Norm Chow Agrees To Contract Extension: Sends A Message About Neuheisel/UCLA Football

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM (HT Achilles):

UCLA offensive coordinator Norm Chow has agreed in principal to a two-year contract extension that is believed to make him the highest paid assistant coach in Bruins' history, an athletic department source said.

Chow, long considered one of college football's top offensive coordinators, is expected to make between $400,000 and $500,000 per season. The contract does not include a buyout.

Only 18 NCAA Division I assistants made a base-salary of $400,000 or more last season, with five making more than $600,000, according to USA Today.

 Tennessee's Monte Kiffin, now at USC, made $1.2 million. Texas' Will Muschamp made $900,000. Tennessee's Ed Orgeron, who also jumped to USC, made $650,000. Florida State's Jimbo Fischer made $629,000. Washington's Nick Holt made $600,000.

The final details of Chow's contract are being worked out, but it is expected to be in place well before the season opener at Kansas State on Sept. 4.

So has anybody seen SChilly Smith? ROFL.

What a fantastic way to blow up Pac-10 Media Day. I have a feeling Coach Rick Neuheisel and Norm Chow planned this all along. This is going to energize the already ginned up Bruin Nation and get us even more fired up for opening of Fall Camp (starting on August 9th). There are number of big time implications (positives ones for those four letters) from this blockbuster news.  Let's get to them after the jump.

There are number of quick takeaways from this blockbuster news:

• This should send a clear and concise message to every recruits around the country about how Chow is totally committed to UCLA (and in turn they should be tuning out any kind of negative recruiting that might be happening from opposing conference coaches who might be concern trolling about UCLA - we are looking at you Brett Hundley).
• This should end all the nonsense gossip (mostly coming from silly Trogans and paranoid worrywarts on message boards) we have heard now about the so called friction between Chow and Neuheisel. We have always maintained here on BN there wasn't anything to that and this should end that BS.
• This should send a clear and concise message to everyone in college football about the kind of confidence Coach Norm Chow has in the leadership of Coach Rick Neuheisel.
• Lastly, this should also put a stop to the notion that UCLA will not fork up resources to get great coaching.

This is absolutely huge. One of the biggest reasons Terry Donahue's UCLA run faltered in the late 80s and early 90s was letting Homer Smith go. Bob Toledo made the same mistake when he let Al Borges go.

Well things are still gelling in Westwood under Neuheisel and Westwood, but today's news is a BFD that shows how everyone in this program is totally committed and completely bought into the vision that Neuheisel has established for UCLA.

GO BRUINS.