Football: One year added to Hudspeth’s current contract

Tim Buckley, The Advertiser, August 26, 2015

 

Mark Hudspeth and the Ragin’ Cajuns have agreed to add one year to the UL football coach’s current contract, it was learned Wednesday.

The contract amendment is subject to approval from the UL System Board of Supervisors when it meets Thursday in Baton Rouge.

Hudspeth’s current contract runs though the end of 2019. The added year will extend the pact through the end of 2020.

Terms of the new year on the extended deal are the same as the rest of the contract, which includes a base salary of $175,000 from the university plus contingent premium benefits paid by the Ragin’ Cajun Athletic Foundation.

The contingent premium benefits started at $775,000 per year and increase by $50,000 per year each Jan. 1.

That means Hudspeth is making $1 million this season, and he would make $1.25 million in 2020.

There’s an additional retention payment of $50,000 per year, plus another $50,000 in retention bonus after each season with at least eight wins, if he stays through the length of the contract, along with various incentive-based bonuses and other perks such as matching college tuition plan contributions and an RCAF-funded $6,000 annual automobile allowance.

The added year was not automatically triggered by terms of the existing deal, it’s believed.

Hudspeth, whose club opens its 2015 season Sept. 5 at Kentucky, has led the Cajuns to four straight 9-4 seasons and four straight New Orleans Bowl wins in his four years at UL.

Also on the UL System board’s agenda for approval today is a one-year extension to offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Jay Johnson’s current’s contract and new two-year contract for offensive line coach Mitch Rodrigue.

Johnson’s deal, which now will run through the end of May 2017, pays $210,000 per year in base salary. He’s also been at UL for four prior seasons.

UL basketball coach Bob Marlin’s new five-year, $2.5 million contract is up for board approval Thursday as well.

KATC Channel 3 reported last week that Marlin agreed to a deal that starts at $455,000 per season in combined university/RCAF salary, an annual raise of $55,000 per season, and increases by $25,000 per season, along with a $72,000 signing bonus.

In addition to the signing bonus, Marlin also has a $150,000 retention bonus — $30,000 per year — if he stays for all five years.

His existing deal was to have run through the end of March 2017, and this one will run into 2020, so in effect it’s a three-year extension written in the form of a new five-year contract.