Dabo Swinney memorably said he'd buy stock in Clemson following the Tigers' 4-4 start last season. Clemson hasn't lost since that declaration, and sure enough the stock price has gone up.
28 percent, in fact.
That's how much more Swinney's 2024 staff will be paid than the 2023 group, according to figures released Friday by the Charleston Post & Courier.
Defensive coordinator Wes Goodwin was the biggest winner, jumping 65 percent from his 2023 salary and $550,000 in real dollars, to $1.4 million.
Seven of Swinney's eight returning assistants netted raises of at least $100,000, to the point where every one of the 10-man, on-the-field staff now earns above half a million dollars a year, and seven of the 10 are within shouting distance of $1 million salaries.
Newcomers Matt Luke (offensive line) and Chris Rumph (defensive ends) will earn significantly more than the men who manned their respective posts last season. Luke, the former Ole Miss head coach, took the 2022 and '23 seasons off after spending 2020-21 at Georgia. The defensive line coach when Swinney ascended to Clemson's head coaching spot in 2008, Rumph spent the past four seasons in the NFL.
Both Luke and Rumph will surpass $1 million in 2025.
Dabo himself will earn $11 million in 2024, plus a $1 million retention bonus, as part of a 10-year, $115 million deal he signed in 2022.
* Salary earned by 2023 staff member