The Washington Huskies gave co-defensive coordinator Jimmy Lake a huge raise in order to retain him, among other raises paid to their football coaching staff.
The Seattle Times published data on Wednesday regarding the 2018 salaries for the Huskies coaching staff. According to The Times, six coaches got pay raises for 2018, including head coach Chris Petersen. But Lake got a massive raise in terms of percentage.
Lake earned $650,000 last year, but he is set to make at least $1.1 million this year. Lake got a three-year deal in December to remain with the program. There are clauses in his contract that would make it extremely costly to leave for another collegiate defensive coordinator job. However, he could leave to become a college head elsewhere or NFL defensive coordinator for no penalty.
At $1.1 million, Lake is believed to be the second-highest paid assistant in the Pac-12 behind Oregon defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt. As a group, Washington’s assistants are making just shy of $5.5 million combined, which would place them fifth based on USA Today’s data from last year. In other words, Washington is paying a ton of money to its football coaching staff. After making the College Football Playoff two seasons ago, the investment seems worthwhile.
