How Texas football assistant coach salaries rank nationally and compared to Big 12 rivals
Texas assistant coach Pete Kwiatkowski is the 14th highest-paid assistant coach in college football, according to USA Today's College Football Assistant Coaches salary database. With the way the Longhorns' defense has been playing, he's more than earned it.
The defensive mind has been paid $1,700,000 a year since he was hired in 2021. He's tied with Oregon's Tosh Lupoi and Kentucky's assistants Liam Cohen and Brad White.
In the Big 12, he's the second-highest-paid assistant next to Oklahoma assistant Jeff Lebby.
Texas' defense has been one of the best in college football this year. Though they are only ranked 36th in total defense, the unit overall has shown flashes of dominance, including parts of the game vs. Kansas State and a dominant performance vs. Kansas.
The culprit? Pass defense. The Longhorns' defensive line is one of the best in college football, with T'Vondre Sweat and Byron Murphy II anchoring the 8th-ranked rush defense in the nation, allowing only 90.1 yards per game.
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The secondary, on the other hand, is allowing 247 yards per game. Injuries to the secondary have been part of it, but a concerning pattern that has emerged over the past four games is a second half letdown that leads to blowouts becoming one-score games. Texas will be hoping to avoid a repeat of that as they visit Ames to take on Iowa State this weekend.
Top 15 College Football Assistant Coach Salaries
Garrett Riley, Clemson (ACC): $2,050,000* (includes one-time signing bonus of $300,000)
Ryan Grubb, Washington (Pac-12): $2,000,004
Jim Knowles, Ohio State (Big Ten): $1,957,000
Glenn Schumann, Georgia (SEC): $1,902,000
Jeff Lebby, Oklahoma (Big 12): $1,900,000
Matt House, Louisiana State (SEC): $1,900,000
Pete Golding, Mississippi (SEC): $1,900,000* (Ole Miss Athletic Foundation paid $1,416,370 to Alabama in connection with buyout that Golding owed that school.)
Tommy Rees, Alabama (SEC): $1,900,000* (Alabama paid $400,000 to Notre Dame in connection with buyout that Rees owed that school.)
Kevin Steele, Alabama (SEC): $1,900,000* (Alabama paid $761,986 to the University of Miami in connection with buyout that Steele owed that school.)
Andy Ludwig, Utah (Pac-12): $1,850,000
Brad White, Kentucky (SEC): $1,700,000
Liam Coen, Kentucky (SEC): $1,700,000
Tosh Lupoi, Oregon (Pac-12): $1,700,000
Pete Kwiatkowski, Texas (Big 12): $1,700,000
DJ Durkin, Texas A&M (SEC): $1,600,000
See full list of assistant coach salaries.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: How Texas football assistant coach salaries rank nationally in 2023
