Eighteen assistants will make at least $600,000 The average major-college football assistant coach now earns roughly $200,000, a USA TODAY Sports analysis finds.
That means NCAA Bowl Subdivision assistant coaches joined their bosses in seeing their compensation for the 2012 season increase by more than 10% over last season. Head coaches' pay went up a little faster than assistants' in the past year. But since USA TODAY Sports began surveying assistant coaches' compensation in 2009, assistants are making about 29% more and head coaches about 21% more.
INTERACTIVE: Salaries for college football coaches
Southern California defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin leads the new assistant coach survey at more than $1.5 million, but that is what he received during the 2010 calendar year, which is the most recent period for which private school data are available. Kiffin has said he will depart USC after this season.
That likely will make Clemson offensive coordinator Chad Morris the nation's highest-paid assistant. He is second to Kiffin and tops among public-school assistants at $1.3 million.
Morris is making more than half of the FBS head coaches this season. He also is making more than 41 entire assistant-coaching staffs.
BIG RISE: Morris went from high school to major assistant
The next four highest-paid assistants are defensive coordinators from Southeastern Conference schools: Alabama's Kirby Smart ($950,000), LSU's John Chavis ($911,250), Auburn's Brian VanGorder ($875,000) and Georgia's Todd Grantham ($825,000).
Smart has received $100,000 increases after each of the past two seasons, and Chavis' compensation is contractually set to rise to $1.1 million in 2013.
Clemson also has the seventh-highest paid assistant, defensive coordinator Brent Venables, who is making $800,000 this season after making less than $450,000 last season as Oklahoma's defensive coordinator.
Clemson's assistants -- at a combined total of more than $4.2 million, including outside income -- are the highest-paid group among the 102 public schools for which USA TODAY Sports could obtain 2012 pay information for at least eight of the nine assistants generally allowed by NCAA rules. There are 124 FBS schools.
LSU's assistants also are collecting more than $4 million. Seven other schools have assistants totaling more than $3 million in compensation: Texas, Alabama, Auburn, Ohio State, Oregon, Florida State and Oklahoma State.
Last year, six schools had $3 million assistant-coaching staffs. In 2009, there was one: Tennessee's, at $3.3 million.
The average pay for assistants at FBS schools (not including four schools that moved up to that level just this season) this season is nearly $201,000.
Eighteen assistants make at least $600,000 this season, almost quadruple the number in 2009. There were 14 last season and nine in 2010.
Among conferences, the SEC has the highest average compensation per assistant this season at more than $315,000. The Big 12 is next at just under $290,000.
PHOTOS: THE HIGHEST PAID ASSISTANT COACHES 
Monte Kiffin, Southern California assistant head coach, $1,533,764: USC's defensive boss made his name as one of the NFL's top defensive coordinators. In 2009, he joined his son, Lane, at Tennessee, where he made $1.2 million, plus a $300,000 bonus for staying through the regular season – likely far less than what he was making in the NFL. He then joined his son at USC, where, according to the university's most recent federal tax records, he made $1,449,365 in base compensation during the 2010 calendar year. He has announced he will be leaving USC after its bowl game.
Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY Sports Related story Fullscreen ![None]()
Chad Morris, Clemson offensive coordinator, $1,306,500: In 2009, he was a high school coach. After spending the 2010 season at Tulsa, he made $450,000 at Clemson last season. Subsequent interest from other schools prompted Clemson to make him the nation's highest-paid public-school assistant at an amount that Gus Malzahn had made as Auburn's offensive coordinator in 2011.
Mark Crammer, AP Related story Fullscreen ![None]()
Kirby Smart, Alabama defensive coordinator, $950,000: Because Alabama won the SEC championship and is appearing in a Bowl Championship Series game, Smart will be getting an additional $190,000 in bonuses for this season. He has received $100,000 pay increases after each of the past two seasons, and it is likely he will get another one after Auburn expressed interest in him for its head coaching position, which eventually went to Gus Malzahn.
Paul Abell, USA TODAY Sports Related story Fullscreen ![None]()
John Chavis, LSU defensive coordinator, $911,250: He received a $200,000 increase over his 2011 pay under a three-year contract extension he received after last season, when LSU played in the Bowl Championship Series title game and he won the Frank Broyles Award as college football's assistant coach of the year. His pay is scheduled to rise to $1.1 million in 2013 and $1.3 million in 2014.
Derick E. Hingle, USA TODAY Sports Related story Fullscreen ![None]()
Brian VanGorder, Auburn defensive coordinator, $875,000: He joined Auburn in 2012 after spending the previous four seasons as the Atlanta Falcons' defensive coordinator. He lost his job with Auburn when head coach Gene Chizik was fired and new coach Gus Malzahn chose to hire Ellis Johnson.
Shanna Lockwood. USA TODAY Sports Related story Fullscreen ![None]()
Todd Grantham, Georgia associate head coach/defensive coordinator, $825,000: He received a new three-year contract that included a $75,000 raise after last season. He came to Georgia in January 2009 after spending the previous 11 years as an NFL assistant coach. He had been the Dallas Cowboys' defensive line coach just before joining the Bulldogs and the Cleveland Browns' defensive coordinator before that.
