The University of Oklahoma announced at Tuesday’s Board of Regents meeting that second-year head football coach Lincoln Riley is in line for a five-year, $25 million raise and extension that will pay him $1 million a year more than he made last season, when he guided the Sooners to their third consecutive Big 12 title and a return to the College Football Playoff.
Riley’s new deal amounts to a $1 million raise per year (his 2017 salary was $3.1 million) and includes a $100,000 annual pay bump. He will make $4.8 million in 2018, $4.9 million in 2019, $5 million in 2020, $5.1 million in 2021 and $5.2 million in 2022.
Riley’s annual average salary of $5 million is tied with Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy as the third highest for coaches in the Big 12 Conference, behind Texas’ Tom Herman ($5.75 million average) and TCU’s Gary Patterson ($5.1 million).
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Riley will make $4.8 million this year — just $100,000 more than his quarterback, junior Kyler Murray, got as a signing bonus from the Oakland A’s. Murray is competing with Austin Kendall for the job at OU, but as the ninth overall pick in the MLB Draft last week, he has a solid fallback plan.
According to USA Today’s database for the 2017 season, Riley’s average of $5 million a year would place him tied for 10th among head coaches, though several coaches in the top 10 have changed schools.
Alabama’s Nick Saban ranks No. 1 at $11.132 million. Clemson’s Dabo Swinney is second at $8.527 million, Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh is third at $7.004 million and Ohio State’s Urban Meyer is fourth at $6.431 million.
Riley’s new contract includes a $325,000 base salary, plus $3.475 million in unrestricted private funds for personal services, fundraising and promotional activities, as well as a $500,000 annual “stay benefit” each June 1 and a supplemental retirement income plan worth $500,000 a year.
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The rest of the OU football coaching staff also got hefty raises:
— Defensive coordinator and linebackers coach Mike Stoops went from $920,000 to $950,000.
— Assistant head coach and defensive tackles coach Ruffin McNeill went from $560,000 to $570,000.
— Co-offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh went from $535,000 to $625,000.
— Defensive backs coach Kerry Cooks went from $475,000 to $500,000.
— Receivers coach and recruiting coordinator Cale Gundy went from $430,000 to $500,000.
— Running backs coach Jay Boulware went from $400,000 to $435,000.
— Linebackers coach Tim Kish went from $370,000 to $400,000.
— Receivers coach Dennis Simmons went from $350,000 to $400,000.
— Defensive ends coach Calvin Thibodeaux went from $270,000 to $325,000.
— New tight ends coach Shane Beamer’s deal for $435,000 a year was approved at a previous board meeting.