30 Highest Paid College Football Coaches

30 Highest Paid College Football Coaches

College football, where passion and big money collide, is a realm I find fascinating. While the spotlight often shines on the student-athletes, the unsung heroes behind the scenes, the coaches play an equally crucial role in the success of their teams. These head coaches, whom I’ll be discussing in this article, command significant salaries, sometimes exceeding millions of dollars per year, for their leadership, expertise, and ability to attract top talent.

College football isn’t just a sport; it’s a beloved American tradition. The coaches are the architects behind the electrifying plays, passionate rivalries, and unforgettable moments that captivate millions of fans. In my exploration, I delve into the world of college football finances, unveiling the 30 highest-paid coaches in 2023. Together, we’ll dissect their total compensation packages, which include base salaries, bonuses, and incentives, while examining the various factors contributing to their impressive earnings.

1. Nick Saban – $11.41 million

Nicholas Lou Saban Jr. is an American football coach who is considered to be among the greatest coaches in college football history. He’s been the head football coach at the University of Alabama since 2007. Saban previously served as head coach of the National Football League’s Miami Dolphins and at three other universities: Louisiana State University (LSU), Michigan State University, and the University of Toledo.

On January 3, 2007, following a meeting with Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga, Saban announced that he had accepted an offer to become Alabama’s 27th head coach. His initial eight-year contract totalling US$32 million made him one of the highest-paid football coaches, professional or collegiate, in the United States at the time

2. Dabo Swinney – $10.88 million

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Dabo Swinney is an American football coach, currently serving as the head football coach at Clemson University. Swinney took over as head coach of the Clemson Tigers midway through the 2008 season, following the resignation of Tommy Bowden. Swinney’s team won national championships in 2016 and 2018. His 2018 Clemson Tigers have often been considered one of the greatest college football teams of all time.

On October 7, 2023, he tied Frank Howard for the most wins by a head coach in Clemson history with a 17–12 win over Wake Forest, and surpassed his win total on November 4 in the same season, beating Notre Dame 31–23. On September 8, 2022, Swinney signed a new contract extension that keeps him the head coach of the Clemson Tigers through the 2031 football season and pays him $115 million throughout the contract. This makes him the second-highest-paid college football coach, behind only Nick Saban.

3. Kirby Smart – $10.7 million

Kirby Smart is an American football coach and former player. He is the current head football coach of the Georgia Bulldogs, his alma mater. As head coach, he led the Bulldogs to back-to-back National Championship victories in 2021 and 2022. In 2013, Smart was granted a $200,000 salary increase to make him the highest-paid defensive coordinator in college football.

He was part of the Alabama staff that won the National Championship over Clemson in the 2015 season. In 2022, Smart and Georgia agreed to a 10-year contract extension worth $112.5 million, making him the third highest-paid coach in college football.

4. Ryan Day – $10.27 million

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Ryan Day is an American football coach and former college football player. He is the 24th and current head football coach at Ohio State University, a position he has held since 2019. Day was also the acting head coach for the Ohio State Buckeyes for the first three games of the 2018 season. 

He attended the University of New Hampshire, where he played quarterback and linebacker for the Wildcats from 1998 to 2001 before he began his coaching career in 2002.

5. Mel Tucker – $10.01 million

Mel Tucker is an American football coach and former player. He was the head football coach at Michigan State University from 2020 to 2023. Tucker was the interim head coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars of the National Football League (NFL) for the final five games of the 2011 season. He has worked as the defensive backs coach at Ohio State and Alabama and as the defensive coordinator for both the Chicago Bears of the NFL and the University of Georgia.

In November 2021, Mel Tucker became one of the highest-paid coaches in college football history, receiving a guaranteed 10-year, $95 million contract from Michigan State, the third-largest contract ever given to a football coach at a public university. 

6. Lincoln Riley – $10 million

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Lincoln Riley is an American college football coach and former player who is the head coach of the USC Trojans football program at the University of Southern California. Playing quarterback himself as a walk-on player at Texas Tech and known for his Air Raid offensive scheme, Riley has mentored three Heisman Trophy winners at quarterback who are Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray, and Caleb Williams as well as another starting NFL quarterback in Jalen Hurts. As a fifth-year head coach, he has produced over 28 draft picks including 5 first-rounders, but is 1–4 in end-of-season bowl games and 0-3 in the College Football Playoff.

