College Football Coaches with Most Job Security
In the high-stakes world of college football, it seems like almost every coach is one bad year away from getting sent packing.
It's not really that drastic a situation, but the reality is that in the FBS ranks, the concept of job security is completely independent of the salary a coach earns.
More than half of the coaches at the FBS level of college football make more than $1 million, with more than two dozen earning north of $3 million. But even with so many coaches earning such enormous paychecks, that doesn't necessary ensure they'll be able to keep their job without producing results.
Which coaches are the safest, in terms of being able to weather a rough season (or two)? Check out our list of the football program leaders with the most job security.
Art Briles, Baylor
1 of 12
Year at school: 8th
Record at school: 55-34
Under contract through: 2023
Before Art Briles got to Baylor in 2008, the Bears had 12 consecutive losing seasons and hadn't reached 10 wins since 1980. They've hit double digits in victories in three of the past four years, the last two resulting in Big 12 titles.
Along the way, Briles recruited and developed a Heisman winner (Robert Griffin III) and created such a buzz with the program that the school was able to fund raise a $266 million on-campus stadium.
No longer a laughing stock in its own league, Baylor is a trendsetter both in the state and across the nation. Briles is the man who is most responsible for that, and this makes him almost bulletproof. He picked up an extra layer of protection by spurning any interest Texas might have had in him after Mack Brown retired, and the school rewarded him with a very lengthy extension that puts his annual salary north of $4 million.
"Baylor wanted to leave little doubt it would do what it took to keep its guy," CBS Sports' Jeremy Fowler wrote in November 2013 when the extension was first announced.
Mark Dantonio, Michigan State
2 of 12
Year at school: 9th
Record at school: 75-31
Under contract through: 2020
Mark Dantonio came to Michigan State when it was still the "little brother" of the state's Big Ten schools. Now he's won five of the last six over rival Michigan. Even though that other school just made a major coaching upgrade this offseason, it's still Dantonio's program that has become the standard bearer in the Great Lakes State.
Michigan State has had some notable coaches in the past, such as John L. Smith and Nick Saban, but while those men treated the job as a stepping stone, Dantonio has made East Lansing a destination gig. And the school has done its best to ensure this, locking him up until next decade and paying him the kind of money that won't make him reconsider his decision to put down roots.
The Spartans are in the midst of their best stretch in program history, which has included a Big Ten title, a Rose Bowl win and two straight New Year's Day victories. Dantonio has been the architect of that, and he's so loved by his players that potential high NFL draft picks like quarterback Connor Cook and defensive end Shilique Calhoun barely hesitated before deciding to return to school.
Kirk Ferentz, Iowa
3 of 12
Year at school: 17th
Record at school: 115-85
Under contract through: 2020
Kirk Ferentz has been at his job longer than all but two other FBS coaches, and his win total is second in school history only to his predecessor, Hayden Fry.
Yet in an era where schools hand out pink slips to coaches who average better than nine wins per year, somehow Ferentz is a secure in his job than almost anyone else in the country despite not having won more than eight games since 2009 and only twice in 11 seasons.
Why? It might have something to do with the language in Ferentz's contract, not in the fine print but in the easy-to-read section on what his buyout would be if Ferentz were to be let go.
"If Iowa were to fire Ferentz for convenience, the school would continue to owe him 75 percent of his annual guaranteed salary for the remaining years in his contract," Forbes.com's Chris Smith wrote in September.
Ferentz's annual salary is $3.55 million, which would have made him due $13.3 million had he been let go this offseason. After 2015, it would drop to $10.65 million.
Iowa's athletic department has a strong revenue stream, but a buyout like that would require some serious booster assistance.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
Jimbo Fisher, Florida State
4 of 12
Year at school: 6th
Record at school: 58-11
Under contract through: 2022
Winning a national title doesn't guarantee a coach's job forever. Just ask Mack Brown, who five years after winning the 2005 championship had a losing record and was eventually forced out under the veil of retirement, while Auburn fired Gene Chizik just two years after bringing Auburn a title.
But the difference between those guys and Jimbo Fisher is two-fold. First, the school took a chance on him as a first-time head coach, and one that had to replace a legend like Bobby Bowden; and second, he could very easily jump to the NFL at any moment.
Both of those reasons are why Florida State rushed to give Fisher a massive contract extension, which he signed in January for $5 million this season with raises that will get him to $5.7 in the final year.
