Think Being A Coach Is Full of Fame and Fortune? Think Again!

This is my 36th year working in Radio, and I’ve been blessed to spend roughly 27 of those years covering sports in some compacity. College sports are my favorite, and as a former Talk Show Host and Play-By-Play guy, I still like to keep an eye on what’s happening in the sports world.  

When you cover teams, host a talk show, or both like I did for years, you learn to constantly keep an eye on what the breaking news is, and who the coaches/schools/players involved are. I have a few websites I continue to check from time to time to stay in the loop the best I can.  

One of the websites I go to regularly is footballscoop.com, there you’ll see coaching news, even speculation of who a team is interviewing for certain positions and so forth. 

One of the great things about footballscoop.com is they cover all levels of football starting at the high school level. I’ve been watching this site for the last ten years or so, and it’s easy to tell that they’ve made a tremendous number of contacts. 

One of the other great things about their site is they post job openings in the coaching world, typically at the entry level positions or in some cases lower-level divisions. 

Over the last month or so, there have been a number of postings for grad assistants, even volunteer coaches. (Yes some start out making nothing at all) Of course, the smaller the school or division, the smaller the pay and benefits.  

Here's one that stood out to me this week from here in Minnesota, Winona State University is looking for a defensive assistant coach. This job is what is called a “restrictive earning position” paying $10,000 a year. This position does come with the possibility of partial grad school remission as well. 

A common theme for positions like this is the following caveat's: no benefits, meals, or housing provided. Certain schools will offer some housing or food plan options, but most don’t offer much if any at all.  

I’ve spent 13 years working closely with college football teams, and I can tell you that the guys and girls who field these low-level positions often are one of the first people in the building and the last to leave, if they leave at all. I’ve heard of stories where Grad Assistants have slept in the office so they could get more work done. 

Why would someone do this? They love the game and want to coach, but it comes at such a cost. Juggling a few classes, extremely long schedules and demanding coaches above them on the staff who depend on the work these GA’s produce.  

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This is how coaches learn and grow. And even once they become full-time assistant coaches, depending on which school or level they’re coaching at, determines the amount of money they make. This is part of chasing the dream which so many have.

In some smaller school situations, a head coach can make between $70,000 and $150,000, which to some is a lot of money. But when you figure the amount of time they spend watching film, on the phone and on the road recruiting, and preparing for the upcoming season, and this describes their duties in their “off season”, sometimes the money doesn’t even out to the time that is spent actually doing the job.  

Minnesota Golden Gopher Coach PJ Fleck just received additional money in bonuses that he could receive and picked more money to use for his assistant coaches. There are many fans who don’t like Coach Fleck because he makes $6 million per year and hasn’t won like they think he should.  

And I’m not even saying there’s no reason for frustration. When you get to the level he is at, the pressure to win comes with the job. Afterall we are all judged on the ability to do our jobs well.  

I’m just saying that not every coach is making millions of dollars, and most of them have started in the low level G.A. position paying their dues, and then worked their way through lower paying jobs. 

So, when you call for a Coach to be fired, realize it’s not just him and his family that are affected. The trickledown effect touches those the assistant coaches who may depend on their spouse to work as well to make ends meet, and the grad assistants who are mainly gaining nothing, but experience compared to the money they’re being paid.