College Football's 10 Highest-Paid Assistant Coaches

The million-dollar club in college football isn't just for head coaches anymore.

As salaries for college football's head men continue to skyrocket, there's been a trickle-down effect to their top assistants. That's especially true if the assistant is a top-notch defensive coordinator, as those dominate the salary databases in today's offense-friendly age of football.

With the 2016 coaching carousel almost coming to a complete stop—Illinois decided to take it for one more spin this past weekend—let's take a look at the assistant coaches who will be paid the most for their services this upcoming season.

The bulk of the information for this top-10 list came from the excellent assistant coach salary database at USA Today, which totaled up the pay for the 2015 contract year. Each coach is listed with his 2015 salary and his projected 2016 salary, with numbers for several assistants in new roles based on reported figures. 

(For those who don't have a confirmed 2016 salary yet, their place on this list is based on their 2015 salary.)

Keep in mind that private schools such as Notre Dame, USC and Stanford aren't required to release their coaches' contract information like their public school counterparts. That's why that type of institution, with one notable exception, isn't found on salary lists like this one.

Which college football assistant do you think deserves the biggest payday? Find a name and salary amount that I missed in my research? Let me know in the comments below.

10. Virginia Tech DC Bud Foster

Steve Helber/Associated Press

2015 salary: $900,000

2016 salary: $925,000

As Virginia Tech's defensive coordinator since the 1995 season, Bud Foster is one of the longest-tenured coaches in all of college football—including head coaches. 

With a streak of top-10 defenses and a long history of loyalty to Virginia Tech, Foster is closing in on a membership to college football's million-dollar club. According to Chris Coleman of TechSideline.com, Foster will make $1 million in 2019 if he stays with the Hokies, according to the contract extension he signed late in 2014.

Foster's salary goes up by $25,000 each year he stays with Virginia Tech, which decided to hire Justin Fuente to replace longtime boss Frank Beamer. Under Fuente, Foster now has the title of associate head coach in addition to defensive coordinator and linebackers coach.

"For me, it was an obvious thing," Fuente said, per Mike Barber of the Richmond Times-Dispatch. "In a very short time, it’s very apparent, his pulse on Virginia Tech, his quality as a person. He’s a natural fit."

Retaining Foster was a huge bonus for Fuente and Virginia Tech, which is willing to pay a high amount to keep the legendary assistant in Blacksburg.

9. Baylor DC Phil Bennett

Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

2015 salary: $980,415

2016 salary: N/A

Being a private institution, Baylor isn't required to release its salary information for football coaches.

However, USA Today was able to find out how much the Bears pay defensive coordinator Phil Bennett thanks to the school's "most recently available federal tax return." The tax return revealed the Bears pay Bennett, who has been the team's defensive coordinator since 2011, a little less than $1 million per year.

Prior to the 2015 season, the database showed Bennett made about $900,000, per Katie Hairopoulos of the Dallas Morning News.

"There’s pressure on everybody from the AD down through the assistant coaches," former Baylor coach Grant Teaff told Hairopoulos last year. "They’re not paying them big money to be mediocre. But not everybody can win."

While defense isn't the first thing one thinks of with Baylor football under Art Briles, Bennett has been an assistant for the most successful stretch in program history. The Bears ranked ninth nationally in total yards allowed per play in 2013 and finished 37th in the same category last year.

8. Tennessee DC Bob Shoop

247Sports

2015 salary: $1 million (at Penn State), according to Bruce Feldman of Fox Sports

2016 salary: $1.15 million

While the SEC West is home to the bigger assistant coach contracts in college football, the SEC East has gotten in on the action in recent years.

This offseason, Tennessee joined by hiring former Penn State defensive coordinator Bob Shoop and giving him a $150,000 raise from what he was reportedly making with the Nittany Lions. Shoop will make $1.15 million per year at Tennessee, per Dustin Dopirak of the Knoxville News Sentinel.

Shoop's second stop in Tennessee—he was James Franklin's defensive coordinator at Vanderbilt from 2011 to 2013—should be a great one for the Volunteers. Shoop's defenses at Penn State ranked second and 14th, respectively, in the FBS, and he's inheriting eight returning starters.

"The Vols are going big, and Shoop's arrival is only more evidence," Bleacher Report's Barrett Sallee wrote. "It's a hire that could put Tennessee over the top and send it to Atlanta in early December."

