"Texas A& M, which hosts Texas on Saturday for a berth in the title game, leads the SEC in analyst spending, spending more than $1.7 million on its 11 analysts."
"Asked about his program’s analyst spending, Elko expressed surprise, and said he believed the Aggies ranked toward the middle of the conference. But an A& M spokesperson independently confirmed that the analyst salaries obtained by the Statesman were accurate." 👀 😳
Texas football being outspent on analysts by Texas A&M, SEC peers
David Eckert
Austin American-Statesman USA TODAY NETWORK
A win away from the SEC championship game in its first season in the conference, the Texas football program carefully curated its roster to immediately compete at the top level of the league. Crafting its support staff to meet the same standard might take some more time.
The Longhorns, who placed second nationally by driving more than $239 million in revenue in the last NCAA reporting period, rank eighth among the SEC’s 14 schools that released their spending on analysts to the American-Statesman. Vanderbilt, the SEC’s only private institution, is not obligated to make its contracts public. Florida declined to release the compensation for the three analysts it employs because those staffers are not under contract.
Texas coach Steve Sarkisian has eight analysts on his staff who will combine to earn $539,599 this year in base compensation, according to documents obtained by the Statesman. Another, Davis Koetter, is on scholarship.
Texas A& M, which hosts Texas on Saturday for a berth in the title game, leads the SEC in analyst spending, spending more than $1.7 million on its 11 analysts.
Occupying an off-the-field role rooted in strategy, scouting and recruiting, analysts support the on-the-field coaching staff in various ways. Sarkisian spent most of the 2016 season serving as an analyst for Alabama and Nick Saban, who often hired big coaching names to fill those roles before his retirement.
Asked in October about whether he felt his support staff was as SEC-ready as his roster, Sarkisian said there’s an ongoing analysis occurring within the UT football facility to answer that question.
“I think there’s obviously a lot bigger support staffs in the SEC than ours right now and more manpower and money allocated to that part of the organization,” Sarkisian said. “Like I said, we’re analyzing that now. Again, more doesn’t always mean better. But we are analyzing it and kind of doing a little bit of a selfaudit in terms of making sure that we are putting everybody in a position to have success.”
How SEC schools spend their money on analysts
Not all of the SEC’s top-tier programs are spending big on analysts. Georgia, which has won two of the last three national titles, is spending just $263,584 this year on its analysts, according to public records.
At some schools, those spending statistics are simply a reflection of how the programs label their employees. At South Carolina, for example, Shane Beamer employed seven analysts for the 2023 season, then promoted them all in reaction to a new NCAA rule that removed a cap that had previously limited on-field coaching staffs to 11. Hiring armies of analysts was a popular workaround to that rule.
“I gave all those analysts — that in my mind, deserved it — gave them a promotion, if you will,” Beamer said. “Whatever position they worked with, I put the word ‘assistant’ in front of it. So we had three analysts on the defensive side of the ball, for example. They’re now the assistant defensive backs coach, the assistant D-line coach and the assistant linebackers coach. And then we did the same thing on the offensive side of the ball, just to help their careers, but then to reward them for a great job.
“I would say they’re essentially doing the same thing, other than now they’re allowed to coach on the field. Beforehand, the way the rule was, they weren’t allowed to coach. As our compliance office told us, they could be at a drill, but they couldn’t be in the drill, actively involved, and now they are. I would say certainly their responsibilities off the field are the same, but, if anything, their responsibilities on the field have increased.”
Missouri, the conference’s only other school without an analyst listed on its staff website, fielded seven analysts last season. Six of them remain on staff and now hold coaching titles.
Texas vs Texas A& M: How analyst spending compares
Other programs opted for a more traditional staff construction.
Mississippi State’s Jeff Lebby, Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer and Texas A& M’s Mike Elko each rank inside the conference’s top half in analyst spending as first-year coaches.
Asked about his program’s analyst spending, Elko expressed surprise, and said he believed the Aggies ranked toward the middle of the conference. But an A& M spokesperson independently confirmed that the analyst salaries obtained by the Statesman were accurate.
Bryant Gross-Armiento is the league’s highest-paid analyst at $450,000 in base pay annually.
“I think in this day of age, the quality of staff that you have is critical,” Elko said. “We try to build an organization where everybody plays a role. You’ve got some analysts who have a lot of experience, have been coordinators at this level and can provide a lot of schematic help and advantages, and then you have some analysts who are young and upand- coming and making their way as recruiters — a little blend of both. I just think the quality of coaching in this conference is so good that you need as much help as you can get.”
Texas’ highest-paid analyst, by contrast, is Brandon Huppert. He most recently worked in quality control at Oregon State after working as Washington’s director of player development for three years. He’s due $130,000 this year.
“There’s GAs, there’s analysts, not everybody can be a coach,” Sarkisian said. And so there’s a lot of things that we’re looking at structurally in the organization to make sure that we are doing what’s best. Again, more doesn’t always mean better, but we are making sure that we do have sufficient, adequate numbers in place so that everybody can do their job really well.”
ANALYSTS
from page C1 to page C3
Former TCU head coach Gary Patterson served as a high-profile defensive analyst for Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian in the 2022 season. How SEC schools spend money on their analysts varies, according to figures obtained by the American-Statesman.
Follow the link below to view the article.
