Mike Leach is, still, the head coach at Mississippi State. That is a thing that is happening. Barring a societal collapse, he will coach against Lane Kiffin, Nick Saban, Gus Malzahn, Jimbo Fisher, et. al., this coming fall. You are not living in a dream. Or, if you are, all of us are in it with you -- and at that point, what's the difference?
Leach will be introduced to the media on Friday, and ahead of his press conference Mississippi State released the details of his contract.
The details are fairly straight forward. He signed a 4-year deal (state law prevents Mississippi schools from offering anything longer) worth a flat $5 million per year. That represents a $1.25 million raise from what Leach earned at Washington State, and a $1.95 million increase from what State paid Joe Moorhead.
Moorhead was the lowest-paid coach in the SEC at $3.05 million. Leach's $5 million salary leaps State from 14th all the way to sixth in the conference, based on 2019 figures.
Leach's assistant salary pool will be $4.7 million, a $1.1 million increase from Moorhead's staff that... still keeps the SEC in 13th among 13 known salary pools. Leach had $3.75 million to pay his assistants at Wazzu.
In all, Mississippi State went from paying $6.73 million for Moorhead and staff to $9.7 million for Leach and company, a 44 percent increase.
Leach's bonus structure ranges from $50,000 for winning an SEC coach of the year award to $1 million for winning a national title.