How Lorenzo Ward’s departure changed the way South Carolina handles coaching buyouts
It was just a little note in a University of South Carolina board of trustees meeting in December.
The members were deep in discussions about contract buyouts for several new coaches and an extension for another. One speaker mentioned how Athletics Director Ray Tanner had a clause added to all coach buyouts “because of coach Ward.”
That was coach Lorenzo Ward, a former Gamecocks defensive coordinator. He took advantage of a little loophole after South Carolina fired him, helping out his new program financially while sticking it to USC just a bit.
Here’s how it happened.
Ward signed a three-year contract in January 2014. It had what was a relatively common mitigation clause, which means that if he was fired, the school’s buyout obligations would be reduced dollar for dollar by whatever he was paid at a new school.
That deal paid him $750,000 annually. Buyouts for assistant deals are almost always the full value remaining on the contract.
And Ward was fired after the 2015 season, not retained by incoming coach Will Muschamp after Steve Spurrier resigned in the middle of the season and Shawn Elliott coached out the year.
USC owed him that $750,000, minus whatever he would earn at his new job. He landed with Fresno State in the Mountain West — and with his overall income fixed, he didn’t end up getting much from the Bulldogs.
His salary of $85,392 was the lowest on the staff, despite him possessing 17 years as a high-major college or NFL assistant and being the defensive coordinator (usually one of the highest-paid assistants). There were three other staffers making less than $100,000, and two of them were in their first years as full-time assistants on the college level.
Since the 2012 staff, no Fresno State assistant had made under $90,000 for a season — and since then only one has, a 24-year-old quality control coach who was promoted as the 10th assistant coach when that role was first allowed.
The then-offensive coordinator was paid $161,716, while the demoted former defensive coordinator earned $150,000, a cut of more than $77,000 from the year prior.
Ward earning more than $142,000 less than his predecessor cost South Carolina the difference. And because of that, the wording changed in future USC contracts.
Now, if a bought-out Gamecocks coach takes a new job, his or her salary will be mitigated either by the amount of his new salary or 75% of what his or her predecessor at the new position earned.
South Carolina football currently has four on-field coaches and a strength coach on deals that run through 2021. The value of those deals before accounting for mitigation is $4.075 million. Head coach Will Muschamp will have $13.475 million left on his deal at the end of December.
