FAYETTEVILLE — New Arkansas football coordinators Chris Ash and Jim Chaney will make $550,000 each as part of letters of agreement signed with the university.
Chaney's agreement is for three seasons, while Ash's is for two. New offensive line coach Sam Pittman signed an agreement worth $275,000 annually through June 2014.
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In addition to his Arkansas salary, Chaney will also be paid $600,000 after being let go by Tennessee during an off-season coaching change. Chaney, who spent four years with the Volunteers, served as interim coach after Derek Dooley was fired last month.
The annual salaries for the Razorbacks' offensive and defensive coordinators are up 15.8 percent from this year when Paul Petrino and Paul Haynes each made $475,000.
It marks the second consecutive year Arkansas has given new coordinators a bump in pay from their predecessors. In 2011, offensive coordinator Garrick McGee made $425,000 and defensive coordinator Willy Robinson made $375,000.
In a radio interview last week, Arkansas coach Bret Bielema said the salary pool for the Razorbacks would be nearly double that of the $1.9 million his assistants made at Wisconsin. Arkansas has given its assistant coaches cumulative pay raises of nearly $300,000 the last two years.
The salary pool for the Razorbacks' nine assistant coaches in 2012 was greater than $2.6 million.