Mike Leach gets $500,000 raise, Moos raises assistant coaches salary pool by $500,000

Bill Moos made moves to help keep his head football coach and his assistants happy as the Spokesman-Review's Jacob Thorpe reports he's increasing Mike Leach's salary to $2.75 million per year from $2.25 million and the assistants pool will get $500,000 more as well. The biggest raise for assistants will go to defensive line coach Joe Salave'a, who will see his pay bumped from $175,000 to $275,000 per year after USC and Washington tried to hire him away in the offseason.

Moos amended the media compensation portion of Leach's contract from $100,000 to $600,000 yearly which pays Leach for any media appearances and the use of his likeness. The big story here, though, is the pay bump for the assistants, especially Salave'a. It's well known what an incredible recruiter Salave'a is for players from everywhere, not just his main area of expertise in Polynesia. Leach likes to make sure his coaches are well taken care of and Salave'a 57 percent raise certainly speaks to that.

The pay bump for Leach from $2.25 million per year to $2.75 million makes him the third highest paid coach of a public school in the Pac-12 (Jim Mora rakes in $3.5 million a year, UW's Chris Petersen makes $3.25 million annually). Stanford and USC do not disclose the salaries of David Shaw and Steve Sarkisian.

From Thorpe's post on the extra money Moos is putting into coaches salaries:

"I still think (Leach is) one of the best coaches in this league and as we change our culture at Washington State we have to compete with those in our conference and around the country to build stability and consistency," Moos said. "I like to be forward thinking in that regard and proactive. Not that I'm worried about losing Mike but I also don't want to get complacent and not be on top of the market."

It's one thing to talk about competing with the big boys and not shelling out to do it. It's another to drop a cool million on your coaches in raises to make sure they stay put.