USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
Florida Atlantic head coach Tom Herman works with the defense during practice at the Schmidt Family Complex in Boca Raton
It’s been less than a decade since Tom Herman was the head coach at Texas, and he failed to bounce back at FAU before being fired a couple of years ago. He has reemerged as an assistant coach at Florida State, and the Seminoles are getting a bargain based on his hourly salary.
Being the head coach of a college football team tends to be a pretty lucrative gig. In 2024, guys at the FBS level made an average of approximately $3.76 million a year, and that number was skewed up from a median of around $2.5 million by the massive contracts handed out to the people who oversee the country’s premier programs.
That group includes Texas, which handed Tom Herman a five-year, $25 million contract in 2016 in the hopes he’d be able to turn things around in the wake of the ill-fated Charlie Strong Experiment.
He was able to outperform his predecessor, but his time with the Longhorns came to an end when he was fired after four seasons where he posted a respectable 32-18 record but failed to live up to the expectations that come with coaching in Austin.
There was a bit of a silver lining, as Herman received a $15.4 million buyout prior to linking up with the Bears. He spent a single year as an assistant in Chicago before FAU tapped him as their new head coach ahead of the 2023 campaign while landing another five-year deal.
However, the Owls went 6-16 during the two seasons he spent in Boca Raton, and he was once again dismissed before his contract was up while receiving around $4 million to go away when he was canned in 2024.
Herman probably isn’t hurting for money, which would explain the favorable arrangement Florida State was able to take advantage of while adding him to its coaching staff.
Tom Herman is making much less than you’d probably think to coach at Florida State
Florida State is currently dealing with one of the most turbulent periods in the history of the program, and Mike Norvell is heading into the 2026 season on a hot seat that rivals the temperature of the Sun after “improving” to 5-7 following the team’s disastrous 2-10 showing in 2024.
Norvell signed a six-year contract extension ahead of that infamous implosion, and the fact that the team would have owed him more than $50 million if it had fired him following the conclusion of last season is a major reason he’s getting at least one more opportunity to prove he deserves to make the $10.3 million he’s getting paid this year.
Earlier this month, we learned he’d recruited Herman to join his staff in a supporting role, and it’s safe to say he’s taking a pay cut compared to his previous gig at FAU when you consider Noles247 obtained documents that show the new hire is making a whopping $25 an hour.
Contract details for Tom Herman at FSU
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— Kolby Crawford (@kolby_crawford) July 23, 2026
Herman was officially brought on to “assist coaching staff with game analysis,” and he’ll be making $1,000 a week as an employee who is officially scheduled to work 40 hours.
What a world.