Football: Texas coaches making a bundle
By Jake Trotter
Per the Austin American-Statesman…
By Suzanne Halliburton
Texas offensive coordinator Greg Davis will make $425,000 this football season, the same salary as new defensive coordinator Will Muschamp.
Davis’ raise is nearly $75,000 more than the $351,000 he made for 2007, an increase of 21 percent.
Asked whether Texas now has the highest paid set of coordinators in the country, men’s athletics director DeLoss Dodds said, “We’re at the top, but we probably aren’t the top. We want to be in the top five.”
Dodds said he believes that some coordinators at private schools, which don’t have to reveal coaching salaries, are making more than Muschamp and Davis.
In addition to the pay increase for Davis, offensive line coach Mac McWhorter, who also is the Longhorns’ associate head coach, received a raise of $43,000 over last season’s salary of $232,000. Receivers coach Bobby Kennedy will earn $197,100, up $12,000, while the pay of tight ends coach Bruce Chambers was bumped by $7,000 to $172,360.
The American-Statesman obtained the salary details through a Texas Open Records request.
Major Applewhite, who was hired as an assistant head coach earlier this month, will earn $250,000, the same salary he was paid at Alabama last season. Applewhite, the running backs coach, becomes the third-highest paid offensive assistant.
Dodds said Brown recommended his defensive assistants not receive raises after Texas finished the 2007 season with the seventh-worst defense statistically in school history. The Longhorns ranked 52nd nationally in total defense, allowing 371.2 yards per game, and they were 109th overall in pass defense, giving up 277.8 yards per contest.
Duane Akina, who had been Texas’ defensive co-coordinator for the past four years, will keep his salary of $300,000 despite being demoted earlier this month.
Akina lost his coordinator position when Muschamp was hired Jan. 4. Akina is now in charge of the secondary and also is an assistant head coach.
Defensive tackles coach Mike Tolleson will keep his salary of $190,186, and ends coach Oscar Giles will earn $148,488.
Ken Rucker, the running backs coach who was reassigned to the newly created post of director of high school relations and player development, will make $181,862. That’s the same salary he earned a year ago.
Jimbo Fisher of Florida State likely is the highest-paid offensive coordinator in college football. Florida State raised his annual salary to $625,000 in mid-December, when the Seminoles announced that Fisher would succeed Bobby Bowden as head coach when Bowden decides to retire.
UCLA’s new offensive coordinator, Norm Chow, will earn $1 million in 2008, but the bulk of his salary will come from the Tennessee Titans, the NFL team that fired him after the 2007 season.
A sampling of college football’s top-paid offensive coordinators in 2007. Private schools such as Notre Dame and Miami are not required to publicly disclose coaching salaries.
Jimbo Fisher Florida St. $420,000
Gary Crowton LSU $400,000
Larry Fedora* Oklahoma St. $393,000
David Cutcliffe^ Tennessee $340,000
Recruiting: Bryant a Sooner
By Jake Trotter
Four-star junior-college linebacker J.R. Bryant committed to Oklahoma moments ago.
Bryant will have a chance to start right away with the departure of starters Lewis Baker and Curtis Lofton.
Bryant makes 20 verbal commitments for a Sooner class that keeps getting better as signing day nears.
Men’s hoops: OU vs. Baylor pregame notes
Teams: Oklahoma (13-5, 1-2) vs. No. 25 Baylor (16-2, 4-0)
Date: Saturday, Jan. 26
Site: Waco, Texas (Ferrell Center)
Tip: 3:01 p.m. CST
Radio: Sooner Radio Network (KOKC 1520-AM in OKC; KTBZ 1430-AM in Tulsa; Sirius 161)
TV: ESPN Plus (KOCB 34/Cox 11 in OKC; KJRH 2/Cox 9 in Tulsa); ESPN Full Court
Series: OU leads 31-5
Gymnastics: Big meet for OU men Saturday
The Oklahoma men’s gymnastics team opens its home season Saturday, Jan. 26, against the University of Michigan. The matchup between the fifth-ranked Sooners and second-ranked Wolverines is slated for a 7 p.m. start at OU’s Howard McCasland Field House.
Men’s hoops: Bedlam tickets going fast
A limited number of tickets remain for the men’s basketball showdown with Oklahoma State on Monday, Jan. 28 at the Lloyd Noble Center.
The Sooners and Cowboys tip off at 8 p.m., as part of ESPN’s Big Monday broadcast during Rivalry Week, a week of programming devoted to the top rivalries in college basketball.
This will be the first of two contests between the teams this season in the annual Bedlam Series. Oklahoma defeated the arch-rival Cowboys, 67-60, in their last meeting in Norman on Feb. 7, 2007. OU holds a 122-88 advantage in the all-time series.
Order tickets online or call the OU Athletics Ticket Office at (405) 325-2424 or toll-free at (800) 456-GoOU to reserve your seats today. Tickets may also be purchased in person at the Ticket Office, located on the plaza level of the Asp Avenue Parking Facility, immediately west of Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium.
Men’s hoops links
By Scott Wright
I’ll be hitting the road for Waco soon, but wanted to share with you a few interesting stories from the Web first.
Here’s a fun story about Kansas freshman Cole Aldrich watching and idolizing fellow Minnesota native Longar Longar.
We Scotts stand together — here’s what they’re saying in Waco about Baylor coach Scott Drew and the resurgence of the Bears basketball program. Baylor is ranked this week for the first time since 1969.
And Mike Jones of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram offered his version of Taylor and Blake Griffin’s brotherly relationship.
Links: Julio Jones hubbub, recruiting tidbits
* There was quite a kerfluffle about blue chip Julio Jones’ visit to Florida. He’s at OU this weekend. Here’s a take from his home state of Alabama.
* Bob Stoops has some face time at Butte Junior College.,
* More on Jermie Calhoun, OU’s big RB pick up.
* OU wrestler Josh Weitzel is fired up.
* Wichita star Bryce Brown speaks.
