UCLA Football: Bruin Coaches Doing Less While Getting Paid More?

Here is a quick followup from islandbruin2's post from last week in which he laid out how the UCLA coaching staff is doing less with more. Jim Mora and his coach staff blew a chance at championship for third straight year despite having gobs of talent all over the roster. By all accounts Bruins were expected to win Pac-12's South division by respected observers both inside and outside the program.

Bruins had 9 players who received all conference honors. The offense was led by a record-breaking quarterback, and the defense was led by a Butkus award winner. Still for the third straight year in Mora era Bruins came up short.

This was not because of having a staff that was underpaid. The numbers for NCAA coaching salaries were posted yesterday and it appears that Jim Mora and his assistants are one of the highest paid coaching staff in the conference and the country. Numbers you want to take note of [Note these numbers do not include salaries of private institutions such as Southern Cal or Stanford]:

– Jim Mora is the third highest paid coach in the conference (No. 19 in the country)

– UCLA has 2 of the 3 highest paid assistants in the conference in Noel Mazzone (No. 17 in the country) and Adrian Klemm (No. 19 in the country). Mike Norvell is the highest paid Pac-12 assistant (No. 8 in the country).

– Jeff Ulbrich is the second highest paid DC in the Pac-12 despite having ZERO years of experience as a defensive coordinator (he happens to be one of Mora's "closest friends").

Couple of more interesting pointers from Ryan Kartje:

**In terms of total pay, including bonuses in 2014, Klemm likely stands to make much more than just the $660,000 mentioned in the USA Today database. The offensive line coach was already given a $63,000 signing bonus for the extension he signed last offseason. And if Klemm simply stays on UCLA's staff until January 1, 2015, he'll be given a $40,000 retention bonus. Before next season, Klemm's salary will increase even more, with his talent fee set to increase by $100,000 (to $500,000 annually)

**Offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone and defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich both have retention bonuses set to kick in with the New Year. If Mazzone remains on staff through Jan. 1, he'll earn half of his vested retention bonus for 2015 ($65,000), with the other half set to be paid to the offensive coordinator on July 1. Ulbrich, despite being a first-year coordinator, will actually receive a higher vested retention bonus with $70,000 bonuses on the way, assuming he stays on staff until July 1. The real windfall for Mazzone will come if he remains on staff through next offseason. If he does, he stands to make $162,250 on Jan. 1, 2016 and another $162,250 six months later.

So is UCLA getting its money's worth from Mazzone and Ulbrich?

Isn't expectation for a conference championship within next two years more than reasonable given UCLA has one of the highest paid staff in the conference?

Discuss.