Back in April, Bronco Mendenhall agreed to a two-year contract extension locking him in at Virginia through 2024, and UVA recently shared the details with the Daily Press.
Heading into 2019, the original contract made Bronco the fourth highest paid coach in the league making $3.7 million (before incentives) behind the annual salaries of Dabo Swinney at Clemson, Willie Taggart at Florida State, and Justin Fuente at Virginia Tech. The two-year extension doesn't affect the salaries outlined in Bronco's original deal ($3.85 million in 2020, $4 million in 2021 and $4.15 million in 2022), but does ensure that he makes $4.3 million in 2023 and $4.45 million in 2024.
Streaking the Lawn notes an interesting provision in Bronco's new deal that would allow him to retire without financial penalty starting December 5th, 2022. Mendenhall is currently 53.
If Mendenhall were to leave the school prior to December 4th, he would owe UVA $3 million, and that number would decrease about $600k annually each December until December 4th, 2023 when there would be no penalty. Here's the kicker - if Bronco were to resign after December 4th, 2022, and does not take another job coaching in college or professional football, the buyout amount is waived - alas that new "retirement" provision referenced earlier.
Retiring from college football in your mid-to-upper 50's may seem wild to some, but in 2022 Bronco would have spent nearly 40 years in college football, a career path he began in 1989 as a graduate assistant at Oregon State before spending 11 seasons leading the BYU program as head coach, and now going into his fourth season as head coach of the Cavaliers. If Bronco did decide to retire at 56, as the contract provision allows, he'd still be in a great situation where he'd be able to enjoy a lot in retirement, or if he wanted to stick around he'd surely have some really good coaching years ahead of him
In the event that UVA were to fire Bronco without cause, they would owe him all of remaining guaranteed salary through the end of his deal, with the typical offset by his income from future employment.
Bronco will continue to make a base salary of $500k, and below are a few of the bonuses that the Daily Press outlines that Bronco can earn:
- $50k for ACC title game appearance
- $100k for ACC title
- $75k for a bowl appearance
- $500k for making the College Football Playoff
- $1 million for winning the national title
- $20k per game that sells out the stadium
- $50k for ACC Coach of the Year
- $100k for National Coach of the Year
Head here to see all the bonuses, and read more on the details of Bronco's extension.
