The assistants’ pay story is about what you’d expect.

USA Today produced its annual database of assistant coaching salaries, and the usual suspects are making bank.  The SEC dominates the staff rankings (chart via).

Total assistants pay

1. LSU $5,499,269
2. Alabama $5,213,400
3. Auburn, $4,645,500
4. Clemson, $4,448,225
5. Oklahoma, $4,077,900
6. Texas, $3,841,640
7. Ohio State, $3,592,025
8. Virginia Tech, $3,583,250
9. Michigan, $3,504,323
10. Texas A&M, $3,484,050

Georgia ranks sixth in the SEC.

SEC total assistants pay

1. LSU $5,499,269
2. Alabama $5,213,400
3. Auburn, $4,645,500
4. Texas A&M, $3,484,050
5. South Carolina, $3,333,800
6. Georgia, $3,327,800
7. Tennessee, $3,265,000
8. Florida, $3,225,900
9. Arkansas, $3,218,800
10. Missouri, $3,169,000
11. Kentucky, $2,715,700
12. Mississippi State, $2,682,500
13. Ole Miss, $2,596,000
Vanderbilt, N/A

A few notes on the latter:

• Some of those numbers are relative bargains, but don’t expect them to stand pat.  Freeze has already negotiated a bump for his assistants; expect Mullen to receive the same treatment.
• Seeing the list, McGarity probably feels like Goldilocks, but note that the gap between Georgia’s staff pay and the three teams at the top is much wider than the gap with the three teams at the bottom (which, again, is going to shrink significantly).
• Whichever school signs Boom as its next defensive coordinator is going to move up the list a good bit.

And now for the most embarrassing part, if you’re associated with the Georgia program.  Check out these stats about Mike Bobo’s pay:

• 40th nationally;
• 16th in the conference;
• Two fired coordinators (Johnson, Snyder) make more;
• One about-to-be-fired coordinator (Roper) makes more;
• Lorenzo Ward makes more;
• Three position coaches make more; and
• Rodney Garner (!) makes more.

Hey, so it turns out you can put a price on loyalty.

At least Pruitt is paid rationally, given the market.

I guess we’ll find out soon enough if there’s any substance to this.

“The only thing I’ll say is, we’ll wait to the season is over, until the bowl is over, and look at the season in its entirety,” McGarity said. “I don’t think anybody should read anything into that other than that’s just what we do. What others are doing doesn’t change our method of operation.

“Once the season is over, we’ll review like we do with every coach. We’ll review it in its entirety. Other institutions had their reasons to do certain things at certain times.”