Arkansas' 2020 salary pool for assistants eclipses $5 million

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FAYETTEVILLE — For the first time in school history, Arkansas’ on-field coaching staff will have a combined salary of more than $5 million.

The Razorbacks officially announced the final four additions to Sam Pittman’s first staff Monday afternoon, along with their salaries for 2020.

Special teams coordinator Scott Fountain and defensive line coach Derrick LeBlanc will make $450,000 next season, while tight ends coach Jon Cooper will make $300,000 and running backs coach Jimmy Smith will make $225,000.

Combined with the six previously announced hires, Arkansas’ assistant coach salary pool for 2020 will be a school-record $5.025 million. That is slightly more than the $5 million athletics director Hunter Yurachek originally said Pittman would have to work with and a 2.2 percent increase over last year’s pool.

According to USA Today’s database of assistant coach salaries, the $5.025 million salary pool would have ranked 18th nationally last season, but behind 10 other SEC schools. That’s one spot higher in the FBS and the same spot in the conference as the Razorbacks’ $4.915 million total in 2019.

The biggest chunk of that salary is going to Arkansas’ two coordinators. Former Missouri head coach Barry Odom will make $1.2 million to lead the defense, while offensive guru Kendal Briles - who’s at his fifth school in as many years - will make $1 million on the other side of the ball.

That is actually a decrease in pay for both coaches. Odom was making $3.05 million as the Tigers’ head coach (plus he’s due a buyout of $2.85 million that will be offset by his Arkansas salary) and Briles made $1.02 million as Florida State’s offensive coordinator. However, it is believed to be the first time the Razorbacks have had multiple assistant coaches with seven-figure salaries on the same staff in any sport.

Pittman brought in seven other new assistants who received pay raises from their previous jobs, ranging from minimal to significant.

Offensive line coach Brad Davis is the highest-paid non-coordinator on the staff at $550,000 - a 7.8 percent bump from what he made at Missouri last season.

The other two assistants who left SEC programs to come to Arkansas are just behind him, with Fountain and LeBlanc each receiving a $125,000 raise - or 38.5 percent increase - from what they made in the same positions at Georgia and Kentucky, respectively.

The only coach Pittman retained from former head coach Chad Morris’ staff was wide receivers coach Justin Stepp. His salary will remain what it was in 2019, when he made $400,000.

Cooper, who spent the last two seasons at UCF, nearly doubled his salary, going from $165,000 with the Knights to $300,000 with the Razorbacks.

Smith, linebackers coach Rion Rhoades and cornerbacks coach Sam Carter will each make $225,000 next season after having five-figure salaries in 2019.

That would have been the fifth-lowest salary in the SEC - excluding Vanderbilt, which as a private institution isn’t subject to FOIA laws - last season, according to USA Today’s database, the salary for Arkansas cornerbacks coach Mark Smith.

Although the Razorbacks are spending an extra $110,000 on assistants this season, they’ll actually be saving money on coaches in 2020 because Sam Pittman is set to be the lowest paid head coach in the SEC, depending on what Mississippi State pays its next coach.

He has an annual salary of $3 million, which is $500,000 less than Morris, but his contract is laden with incentives that could increase is pay dramatically.

(UPDATE: Davis and Odom received $100,000 raises in February and March, respectively.)