His salary is currently just over $3 million per year and his base salary is actually higher than Peterson. It's not WSU's fault that they have more fluff money to throw at Peterson.
Washington Employee Salaries
When you consider the percentage of our athletic department salary that goes to Leach, he is likely the highest paid coach in the conference. On top of that, when you factor in cost of living and other factors, his salary is just fine. What's interesting is that Wilcox is getting paid less than $2 million per year at Cal.....how insulted he must be!!!! At least Cal fans can feel good knowing that they are doomed to last place based on salary but it's just the way it is. Now, I agree that as we see increases in our on-field performance, we should not be surprised if his pay increases, and that is the way that it should be. However, to pretend that $3 million plus per year is some bargain basement deal is a big disingenuous. We aren't paying him under $1 million per year like the "good ol' days" under Wulff. He is getting a market salary for a reason and that reason is he is expected to be successful. FWIW, when I say paid too much, I don't mean that his salary is too high. It's too high to accept the status quo.
Wilcox had ZERO head coaching experience.
We hired the Big XII coach of the year who coached a team to a Number 2 BCS rating, 10 bowl games, beat the number 1 team in the nation, and holds god knows how many NCAA records and accolades....
For CHEAP.
Your assumption is that percentage wise based on the budget of WSU he is paid a lot.
But, when we hired Wulff and was paying him nothing we got.... exactly what we paid for.... Garbage.
Football helps to market a University in a big way, and we've had WAY more exposure because of Leach and that should be factored into his salary for what he has done.
Jim Harbaugh is paid 9 million dollars a year at Michigan. 9 MILLION.
Saban who has won a ton of championships... 7 million.
Urban Meyer..... 6 million.
To show you how much of a steal we are getting with Leach.
Kliff Kingsbury who now coaches Texas Tech makes 3.3 million... Leach makes 2.9
And Texas Tech hasn't had as good of a record SINCE he was fired....
When Mark Helfrich was at Oregon he was getting paid 3.30 million.
So Oregon paid 400k more than us for a guy who had never been a HC who they fired after 4 years.
USC paid how much to fire Sark?
UCLA is paying Mora 500k more than Leach.
Mora is making 500k more than Leach
But what's crazier is that Texas A&M is paying Sumlin 5 million dollars.
5 million dollars to a guy who has one of the best recruiting based in the country, exclusive SEC stakes in the state, 100k+ stadium and collapses against MORA...
For a team that hasn't had this good of a start in 16 years...
that is on pace to go to a bowl for the 3rd time in 3 years in 16 years...
It's a steal. A tremendous steal.
If you want a Harbaugh, Urban Meyer, or a Nick Saban it will cost you at LEAST 7-9 million per year AND.... this is a big AND...they would want to come to Pullman.
Our stadium barely holds 40k people, we had been to a total of 9 bowls game in 100 years, we are in one of the most remote locations for a major conference team...
And we are #18 in the Nation currently, 4-0, been to a bowl game the last two years, beaten every team in the conference at least once under this coach during his tenure, and were 1 game away from being in the conference championship last year...
Are we overachieving for what the status quo is for our school's history in the sport. ABSOLUTELY.
Mike Price's tenure was NOT the norm for us. We went through a lot of hell to get somewhere close now, and we definitely are getting a bargain at it.
People can whine and cry about coaches salaries, but I ask any of you this simple question.
If you could get your place of work to achieve something it hasn't done in 16 years,
beaten every major competitor over the course of the past 6 years in sales at least once,
develop a brand identity that is talked about on television for FREE in advertising in the press every single week at the highest level.
be ranked in the top 20 in the COUNTRY in your field,
have 40k plus people actually get off their ass to come and see you live every week and millions more tune in to watch your product
And did it all with a staff of just 18-22 year old boys
What kind of salary would YOU want?
How much is that to you?
How much do you think a corporation would be willing to pay for those results?