Lantern file photo
Ohio State will pay Urban Meyer and his football coaching staff a total of $7.57 million in salary for the 2013 season, an OSU spokesman confirmed in an email to The Lantern on Tuesday.
Meyer’s salary in 2013 will be $4.16 million, up from the $4 million he earned in 2012, according to the email.
For the first time in OSU football history, the university will pay three assistant coaches more than $500,000 each, according to the spokesman. Defensive coordinator and linebackers coach Luke Fickell will make $600,000, co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach Everett Withers will make $580,000 and offensive coordinator Tom Herman will make $550,000.
The OSU spokesman said in the email that Fickell’s $750,000 salary in 2012 was a transitional salary from the 2011 season when he served as interim head coach. According to the spokesperson, it was “pre-determined that his 2013 salary would be market driven and more in alignment with the rest of the Ohio State assistant coaches’ salaries.”
Withers and Herman each received $130,000 raises above their 2012 salaries.
The increase in Meyer’s salary makes him the nation’s fifth-highest paid coach in 2013, according to the Columbus Dispatch, who first reported the story.
Every coach except Fickell will make more next season than they did in 2012. Offensive line coach and co-offensive coach Ed Warinner will be paid $364,000 in 2013, a $14,000 raise from 2012.
Special teams coordinator and cornerbacks coach Kerry Coombs has a $300,000 salary for 2013 and running backs coach Stan Drayton will make $295,000. Defensive line coach Mike Vrabel and tight ends coach Tim Hinton each have $286,000 salaries for 2013. Those four coaches had $275,000 salaries in 2012, the spokesman said in the email.
The lowest-paid assistant coach on Meyer’s staff is wide receivers coach Zach Smith. Smith will make $155,000 in 2013, a $5,000 raise from 2012.
Overall, OSU will pay their coaching staff $354,000 more than they did in 2012, when the total salary of the coaching staff was $7.22 million.
The Dispatch report also indicated that none of Ohio State’s coaches have contracts running past the 2014 season. Fickell, Coombs, Vrabel, Hinton and Smith are under contract for 2013 only, while Withers, Herman, Warinner and Drayton have contracts that run through 2014.
