Ole Miss has SEC’s eighth-highest paid football coaching staff

Published 2:52 pm Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Ole Miss was in the middle of the Southeastern Conference pack this season when it came to compensation for assistant coaches.

The Rebels’ coordinators and position coaches made a collective $4,261,700 with defensive coordinator Dave Wommack leading the way at $800,000, according to USA Today’s updated salary database. Ole Miss is in the market for another defensive coordinator following Wommack’s retirement.

Ole Miss’ assistant salary pool, a bump of more than $1 million from the $3.11 million they made a season ago, ranks eighth out of the SEC’s 13 public schools and 14th nationally. Vanderbilt, a private university, did not have to release salary information.

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Last season’s pool for assistants ranked 12th in the league.

Offensive coordinator Dan Werner is next at $670,500 while offensive line coach Matt Luke made $565,300. Defensive line coach Chris Kiffin came in at $450,500 followed by cornerbacks coach Jason Jones and running backs coach Derrick Nix (each $400,000), tight ends coach Maurice Harris ($375,400) and receivers coach Grant Heard and safeties coach Corey Batoon, who each made $300,000.

How many assistants will be retained with a new defensive coordinator set to be hired by head coach Hugh Freeze is unknown.

Texas A&M defensive coordinator John Chavis is the nation’s highest-paid assistant at $1,558,000. LSU’s coaching staff, which had two assistants added midseason after defensive line coach Ed Orgeron was promoted to head coach following Les Miles’ firing, is the highest-paid in the country at $5,781,500.

Alabama ($5,320,000), A&M ($4,811,000), Georgia ($4,675,000), Tennessee ($4,545,700), Florida, ($4,530,709) and Auburn ($4,456,250) are the other SEC teams with higher assistant salary pools than Ole Miss this season.