7. Brian Kelly – $9.97 million

Brian Kelly is an American college football coach. He is the head football coach at Louisiana State University (LSU), a position he has held since the 2022 season.

Kelly served as the head football coach at Grand Valley State University from 1991 to 2003, Central Michigan University from 2004 to 2006, the University of Cincinnati from 2006 to 2009, and the University of Notre Dame from 2010 to 2021. He led the Grand Valley State Lakers to consecutive NCAA Division II Football Championships in 2002 and 2003. Kelly’s 2012 Notre Dame team reached the 2013 BCS National Championship Game, while his 2018 and 2020 teams made appearances in the College Football Playoff.

8. Jimbo Fisher – $9.15 million

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Jimbo Fisher is an American college football coach with a distinguished career marked by a national championship and coaching accolades. He most recently served as the head coach of the Texas A&M Aggies from 2018 until 2023. Fisher coached quarterbacks and was the offensive coordinator for one season at Cincinnati before joining Nick Saban’s staff at LSU in 2000.

His contract guaranteed a salary of $215,000 with incentives increasing the total package to the $400,000’s. After his first season as offensive coordinator at Florida State, Fisher was named head coach in waiting, making him the eventual successor for Bobby Bowden. The new contract paid Fisher around $600,000 per year with a $2.5 million buyout clause. Before the 2021 season, the Texas A&M Board of Regents voted to extend Fisher’s contract through the 2031 season. Beginning January 1, 2022, Fisher would be paid $9 million annually.

9. Mark Stoops – $9.01 million

Mark Stoops is an American college football coach and former player. He is the head football coach at the University of Kentucky, a position he has held since the 2013 season. Stoops is the all-time winningest head coach in the history of the Kentucky Wildcats football program.

10. Josh Heupel – $9 million

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Josh Heupel is an American football coach and former player. He is the head football coach at the University of Tennessee. Previously he was head coach at the University of Central Florida, where he compiled a 28–8 record.

After one season at USU, he was hired on Barry Odom’s staff at Missouri, where he was the offensive coordinator before being hired for his first head coaching position at UCF. In December 2017, Heupel was named the UCF head coach. On January 27, 2021, Heupel was named the 27th head coach at Tennessee.

11. Lane Kiffin – $9 million

Lane Kiffin is an American football coach who is the head coach of the Ole Miss Rebels. Kiffin formerly was the offensive coordinator for the USC Trojans football team from 2005 to 2006, head coach of the National Football League’s Oakland Raiders from 2007 to 2008, head coach of the University of Tennessee Volunteers college football team in 2009, and head coach of the Trojans from 2010 to 2013. He was the youngest head coach in modern NFL history at the time when he joined the Raiders.

After winning the Outback Bowl Kiffin was given a one-year contract extension by Ole Miss the maximum extension Ole Miss could offer since Mississippi state law only allows four-year total contracts for university employees, however, financial details were not immediately released. New contract details were released in August 2021 and amounted to $21 million in base pay through 2024, with $4.5 million paid out in 2021 and over $5 million in each of the remaining three seasons. 

12. James Franklin – $8.5 million

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James Franklin is an American football coach and former player. Franklin has served as the head football coach at Penn State University since 2014 and served in the same position at Vanderbilt University from 2011 to 2013. 

In 2017, Penn State announced that Franklin signed a six-year contract extension worth $5.738 million a year. That deal includes retention bonuses paid at the end of each year of the contract

13. Jim Harbaugh – $8.3 million

Jim Harbaugh is an American football coach and former quarterback who is the 20th and current head football coach of the Michigan Wolverines. He played college football at Michigan from 1983 to 1986. He played in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons from 1987 to 2000 with his longest tenure as a player with the Chicago Bears.

Harbaugh signed a five-year deal as head coach of the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers, where he led the team to the NFC Championship game in each of his first three seasons after the franchise missed the playoffs for eight consecutive seasons beforehand. He and his older brother, Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh, became the first pair of brothers to serve as head coaches in NFL history. Their teams played in a Thanksgiving Classic game in 2011 and in Super Bowl XLVII at the end of the 2012 season.