The rich get richer in the SEC, and Shoop will be paid handsomely for his services in Knoxville under head coach Butch Jones. The Volunteers will hope the move pays off in a huge way as they eye a SEC Championship Game berth in 2016.

7. LSU DC Dave Aranda

247Sports

2015 salary: $520,000 (at Wisconsin)

2016 salary: $1.2 million

The biggest winners of the assistant coaching carousel had to be LSU and new defensive coordinator Dave Aranda. The Tigers got one of the best defensive minds in football, while Aranda more than doubled his salary.

After Kevin Steele—more on him later—jumped to Auburn from LSU, the Tigers plucked Aranda from Wisconsin, where he had built three straight top-10 defenses with underrated recruits. 

Wisconsin has notably not joined the recent trend of skyrocketing football coach salaries, which played a role in former head coaches Bret Bielema and Gary Andersen deciding to go elsewhere. Now the Badgers' top assistant is at a new school after going from $520,000 to $1.2 million a year at LSU.

"When this defensive coordinator position came open, my conversations with coach Miles were very simple, and that was to go out and get the very best that we could get to come here to LSU," LSU athletic director Joe Alleva said, per David Ching of ESPN.com. "And in my opinion, we’ve done that."

As the rest of this list shows, LSU hasn't been afraid to shell out the big bucks for top assistant coaches. With Aranda, the Tigers now have one of the very best in the sport.

T-5. Alabama DC Jeremy Pruitt

Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

2015 salary: $1.3 million (at Georgia)

2016 salary: TBA

The details of new Alabama defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt's contract haven't been officially announced, but it doesn't take a master mathematician to figure out he'll be making quite a lot of money in 2016.

Pruitt was making $1.3 million as Mark Richt's defensive coordinator at Georgia. When the Bulldogs dismissed Richt and hired Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart to be their next head coach, Alabama hired Pruitt to take Smart's spot on Nick Saban's roster.

Before making his move to Athens, Smart was paid $1.5 million to coach at Alabama in 2015. Considering the incredible strength of the moneymaking machine that is Alabama football, the defending national champions won't be stingy with their contract with Pruitt.

Pruitt, who was an assistant on Saban's staff at Alabama from 2007 to 2012, was the defensive coordinator for Florida State when it won the national championship in 2013. In his two seasons as Georgia's defensive coordinator, Pruitt's defenses ranked 17th and seventh, respectively, in the FBS.

Pruitt's 2015 salary put him tied with the next coach on this list, but it wouldn't be surprising to see him make a move up when the final numbers are unveiled.

T-5. Louisville DC Todd Grantham

Jeremy Brevard-USA TODAY Sports

2015 salary: $1.3 million

2016 salary: $1.3 million

Todd Grantham wasted no time in making a huge splash at Louisville. The former Georgia defensive coordinator inherited a Charlie Strong-built unit in 2014 and led it to a No. 6 finish in total defense.

According to Jeff Greer of the Louisville Courier-Journal, Grantham got a quick raise for his coaching job in 2014, going from making $975,000 to $1.3 million ahead of the 2015 season. He turned down a job opportunity with the NFL's Oakland Raiders in order to stay with the Cardinals.

"I said when I came to Louisville that I thought we could win a national championship, and we are building toward that goal with the success we had this season," Grantham said, per Greer. "My family loves it in Louisville, and I think we are establishing something special here with head coach Bobby Petrino and our staff."

In 2015, Louisville was still inside the top 20 nationally for total defense after a slow start to the season. Grantham's defenses held NC State, Boston College, Wake Forest, Syracuse and rival Kentucky to fewer than 300 yards in their respective meetings.

Now Grantham will head into his third season on a team that is tied for the most returning starters in the FBS for 2016—including eight on the defensive side of the ball.

4. Clemson DC Brent Venables

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2015 salary: $1.35 million

2016 salary: $1.35 million

The architect of Clemson's most recent defensive successes, Brent Venables, is getting paid like the top-notch assistant he is. 

Venables received a raise and a four-year contract extension after a 2014 season in which Clemson had the nation's No. 1 defense. He now makes $1.35 million a year from now until the end of the 2018 season, according to TigerNet.com (h/t Chance Litton of 247Sports).

