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New Washington State Cougars head coach Nick Rolovich is set to sign a five-year deal worth “nearly $3 million” per year, according to a report by Yahoo!’s Pete Thamel.
If the salary is, say, $2.9 million, that would put Rolovich squarely in the median range of the Pac-12 coaches’ 2019 salaries, via the USA Today coaching salary database:
Pac-12 Football Salaries
| School | Coach | Pay |
|---|---|---|
| School | Coach | Pay |
| Stanford | David Shaw | $4,613,707 |
| Utah | Kyle Whittingham | $4,002,917 |
| UCLA | Chip Kelly | $3,500,000 |
| Southern California | Clay Helton | $3,218,935 |
| Washington | Jimmy Lake | $3,000,000 |
| Washington State | Nick Rolovich | $2,900,000 |
| California | Justin Wilcox | $2,854,000 |
| Oregon | Mario Cristobal | $2,600,000 |
| Colorado | Mel Tucker | $2,400,000 |
| Arizona State | Herm Edwards | $2,380,000 |
| Arizona | Kevin Sumlin | $2,000,000 |
| Oregon State | Jonathan Smith | $1,900,008 |
Rolovich was making $600,000 in his previous job as head coach of the Hawaii Warriors; WSU’s former coach, Mike Leach, was set to make $4 million this season with a $750,000 retention bonus.
The head coach salary only tells part of the story, however: There have been no reports on the assistant coach’s pool that Rolovich will have at his disposal to hire his staff. WSU’s previous assistant pool was nearly $3.5 million; it’s unclear if the decrease in salary from Leach to Rolovich is going to come with a commensurate increase in the assistant pool he’ll have to work with.
WSU is expected to make a formal announcement of Rolovich’s hiring on Tuesday.