KW is the 16th highest paid coach in college football

[ProudUte]

See the link below.  KW makes over 5 Million a year.  Is he worth that much?  I say – yes.  If we want to be a top-25 team – we need to pay our coach a to-25 salary.

What do you all think?

Highest paid coaches

[Utesbyfive]

Undoubtedly this list is missing a bunch of private schools that don’t disclose salaries.

I do see Helton and Shaw on the list. I wonder if those are estimates.

[PlainsUte]

USC, Stanford, and TCU  are on the list.  Who’s left? Notre Dame, They-So-PooPoo?

[Utesbyfive]

Baylor, Boston College, BYU, Duke, Miami, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Rice, SMU, Stanford, Syracuse, TCU, Tulane, Tulsa, USC, Vanderbilt and Wake Forest

[fosternano]

My money is that Vanderbilt is the top paid coach 😉😂

[UteFanatic]

Yes. Very much worth his salary. KWhitt has consistently overachieved relative to the team’s talent level. That’s the sign of a great coach, and we’re lucky he has been so loyal to Utah.

I dread the day when he steps down and Utah has to select another coach. The wrong hire could tank the program.

[MDUte]

^^^^^ Well said UteFanatic, 100% agree with this ^^^^^

[Trailgoat]

I am guessing KW has a vested interest in keeping the culture of Utah football rolling after he retires. Depending when KW retires, he has the contract option to be a “Special Assisntant” to the football program for 6-8 years. This job I imagine would include a transtional/succession plan and direct involved with hiring and supporting the new head coach.

If Harlan is around when KW retires I hope he’s asked to stay in his office and let KW take care of the head coach hiring process when that day comes. 

[MDUte]

Great point Trailgoat. The more I think about this fact that Whitt has it in his contract to stay on as a “special advisor” the more I lean to wanting Scalley to be our next HC. What Scalley lacks, obviously, is HCing experience. But that would be totally mitigated if he had Whitt there to lean on while getting fully settled and comfortable as a new HC. And if it were Scalley, the great culture that Whitt has created and maintained over the years would fully stay in tact. I could see this being the smoothest transition you could ever hope for where the program wouldn’t skip a beat moving forward.

My vote is definitely for this vs rolling the dice with an outside hire who could fail and set the program back years.

[UteFanatic]

I wish I could agree with this. I want to agree with this. But, Scalley has…baggage – and that will absolutely factor into the decision-making process. Time will tell if the baggage is significant enough, but it very well could be.

[MDUte]

I agree with you that it will come into play and might end up preventing Scalley from getting the job. However, so far it’s proven to be a non factor with recruiting like everyone worried about. I’m hopeful that time and great results will continue to put the incident behind him to the point that he’s selected to be our next HC.

[UteFanatic]

I think it’s easier for an assistant to navigate a minor scandal, but it becomes a major talking point/issue as a HC (even if the issue is in the past).

Not going to lie, I would hate the comments and accusations that would inevitably be thrown at Scalley if he were the HC. They annoy me now,  because I still hear them. I cringe at the thought of the frequency and amplitude of them being increased.

It may all be for naught, though. Rumor is Harlan wouldn’t hire Scalley. So as long as Harlan is AD, Scalley is probably not even a viable candidate. 

[MDUte]

Oh really? Did you hear the rumor from a credible source?

[UteFanatic]

Not 100% credible, but I’ve heard it enough times to think there is something to it. That’s why I was careful to call it a rumor.

[MDUte]

Interesting. I didn’t know that rumor was out there. Thanks for sharing.

[2008 National Champ]

My main worry with Scalley taking over is that his experience is completely with Utah and under Whitt. You don’t have to look any farther than UW to see an example of what could happen when a career backup who only knows one way to do things takes over for an established head coach.

Let’s say Ludwig leaves when Whitt does, who does Scalley go to for a new OC? Anyone he’s worked with in the past we probably wouldn’t want him to bring back. What up and coming OC would want to tie themselves to a first time HC that they’ve never worked with before? Promoting from within worked with Lincoln Riley and Ryan Day but those guys also had worked in many places. They had a ton of contacts in the fraternity that they could call on if needed.

If the next coach is going to be a “Utah” guy, I think I’d rather it be Brian Johnson with hopefully Scalley staying at DC for at least the first season. I have no idea if he would be a better coach, I just think he has better experience at this point and would be more ready to implement his own vision instead of just trying to replicate what Whitt has done without the resume to back it up. I just feel like for Scalley to truly be ready to take over, he would need to have his own solutions instead of trying to be Whitt 2.0 which is an unreasonable standard.

[UteFanatic]

Brian Johnson would be my first choice. I’ve kind of suppressed this hope, though, because people don’t seem to think he would leave the NFL.

[Utesbyfive]

I think if there’s anything that would prevent Brian from coming from the NFL, it might be recruiting. Lots of coaches absolutely hate it.

[MDUte]

All very fair points/concerns. I guess there’s no guarantees of anything.

Knowing how successful Scalley has always been at everything in life, I still think him trying to be Whitt 2.0, with Whitt staying involved in the program for a number of years after retiring, is less risky than hiring someone from the outside.

It seems more likely to me that an outside hire could either 1) fail or 2) be successful but use Utah as a stepping stone to another job, thus creating chaos for recruiting like what Colorado has experienced. And both of these scenarios would set the program back years. This seems more likely to me than Scalley failing but that’s just my opinion.

[2008 National Champ]

It is the Whitt staying involved part that causes me the most heartburn. Not anything against Whitt or Scalley for that matter. But when Whitt steps down, the next coach needs to step up whether it’s an internal promotion or an outside hire. Whitt still having a hand in the day to day operations could easily undercut the authority the new coach needs.

Whitt has laid out a great program but the next coach can’t be Whitt. He needs to be his own person and lead from his own strengths. Whether that is in how he communicates or just the little details in how he runs the program. And if it is Scalley, he will need to alter his style for the new responsibilities because he won’t have Whitt backing him up. While at the same time the fan base is expecting him to not only improve upon what Whitt left but constantly comparing the two.

[alUmnUs]

This is spot on. Whenever the fire KW mob gets all hot and bothered, they should temper themselves with this truth.

[RedRocks]

Very surprised to see Stanford’s David Shaw in third at almost $9 Million per year. I would have expected him to be around Whittingham’s salary.

[PlainsUte]

I was going to comment that Shaw is overpaid based on results to date, but then again the cost of living around Palo Alto is so ridiculously high that might actually be in line.

[MDUte]

I thought I read somewhere that Shaw has some bonus clause in his contract that he gets paid out in this year (maybe if he reaches some tenure milestone or something?) and that’s why it’s inflated but his normal annual salary is not $9M.

[2008 National Champ]

I’ve heard 7MM for Shaw. You also have to factor in that he was getting paid Pac-10 rates while KW was more on a Mountain West scale 12 years ago. Add in the BCS bowls and NY6 games he was playing in the first half of the 2010’s and it isn’t surprising that he makes more than Whitt.

Trying to tie current productivity to compensation isn’t a linear debate.

[MDUte]

Totally agree. I wasn’t trying to suggest that Whitt should be paid as much or more than Shaw. I was just pointing out that I don’t think Shaw’s typical annual salary is $9M.

[2008 National Champ]

yeah, i conflated your comment and the one directly above that said he was overpaid

I guarantee that it made complete sense in my scattered brain 🙂

[MDUte]

Haha, no worries NC.