Kentucky Football Staff's Rising Salaries

[April 18th UPDATE] According to Jon Hale, UK's defensive line coach Jimmy Brumbaugh has received a raise, and will now make $300,000 per year. This comes on the heels of Brumbaugh turning down another job offer among his record of player development.

Mark Stoops will now look to fill the vacant Andy Buh position. UK's coaching staff overall salary will probably hover around a 15% increase over last season. Assuming Buh's replacement makes within $50,000 of his $325,000 salary.

[February 11th UPDATE] According to Patrick Loney, the support continues to grow with two more quality control openings being advertised with one being focused on defense and the other on special teams:

#UK posted two QC openings. One will expire on 2/12 and the other will expire on 2/18. #BBN

— Patrick Loney (@PatrickLoney) February 11, 2016

UK continues to invest in football.

[February 2nd UPDATE] Kentucky has reportedly hired Lamar Thomas as the new receiver coach, and Tommy Mangino [the original post incorrectly stated UK hired Mark Mangino. Shout-out to the comment section for catching my mistake] for the newly created offensive quality control position. Thomas made $200,000 per year at Louisville last season, but UK's last two receiver coaches were contracted to make $275,000 per year. It's reasonable to assume Thomas will at least match that figure, and UK's staff salary rises even further.

Mark Stoops has clearly made an effort to improve both his coaching staff and support staff this off-season. The pay roll is expanding as much as the infrastructure. College football head coaches are increasingly CEO's of mini- corporations as much as they are, well, coaches. UK's support staff does not rival the expansive staffs of Alabama or Clemson, but this is an obvious step in the chosen path the big boys of college football bushwhacked several years ago.

As an hypothetical aside that exists in the void of the Not Happening, I always thought that if Bo Pelini were to come to UK it would be in a support role. Auburn's current defensive coordinator Kevin Steele had a similar role in 2013 at Alabama. This type of employment appears to be increasingly an option for coaches in between jobs who want to continue drawing a paycheck while staying involved in the game. You could be a position coach at a bottom tier P5 school, or have a support role at Alabama or Clemson. Which would you pick if the pay isn't bad, and you don't have to fool with recruiting for a year or two?

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Kentucky football has changed in a few ways since Mark Stoops arrived in Lexington.

There's the recruiting and infrastructure projects, but the amount of money the UK Athletic Department spends on coaching salaries has also increased. Last season, UK's assistant coaches were paid approximately $2.75 million in base salary (this doesn't include Mark Stoops,  the support staff, or performance bonuses).

In 2016, the staff's base salary will increase to $3.2 million dollars after the additions of new offensive coordinator Eddie Gran, new quarterback coach Darin Hinshaw, and raises awarded to outside linebackers coach Andy Buh, and secondary coach Derrick Ansley (guess now we know which assistants were contemplating job offers). This is roughly a 15% bump that places UK's staff pay at approximately Mississippi State's staff in 2015.

The overall staff salaries will rise as well. The new strength coach Mark Hill will be paid an additional $200,000, and UK is purportedly advertising for one quality control analyst.