New contract amendments cut Will Muschamp’s buyout, gives Thomas Brown a raise
South Carolina football coach Will Muschamp gave up money to secure a raise for one of his most successful assistants.
It means the Gamecocks coach will forgo raises and his buyout will be cut by several million dollars.
Figures released by the school Tuesday, when the board of trustees approved the amendments and Mike Bobo’s contract, gave running backs coach Thomas Brown a raise from $300,000 to $500,000 a year and had his deal extended to through 2021. It also took out Muschamp’s annual $200,000 raise built into his contract.
That means his salary will settle at $4.4 million a year. That takes $3 million off the life of the contract. The buyout had been projected to be $15.58 million as of Dec. 1 next year.
That sets his new Dec. 1, 2020 buyout at $13.475 million.
Brown’s buyout was changed to $100,000 in the first year of the contract, $50,000 in the second.
“I appreciate the Board of Trustees giving their support to the contract of new offensive coordinator Mike Bobo and the changes to the contracts of Coach Muschamp and Coach Brown,” AD Ray Tanner said in a statement. “I believe strongly in the program that Coach Muschamp is building here. The addition of Coach Bobo, along with our current staff, will help us reach the goals that all Gamecock fans would like to achieve.”
Muschamp just finished his fourth season at USC. He’s 26-25 and coming off a 4-8 season. There were rumblings about his job status through the latter half of the season, but after several public statements from new school president Robert Caslen, both Caslen and Tanner issued statements in support of Muschamp.
Since the offseason started, he let go of one coach (Dan Werner) and demoted another (Bryan McClendon).
Brown’s raise comes after a season where he gave a boost to South Carolina’s running back room, which saw four of the top five tailbacks average at least 5 yards a carry. He also was key in securing the commitment of four-star tailback recruit MarShawn Lloyd, the top-rated player in South Carolina’s 2020 class.
This story was originally published December 10, 2019, 2:43 PM.
