Because there’s no such thing as a football offseason, there was some news Wednesday night involving two noteworthy defensive coordinators.
First, Florida’s Todd Grantham is staying with the Gators instead of becoming the defensive coordinator for the NFL’s Cincinnati Bengals.
That, obviously, is a big win for UF and second-year coach Dan Mullen. Under Grantham, the Gators had the nation’s No. 20 scoring defense (20 points per game) and had the No. 17 defense in the S&P+ advanced metrics.
The win comes at a cost. The Gators gave Grantham a $300,000 raise in his base salary plus an extra year on his contract (which now runs through the end of the 2021 season). His new base salary of $1.79 million would have put him as college football’s fifth highest paid assistant in the country last year, according to USA Today’s database.
If Grantham leaves voluntarily for another job, he would owe UF half of the remaining guaranteed amount on his contract, unless he takes a job as a Division I head coach, NFL head coach or NFL defensive coordinator.
It’s worth noting, too, that UF acted proactively to keep Grantham. The new contract was signed on Jan. 14, before the Bengals opportunity arose.
The other move was even more shocking, at least from afar. Former USF head coach Jim Leavitt is out as Oregon’s defensive coordinator. Leavitt had been mentioned as a candidate for head coaching jobs this year (including at his alma mater, Kansas State), but nothing materialized. So maybe it shouldn’t be a surprise that he’s out, as The Oregonian’s John Canzano writes.
We’ll see where Leavitt lands, and whether there’s any opportunity for him to land back in the Sunshine State.