Arizona poached San Jose State assistant football coach Donté Williams a year ago, almost doubling his salary to $215,000. Last week, the food chain of college football benefited Williams again; Nebraska poached him from Arizona’s staff, almost doubling his salary to nearly $400,000.
Good for Williams, who is an able recruiter and communicator. It’s a good indicator for career success. In the last 30 years, five UA football coaches bailed out after one Tucson season; all have done well.
In 1987, linebackers coach Rich Smith left for the NFL’s Houston Oilers. He is still in the NFL, at Denver, his eighth NFL team. In 1994, secondary coach Ted Williams departed for the Philadelphia Eagles. He coached 20 seasons for the Eagles. In 2001, running backs coach Bobby Kennedy left for a spot at Washington. He is now the receivers coach at Iowa.
In 2005, Mike Stoops lost tight ends/special teams coach Josh Heupel after one year, when Heupel returned to his alma mater, Oklahoma. He is now an offensive coordinator earning $700,000 a year at Missouri. And in 2012, RichRod lost defensive backs coach Tony Gibson, who took a similar job at West Virginia. Gibson has since been promoted to defensive coordinator and earns $750,000 annually.
All is fair in love, war and assistant coaching, just as it was when RichRod bolted from an assistant’s job at Tulane for a higher paying job at Clemson in 1999.
