Do the assistants need a raise?

Woe is the life of an assistant coach. I am reminded of that every time I see one leave for another job. Head football coaches have stability. Many assistants are on one year deals and they do the brunt of the recruiting on the road. Last year Joe Moorhead took a job and had to live without his family for a couple of months. It's a tough life. The assistants also put in most of the film work and work exhaustively on their game plans. I know Randy Edsall is a workhorse still, though there are some head coaches in college football that really rely on their underlings.

With two openings now, let's look at their current salaries for the 2009 season it's easy to see why Dave McMicahel and Scott Lakatos left. First off, they look like career moves first, and that's important. For McMichael, he has a chance to go back to West Virginia, a place he probably would have never left if he had a choice.

Lakatos goes to an SEC team and has a chance to move up in his career. So, I don't think that money is the factor here for these guys, but  as the Huskies look to attract two new assistants should they raise the pool for their coaches? Lakatos got a raise from $130,000 to $180,000 at Georgia. Now, let's also factor in cost of living and the raise is even more. 

Doing some basic research  the UConn assistants are lagging behind their Big East counterparts in assistant coach salaries for 2009. They operate on 1 year deals. Not sure if the pool is increasing for 2010 but here's  what the rest of the Big East paid. Info for Syracuse and Pittsburgh is unavailable.

Check out the pay schedule at USA Today database. (fixed link, thanks for the heads up).

UConn spent $1.239 million on its assistants for 2010 with Joe Moorehead the top guy coming in at $170,000. That's the lowest paid top assistant on the staff in the Big East. Every other Big East team's highest paid assistant makes over $200,000.


For contrast, West Virginia paid its assistants almost $1 million more than UConn paid its assistants. Part of that is Doc Holliday getting paid in excess of $400,000, but it's still much more.

Rutgers has five assistants making more than $200,000 and six assistants making more than Moorehead. They spend $500,000 more than the Huskies on assistant coaches salaries.

The Huskies are searching for two more assistant coaches and if the options are South Florida -- which paid Holtz a pretty penny and the assistants will get some of that --- It's a competitive sport and if the Huskies want to remain competitive getting the most desirable assistants,or keep their stars, that salary pool needs to be increased.

If not, as the Huskies keep winning and gain notice, you might start seeing a little more turnover than we are used to.