The highest-paid offensive line coaches in college football (joe rudolph)

If you're building your dream home, how much would you budget for the right contractor? This is the guy that makes sure your house doesn't blow over at the first gust of a strong early-spring wind, so you're going to spend what it takes to make sure the job's done right. If your specific answer to that question is, "North of $500,000," well, you're probably a Power 5 head coach.

As part of a new series, FootballScoop is examining the 10 highest-paid position coaches across college football. We'll start with offensive line coaches, the general contractors of the football world. As you'll see below, when you've got a guy who knows how to make their offensive architect's pie-in-the-sky dreams work in reality, you'll pay whatever it takes to make him happy.

1. Sam Pittman, Georgia -- $825,000
2. Will Friend, Tennessee -- $805,000
3. Bill Bedenbaugh, Oklahoma -- $750,000
4. Joe Rudolph, Wisconsin^ -- $720,000
5. Greg Frey, Florida State -- $675,000
6. Justin Frye, UCLA -- $650,000
6. Herb Hand, Texas -- $650,000
8. Mike Summers, Louisville -- $632,000
9. Jim Turner, Texas A&M -- $600,000
9. Eric Wolford, South Carolina -- $600,000
^ - Also holds offensive coordinator title

Pittman was the 35th highest-paid assistant in college football in 2018 according to the USA Today salary database. He also makes more than all but six Mountain West coaches -- head coaches included -- all but five Conference USA coaches, all but two Sun Belt coaches and all but one MAC coaches.

Other notes of interest:

-- Two programs I expected to make the list but didn't: Alabama and Ohio State. Brent Key made $490,000 at Alabama before leaving for a lateral position at Georgia Tech, while Greg Studrawa earned $500,000 at Ohio State. We'll see how often that trend holds as we move to other positions.

-- Florida State has hired Kendal Briles as its new offensive coordinator. Briles has traditionally been a package deal (cycle back to the architect/contractor analogy) with his offensive line coach Randy Clements, who remains at Houston in what industry sources say is a buyout standoff between him and the U of H administration. If and when Clements shakes free of his Houston contract, it will be interesting to see what happens to Frey who is, as evidenced by his No. 4 salary, one of the best in the business.

-- Matt Moore received a hefty raise in moving from Troy to West Virginia. Neal Brown's offensive line coach earned $195,000 at Troy; his salary will jump to $425,000 at WVU, slightly down from the $501,000 Joe Wickline made in 2018.

-- Bedenbaugh jumped from eighth to third after Oklahoma announced raises on Jan. 30. He made $625,000 in 2018.

-- Brandon Jones got himself a raise in moving from the Power 5 to Group of 5. Jones earned $325,000 at Texas Tech and will make $500,000 at Houston, making him Dana Holgorsen's highest-paid assistant. Jones will share co-offensive coordinator duties with Marquel Blackwell.

-- Dwayne Ledford passed on the opportunity to become App State's head coach in favor of accepting the offensive coordinator/offensive line position at Louisville. Ledford's salary has not yet been released but it feels safe to assume it'll be north of half a million dollars.

Thanks to our friends at USA Today for compiling the coaching salary database, where the bulk of this information comes from.

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