As Coastal Carolina's search for a new head football coach continues, university president David DeCenzo responded to questions about what kind of salary the Chanticleers can offer that next coach.
CCU director of news and public affairs Martha Hunn spoke to DeCenzo on Wednesday night and relayed his answers to several key questions posed by The Sun News about the coaching search.
First and foremost, what kind of budget does Coastal Carolina have to spend on the next head coach, and how much will the university owe former coach David Bennett, who signed a 10-year contract in May of 2007.
"It's [DeCenzo's] desire that that salary would be in line with the other two primary sports coaches, [men's] basketball and baseball -- which would be a base salary of about $175,000," Hunn said. "And it would have incentives awarded based on outcome, and those outcomes would be, for example, wins, academic performance, character of the team -- like with the other coaches."
Terms of Bennett's 10-year contract -- which paid him an initial base salary of $160,000 with annual eight-percent raises -- indicate he is owed the full remainder of his salary if terminated within the first five years and 50 percent of the remaining salary if let go after five years. He is five seasons into that deal but not yet five calendar years.
Hunn said DeCenzo indicated that whatever money is owed to Bennett is "not relevant" to the question about how much the school has budgeted for its next coach.
"And as far as how much the university is on the hook, that's actually going to be a legal determination," Hunn said, relaying DeCenzo's comments.
It does, indeed, sound like the two sides are going to have to have their lawyers sort this out. Asked Wednesday if he had any further thoughts on potential reassignment within the university, Bennett said: "I'm not commenting on that. I'm just going to let my lawyer talk to them on that stuff."
For more comments from DeCenzo, who met Wednesday morning with The Sun News' editorial board, see this story that just went online in full:
http://www.thesunnews.com/2011/12/14/2549816/decenzo-hopes-to-find-new-role.html
| Ryan Young, ryoung@thesunnews.com
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