved raises for the Clemson football staff on Thursday.
Athletic Director Dan Radakovich said after Thursday’s compensation committee meeting that Dabo Swinney’s staff will likely rank in the top 3 again in salaries for the 2020 season.
“A clear picture of that usually occurs in June when everybody is kind of settled in,” Radakovich said. “But we feel very confident that we are in the top three or four of salary pools. We have been, and I don’t imagine this year’s increases will significantly change that number.”
Clemson is once again coming off an extremely successful season. The Tigers won their first 14 games in 2019 and advanced the College Football Playoff National Championship for a fourth time in five years.
The Tigers have posted a 69-5 record since the start of the 2015 season and have won five straight ACC Championships to go along with five straight trips to the CFP.
Clemson has won two national championships as well, winning it all in 2016 and in 2018. The 2018 team went 15-0, the first college football team to go 15-0 since 1897.
Defensive coordinator Brent Venables will again be the highest paid coach on the Tigers’ staff. On Thursday, the compensation committee approved adding another year back on Venables’ existing contract.
Venables will make $2.4 million this year, which has him right now as the second highest paid assistant coach according to the 2019 USA Today rankings. Venables’ contract is worth $12 million—the highest in the country for any coordinator—to be spread over five years.
Auburn’s Kevin Steele is the highest paid assistant coach, making $2.5 million this coming season.
“We really love Brent and he loves us here, and we think he is compensated incredibly well,” Radakovich said.
Clemson offensive coordinator Tony Elliott is too. Elliott will make $1.6 million, which makes him the seventh highest paid assistant coach and the second highest paid offensive coordinator in college football.
Elliott got a new three-year deal on Thursday worth $5.1 million.
In 2019, Clemson’s offense finished fourth nationally in scoring offense (43.9 pts/game) and fifth in total yards (528.7 yds/game). Defensively, the Tigers ranked third in scoring defense (13.5 pts allowed/game) and sixth in total yards allowed per game (288.7 yds).
“Dabo and I try to see each other at a minimum every two weeks,” Radakovich said. “So, we have an on-going dialog throughout the year, so when we get together, for example a couple of Saturdays ago when we talked about this particular item for the majority of the time, we did touch on other programmatic issues and other things within the program. So, it was a great conversation. We kind of knew where we could move forward as it related to a pool of dollars and some other things that were important to Dabo. We kind of touched on those during that time period.”
Besides Venables and Elliott, Brandon Streeter received a $90,000 raise as the Tigers’ passing game coordinator. He will make $590,000 in 2020. Todd Bates, who replaced Streeter as recruiting coordinator, will make $515,000 this coming year. He got an increase of $140,000.
Tyler Grisham, who replaced Jeff Scott as Clemson’s wide receivers’ coach, will get paid $300,000. It’s a $206,140 raise from the $93,860 he was making last year as an offensive analyst.
Approval of contractual changes for Football Assistant Coaches and Administration
- Brent Venables, Defensive Coordinator/Linebackers Coach
- Term: Add 1 year through 1/31/2025
- Mike Reed, Assistant Coach/Cornerbacks
- Term: Add 1 year through 1/31/2022
- Total compensation increase: $495,000 to $540,000
- Mickey Conn, Assistant Coach/Safeties
- Term: Add 1 year through 1/31/2022
- Total compensation increase: $400,000 to $515,000
- Todd Bates, Assistant Coach/Defensive Linemen/Recruiting Coordinator
- Term: Add 1 year through 1/31/2022
- Total compensation increase: $375,000 to $515,000
- Lemanski Hall, Assistant Coach/Defensive Ends
- Term: Add 1 year through 1/31/2022
- Total compensation increase: $350,000 to $500,000
- Tony Elliott, Offensive Coordinator/Running Backs Coach
- Term: Add 1 year through 1/31/2023
- Total compensation increase: $1,000,000 to $1,600,000
- Robbie Caldwell, Assistant Coach/Offensive Linemen
- Term: Add 1 year through 1/31/2022
- Total compensation increase: $570,000 to $640,000
- Danny Pearman, Assistant Head Coach
- Term: Add 1 year through 1/31/2022
- Total compensation increase: $505,000 to $545,000
- Brandon Streeter, Assistant Coach/Passing Game Coordinator/Quarterbacks
- Term: Add 1 year through 1/31/2022
- Total compensation increase: $500,000 to $590,000
- Tyler Grisham, Assistant Coach/Wide Receivers
- Term: 2 years through 1/31/2022
- Total compensation increase: $93,860 to $300,000
- Joey Batson, Director of Football Strength & Conditioning
- Term: Add 1 year through 1/31/2023
- Woodrow McCorvey, Associate Athletics Director-Football Administration
- Term: Add 1 year through 1/31/2022
- Total compensation increase: $350,000 to $380,000
- Thad Turnipseed, Director of Recruiting Operations & External Affairs
- Term: Add 2 years through 1/31/2022
- Total compensation increase: $230,000 to $250,000
- Mike Dooley, Director of Football Operations & Player Personnel
- Term: Add 2 years through 1/31/2022
- Total compensation increase: $225,000 to $250,000
- Jeff Davis, Director of Player Relations & External Affairs
- Term: Add 2 years through 1/31/2022
- Total compensation increase: $220,000 to $250,000
- Kyle Richardson, Director of Player Development
- Term: 2 years through 1/31/2022
- Total compensation increase: $113,166 to $210,000
- Jordan Sorrells, Director of Recruiting Operations
- Term: Add 2 years through 1/31/2022
- Total compensation increase: $130,000 to $210,000
A great gift for any Clemson fan. Just one of many great items available from Clemson Variety & Frame
