News
Email
Print
Wellman defends Grobe's salary
AD says the numbers are about in line with ACC football coaches
ADVERTISEMENT
Published: November 11, 2009
Wake Forest is paying Jim Grobe the going rate to coach football, in part, to keep him from going elsewhere to coach football.
That's how Ron Wellman, Wake Forest's director of athletics, explained a report published in yesterday's USA Today that Grobe made $4.2 million during the fiscal year of 2007-08 -- more than twice as much as any published report.
First off, Wellman said that the figure was grossly misleading because it included a deferred compensation package that vested that year and was thus reported for the first time, as well as a restructuring of the contract that involved a substantial back payment.
Wellman said that Grobe, for this season, is actually making $2.1 million. USA Today listed $2.172 million on the chart for salaries of coaches throughout major-college football. The information was collected from the IRS 990 tax forms that even private schools such as Wake Forest are required to report.
"It's the market," Wellman said. "It's the world in which we live. And if you're committed to living in that world, which we are, then you have to meet the market if you're going to have a good program and retain good people.
"And while there may be discomfort with paying people a certain salary, it is the market and it's the world in which we've chosen to live."
Grobe joked that he had to talk to his wife, Holly, because he had no idea he was making that much money. As of the 2005-06 fiscal year, Grobe was making $1.021 million, according to tax forms filed by Wake Forest, but that was before the Deacons won the Orange Bowl, he was named the National Coach of the Year and his contract was extended through 2016.
And it was also before Arkansas made a well-publicized pitch for Grobe after the 2007 season, prompting Wellman to rework the contract to retain him.
Even after four straight losses to Clemson, Navy, Miami and Georgia Tech, Grobe's record is 58-50 with two regular-season games remaining in his ninth season.
"Certainly, anytime you get to where you're making the money that any of the ACC coaches are making, you have to feel more than a little bit blessed," Grobe said. "I don't know if it's a guilt feeling, but you're doing what you love to do, and you get paid well for it.
"I don't expect to be the highest-paid coach in the ACC, but I don't expect to be the lowest-paid coach in the ACC. I'd like for our staff and myself to be somewhere in between and I think that's right where we are."
The USA Today chart has Grobe as the third highest-paid ACC coach after Florida State's Bobby Bowden ($2.3 million) and Georgia Tech's Paul Johnson ($2.3 million), but only slightly ahead of Virginia Tech's Frank Beamer ($2.138 million) and Virginia's Al Groh ($2.072 million). The salary of North Carolina's Butch Davis was listed at $1.7 million but that didn't include outside income that North Carolina didn't reveal.
Also the salaries of David Cutcliffe of Duke, Frank Spaziana of Boston College and Randy Shannon of Miami were not available.
Wellman said that nothing has made him reconsider the prudence of Wake Forest's investment, not even the 4-6 record going into the Saturday's home game against Florida State.
"We've never denied that winning is very important," Wellman said. "That's why you play the games. You don't go out there just to compete. You go out to win.
"Fortunately we've been able to do that rather consistently. And this year is not a lost year. If we can win the last two we can go to a fourth consecutive bowl. And this senior class can be the winningest senior class ever at Wake Forest.
"So we're still playing for an awful lot, I think."
So, for that matter, is Arkansas, which is 5-4 going into this week's game against Troy. The Razorbacks are coached by Bobby Petrino, who was lured away from the Atlanta Falcons after Grobe turned Arkansas down.
Petrino, for the record, is making $2.86 million according to the USA Today figures.
dcollins@wsjournal.com.
727-7323
Email
Print
