An offensive innovator who led his former team to sustained success, the Liberty Flames gave Jamey Chadwell a serious salary boost when they signed him to become their head coach in December 2022. How much of a boost? Let’s examine Chadwell’s salary, contract, and net worth to find out more.
Jamey Chadwell’s Salary and Contract in 2023
According to multiple reports, Chadwell’s salary as Liberty’s head coach will average out at $4 million per year. The former Coastal Carolina head coach signed a seven-year deal to take over from Hugh Freeze following the latter’s departure to Auburn.
Chadwell had been the hot ticket of the 2022-2023 college football coaching cycle. An offensive innovator with his unique brand of option football, the Tennessee native — and former East Tennessee State quarterback — made the Chanticleers one of the most entertaining teams to watch in the nation.
Under his tutelage, Coastal Carolina emerged as a Sun Belt powerhouse, a perennial contender for the conference crown over the past three seasons. Chadwell engineered two 11-win seasons in 2020 and 2021, with the 2020 campaign earning him a plethora of awards, including Sun Belt Head Coach of the Year, Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year, and Walter Camp Head Coach of the Year Award.
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Despite his success — and a contract extension from Coastal Carolina before the 2021 college football campaign — Chadwell’s salary took a gargantuan jump when he signed his contract to become the head coach of Liberty for 2023 and beyond.
Chadwell’s new contract more than quadrupled his salary from his final season with the Chanticleers. In 2022, he had a base salary of $900,000. His contract had a $50,000 annual increase built into it, meaning that he would have earned $1,150,000 in the final year if he had stayed with Coastal through 2027.
In order to land Chadwell as their head coach, Liberty had to pay a buyout of $950,000 to Coastal Carolina for his services. Although it’s an impressive leap in salary for one of college football’s innovators, Chadwell’s salary will actually cost Liberty less than the deal from October 2022 that they agreed upon before Freeze departed for Auburn. According to ESPN, Freeze’s eight-year deal averaged just under $5 million per year and was fully guaranteed through the 2030 college football season.
Chadwell’s Net Worth
What isn’t immediately clear is how Chadwell’s contract with Liberty will impact his overall net worth. Averaging $4 million per year on a seven-year deal, his salary alone will ensure him a net worth of $21 million. At Coastal Carolina, he wouldn’t have been anywhere near double-digit figures through the life of his deal.
However, under his previous contract with Coastal Carolina, Chadwell had some of the most lucrative bonus terms in college football woven into his contract. According to USA Today, Chadwell ranked amongst the top 10 college football coaches for bonus payouts following the 2021 season.
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As a result of his successful 2021 campaign, Chadwell took home a reported $600,000 worth of bonuses. That included a $150,000 bonus for passing a six-win threshold, $250,000 for finishing in the top 50 of the AFCA coaches poll and AP poll, and $200,000 for winning the Cure Bowl — a bowl game the Chanticleers had lost at the end of the previous season.
Potential bonus earnings aren’t currently available as full details of Chadwell’s salary and contract at Liberty aren’t in the public domain. Furthermore, it isn’t known at the time of writing what additional perks of the job Chadwell will command as part of his seven-year deal.
