College football’s top 25 highest-paid coaches for 2020 season
By Nick Villano
24. Will Muschamp – South Carolina
- 2020 Salary: $4.4. million
What a strange journey it’s been for South Carolina head coach Will Muschamp. He started his ascent to relevancy alongside Nick Saban at LSU, where they won the National Championship together. He followed Saban to the NFL, which was an epically failed experiment. He eventually returned to the college game at Auburn, left to be the “head coach in waiting” at Texas, didn’t feel like waiting anymore so he left to be the head coach at Florida, and that’s where things got really weird.
He eventually stepped down in disgrace, and eventually got another head-coaching opportunity with the Gamecocks. Right now, he has a 26-25 record at South Carolina, which somehow makes him worth $4.4 million per season.
The real reason South Carolina is stuck with Muschamp is his buyout is insane. Right now, he’s signed through 2024. If the Gamecocks want to go in a different direction after a 4-8 season, it would cost them more than $18 million. They might as well just pay the man to coach at that point, right? They owe him around $23 million to actually coach, or $18.6 million if he’s at home.
Muschamp is going to be the coach for South Carolina unless something insane happens. We don’t foresee it, but this is college football. Anything can happen.