What Ray Tanner said about change to Muschamp deal, adding Mike Bobo
South Carolina athletic director Ray Tanner was not present for Tuesday’s board meeting that saw the university change the contracts of football coach Will Muschamp and assistant Thomas Brown, while also adding Mike Bobo to the staff.
He was instead in New York at an ESPN/SEC meeting. But he delivered a little information on what came together with some of the moves made.
The changes to Muschamp’s deal take $3 million off the total value of his deal, turning down an automatic annual $200,000 raise in each of the coming five years. It also reduced a potential buyout next year by more than $2 million.
Tanner said that was a Muschamp brainchild.
“The idea was coach Muschamp’s idea, not my suggestion,” Tanner said on the board of trustees conference call. “Not my urging. He came to me with this proposal that he would like to do this. He would like to offer this. And that’s how I felt about it. Certainly I agreed to his suggestion, and that’s where we are today.”
South Carolina added at least $700,000 in salary to the staff on Tuesday, as new QB coach Bobo is paid $500,000 more than his predecessor, Dan Werner, and running backs coach Thomas Brown got a $200,000 raise. Former offensive coordinator, another role Bobo will take, Bryan McClendon remains on staff at $1 million a year.
Werner is set to be paid up to $700,000 in 2020 owing to a two-year contract. Tanner also laid out the resume for Bobo, who reunites with a former Georgia teammate in Muschamp and several of his former players and coworkers in Brown and McClendon.
“Mike Bobo recently was the head coach at Colorado State and had spent a number of years at Georgia as an undergrad quarterback, (eight) years as offensive coordinator,” Tanner said. “With some extremely impressive numbers since he’s been involved in (the) offense both at Colorado State and at Georgia.
“If you look at his statistics, you’ll certainly be impressed with the offensive output that he’s had over the years.”
The Bobo hire was made official Tuesday. He’ll make $1.2 million a year for two years on his contract.
“I’m excited to bring Mike on board,” Muschamp said in a statement. “He is a proven and respected play-caller and quarterbacks coach, who I have faced many times over the years. Over the last 13 years, his offenses have averaged over 31 points and 424 yards per game while converting over 43 percent on third down. He also has a long relationship with both (running backs coach) Thomas Brown and (wide receivers coach) Bryan McClendon, so it will be a smooth transition for our offensive staff.”
This story was originally published December 11, 2019 at 6:15 PM.
