[jwplayer 18QegcJn-sNi3MVSU]
Utah State Offered Matt Wells A Salary Increase To Remain Head Coach
The athletics department had a pay increase in the works for a while.
Contact/Follow @JeremyMauss & @MWCwire
The pay bump still might not have been enough.
Utah State’s athletic director knew that this 2018 season was special as the Aggies kept winning and winning. At the Group of Five level when a coach was any sort of success there is a chance to get poached by a bigger program which can, with a snap of a finger, at least double a coaches salary.
During a teleconference call, Utah State’s athletics director John Hartwell was being proactive and putting together a package to keep Matt Wells in Logan as well as his assistant.
Wells’ contract paid him $900,000 which was fifth in the Mountain West. Hartwell decided to in early November to put together a pay increase not only to Wells but the entire staff worth approximately $500,000 per year. The deal that was in the works would have given Wells a 20 percent increase in base pay and the same was to go to the assistant coaches. On top of that, a bump in pay to other assistants and support staff.
That would have given Wells $1.08 million per year salary but even with that type of bump in pay, it is no match for most Power Five schools. Texas Tech was paying Kliff Kingsbury $3.7 million per year so even if the Red Raiders offered half of that amount to Wells it still would almost be doubled of what Wells was earning at Utah State.
There is no word yet in what Wells will be getting from the Red Raiders, it probably will be a bit less than Kingsbury but probably at the very least $2 million.
Give Hartwell credit for being proactive and getting a jump on offering a pay bump, but going dollar for dollar against a P5 team is a fruitless endeavour and makes it nearly impossible for G5 teams to keep their amazing coaches.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1377]