Fisher has responded to FSU's devotion to him by being a staunch defender of the school and his program, standing out in front of the media horde that swarmed Tallahassee throughout Jameis Winston's checkered career there. And with the stellar recruiting he's done over the years and continues to do, he's got an endless supply of potential stars to work with to keep the Seminoles' recent run from being over already.
Jim Harbaugh, Michigan
5 of 12
Year at school: 1st
Record at school: 0-0
Under contract through: 2021
It's a common approach for a coach's first contract to be around five years long, just long enough to let that coach feel he's got some time to get acclimated but no so long that he can drag his feet. Early success often leads to an extension, while a lack of progress makes it much less costly to cut ties.
Yet Michigan gave Jim Harbaugh an eight-year deal, two years longer than both Brady Hoke (fired after four seasons) and Rich Rodriguez (canned after three). Despite having been out of college football since the end of the 2010 season and his pro tenure ending on a sour note, the Wolverines are all-in with Harbaugh and are convinced he is the program's savior.
They were somewhat certain RichRod and Hoke were their knights in polo-covered armor, too, but neither of those guys had the overwhelming support of not just the administration but also all of the alumni and boosters who are so obsessed with having a "Michigan man" in the job.
Harbaugh grew up in Ann Arbor and played quarterback for the Wolverines, so it's hard to get any more Michigan than that.
Urban Meyer, Ohio State
6 of 12
Year at school: 4th
Record at school: 38-3
Under contract through: 2017
We previously referenced how winning a title doesn't ensure job security, but it sure does help.
And considering how Urban Meyer went about winning that championship in 2014-15, how it served as carry-over from what he'd done in his first two seasons with the Buckeyes and what he's done everywhere else he's coached, he's probably going to get a sizable number of write-in votes the next time there's a mayoral election in Columbus.
The governor's office wouldn't even be a stretch at this point.
Meyer had the same kind of security at his previous job, Florida, where he won two national titles and could have stayed for the remainder of his career. It was his decision to walk away, citing health and family reasons, and it's probably the only thing that will keep him from coaching the Buckeyes forever.
Every other coach on this list is under contract through 2018, and Meyer's deal only extends to 2017 as part of an extension he earned for guiding OSU into the College Football Playoff. But that's more his choice than the school's, as Meyer is committed to being more of a family man than he was in the past.
Dan Mullen, Mississippi State
7 of 12
Year at school: 7th
Record at school: 46-31
Under contract through: 2018
Dan Mullen's job security got a major boost last month when Mississippi State inked him to an extension that puts his salary at $4.275 million per year, a raise of more than $1 million from what he made this past season while leading the Bulldogs to their best start in school history and contention for the playoffs.
"Dan has done a phenomenal job in leading our football team the past six years," MSU athletic director Scott Stricklin said in a news release, per the Clarion-Ledger's Michael Bonner. "And we're happy to be in a position to reward his efforts while making sure he'll be able to continue building a championship program for Mississippi State."
Translation: We don't want you to leave Starkville for loftier (if not greener pastures), such as the Florida job that opened up last November.
Mullen's deal looks good from a financial standpoint, but in terms of length, it's not that great. This could be because it took him a while to get things going with MSU, averaging just over seven wins per season in his first five years before breaking through in 2014. The school might not want to over-invest until they know Mullen can produce consistently.
But while that might make it seem like his job isn't that secure, it's actually the opposite. If Mullen has another 10-win season this fall, or even better, he'll again be mentioned for other jobs and will either get an even bigger (and longer) deal or move on.
Gary Patterson, TCU
8 of 12
Year at school: 15th
Record at school: 132-45
Under contract through: 2020
When Gary Patterson was promoted from defensive coordinator to head coach, TCU was about to move from the Western Athletic Conference to Conference USA. It was considered a huge bump up for a program that was thrown onto the scrap heap when the Southwest Conference was raided by other leagues and disbanded.
Patterson navigated TCU through two more conference upgrades, first to the Mountain West and then in 2012 to the Big 12. And he's not just made it competitive, he's risen to the top everywhere.
When you think of TCU football, there are three main names: Davey O'Brien, LaDainian Tomlinson and Patterson. That's why, even though it took him a couple of rough seasons to get the Horned Frogs into contention in the Big 12, the school never wavered and that patience paid off last season.
TCU was more than deserving of a playoff spot, and its snub was met with much criticism for a program that didn't get looked at as an upstart but as one that had arrived and looked built to stick around. That's been Patterson's doing. And after the journey he's led the program on, he's not likely to get pushed aside now that the Frogs have reached their destination.
