Kalen DeBoer turned down two separate contract extension offers from athletic director Troy Dannen and the Washington Huskies in his final months on the job. According to Dannen, the first offer would have paid Alabama’s new head coach $8.7 million annually and the second was increased to an average of $9.4 million, maxing out at $10 million in its final season.
“We put numbers in front of him that were, quite frankly, unprecedented for this university,” Dannen said at a gathering of donors at the W Bellevue Hotel in January. “We put a Big Ten package in front of Kalen, not a Pac-12 package.”
Athletic director Greg Byrne and the Crimson Tide started at that $10 million figure, which will max out at $11.75 million if DeBoer remains in Tuscaloosa for the entirety of his eight-year deal, which expires in 2031.
According to the USA TODAY head coaching salary database, only five coaches made over $10 million last season and two of them, Mel Tucker and Nick Saban, are no longer coaching.
With Florida State’s Mike Norvell and Ole Miss’ Lane Kiffin among some around the nation that signed extensions or are set to receive a pay bump, DeBoer might not find his name in the top five of the nation’s highest paid coaches, but it will certainly be inside the top 10.
Much like his deal with Washington, DeBoer’s contract with Alabama is also laced with incentives. He can earn an $875,000 bonus if he leads the Crimson Tide to a national championship.