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Updating 10 highest paid assistants in SEC entering 2015
By Ethan Levine
Published:
Thanks to years of sustained football excellence and a new pile of money channeling into the conference from its new network, the SEC has been able to pay its top coaches handsomely for their work on the sidelines.
As we look ahead to the 2015 season, five SEC coordinators will earn more than $1 million this fall, while four more will clear the $750,000 plateau. Each of the SEC’s 10 highest-paid assistants is a coordinator of some sort, and the conference’s richest schools — including the likes of Alabama, LSU and Georgia — each boast two coordinators among the 10 highest-paid assistants in the SEC.
Related: Updated SEC coaches salaries heading into 2015 season
LSU’s two coordinators, Cam Cameron and Kevin Steele, each rank in the top 5 in the SEC in assistant coach salaries. Alabama’s Kirby Smart and Lane Kiffin both cracked the list as well, as did Georgia’s Brian Schottenheimer and Jeremy Pruitt. South Carolina is represented twice in the top 10 as well, although both coaches listed share the defensive coordinator duties: incumbent Lorenzo Ward and newcomer Jon Hoke.
There are actually five coaches ranked in the top 10 who will make their debuts with new schools this fall: Texas A&M DC John Chavis (the SEC’s highest-paid assistant), Auburn DC Will Muschamp, Steele, Schottenheimer and Hoke.
Take a look at the complete top 10 and see just how much some of the conference’s top assistants are earning for their work:
| Coach | School | Position | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. John Chavis | Texas A&M | Def. Coordinator | $1.67 mil |
| 2. Will Muschamp | Auburn | Def. Coordinator | $1.6 mil |
| 3. Cam Cameron | LSU | Off. Coordinator | $1.5 mil |
| 4. Kirby Smart | Alabama | Def. Coordinator | $1.35 mil |
| 5. Kevin Steele | LSU | Def. Coordinator | $1 mil |
| 6. Brian Schottenheimer | Georgia | Off. Coordinator | $950K |
| 7. Jeremy Pruitt | Georgia | Def. Coordinator | $850K |
| T8. Lorenzo Ward | South Carolina | Co-Def. Coordinator | $750K |
| T8. Jon Hoke | South Carolina | Co-Def. Coordinator | $750K |
| 10. Lane Kiffin | Alabama | Off. Coordinator | $680K |
NOTE: Not all Vanderbilt coaching salaries are made public due to the University’s standing as a private institution; Barry Odom is working as Missouri’s defensive coordinator but the details of his new contract have yet to be released, according to a report from the St. Louis Post Dispatch in March.
A former newspaper reporter who has roamed the southeastern United States for years covering football and eating way too many barbecue ribs, if there is such a thing.
