Who’s The Highest-Paid Assistant Football Coach In The Pac-12?

Today, USA Today published their annual list of the NCAA Football Assistant Coach salaries.

At $760,000, UCLA offensive line coach/associate head coach/run game coordinator Adrian Klemm is UCLA’s highest paid assistant coach. He made $240,000 more than UCLA’s offensive and defensive coordinators this season. Let that sink in for a moment.

Tom Bradley and Kennedy Polamalu were each paid $510,000 for their services while Klemm was paid more.

For that kind of money, the UCLA offensive line should be the best in the country. The offense should have been able to run the ball. And, they should have provided plenty of protection to keep Josh Rosen from getting injured.

For that kind of money, an assistant coach should be expected to know and understand NCAA recruiting rules and regulations and be able to avoid breaking the rules and being sanctioned by the NCAA with a “Show Cause” order.

Despite all this, Klemm is still employed by UCLA.

Klemm is the highest-paid assistant in the Pac-12. Not even a coordinator at another Pac-12 school was paid more than Klemm this season.

He was the 26th highest-paid assistant coach in the country when you include offensive and defensive coordinators.

Now, to be fair, the USA Today Assistant Coach Salary database does not include the salaries of coaches from schools like Stanford, USC or Notre Dame which do not publish the salaries of their coaches.

But, for everyone who says that UCLA can’t afford this or can’t afford that, this list should really cease all that talk.

Let’s look at some more key info from the list.

UCLA’s total payroll of assistant football coaches total $3.955 million this year. That’s about a million bucks per win.

That number actually leads the Pac-12 Conference!

No other Pac-12 school (which publicly releases its salary data) pays their assistant football coaches more than UCLA.

Can we finally put the myth about UCLA not being able to afford talented coaches or other nice things to bed now?

USA Today also added strength coaches to their database this year. UCLA’s Sal Alosi is the fourth highest paid strength coach in the country at $410,000.

UCLA had four other assistants making more than $400,000. Demetrice “Coach Meat” Martin made $455,000 while Marques Tuiasosopo took home $435K. Eric Yarber made $430K and Angus McClure made $410K. Tight end coach Rip Scherer, who was in his first year on the field with UCLA, made $335,000 and linebacker coach Scott White was last making only $110,000.

Speaking of Coach Tui, it does not look like he is being considered any longer for the head coaching job at Nevada according to CoachingSearch.com, which cites a report from the Reno Gazette-Journal.

Go Bruins.