At long last, our tour of college football assistant coaching salaries is complete. And as always, it ends with a question: who really is the highest-paid quarterbacks coach in the country?
Is it Lincoln Riley, whose 2023 salary hit $11.5 million? Sure, USC employs Luke Huard as its offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, but Riley will coach quarterbacks as long as he's coaching. Same for Steve Sarkisian, who will make $10.8 million at Texas in 2025 while also employing AJ Milwee as co-offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach and co-passing game coordinator/assistant quarterbacks coach Michael Bimonte?
Is it Kirk Ciarrocca? Thanks to movement at Utah and Ohio State and a new deal signed back in January, Rutgers's offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach is now the highest-paid offensive assistant in the game.
Is it Nick Sheridan? After a year as Alabama's offensive coordinator, Sheridan shifted to the Tide's co-OC following the hiring of Ryan Grubb, but kept his title as quarterbacks coach and his salary. (He'll make more than Grubb in 2025.)
Or is it Kent Austin and Matt Lombardi? At $600,000, those are the coaches with the highest salaries to be "just" the quarterbacks coach at Auburn and North Carolina, respectively. Austin will coach Auburn's QBs with help from the head man, while Lombardi will likely have more autonomy working under a defensive-minded, "walk-around" head coach in Bill Belichick. It's quite a jump in responsibility and salary for Lombardi, who was previously an analyst at Oregon and an assistant position coach in the NFL.
As always, the answer to all of the above is, "Yes."
$1.9 million: Kirk Ciarrocca, Rutgers*
$1.75 million: Garrett Riley, Clemson*; Will Stein, Oregon*
$1.7 million: Collin Klein, Texas A&M*; Andy Kotelnicki, Penn State@
$1.6 million: Bobby Petrino, Arkansas*
$1.5 million: Ben Arbuckle, Oklahoma*; Mike Bobo, Georgia*; Gus Malzahn, Florida State@
$1.45 million: Nick Sheridan, Alabama+
$1.4 million: Chip Lindsey, Michigan*
$1.35 million: Bush Hamdan, Kentucky*
$1.3 million: Tim Lester, Iowa*; Kirby Moore, Missouri@
$1.25 million: Jason Beck, Utah*
$1.2 million: Dana Holgorsen, Nebraska@; Brian Lindgren, Michigan State*
$1.1 million: Jimmie Dougherty, Washington*; Philip Montgomery, Virginia Tech*; Mike Shula, South Carolina*
$1.025 million: Barry Lunney, Jr., Illinois*
$1 million: Ryan Grubb, Alabama@; Pep Hamilton, Maryland*; Mack Leftwich, Texas Tech*; Joe Sloan, LSU*
PREVIOUS INSTALLMENTS: Running Backs | Wide Receivers | Tight Ends | Offensive Line | Defensive Line | Linebackers | Defensive Backs | Special Teams
$900,000: Kurt Roper, NC State*
$850,000: Joey Halzle, Tennessee*; Pat Shurmur, Colorado*; Jim Zebrowski, Kansas*
$800,000: Glenn Thomas, Nebraska+
$750,000: Brian Brohm, Louisville*; Chris Weinke, Georgia Tech+; Chandler Whitmer, Indiana+
$730,000: Greg Harbaugh, Jr., Minnesota*
$725,000: Ryan Gunderson, Oregon State*
$700,000: AJ Milwee, Texas+
$600,000: Kent Austin, Auburn; Matt Lombardi, North Carolina
$500,000: Darin Hinshaw, Purdue; Tony Tokarz, Florida State
$475,000: Billy Fessler, Ohio State
$450,000: Shawn Bell, Houston*
$425,000: Kenny Guiton, Wisconsin
$340,000: Pete Thomas, Cincinnati
$275,000: Matt Holecek, Mississippi State; Ryan O'Hara, Florida
$260,000: Taylor Lamb, Virginia
$250,000: Michael Bimonte, Texas+
* - Offensive coordinator
+ - Co-coordinator/passing game coordinator
@ - "Walk-around" coordinator
MISSING: Marcus Arroyo, Arizona State; Seth Doege, Arizona; Danny Freund, Washington State; Sean Gleeson, Missouri; Bryan Harsin, Cal; Kevin Johns, Oklahoma State; Joe Judge, Ole Miss; Rhett Rodriguez, West Virginia; Matt Wells, Kansas State