How USC’s assistant coaches salary pool has changed after Beamer’s first hires
When South Carolina football went ahead and hired Shane Beamer to take over as head coach, the details of his contract raised the eyebrows of a few fans and observers. With a base salary of $2.75 million per year, Beamer is set to be one of the lowest-paid coaches in the SEC and all the Power 5 conferences.
But with that low number came the assumption on the part of many that Beamer would have more money to pay his assistants, though athletic director Ray Tanner did say the assistant salary pool would stay relatively the same size as it was under Will Muschamp.
Now that eight of Beamer’s 10 on-field assistants have been hired and had their contracts approved by USC’s board of trustees, how much has that assumption been borne out?
Comparing the new staff’s salaries to what the Gamecocks’ coaches made last year isn’t a perfect exercise. New coaches can have vastly different amounts of experience than their predecessors, and that goes a long way in determining pay. On the other hand, if Beamer has more to offer, he could potentially lure more experienced coaches to Columbia.
There’s also the question of stability. Every one of Beamer’s assistants now has a contract that runs through 2022 except for special teams coordinator and associate head coach Pete Lembo, whose three-year deal runs through 2023. While the length of assistant coaching deals has generally gone up across the country in the past few years, it’s still relatively common for staff members, especially non-coordinators, to have one-year contracts.
According to USA Today’s assistant coaching salary database, South Carolina was scheduled to spend a total of $5,280,000 on assistant coaches in 2020. Salary cuts that resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic’s financial impact reduced that figure to $5,095,792. That ranks ninth among the 13 SEC schools for whom contract details are publicly available, higher than Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Arkansas and Missouri.
With eight of 10 coaches hired, South Carolina is on the books to pay Beamer’s assistants $4,135,000 in 2021. But that’s without a defensive coordinator. The Gamecocks’ last defensive coordinator, Travaris Robinson, made $1.2 million annually. Should Beamer’s hire make that much, the Gamecocks would already have surpassed their 2020 assistant pool with one more position and salary still to consider.
The two main reasons for this uptick in spending are the wide receiver and special teams coordinator positions.
At wide receiver, new coach Justin Stepp is making $460,000 compared with $180,000 for his predecessor, Joe Cox. That salary also marks a raise for Stepp from his last job at Arkansas, where he made $400,000. Stepp does have far more experience than Cox did when he was hired — nine years as an on-field coach, including three at an SEC school, compared to three years, none at the Power 5 level, for Cox.
And on special teams, Lembo is making $450,000 compared with the $200,000 Kyle Krantz made. Lembo has additional responsibilities as the team’s associate head coach, and he brings a wealth of experience, with more than two decades at the Division I level.
The one position group coach who will be making less than his predecessor is tight ends coach Erik Kimrey, whose deal pays $200,000 per year compared twith $400,000 for Bobby Bentley. Kimrey has never been an on-field coach at the collegiate level.
USC FOOTBALL ASSISTANT SALARY COMPARISONS
Offensive coordinator/QBs coach
2020: Mike Bobo — $1.2 million
2021: Mike Bobo — $1.2 million
Running backs coach
2020: Des Kitchings — $300,000
2021: Des Kitchings — $300,000
Wide receivers coach
2020: Joe Cox — $180,000
2021: Justin Stepp — $460,000
Tight ends coach
2020: Bobby Bentley — $400,000
2021: Erik Kimrey — $200,000
Offensive line coach
2020: Eric Wolford — $700,000
2021: Will Friend — $700,000
Defensive line coach
2020: Tracy Rocker — $525,000
2021: Tracy Rocker — $525,000
Outside linebackers/Bucks coach
2020: Mike Peterson — $300,000
2021: Mike Peterson — $300,000
Special teams coordinator
2020: Kyle Krantz — $200,000
2021: Pete Lembo — $450,000
