Iowa Hawkeyes football coach Kirk Ferentz reduces salary by $50K to hire extra coach

IOWA CITY, Ia. — Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz is taking only half of his $100,000 raise in base salary this season.

The other $50,000 was earmarked to hire an extra coach, Ferentz told reporters Tuesday.

“It was something (athletic director) Gary (Barta) and I talked about. It was a suggestion I made to just help our program, so we added another person,” Ferentz said.

An amendment to Ferentz’s contract dated June 27 takes his base bay for 2017-18 from its scheduled $2.47 million down to $2.42 million. Ferentz told reporters Aug. 19 that he had hired longtime NFL special teams coach Kevin Spencer to be a quality control assistant for this season.

Ferentz’s latest contract, announced a year ago, is scheduled to provide him with $49.5 million in total compensation over a 10-year period ending in 2026. His base pay is due to increase by $100,000 each year of the contract. But the amendment of June cuts that hike in half for this season only.

It wasn’t the first time Ferentz has left money on the table. In 2012, his contract was amended to forego a $50,000 pay increase scheduled for the next season, freezing his base salary at that time at $1.92 million.

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