The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Title brings a hefty raise for Swinney
Clemson coach gets eight-year contract worth $54 million.
Clemson’s coach is getting a hefty raise after winning the national championship.
Dabo Swinney and the Board of Trustees agreed to a new eight-year, $54 million contract Friday that averages out to $6.75 million a year. It includes $3.2 million in signing bonuses in three installments and a $6 million buyout until the end of 2018.
The deal makes Swinney the third highest-paid football coach in the country, behind only Alabama’s Nick Saban and Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh.
The university studied the salaries of the three other active coaches with a national title and Harbaugh’s deal since he has a Super Bowl appearance to find a fair figure to offer Swinney as he enters his ninth full season with the Tigers, Athletic Director Dan Radakovich said.
“What’s he’s done with our program has been incredible. He means so much to our athletic department, to our university, to our community,” Radakovich said after the trustees voted.
Swinney’s new contract pays him $6 million this season with his base salary increasing to $6.6 million in 2024, the last season of the deal. Swinney gets a $1.5 million signing bonus now, a $1 million bonus in 2019 and a $700,000 bonus in 2021.
And as reports occasionally pop up around Swinney and other jobs, the deal starts with a $6 million buyout that drops to $4 million in 2019.
The deal also has incentives including $250,000 for winning another national title or $ 50,000 if he is named national coach of the year.
Swinney was paid just over $4.5 million in 2016 before his team beat Alabama to win Swinney’s first national championship. Swinney earned $800,000 in his first full season with the Tigers in 2009.
Houston: The university is sending its team to Austin to practice and get out Hurricane Harvey’s way.
The University of Texas has agreed to let the Cougars use their indoor practice facility.
The move puts the Cougars in the backyard of their former head coach Tom Her- man. Texas hired Herman away from Houston after last season.
Houston starts the season Sept. 2 at UTSA.
Chattanooga: Quarterback Alejandro Bennifield will miss the Mocs’ first four games because of what the school has described as an NCAA academic issue. Soph- omore Nick Tiano will take over as starting quarterback. Chattanooga opens today against Jacksonville State at Montgomery, Alabama.
Bennifield, a senior from Lovejoy High School, completed 64.4 percent of his passes for 2,622 yards with 26 touchdown passes and seven interceptions last season as Chattanooga went 9-4 and earned a third straight Football Championship Subdivision playoff appearance.
Tiano transferred to Chattanooga after playing for Mississippi State last season. He played five games for Mississippi State but attempted only one pass.
Wake Forest: Defensive lineman Paris Black has been suspended three games for violating undisclosed team rules. Coach Dave Clawson announced the suspension Friday.
Black will be eligible to play when the Demon Deacons visit Appalachian State on Sept. 23.
Black is a redshirt sophomore who did not appear on the team’s depth chart released Friday. Black had seven total tackles in 12 games last season.
Colorado: The university will retire No. 19 in honor of Rashaan Salaam, who killed himself last December at age 42.
It will be the first number retired by the program in 47 years. The ceremony will take place during Colorado’s homecoming game against Cal on Oct. 28.
Salaam won the school’s only Heisman Trophy in 1994 when he also won the Doak Walker Award and was a unanimous All-American and Walter Camp National Player of the Year.
That season, Salaam became the fourth player in the nation to rush for 2,000 yards in an era where schools generally played 11 games and didn’t count bowl statistics in season totals.
He averaged nearly 7 yards a carry in piling up 2,055 yards despite playing sporadically in the second half of several games that season.
In addition to yards, he led the nation in scoring with 24 touchdowns and in all-purpose yards (2,349).