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FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas will be paying a little extra for its strength and conditioning coach in 2020 than it did last season.
Jamil Walker, who head coach Sam Pittman brought with him from Georgia’s strength staff, will make $300,000 annually as the Razorbacks’ head strength and conditioning coach, according to a copy of his employment agreement obtained by HawgBeat via an open records request.
That is a $10,000 increase from what Arkansas paid Trumain Carroll for the same job in 2019. According to USA Today’s database, that ranked 32nd nationally and 11th in the SEC.
The top 10 SEC strength coaches were among the top 21 nationally, with four in the top seven and seven in the top 13. Only Kentucky ($254,684) and Mississippi State ($150,000) paid less than the Razorbacks, with Vanderbilt being exempt from FOIA requests as a private institution.
It’s unclear where Walker’s salary will rank in 2020, but it would have been tied for 30th last season. However, it’s worth noting that Mississippi State has hired Tyson Brown as its new strength coach and he made $251,500 at Washington State, so he could potentially get a raise and help the Bulldogs jump the Razorbacks.
Walker’s deal, which was officially signed Wednesday, is for two years, as it runs through Feb. 28, 2022.
Like the other assistant coaches, his contract also includes perks - up to eight tickets to football games, an annual Nike Elite allowance of $2,000, a membership to either Fayetteville Athletic Club or Paradise Valley Golf Course and an annual car allowance of $7,200 - and bonuses for various levels of postseason success.
If you combine his salary with those of their 10 on-field assistants, the Razorbacks are dishing out $5.325 million in 2019. That is 2.3 percent more than what they paid those same 11 key positions last season.
However, that is more than offset by Pittman making $500,000 less than former head coach Chad Morris, which actually means the pay for that core of coaches is down 4.4 percent.