14. Mario Cristobal – $8 million

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Mario Cristobal is Cuban-American head football coach of the Miami Hurricanes football team at the University of Miami. Cristobal previously was the head football coach at Florida International University (FIU) from 2007 to 2012 and at the University of Oregon from 2017 to 2021. He was an all-conference offensive tackle on the Miami Hurricanes football team that won national championships in 1989 and 1991

15. Luke Fickell – $7.5 million

Luke Fickell is an American football coach and former NFL player. He is the current head coach of the Wisconsin Badgers. 

Previously he was the head football coach at the University of Cincinnati, a position he held from 2016 through November 2022. Fickell played college football as a nose guard at Ohio State University from 1993 to 1996 and then was an assistant coach for the Buckeyes. He was interim head coach at Ohio State for the entire 2011 season.

16. Mike Gundy – $7.4 million

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Mike Gundy is an American football coach and former player. He is the head football coach at Oklahoma State University. Gundy played college football at Oklahoma State, where he played quarterback from 1986 to 1989. 

He became Oklahoma State’s coach on January 3, 2005. Gundy and the University of Utah’s Kyle Whittingham are currently the second-longest tenured FBS coaches with one school, trailing only Kirk Ferentz. Gundy is the longest-tenured in the Big 12 Conference.

17. Mike Norvell – $7.3 million

Mike Norvell is an American college football coach who is currently head coach at Florida State. Norvell was previously the head coach at Memphis. He has coached at Arizona State, Pittsburgh, Tulsa, and Central Arkansas. He played wide receiver at the University of Central Arkansas from 2001 to 2005 and is the school’s all-time receptions leader.

In 2015, the University of Memphis signed Norvell to a five-year contract that paid him a base salary of $1.8 million for his first year that would increase slightly each passing year.

18. Billy Napier – $7.1 million

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Billy Napier is an American football coach currently serving as head coach at the University of Florida. From 2017 until 2021, he served as head coach at the University of Louisiana, amassing a 40–12 record in four seasons with three consecutive 10+ win seasons and two seasons finishing in the AP Poll, both firsts in the programs’ history. Before Louisiana, he served as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Arizona State University in 2017.

19. Brent Venables – $7 million

Brent Venables is an American college football coach who is the head football coach at the University of Oklahoma, a position he has held since the 2022 season. Venables served as the associate head coach, defensive coordinator, and linebackers coach at Clemson University from 2012 to 2021. He was awarded the Broyles Award in 2016.

Clemson Diehards reported on December 6, 2017, that Venables was the second-highest-paid assistant football coach in college football that year, receiving $1.7 million from Clemson. The only coach in this category receiving more money was Dave Aranda of LSU, who was paid $1.8 million.

20. Kirk Ferentz – $6.6 million

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Kirk Ferentz is an American football coach. He is the current head football coach at the University of Iowa, a position he has held since the 1999 season. From 1990 to 1992, Ferentz was the head football coach at the University of Maine. 

In 2006, Ferentz became the highest-paid coach in the Big Ten and third highest in college football when he was given a restructured contract that boosted his annual salary to $2.7 million. In 2016 he signed an extension through the 2026 season. He is currently the 20th highest-paid coach in college football.

21. Dan Lanning – $6.5 million

Dan Lanning is an American football coach at the University of Oregon. He was previously the defensive coordinator and outside linebackers coach at the University of Georgia from 2019 to 2021.

Lanning played college football at William Jewell College as a linebacker from 2004 to 2007, he held various coaching positions at Park Hill South High School in Kansas City, Missouri, the University of Pittsburgh, Arizona State University, Sam Houston State University, the University of Alabama, the University of Memphis, the University of Georgia, and the University of Oregon.

22. Hugh Freeze – $6.5 million

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Hugh Freeze is an American football coach who is the head coach at Auburn University.  In 2011, Freeze was announced as the 37th head coach of the University of Mississippi. During the press conference to introduce him as the head coach, Freeze said he wanted to retire at Ole Miss. He was signed to a four-year contract with an annual salary of $1.5 million plus incentives up to $2.5 million. His salary was later reported to be $4.7 million, making him the highest-paid employee in the state of Mississippi.

23. Bret Bielema – $6.2 million

Bret Bielema is an American football coach. He is the head football coach at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, a position he has held since the 2021 season. In 2020, Bielema was announced as the next head coach at the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign, succeeding Lovie Smith. 

