What are UNM football assistants set to make this season?
After leading New Mexico to the program’s best (and most well-attended) season in years, head coach Jason Eck received a new five-year deal with a tidy $400,000 raise in December. A few Lobo assistants got similar treatment — albeit at a smaller scale. Three of UNM’s coaches received raises, per contracts available on the athletic department’s website, bringing the program’s on-field staff salary pool to $2,070,000.
UNM’s staff salary pool last season was $2,040,000. All of UNM’s assistants are on one-year deals with uniform incentives tied to team performance. Defensive line coach Hebron Fangupo received the biggest raise, boosting his compensation from $150,000 to $165,000.
The former Idaho assistant and Pittsburgh Steelers defensive lineman led a room that keyed UNM’s league-best run defense (112. 8 yards per game) and sack total (36) in his first year with the program Offensive coordinator Luke Schleusner and safeties coach Clay Bignell each received $10,000 raises, increasing their salaries to $385,000 and $130,000, respectively. Schleusner’s offense averaged 27.
1 points per game (sixth in the Mountain West) while Bignell’s safeties consistently produced despite injuries. Outside of Eck, Schleusner is now the highest-paid coach on UNM’s staff. “We have a pretty high spread between our highest-paid guys on the staff and our lowest-paid guys on the staff,” Eck said in an interview with the Journal earlier this month.
“And I want that systematically, because if you can keep your coordinators in place, you know, it keeps the overall system. ” Defensive coordinator Spence Nowinsky ($375,000), offensive line coach Cody Booth ($165,000), cornerbacks coach Stanley Franks Jr. ($150,000) and linebackers coach Nate Palmer ($85,000) did not receive raises on their new deals.