Purdue Football Coaching Salaries: Bobinski Buys In

We have been looking for a commitment to the football program for some time from the school and with Jeff Brohm on board it appears we have it. The new Performance Facility will open by August, finally putting us on par with the rest of the conference in terms of locker room, weight training, and other facilities. Yesterday it was announced that the coaching staff and assistants received a further commitment.

First, we have Brohm’s crontact. Back in November it was finalized at a $300,000 base salary and an additional $3,033,333 “supplemental stipend”. He can also get up to $1.5 million more in incentives. That is enough to rank him 7^th among the 14 Big Ten coaches at the time, but since then P.J. Flack has moved on to Minnesota with a very large deal. Overall, Brohm is on a 6-year deal like his predecessor, worth about $20 million before bonuses. Darrell Hazell was on a similar deal of 6 years for $12.75 million.

Yesterday the contracts for his assistants were finalized. Brohm was given a pool of $3.5 million annually for his assistants compared to the $2.245 million that Hazell was given. Here is how that breaks down for the incoming assistants:

Nick Holt – Co-Defensive Coordinator/Linebackers - $500,000/year for two years

Anthony Poindexter – Co-Defensive Coordinator/Secondary - $425,000/year for two years

Brian Brohm – Co-Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks - $400,000/year for two years

Tony Levine - Co-Offensive Coordinator/Tight Ends/Special Teams Coordinator – Not Available

Derrick Jackson – Cornerbacks - $300,000/year for two years

JaMarcus Shephard - Passing Game Coordinator/Wide Receivers - $275,000/year for two years

Reggie Johnson – Defensive Line - $225,000/year for two years

Dale Williams – Offensive Line - $225,000/year for two years

Chris Barclay – Running Backs - $200,000/year for two years

Per the Journal & Courier:

Each contract runs through Dec. 31, 2018, and includes a provision that non-renewal after that date would include a payment equal to a three-month portion of the coaches' annual base salary.

As a stipulation of the two-year deals, any coach electing to terminate his contract prior to Jan. 1, 2019, would owe Purdue a payment equal to 20 percent of his base salary. Termination without cause by Purdue prior to that date would require payment of any salaries, benefits and bonuses accrued.

Support staff salaries not included in the assistant pool include: Director of operations Greg Brohm ($215,000), director of internal relations Robert Sampson ($80,000), and director of player development Sean Pugh ($60,000). Director of strength and conditioning Justin Lovett will make $200,000.

There are some interesting things to note here. For the first time ever, Purdue assistant coaches have been given multi-year contracts. Previously, each assistant was retained on a year-by-year basis, with only the head coaching positions for football, men’s & women’s basketball, and volleyball getting multi-year deals under Morgan Burke. Now, many of Hazell’s assistants stayed through his first three years regardless, but this appears to give the assistants a measure of continuity and security going forward.

Second, and perhaps most important, that continuity could pay off. Much of Brohm’s staff was brought over directly from Western Kentucky, where he had a lot of success in four seasons. They have experience in working together. Brian Brohm, Holt, Levine, Williams, Barclay, and Johnson were all his assistants at WKU. Shepherd spent three years with him at WKU. That’s 7 of 9 assistants that have worked directly with Brohm in the past.

Hazell did not have that. His assistants in year one were a hodgepodge of characters that either had success in lower roles at other schools (Greg Hudson was a great linebackers coach at Florida State) or had an NFL pedigree (the kindest thing I can say about John Shoop is that he was, in fact, and NFL offensive coordinator). Only John Heacock, Jafar Williams, and Marcus Freeman came over with Hazell from Kent State.

It should benefit Purdue that the entire coaching staff will be on the same page from day 1 as opposed to being strangers meeting and working together for the first time. They also have the financial backing of the university (though Holt and Brian Brohm are not getting paid much more than Hudson and Shoop). Now it is time to produce even with a very large rebuild ahead.