Pelini contract runs five years
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By BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON / Lincoln Journal Star
Completed without agents and apparently free of discord, Husker head football coach Bo Pelini’s contract was made public Wednesday.
Pelini will make a guaranteed $1.1 million a year. It’s a deal that runs through five seasons, expiring Dec. 31, 2012.
The contract includes incentives where Pelini would earn an additional $400,000 for winning the Big 12 Championship Game and another $400,000 for winning the BCS national championship.
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Compared with last year’s staff, those most closely associated with the Nebraska football program will make slightly more — about $15,000, when combined — next season. Figures do not include compensation for the head coach.
2008 football staff Base salary
Shawn Watson, offensive coordinator $225,000
Carl Pelini, defensive coordinator 190,000
Marvin Sanders, secondary 190,000
Ted Gilmore, receivers 190,000
Barney Cotton, offensive line 190,000
Ron Brown, tight ends 190,000
Tim Beck, running backs 160,000
James Dobson, strength coach 130,000
John Papuchis, defensive ends 120,000
Mike Ekeler, linebackers 120,000
Jeff Jamrog, assistant AD for football 110,000
Totals $1,815,000
2007 football staff Base salary
Kevin Cosgrove, defensive coordinator $235,000
Shawn Watson, offensive coordinator 225,000
Randy Jordan, running backs 170,000
Dennis Wagner, offensive line 170,000
Bill Busch, safeties 165,000
Buddy Wyatt, defensive line 160,000
Phil Elmassian, cornerbacks 159,521
Ted Gilmore, receivers 155,000
Tim Cassidy, assistant AD for football 129,733
Joe Rudolph, tight ends 120,000
Dave Kennedy, strength coach 111,027
Totals $1,800,281
“We’re very pleased with the process,” Nebraska athletic director Tom Osborne said in a statement. “There were no protracted negotiations and no agents. Everything went smoothly.”
Breaking down Pelini’s bonus opportunities:
* By getting to the Big 12 Conference title game, he’ll earn $150,000.
* By winning the Big 12 title, he’ll get another $250,000.
* By appearing in the BCS Championship Game, he’ll earn $150,000.
* By winning the BCS title game, he’ll get another $250,000.
* Pelini can also earn a bonus of up to $250,000 for academic success by his players.
In addition, Pelini will earn $91,667 for his work since his hiring on Dec. 2, 2007 to Dec. 31, 2007.
Pelini also gets the use of two automobiles and a country club membership.
Certainly, it’s a raise for the 40-year-old and first-time head coach. Pelini was making $400,000 last year as LSU’s defensive coordinator.
Differing from Bill Callahan’s contract, Pelini’s contract includes a buyout provision where the university would be paid a minimum of $250,000 should Pelini take a job elsewhere. The buyout starts at $1 million in its first year and decreases over the term of the contract.
There are also differences in how Pelini would be compensated if he were fired. The contract calls for Nebraska to pay him $41,700 a month for the remainder of the contract, or $500,000 annually. That figure, however, would be reduced by whatever Pelini earns at his next job.
“I thought it was all very straightforward,” said Pelini, who signed the contract on Jan. 16. “We were pretty much on the same page from the start. We agreed on the parameters, and there wasn’t much discussion that needed to be done. I just really trust Coach Osborne and his word.”
While $1.1 million is an impressive figure, it’s modest in comparison with the pay some college football coaches are receiving.
The base figure is considerably less than Callahan made. When Callahan signed a contract extension last September while Steve Pederson was athletic director, it came with a guaranteed $1.75 million annual salary.
On Tuesday, 60 days after being fired, Callahan was issued a payment of $3.125 million from the university, as his contract dictated.
According to coacheshotseat.com, which monitors the contracts of college football coaches, Pelini’s guaranteed salary would tie him for 45th nationally, putting him in the company of the head coaches at Tulsa, Hawaii and North Carolina State.
As coaching salaries in the Big 12 go, Pelini’s guaranteed salary ranks eighth-highest — ahead of Iowa State’s Gene Chizik, Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy, Colorado’s Dan Hawkins and Kansas State’s Ron Prince.
Osborne, who makes the lowest salary of any Big 12 athletic director at $250,000 annually, said before Pelini was hired that he did not want to bring aboard a coach who seemed motivated by money.
“That always turns me off a little bit if I feel that their main interest is how much of a salary they can get,” Osborne told the Husker Sports Network just before Pelini’s hiring.
“Now, having said that, it does seem that the going rate on salaries has really kind of gone through the roof maybe a little bit. A little bit amazing.”
Osborne retired from coaching just before coaches’ salaries started to balloon. During the 1996-97 fiscal year, he made $138,240, receiving a $50,000 bonus for winning the 1997 national championship.
Such an annual base salary would now be the lowest in major-college football.
Fortunately for Osborne, Pelini seems more concerned right now with winning than dollar signs.
As Pelini recently told the Journal Star: “I wasn’t really worried about the contract. I figure I’ll do a good job here, and it will all take care of itself.”
Reach Brian Christopherson at bchristopherson@journalstar.com or at 473-7439.
