Heading into the first season of the Zach Arnett era of Mississippi State football, here’s what the Bulldogs are reportedly paying their coaches.
Being the head coach of an SEC football team means you get paid pretty handsomely. But just how much money does the Mississippi State football staff make these days? Year one of the Zach Arnett era is upon us and, thanks to the hard work of Stefan Krajisnik over at the Clarion Ledger, we’ve got a good idea of how much they’re being paid.
Following the promotion of Arnett into the head coaching role in Starkville, the Mississippi State football coaching staff got shuffled around. Some folks left, some new folks were brought in, and some folks got major promotions (and raises).
Offensive coordinator Kevin Barbay gets a lot of attention because of how the offensive scheme is changing under him, and that’s to be expected, but there are some other notable members of this staff that are worth paying attention to.
And it’s interesting to see how much they’re being paid.
2023 Mississippi State football coaching staff salaries
Here are the salary numbers for the 2023 Mississippi State football coaching staff, according to a report from the Clarion Ledger:
- Zach Arnett – $3,000,000
- Kevin Barbay – $900,000
- Matt Brock – $800,000
- Tony Hughes – $500,000
- Will Friend – $475,000
- Mike Schmidt – $475,000
- Darcel McBath – $460,000
- Eric Mele – $460,000
- David Turner – $460,000
- Chad Bumphis – $425,000
- Brett Dewhurst – $315,000
And, according to the report, here’s what those coaches made at MSU in 2023:
- Zach Arnett – $1,225,000
- Matt Brock – $465,000
- Tony Hughes – $500,000
- Darcel McBath – $400,000
- Eric Mele – $415,000
There isn’t data for Barbay, Friend, Schmidt, Turner, Bumphis, or Dewhurst as they weren’t coaching in Starkville last season and are new additions to the Mississippi State Bulldogs coaching staff.
While that may seem like a lot of money (and it really is), in terms of coaching staff salaries, the Bulldogs are getting a pretty good bargain here. Public data isn’t available for the Vanderbilt coaching staff, so it’s hard to tell if Arnett is the lowest paid coach in the SEC.
With the data that is available to us from public universities in the SEC, we can tell he is the 13th-lowest paid coach in the SEC. 247Sports reported back in January that Arnett’s $3 million annual salary is half that of the next coach on the list.
Sam Pittman and Eli Drinkwitz each reportedly make $6 million a year.
So, if Arnett and company start bringing in wins, everybody in Starkville might want to start getting ready to pay a little bit more for their coaches. The cost of a decent SEC head coach is pretty expensive these days.