While Jonathan Smith's Oregon State Beavers fell unexpectedly to the Arizona Wildcats 27-24 in Week 10, the coach is having what could be his best year with the Pac-12 school so far. The Beavers are 6-2 and hold the No. 16 spot in the AP Poll. Both defeats have come to fellow Pac-12 schools, first Washington State and now Arizona.
Smith is in his first head coaching job at the college level and in a Power Five conference. This is his sixth year with the Beavers and could be his third straight season with a winning record.
How much does Jonathan Smith make a year?
The coach was reported to make around $2.4 million with the Pac-12 school before this season. After leading Oregon State to a 9-3 record last year and a No. 14 finish in the college football rankings, the school extended Smith's contract by six years, and he's reported to be making around $5.1 million.
How much does Jonathan Smith make at Oregon State?
With the new extension, Jonathan Smith will make $30.6 million over six years with the Beavers. The school also increased the staff salary pool to $4.85 million and the support staff pool to $2.5 million, with an annual bonus of $100k for both. This strategy was designed to restrict other schools from recruiting from the Oregon State personnel after their successful 2022 season. So far, it is working.
What's left for the Oregon Beavers in the final leg of the 2023 season?
Next week, the Oregon Beavers will go to Boulder, Colorado, to face off against the Deion Sanders' Buffaloes. This is a game that they should easily win, but the Buffs are an unpredictable bunch, so Oregon State shouldn't let its guard down. From there, in Week 12, they will receive the Stanford Cardinal at home.
The challenge for the Beavers comes in weeks 13 and 14. They'll have back-to-back encounters against No. 5 Washington at home and No. 6 Oregon on the road. Oregon State should win the following two encounters to close the season with at least an 8-4 record, as victories over the Ducks and Huskies cannot be guaranteed.
However, the Beavers could be the bump in the road that derails Oregon or Washington from their national playoff seed chase.
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