The school said Bielema would receive a six-year contract that paid $4.2 million the first year, with annual raises, based on performance and fulfilling media and other promotional obligations for the program throughout the contract. The salary makes him the ninth-highest-paid head coach among the fourteen members of the Big Ten Conference.

24. Sam Pittman – $6 million

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Sam Pittman is an American football coach who is the head football coach at the University of Arkansas. Pittman departed Arkansas after the 2015 season to become offensive line coach at the University of Georgia under new head coach Kirby Smart and offensive coordinator Jim Chaney, with whom Pittman had previously worked at Tennessee and Arkansas. Georgia paid a $250,000 buyout to hire Pittman.

Pittman was promoted to associate head coach in 2019, with a salary of $900,000 per year making him the highest-paid offensive line coach in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision.

25. Matt Campbell – $5.9 million

Matt Campbell is an American college football coach. He is the head football coach at Iowa State University, a position he has held since the 2016 season. Campbell was head football coach at the University of Toledo from 2011 to 2015.

Before that, Campbell had been an assistant at Toledo, Bowling Green, and Mount Union. Campbell grew up in Ohio and briefly attended the University of Pittsburgh before transferring to Mount Union, where he played defensive line.

26. Pat Narduzzi – $5.8 million

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Pat Narduzzi is an American football coach and former player. He is the head coach at the University of Pittsburgh. He was formerly the defensive coordinator at Michigan State. Narduzzi is the son of Bill Narduzzi, who was the head coach at Youngstown State University from 1975 to 1985. Pat played football for his father in 1985 as a freshman.

Mainly on the strength of the 2021 season, Narduzzi entered 2022 as the third-winningest coach in Pitt history, behind only Hall of Famers Jock Sutherland and Pop Warner. A year later, a victory over Miami vaulted him past Warner for second place on Pitt’s all-time wins list.

27. Dave Clawson – $5.75 million

Dave Clawson is an American football coach and former player. He currently serves as the head football coach at Wake Forest University, where he was named the 2021 ACC Coach of the Year. 

Clawson previously served as the head football coach at Fordham University from 1999 to 2003, at the University of Richmond from 2004 to 2007, and at Bowling Green State University from 2009 to 2013. At Wake Forest, his annual salary is $5.75 million.

28. Tom Allen – $5.6 million

Tom Allen is an American college football coach. He most recently served as the head coach of the Indiana Hoosiers football team until being fired on November 26, 2023, after 7 seasons.  

In 2016, Indiana athletic director Fred Glass named Allen head coach after Wilson’s sudden resignation, forcing Allen to make his coaching debut during the team’s final game of the season at the 2016 Foster Farms Bowl. His contract guaranteed him $1.795 million annually — $500,000 per year in base pay, plus $1.295 million per year in outside, marketing, and promotional income. This made Allen the lowest-paid head coach in the Big Ten, although various bonuses could take his total compensation above $5.6 million.

29. P.J. Fleck – $5.5 million

P.J. Fleck is an American football coach and former wide receiver. He has served as the head coach for the Minnesota Golden Gophers football team since 2017. After finishing the 2014 regular season with an 8–4 record, Fleck was named the 2014 MAC Coach of the Year. The seven-game improvement in wins from the previous season was the best in WMU history.

WMU rewarded Fleck by extending his contract through the 2020 season. In addition to his base salary of $392,500, Fleck earned an additional $61,000 in bonuses by hitting contract incentives of $25,000 for a bowl game appearance, $15,000 for MAC Coach of the Year, $12,000 for eight wins, and $9,000 for player all-conference honors. Fleck’s new contract paid him $800,000 per year, plus incentives, making Fleck the MAC’s highest-paid coach.

30. Rocky Long – $5.5 million

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Rocky Long is an American football coach and former player. He is currently the defensive coordinator at Syracuse. Before being hired by Syracuse, Long was the defensive coordinator at New Mexico. 

He played professionally with the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the Detroit Wheels of the World Football League (WFL). Long is known for his successful adaptation of a modified 3–3–5 defensive scheme.

As the landscape of college football continues to evolve, the salaries of top coaches are likely to remain on an upward trajectory. The article has outlined the fascinating world of college football’s highest-paid coaches, their contributions to the game, and the future of coach compensation in this ever-changing landscape.