UA could owe Shula assistants $561,662

The University of Alabama's price tag for firing coach Mike Shula includes more than just Shula's buyout and new coach Nick Saban's record-setting contract.
The university will owe five more months' worth of pay to any Shula assistant who is not kept by Saban and who does not take another job.
Two of Shula's nine on-field assistants have already taken other jobs, so the university owes them nothing more. If none of the seven others stay with the university, Alabama would owe them a total of $561,662 from January through May as their contracts stipulate they will be paid for six months after Shula was fired on Nov. 26 or until they find another job. That number shrinks if any of them takes a coaching or administrative job with another college or a pro team in that time. The figure comes from assistant coach contracts obtained by The Birmingham News.
In late November and December, the assistants continued working. Saban was hired on Jan. 3 and so far has announced eight new assistants to his staff, though their future roles have not been announced. Saban has not said which remaining Shula assistants - if any - he will keep.
One of those Shula assistants, defensive coordinator Joe Kines, has said he wants to stay in the athletics department in an administrative role if he has no role in Saban's on-field staff. It is possible Kines will receive such a job under his current coaching contract, which pays him $300,000 per year through June 2008.
Saban said Thursday he has spoken with Kines several times, but was not specific about Kines' future.
"I have a tremendous respect for Joe," Saban said of the 62-year-old defensive coordinator. "But something has got to work out for Joe that works for Joe. I want that to be a part of whatever decisions I make in terms of what he does moving forward."
When Shula was fired, Athletics Director Mal Moore vowed he would honor the contracts of Shula and all his assistants.
"We will see this through as stated in their contracts," Moore said then.
As reported by : The Birmingham News
IAN R. RAPOPORT News staff writer