Daniel Shirey, USA TODAY Sports Related story Fullscreen ![None]()
Brent Venables, Clemson defensive coordinator, $800,000: After last season, Clemson hired Venables away from Oklahoma, where he had been since 1999 and where he was making $440,000. Venables received a four-year contract to replace Kevin Steele, who was making $675,000 when he was fired after the Tigers got blasted in the Orange Bowl by West Virginia, 70-33.
Jeremy Brevard, USA TODAY Sports Related story Fullscreen ![None]()
Luke Fickell, Ohio State defensive coordinator, $761,000: Fickell was making a little less than $260,000 as an Ohio State assistant when the school selected him to succeed Jim Tressel as head coach last season. Fickell received an eight-month head-coach contract with annualized compensation of a little less than $1.2 million (actual pay of $775,00 for the eight months). After the Buckeyes went 6-7, Urban Meyer was hired to replace Fickell - but Meyer retained him.
Michael Conroy, AP Related story Fullscreen ![None]()
Greg Mattison, Michigan defensive coordinator, $758,900: In January 2011, shortly after Michigan hired Brady Hoke as its head coach, it managed to convince Mattison to leave his job as the Baltimore Ravens' defensive coordinator and return to Ann Arbor, where he had been an assistant from 1992 to 1996. While he surely took a pay cut by leaving the NFL, Michigan is paying him $275,000 more than what it paid its 2010 defensive and offensive coordinators - combined.
Tony Ding, AP Related story Fullscreen ![None]()
Justin Wilcox, Washington defensive coordinator, $750,004: In 2009, Wilcox was making less than $225,000 as Boise State's defensive coordinator. Then Tennessee hired him, and increased his pay to $600,000. After last season, when Washington decided to get rid of Nick Holt – who had been making $650,000 as the Huskies' defensive coordinator – it went out and got Wilcox.
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Sal Sunseri, Tennessee defensive coordinator, $750,000: He had been working as an assistant at Alabama and making $390,000, when Tennessee hired him after last season and gave him a three-year contract. But after this season, Volunteers head coach Derek Dooley got fired and Sunseri lost his job too. However, Tennessee owes him more than $1.8 million through February 2015, pending any amounts Sunseri gets for his next coaching job.
Adam Brimer, AP Related story Fullscreen ![None]()
Manny Diaz, Texas defensive coordinator, $700,000: Diaz is making nearly seven times was he was paid for the 2009 season as Middle Tennessee State's defensive coordinator and was No. 599 is USA TODAY's survey of assistant coaching compensation. He stepped up to $260,000 at Mississippi State in 2010, then $625,000 when Texas hired him for the 2011 season.
Matthew Emmons, USA TODAY Sports Related story Fullscreen ![None]()
Bryan Harsin, Texas co-offensive coordinator, $700,000: Harsin more than doubled his pay when left Boise State for Texas and $625,000 in compensation following the 2010 season. He's continued his upward trajectory, getting hired recently to become Arkansas State's head coach – a job that will pay him around $850,000 for the 2013 season.
Michael Thomas, AP Related story Fullscreen ![None]()
Al Borges, Michigan offensive coordinator, $658,300: After joining head coach Brady Hoke in moving from San Diego State, he made $350,000 at Michigan in 2011. He then received a new, three-year contract that included a $300,000 raise and guaranteed increases in future years. In 2010, he made $205,000 from San Diego State.
Tony Ding, AP Related story Fullscreen ![None]()
Brent Pease, Florida offensive coordinator, $600,000: Pease came from Boise State and replaced Charlie Weis on the Gators’ staff after Weis become Kansas’ head coach. Including a $100,000 signing bonus, Pease nearly doubled his pay with the move. Florida, meanwhile, is spending $275,000 less on the position than it did when it was employing Weis.
Kim Klement, USA TODAY Sports Related story Fullscreen ![None]()
Dan Quinn, Florida defensive coordinator, $600,000: Quinn came to Florida after 10 seasons as an NFL assistant coach, his last two on the Seattle Seahawks' staff. After the 2011 season, he received an $80,000 bonus in addition to a previously scheduled $20,000 salary increase.
Jake Roth, USA TODAY Sports Related story Fullscreen ![None]()
Mike Stoops, Oklahoma associate head coach/defensive coordinator, $600,000: Fired as Arizona's head coach after the 2011 season, Stoops returned to Oklahoma and his brother, Bob, for whom he worked as an assistant from 1999 to 2003. Mike Stoops is making less than half of what he made last season, but it's $160,000 more than OU paid Brent Venables to be its defensive coordinator last season.
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Todd Monken, Oklahoma State, $600,000: He received a $200,000 increase in pay over what he made for the 2011 season, his first at Oklahoma State after he'd been the Jacksonville Jaguars' wide receivers coach. He recently was hired as Southern Mississippi's head coach.
Ryan Moore AP
