Pursuant to an open records request, Ohio State released the 2019 salaries of the assistant football coaches on Monday after a weeks of having the request according to Cleveland.com.
If you need a reminder, Ryan Day did a remodel of the coaching staff — keeping some key members, while hiring others to round out his new tenure in Columbus. The members of Urban Meyer’s staff he kept and their and 2019 salaries include:
- Tight ends and co-offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson ($950,000)
- Defensive line coach Larry Johnson ($900,000)
- Offensive line coach Greg Studwara ($600,000)
- Running backs coach Tony Alford ($600,000)
- Receivers coach Brian Hartline ($345,000)
And here are the new assistants complete with 2019 salaries:
- Co-defensive coordinator Greg Mattison from Michigan ($1.1 Million)
- Co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Mike Yurcich from Oklahoma State ($950,000)
- Co-defensive coordinator and secondary coach Jeff Hafley from the San Francisco 49ers ($950,000)
- Linebackers coach Al Washington from Michigan ($500,000)
- Assistant secondary and special teams coach Matt Barnes from Maryland ($350,000)
That’s a total base salary of $7.245 Million for assistants in 2019 which is a slight increase from the $7.06 Million in 2018.
A couple of things come to mind here when looking at these numbers. First and foremost, it’s clear that Day really wanted Greg Mattison. Not only did he lure him away from Michigan with an extremely high salary — more than double what he made in Ann Arbor — but he is now the highest paid assistant on staff.
Athletic Director Gene Smith opened up the checkbook to allow Day to go out and get whomever he wanted. Mattison, Yurcich, and Hafley are new and all close to $1 Million in base salary.
As college football continues to make more and more money, you can only expect these salaries to escalate to higher levels. After all, money makes the world go ’round.
