Keeping the band together has it's price. LSU just dropped off their latest round of football staf contracts to the Board of Supervisors for approval. They are as follows:
- New OC Steve Kragthorpe's contract is for 3 years at $700,000, matching DC Jon Chavis' current contract
- DL coach Brick Haley annual salary raise from $340,000 to $380,000
- OL coach Greg Studrawa annual salary raise from $230,000 to $275,000
- TE coach Steve Ensminger annual salary raise from $170,000 to $190,000
- Head of Strength and Conditioning at LSU, Coach Tommy Moffitt would be promoted to Assistant Athletic Director which would increase his annual compensation from $215,000 to $300,000
Most of these are just the basic raises you would expect after a good season. The Kragthorpe contract matching Chavis' shows an awful lot of faith in what the new OC will bring (and sets up Chavis nicely for a raise after next season) Turning Moffit into an Asst. AD is a move towards locking him down at LSU and seeing as he's been doing a fantastic job at LSU since the Dinardo Era the promotion is well deserved. Meanwhile, talk remains quite on the hunt for a new ST coach.
Team Speed Kills ran a great three part series this week on Why there is a problem with paying college athletes, Why amateurism still matters, and A possible payment method.
TSK also got around to LSU on it's series of baseball season previews, with us going to Regionals at least.
Speaking of Regionals, CBD's latest projections now have us hosting with SELA, VT, and Jacksonville St. coming to town.
Mikie Mahtook has been named to the Golden Spikes watch list.
Another unforeseen benefit of an NFL lockout is players like Kevin Faulk coming back home to train, keep in shape, and work on their degrees. Next year's UREC team is going to be EPIC!
USA Today ranks Patrick Peterson as the #1 prospect in the draft (drake Nevis shows up at #49)
For those playing at home please note the following jersey changes:
RB Alfred Blue will wear No. 4 (moving from No. 24)
CB Tyrann Mathieu will wear No. 7 (moving from No. 14)
RB Spencer Ware will wear No. 11 (moving from No. 16)
DB Tharold Simon will wear No. 24 (moving from No. 26)
PK Drew Alleman will wear No. 30 (moving from No. 38)
The newcomers who are joining the Tigers for spring practice have been issued the following numbers:
QB Zack Mettenberger - No. 8RB Kenny Hilliard - No. 27
DT Anthony Johnson - No. 56
Here's an update on the pending Real Sports SEC-paid players investigation.
The Holy Cross baseball series starts this afternoon and the Men's team has Vandy at home on Saturday. There will be Gamethreads for both.