Following a regular season that began at No. 9 in the AP poll and ended at 7-5, Tom Herman made major changes to his coaching staff. Those changes will come with a heftier bill than what Texas paid previously.
Texas will pay an additional $1.118 million to Herman, his 10 on-field lieutenants plus strength coach Yancy McKnight compared to what the Longhorns paid in 2019.
“I’m excited, I know that,” Herman said in march. “Change is hard. I don’t want to make light of that. This is going to be a very important offseason for me as the head coach in terms of teaching our culture and our way of doing things to some of these new coaches. I haven’t had to do that in a long time.
“But I’m excited for that challenge, too. I’m excited to almost show off the way that we do things from a cultural standpoint and from an accountability standpoint.”
Herman dismissed seven of his 10 on-field assistants, including all three coordinators. Only offensive line coach Herb Hand, running backs coach Stan Drayton and defensive ends coach Oscar Giles. Hand and Drayton received raises on Monday, while Giles's deal remains unchanged at this time.
Nearly all of the seven new assistants received raises upon moving to Austin:
-- Offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich doubled his salary from the $950,000 he earned as Ohio State's quarterbacks coach.
-- Tight ends coach and special teams coordinator Jay Boulware netted a $230,000 raise in leaving his role coaching special teams and running backs at Oklahoma.
-- Co-defensive coordinator/linebackers coach Coleman Hutzler will make an extra $125,000 from what he earned in a similar role at South Carolina.
-- Associate head coach for defense/defensive tackles coach Mark Hagen received a $142,000 raise in leaving Indiana.
-- Cornerbacks coach Jay Valai earned a modest $71,500 raise in leaving Rutgers.
-- Wide receivers coach Andre Coleman worked as an analyst at Texas in 2019. His salary was not publicly available, but it's safe to presume his $350,000 salary in 2020 is a massive increase.
Defensive coordinator/safeties coach Chris Ash earned $2.3 million as the head coach at Rutgers in 2019 and will earn $800,000 at Texas. Herman flip-flopped the budget for his coordinators, attributable to the fact that Ash is still being paid by Rutgers and Herman no longer works as his own offensive coordinator, as he did with Tim Beck on staff.
The largest increase in total dollars went to the head man himself.
Herman signed a 5-year contract upon his arrival that began at $5.25 million for the 2017 season and grew $250,000 per year. His deal was extended last spring for the 2022 and 2023 seasons, continuing to jump by a quarter million dollars a year.
Overall, Texas will pay $13.26 million to Herman and his 11 senior assistants, up from the $12.142 million the school paid in 2019. Below is a chart detailing what Texas will pay each coach, plus the dollars paid to that slot on the staff in 2019.
* - Salary earned by coach no longer at Texas.
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