Michigan State football offensive assistants go on one-year rolling contracts

East Lansing – Michigan State’s offensive coaching staff changed last spring, and so did the contracts for many of the Spartans’ assistants.

As The Detroit News reported in May, Brad Salem, who was promoted from quarterbacks coach to offensive coordinator/running backs coach, received a pay raise from $402,462 to $517,847. He was the only member of the offensive staff to receive a raise, though defensive coordinator Mike Tressel also had his pay bumped from $572,308 to $667,385.

What the entire offensive staff did get, though, was an amendment to their contracts that moved them from a two-year rolling deal to a one-year rolling agreement, according to documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Salem, quarterbacks coach Dave Warner, offensive line coach Jim Bollman, tight ends coach Mark Staten and assistant defensive backs coach Terrence Samuel all signed their amendments in late March. The new one-year contracts automatically extend for another season on April 1 each year. However, if the university notifies the coaches between the end of the season and March 15 they will not be retained, the contracts expire.

Head coach Mark Dantonio opted to shuffle his staff after the 2018 season, which included the Spartans offense finishing among the worst in the nation, averaging just 18.7 points a game. That shuffling included Salem’s move to coordinator while former co-coordinators Warner (quarterbacks) and Bollman (offensive line) were shifted to their current spots. Staten went from offensive line to tight ends while Samuel went from coaching the wide receivers to the secondary where he is assisting defensive backs coach Paul Haynes.

The other staff assistants – Tressel, Haynes, wide receivers coach Don Treadwell, defensive tackles coach Ron Burton and defensive ends coach Chuck Bullough – remain on two-year rolling contracts.

“I understood it was going to be tough,” Dantonio said when preseason camp opened at the beginning of August. “It was going to be a tough situation. That's human nature. But at the same time, they also have another opportunity to go back to their initial position, I think, of expertise, like I've said, and then also we've got tremendously unselfish people. Our coaches just want to win. Our coaches just want to have our guys play well. They want to have input in their life, I guess, make a difference in their lives.”