Gary Pinkel, Missouri
9 of 12
Year at school: 15th
Record at school: 113-66
Under contract through: 2020
If Missouri were going to get rid of Gary Pinkel, it would have had a perfect opportunity to do so after he struggled in his first season transitioning the Tigers from the Big 12 to the SEC. It could have been chalked up to needing a more noteworthy coach to handle the rigors of college football's toughest league and that while Pinkel did an admirable job in the previous conference, this just wasn't for him.
Then Pinkel coached Mizzou to back-to-back SEC East Division titles and 23 victories the past two years, in the process becoming the school's all-time wins leader. Now the school is stuck with Pinkel, though, we doubt that's how they feel about it.
Pinkel was given an extension in between those title seasons, upping his salary from $2.35 million to $3.1 million. He also got a significant boost to the salary pool for his assistants; this coming a few years after his previous extension in 2011 came only with raises for his staff (which was his wish, per Dave Matter of the Columbia Daily Tribune).
That kind of dedication to his employees has helped keep his staff mostly intact of late and likely contributed to defensive line coach Craig Kuligowski opting not to take a job at Illinois this offseason. Mizzou, in turn, will no doubt remain loyal to Pinkel even if he doesn't manage to become the first team since Florida in 1992-96 to reach three straight SEC title games from the East Division.
Rich Rodriguez, Arizona
10 of 12
Year at school: 4th
Record at school: 26-14
Under contract through: 2019
Most of the other schools whose coaches are on this list are ones where football is the sport, or it's achieved consistent success for a relatively long time with only a few exceptions. Neither of those scenarios are in play at Arizona, where Rich Rodriguez inherited a program where winning eight games was usually a huge accomplishment and where its men's basketball team is followed like a religion.
But RichRod has managed to make Tucson a two-sport town, posting the program's first stretch of three straight years with at least eight victories since the mid-1970s and getting the Wildcats into their first Pac-12 title game and their first major bowl appearance in 20 years last season.
Not surprisingly, Rodriguez's name gets thrown out there for bigger openings such as Florida this past winter and Louisville after the 2013 season. Yet he's been down that road before, and it didn't go so well, so there's got to be some reluctance to make another jump after his move from West Virginia to Michigan was riddled with discontent and disappointment.
Arizona doesn't want him to leave, nor does its supporters, which is why a unique plan featuring shares of a retention fund was created by donors in 2014 to ensure Rodriguez, basketball coach Sean Miller and athletic director Greg Byrne stick around.
Nick Saban, Alabama
11 of 12
Year at school: 9th
Record at school: 86-17
Under contract through: 2021
Nick Saban has boosters paying off his mortgage and an agent who managed to land him a raise to more than $7 million per season merely by making Alabama just consider the idea of their beloved coach showing interest in another job. After reading that, if you still think he doesn't have job security, then there are some deep-seeded trust issues that need to get worked out.
Saban has won three national titles and has the Crimson Tide in the hunt for several others, establishing a level of success that prompts talk of the sky falling whenever they lose a game. Then Alabama breaks off another long win streak, and much of that tends to get forgotten once people remember that Saban has only twice lost consecutive games since 2008.
And both of those situations involved Alabama dropping a bowl game that wasn't one involving the shot at a championship.
There is no coach whose job is more secure than Saban's, at least not in college football. Rather than debate his job stability, it's more worthwhile to discuss the likelihood Alabama will be able to hold onto him if he grows tired of all that unbridled success.
Bill Snyder, Kansas State
12 of 12
Year at school: 24th
Record at school: 187-94-1
Under contract through: 2018
Rather than open up a dictionary or Google the phrase "job security," there's a far more definitive way to determine how safe someone's employment is. If they coach in a stadium with their name on it, odds are they don't have to worry much about getting kicked to the curb.
Bill Snyder has been leading the Wildcats onto the field at Bill Snyder Family Football Stadium since 2009, when he returned to the school following a three-year retirement. The stadium was renamed in his honor when he stepped down in 2005, having already turned K-State into a strong program that was at the bottom of the barrel when he started there in 1989.
Snyder hasn't lost a step since coming back, averaging 8.5 wins per season after averaging 8.0 during the first run.
At age 75, Snyder is a recent inductee in the College Football Hall of Fame, and each season could be his last. Not because his returns are diminishing, but because at some point he'll decide to hang up his windbreaker again, and this time it will be for good.
Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
