After three consecutive losing seasons, the Texas Longhorns are probably sick of floundering in the world of college football. To that end, former Ohio State assistant and Houston head coach Tom Herman was brought in to right the ship and he put together a new and improved staff in order to help him do so.
One member of that staff is defensive coordinator Todd Orlando and, on Wednesday, news broke that Orlando would be receiving the largest contract that a Texas assistant has ever earned. Brian Davis of the Austin American-Statesman brings word that the UT System Board of Regents approved a deal that will pay Orlando at a level of $1.09 million per season over the next three years.
Beyond that, Davis indicated the following about context for the pay scale:
Herman will get the lion's share of attention, but Orlando will be front and center, too. He's primarily responsible for rebuilding a defense that put up some of the worst numbers in school history the last two years.
Orlando's contract, while huge for UT's historical standard, is on par with that of his peers nationally. Texas A&M's John Chavis received more than $1.5 million last season, according to USA Today's coaching salary database. Clemson's Brent Venables made $1.4 million last season.
Orlando, who comes over from Houston with Herman, will be under big-time pressure to reinstall the Longhorns as a top-flight defense nationally and that was already the case before this contract was made public. Now, though, the heat is certainly on and it will be interesting to see how quickly he can turn the tide in Austin.
