In today's age of unlimited on-field coaches, the defensive side of the ball has grown faster than offense. It's extremely rare to have a single secondary coach in 2025. It's also rare to employ a single coach across the defensive front, and inside/outside linebackers coaches are also common. I can't think of a single Power 4 staff with one D-line coach, one linebackers coach, and one secondary coach. And so while plenty of staffs have two coaches across a position group, the rate of "walk-around" defensive coordinators has also grown.
Given that linebackers are still the center of the action, we've included the majority of the "walk-around" DCs here, unless a given coach spent the majority of his career in the back end prior to shedding his positional responsibilities.
$3.1 million: Jim Knowles, Penn State*
$2.5 million: Blake Baker, LSU*; DJ Durkin, Auburn*; Wink Martindale, Michigan*; Matt Patricia, Ohio State*
$2.25 million: Pete Golding, Ole Miss*
$2 million: Bryant Haines, Indiana*; Tosh Lupoi, Oregon*; Glenn Schumann, Georgia*; Clayton White, South Carolina*
$1.9 million: Tom Allen, Clemson*; Pete Kwiatkowski, Texas*
$1.85 million: Brad White, Kentucky*
$1.6 million: Joe Rossi, Michigan State*
$1.55 million: Kane Wommack, Alabama*
$1.5 million: Zac Alley, West Virginia*
$1.3 million: Steve Belichick, North Carolina*; Todd Grantham, Oklahoma State*
$1.25 million: Travis Williams, Arkansas*
$1.2 million: Jon Heacock, Iowa State*; Sheil Wood, Texas Tech*
$1.1 million: Jay Bateman, Texas A&M*; Johnny Nansen, Texas+
$1 million: John Butler, Nebraska*; Coleman Hutzler, Mississippi State*; Mike Scherer, Purdue*; Seth Wallace, Iowa+
PREVIOUS INSTALLMENTS: Running Backs | Wide Receivers | Offensive Line | Defensive Line | Defensive Backs | Special Teams
$950,000: Ron Roberts, Florida*
$925,000: Brian Jean-Mary, Michigan+
$900,000: DJ Eliot, NC State*
$875,000: Sam Siefkes, Virginia Tech*
$800,000: John Papuchis, Florida State+; Mike Tressel, Wisconsin*
$775,000: Sterling Lucas, South Carolina
$750,000: Austin Armstrong, Houston*
$720,000: William Inge, Tennessee
$700,000: Mike Stoops, Kentucky; Chidera Uzo-Diribe, Georgia
$600,000: Chuck Morrell, Alabama
$525,000: Roc Bellantoni, Auburn; Derek Nicholson, Missouri
$485,000: Chris Simpson, Kansas+
$475,000: Brian Michalowski, Oregon; Vic So'oto, Cal+
$450,000: Nate Dreiling, Oklahoma; Rob Dvoracek, Nebraska; Colton Swan, Utah
MISSING: Robert Bala, Florida; Danny Gonzales, Arizona; Blake Gideon, Georgia Tech; DK McDonald, Kansas; Ted Monachino, Maryland; Zach Sparber, Rutgers; Brian Ward, Arizona State
* - Defensive coordinator
+ - Co-coordinator/special teams coordiantor/assistant or associate head coach