Texas football being outspent on analysts by Texas A&M, SEC peers
"Asked about his program’s analyst spending, Elko expressed surprise, and said he believed the Aggies ranked toward the middle of the conference. But an A& M spokesperson independently confirmed that the analyst salaries obtained by the Statesman were accurate." 👀 😳
Texas football being outspent on analysts by Texas A&M, SEC peers
David Eckert
Austin American-Statesman USA TODAY NETWORK
A win away from the SEC championship game in its first season in the conference, the Texas football program carefully curated its roster to immediately compete at the top level of the league. Crafting its support staff to meet the same standard might take some more time.
The Longhorns, who placed second nationally by driving more than $239 million in revenue in the last NCAA reporting period, rank eighth among the SEC’s 14 schools that released their spending on analysts to the American-Statesman. Vanderbilt, the SEC’s only private institution, is not obligated to make its contracts public. Florida declined to release the compensation for the three analysts it employs because those staffers are not under contract.
Texas coach Steve Sarkisian has eight analysts on his staff who will combine to earn $539,599 this year in base compensation, according to documents obtained by the Statesman. Another, Davis Koetter, is on scholarship.
Texas A& M, which hosts Texas on Saturday for a berth in the title game, leads the SEC in analyst spending, spending more than $1.7 million on its 11 analysts.
Occupying an off-the-field role rooted in strategy, scouting and recruiting, analysts support the on-the-field coaching staff in various ways. Sarkisian spent most of the 2016 season serving as an analyst for Alabama and Nick Saban, who often hired big coaching names to fill those roles before his retirement.
Asked in October about whether he felt his support staff was as SEC-ready as his roster, Sarkisian said there’s an ongoing analysis occurring within the UT football facility to answer that question.
“I think there’s obviously a lot bigger support staffs in the SEC than ours right now and more manpower and money allocated to that part of the organization,” Sarkisian said. “Like I said, we’re analyzing that now. Again, more doesn’t always mean better. But we are analyzing it and kind of doing a little bit of a selfaudit in terms of making sure that we are putting everybody in a position to have success.”
How SEC schools spend their money on analysts
Not all of the SEC’s top-tier programs are spending big on analysts. Georgia, which has won two of the last three national titles, is spending just $263,584 this year on its analysts, according to public records.
At some schools, those spending statistics are simply a reflection of how the programs label their employees. At South Carolina, for example, Shane Beamer employed seven analysts for the 2023 season, then promoted them all in reaction to a new NCAA rule that removed a cap that had previously limited on-field coaching staffs to 11. Hiring armies of analysts was a popular workaround to that rule.
“I gave all those analysts — that in my mind, deserved it — gave them a promotion, if you will,” Beamer said. “Whatever position they worked with, I put the word ‘assistant’ in front of it. So we had three analysts on the defensive side of the ball, for example. They’re now the assistant defensive backs coach, the assistant D-line coach and the assistant linebackers coach. And then we did the same thing on the offensive side of the ball, just to help their careers, but then to reward them for a great job.
“I would say they’re essentially doing the same thing, other than now they’re allowed to coach on the field. Beforehand, the way the rule was, they weren’t allowed to coach. As our compliance office told us, they could be at a drill, but they couldn’t be in the drill, actively involved, and now they are. I would say certainly their responsibilities off the field are the same, but, if anything, their responsibilities on the field have increased.”
Missouri, the conference’s only other school without an analyst listed on its staff website, fielded seven analysts last season. Six of them remain on staff and now hold coaching titles.
Texas vs Texas A& M: How analyst spending compares
Other programs opted for a more traditional staff construction.
Mississippi State’s Jeff Lebby, Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer and Texas A& M’s Mike Elko each rank inside the conference’s top half in analyst spending as first-year coaches.
Asked about his program’s analyst spending, Elko expressed surprise, and said he believed the Aggies ranked toward the middle of the conference. But an A& M spokesperson independently confirmed that the analyst salaries obtained by the Statesman were accurate.
Bryant Gross-Armiento is the league’s highest-paid analyst at $450,000 in base pay annually.
“I think in this day of age, the quality of staff that you have is critical,” Elko said. “We try to build an organization where everybody plays a role. You’ve got some analysts who have a lot of experience, have been coordinators at this level and can provide a lot of schematic help and advantages, and then you have some analysts who are young and upand- coming and making their way as recruiters — a little blend of both. I just think the quality of coaching in this conference is so good that you need as much help as you can get.”
Texas’ highest-paid analyst, by contrast, is Brandon Huppert. He most recently worked in quality control at Oregon State after working as Washington’s director of player development for three years. He’s due $130,000 this year.
“There’s GAs, there’s analysts, not everybody can be a coach,” Sarkisian said. And so there’s a lot of things that we’re looking at structurally in the organization to make sure that we are doing what’s best. Again, more doesn’t always mean better, but we are making sure that we do have sufficient, adequate numbers in place so that everybody can do their job really well.”
ANALYSTS
from page C1 to page C3
Former TCU head coach Gary Patterson served as a high-profile defensive analyst for Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian in the 2022 season. How SEC schools spend money on their analysts varies, according to figures obtained by the American-Statesman.
Follow the link below to view the article.
Texas football being outspent on analysts by Texas A&M, SEC peers
Texas football being outspent on analysts by Texas A&M, SEC peers
David EckertAustin American-Statesman USA TODAY NETWORK A win away fro
statesman-tx.newsmemory.com
