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North Carolina sets salaries for Bill Belichick's first coaching staff

By Zach Barnett       Apr 7, 2025 • 7:54 pm

With the House settlement possibly days away from approval and $20.5 million "salary caps" on the way, playing out against the backdrop of the NCAA basketball tournament, many have theorized that it might be more economically efficient for certain schools to go all-in on basketball at the expense of their football program. If most schools are spending in the neighborhood of $13 million on their football roster, $5 million on their men's basketball team and splitting the rest on their other sports, wouldn't it make more sense to spend $11 million on football and $7 million on hoops? You're not catching Ohio State and Georgia anyway, so why not splurge on that stretch 5 and that floor general point guard?

On the surface, it's not a bad argument, until you get to the counterpoint. And that counterpoint is North Carolina.

If not the ultimate basketball school, UNC is at least on the podium. The Tar Heels have done their own math and come to the exact opposite conclusion: they decided they can't afford not to go all-in on football. Whatever the new world order of college athletics winds up becoming in the next few years, it won't matter how good your basketball program is if football can't pull its weight. Or at least that's the thought.

Time will tell if North Carolina made the right decision to go all-in with a 72-year-old Bill Belichick, but there's no denying they're going all-in.

Aside from the obvious, UNC's staff salaries -- unveiled Monday by WRAL -- represent the blurring of the lines between the "on-field" staff and the "support" staff. Only Belichick and 10 assistants can recruit off campus, but 14 Tar Heels have coach or coordinator in their title, plus an offensive assistant. And, in another sign of the changing times, GM Michael Lombardi is paid more than anyone but the head man. All told, North Carolina will pay its senior football staff $19.312 million in 2025 -- a group that now includes 18 people. 

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Posted

The highest-paid defensive line coaches in college football: 2025 editon

By Zach Barnett   Apr 10, 2025 • 11:14 am

Our look at the defensive backs salary market had more plus signs than a second grade math test. Nearly every Power 4 school employs two secondary coaches these days, and one of them -- typically the assistant in charge of safeties -- carries a co-coordinator or pass game coordinator title, if they're not running the defense outright. Not so up front. 

More often than not, Power 4 head coaches are entrusting their defensive line to one assistant and titling him simply as defensive line coach. If duties are split between a tackles and edges coach, one of those two typically carries a run game coordinator title. 

Our numbers found that Ohio State's Larry Johnson is the highest-paid D-line coach -- no surprise, given that he's going into his 12th season with the Buckeyes, owns two rings and has produced three NFL Rookies of the Year -- but no coach spends more on defensive line coaching than Clemson's Dabo Swinney. 

$1.4 million: Larry Johnson, Ohio State+

$1.205 million: Tray Scott, Georgia

$1.2 million: Freddie Roach, Alabama+

$1.1 million: Nick Eason, Clemson+

$1 million: Chris Rumph, Clemson+

$900,000: Rodney Garner, Tennessee

$893,000: Lou Esposito, Michigan

$775,000: Sterling Lucas, South Carolina

$750,000: Tony Tuioti, Oregon

$725,000: Randall Joyner, Ole Miss

$700,000: Todd Bates, Oklahoma+; Mark Hagen, Louisville; Jason Kaufusi, Washington; Kevin Peoples, LSU; Kyle Williams, LSU

$670,000: Kelvin Bell, Iowa

$650,000: Miguel Chavis, Oklahoma; Jess Simpson, Georgia Tech

$625,000: Pat Kuntz, Indiana

$600,000: Kenny Baker, Texas; Terrance Jamison, Illinois+; Lewis Powell, Utah; Sean Spencer, Texas A&M

$575,000: Bob Diaco, North Carolina

$550,000: Terrance Knighton, Florida State; Travarian Robertson, South Carolina; Buddha Williams, Indiana

$525,000: Anwar Stewart, Kentucky

$515,000: Charley Wiles, NC State

$505,000: Brian Early, Missouri

$500,000: Vontrell King-Williams, Auburn; JC Price, Virginia Tech

$460,000: David Turner, Mississippi State

$450,000: Tony Jerod-Eddie, Texas A&M

$425,000: Diron Reynolds, Arizona State

$410,000: Eli Rasheed, Iowa State

$400,000: Terry Bradden, Nebraska

$385,000: Jim Panagos, Kansas

$375,000: Andrew Browning, Cal; Dennis Dotten-Carter, Minnesota; Buddy Wyatt, Kansas State

$360,000: Zarnell Fitch, Texas Tech; Taiwo Onatolu, Kansas+

$350,000: Luther Elliss, Utah; Jethro Franklin, UCLA

MISSING: David Blackwell, Missouri; Gerald Chatman, Florida; George Helow, Colorado+; Corey Liuget, Maryland; Ryan Osborn, Oklahoma State; Domata Peko, Colorado; Joe Saleve'a, Arizona

 

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