The Clemson coordinator earned every penny of that new salary last season by leading a defense that returned only three starters to the national championship game and another top-10 finish in total yards allowed per game. 

Venables arrived at Clemson prior to the 2012 season after spending his entire coaching career up to that point in the Big 12. The Kansas State alumnus was Bob Stoops' defensive coordinator at Oklahoma for eight years, and he left after Mike Stoops returned to Norman to take his former job. 

Venables is currently the highest-paid assistant coach outside of the SEC West, and Clemson should expect more elite defense as long as he has the headset on in Death Valley.

3. Auburn DC Kevin Steele

247Sports

2015 salary: $1 million (at LSU)

2016 salary: "in the neighborhood of $1.4 million," per Glenn Guilbeau of Gannett Louisiana

Kevin Steele was already part of the million-dollar club in his one season at LSU's defensive coordinator, and his offseason move to SEC West rival Auburn should lock in his status as one of the top salaries among assistants.

Steele's official salary with Auburn hasn't been formally announced—he joked he didn't "know how to read a contract" at his first press conference with the Tigers, per James Crepea of AL.com—but initial reports had the deal around the $1.4 million range.

"My wife said that 'we are going to Auburn, and we're staying in Auburn,'" Steele said, per Crepea. "So, there's no ink that could give more guarantee than that. I'm 57 ... I want to be here the duration of my coaching career, and I've never been able to say that before."

Steele has been coaching in college football for 35 years, previously serving as a defensive coordinator at Alabama and Clemson as well as a head coach at Baylor from 1999-2002. His 2015 defense at LSU ranked 25th in the country in yards allowed per game.

As the fifth Auburn defensive coordinator in six seasons, the Tigers will hope Steele's experience will help him stick as a success on the Plains. They're not paying as much as they did for Will Muschamp, but the reported salary isn't too far off from what the former Florida head coach made in 2015.

2. LSU OC Cam Cameron

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2015 salary: $1.5 million

2016 salary: TBA

Cam Cameron's place on a highest-paid assistants list is now up in the air after he signed a contract extension with LSU a few days ago.

According to Ross Dellenger of the Baton Rouge Advocate, Cameron's contract is expected to be similar to Dave Aranda's, but the financial details haven't been released. LSU head coach Les Miles confirmed the contract extension Monday, per Jim Kleinpeter of NOLA.com.

Based on his 2015 salary, Cameron is already one of the highest-paid assistants in the entire country. His $1.5 million salary was tied for second-most in the country with Kirby Smart and John Chavis.

Unfortunately for the Tigers, LSU's offensive production under Cameron hasn't exactly matched his high price tag. In the former NFL coach's three seasons with the program, the Tigers haven't finished higher than 35th nationally in yards per game and 23rd nationally in points per game—both of which came in his first year.

Only time will tell how much Cameron's new contract with the Bayou Bengals will pay him. As it stands right now, he's by far the highest-paid offensive coordinator in college football.

1. Texas A&M DC John Chavis

Jonathan Bachman/Associated Press

2015 salary: $1.5 million

2016 salary: $1.55 million

Last year, John Chavis kick-started the great SEC race of defensive coordinators by leaving LSU for division rival Texas A&M.

Now that Muschamp is head coaching again at South Carolina and a scheduled raise of $50,000 is set to kick in, Chavis will stand alone as the highest-paid assistant coach in all of college football at a salary $1.55 million for 2016.

Chavis has been a defensive coordinator in the SEC since 1995, working a championship-winning tenure under Phillip Fulmer at Tennessee before moving to LSU. In Baton Rouge, The Chief had five straight top-15 defenses from 2010 to 2014 and cemented himself as one of the most coveted names in coaching.

But Chavis didn't necessarily have to leave the Tigers in order to become the highest-paid coordinator in the country. According to Ross Dellenger of the Baton Rouge Advocate, Chavis turned down a contract extension from LSU worth an average of $1.8 million per year on the night of the team's 2014 Music City Bowl loss to Notre Dame.

Chavis headed west for Texas A&M, where his Aggies improved from 104th nationally in yards allowed per game to 51st nationally in 2015. He'll get another raise of $50,000 for the 2017 season, which should keep him near the top of the salary charts for a while.

Justin Ferguson is a National College Football Analyst at Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @JFergusonBR.