In our tour of college football assistant coaching salaries, the stop at Special Teams Depot is always my favorite. The variety of how head coaches deploy their special teams duties is fascinating. Most head coaches name a designated special teams coordinator who also coaches an offensive or defensive position -- most commonly a low-volume position in terms of players on the field at one time, like running backs or tight ends -- who will then delegate certain special teams units to another assistant coach. Some head coaches won't even name a special teams coordinator, divvying up that duty amongst his staff. Some head coaches do that, but will funnel most of their efforts through an off-the-field analyst, though that blurry line has all but disappeared in today's age of unlimited on-field coaches.
And then other head coaches hire a special teams coordinator who has no positional other positional responsibility and makes a lot of money doing it.
Regardless of how head coaches split up their duties, the work still has to get done: six separate units whose relatively low snap count often has an outsized impact on winning and losing football games. Special teams often touch the entire roster except the starting quarterback, and an injury to a starting cornerback, offensive lineman or tight end could affect multiple units without warning.
$1.2 million: Jeff Banks+, Texas
$950,000: Mickey Conn, Clemson*; Mike Reed, Clemson*
$850,000: Joe DeCamillis+, South Carolina
$800,000: John Papuchis+, Florida State
$775,000: LeVar Woods, Iowa^
$700,000: Joe Lorig, Oregon; Sharrieff Shah, Utah
$625,000: Mike Ekeler, Nebraska^
$575,000: Jay Boulware+, Kentucky; Grant Cain, Indiana
$560,000: Todd Goebbel, NC State
$550,000: Stu Holt, Virginia Tech; Kenny Perry, Texas Tech+
PREVIOUS INSTALLMENTS: Running Backs | Wide Receivers | Offensive Line | Defensive Line | Defensive Backs
$530,000: Erik Link, Missouri
$515,000: Scott Fountain, Arkansas
$450,000: Charlie Ragle, Arizona State+^
$400,000: Kirk Benedict, Georgia; Patrick Dougherty, Texas A&M; Cliff Odom, Mississippi State; Mike Priefer, North Carolina
$375,000: Jay Nunez, Alabama; Jake Schoonover, Ole Miss
$360,000: Keith Gaither, Virginia
$350,000: JB Brown, Michigan; Robby Discher, Illinois; Matt Mitchell, Wisconsin; Taiwo Onatulo, Kansas
$345,000: Bob Ligashesky, Minnesota^
$275,000: Karl Maslowski, Louisville
$225,000: Evan Crabtree, Tennessee; Doug Deakin, Oklahoma^; Andre Powell, Maryland
MISSING: Kyle Cefalo, Cal; Joe Houston, Florida; Chad Lunsford, Auburn; Craig Naivar, Arizona; Chris Petrilli, Washington; Sean Snyder, Oklahoma State
+ - Assistant/associate head coach
* - Co-coordinator
^ - Standalone special teams coordinator
No dedicated special teams coordinator: Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia Tech, Iowa State, LSU