UM’s Carr underpaid; Tressel trails Ferentz
by
Ron Musselman
COLUMBUS — Ohio State’s Jim Tressel is arguably the best football coach in the Big Ten.
But he doesn’t collect the fattest paycheck among the conference’s 11 coaches.
That honor belongs to Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz.
Ferentz got a hefty $1.4 million pay raise earlier this month, bumping his annual salary to $2.84 million through 2012. He leapfrogged Tressel, who had agreed to a new seven-year contract extension in mid-May.
Tressel, 53, will receive $2,378,900 this year — that breaks down to $1,878,900 in salary and a $500,000 signing bonus — and $2,675,900 in the final year in 2012.
Ferentz is the third-highest paid coach in the country — behind Notre Dame’s Charlie Weis ($3.3 million annually) and Southern Cal’s Pete Carroll ($3 million), while Tressel ranks sixth nationally.
Meanwhile, Michigan’s Lloyd Carr, who has a five-year rollover contract that renews annually, is well back in the pack. He makes slightly more than $1.1 million per season, with a $337,494 base salary and $765,000 in other perks, not including bowl appearances.
Besides Ferentz, Tressel, Weis and Carroll, there are several other coaches in the $2 million club, including Auburn’s Tommy Tuberville,
Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops, Texas’ Mack Brown, Virginia Tech’s Frank Beamer, Florida State’s Bobby Bowden, Tennessee’s Phillip Fulmer, Georgia’s Mark Richt and Florida’s Urban Meyer.
Legendary Penn State coach Joe Paterno’s salary has been a well-guarded secret for years. But he seemingly has been around for as long as the school has existed, has a library wing named after him and an ice cream — Peachy Paterno — so you can bet he’s hauling in big bucks.
Heck, Minnesota’s Glen Mason, a former Buckeyes player who was the other finalist for the
OSU job when Tressel was hired in 2001, agreed to a five-year extension a few months ago that will pay him $1.65 million per season.
Not bad for a guy who has never won a Big Ten championship or taken his team to a New Year’s Day bowl game.
Granted, coaching salaries are spiraling out of control at the Division I level, but it’s hard to believe Ferentz is pulling down more cash than Tressel, and getting paid more than some NFL head coaches.
During his five seasons in this football-crazed capital, Tressel has led Ohio State to a 50-13 record, the 2002 national championship, two Big Ten co-championships and four bowl victories, including three BCS wins in as many tries.
Even more impressive, he is 4-1 against Carr and hated rival Michigan.
Three of Tressel’s last four teams have finished in the top five in the national rankings, and he has an overall record of 4-1 in bowl games.
Ferentz, a former offensive line coach for the Cleveland Browns under Bill Belichick, then briefly with the Baltimore Ravens, has compiled a 49-36 record at Iowa since replacing Hayden Fry in 1999.
In the last four years, Fer-entz has led the Hawkeyes to a share of two Big Ten titles, four consecutive January bowl games and three top-10 finishes.
Those results aren’t too shabby, but they are still not good enough to put him in Tressel’s class.
Carr, who has been under siege for not being able to beat Tressel, is definitely underpaid.
There’s no way Mason should make more than him, regardless of Carr’s recent failures.
It’s a real slap in the face.
Carr, who turns 61 July 30, is 102-34 in 11 seasons as the Wolverines’ coach. He led his team to a share of the national championship in 1997 and Michigan has won or shared five Big Ten titles.
In Carr’s case, it’s a matter of “What have you done for me lately?”
The Wolverines were a very unsatisfying 7-5 last year and were unranked in the final polls for the first time since 1984.
They are just 7-7 in their last 14 games, have suffered three consecutive bowl losses — Carr is 5-6 overall — while going a combined 2-7 against Ohio State (1-4) and Notre Dame (1-3) since 2001.
At the end of last season, Michigan lost both of its longtime coordinators to the NFL.
Give the embattled Carr credit for one thing.
He might not be one of the richest coaches in the Big Ten, but he was smart enough to negotiate a clause in his contract that allows him to stay on as an associate athletic director when he retires.
Only Carr knows for sure when he’ll use that audible.
Then again, it may not be his call
