Richardson accepts three-year extension
New contract ranks SU coach as highest paid in D1-AA college football
BY KAMILAH STROY
January 25, 2005
The Pete Richardson legacy at Southern University will continue for another three seasons. The Jaguars' head football coach reportedly agreed to a three-year contract extension.
The new contract will pay Richardson $200,000 per year in base salary with performance incentives up to $40,000. The extension makes Richardson the highest paid coach in Division I-AA and in the history of Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
The Southern University Board of Supervisors met Jan. 8 and approved the new contract.
"Overall, I'm pleased with the contract as far as security for my family and with the university. And I'm looking forward to the extension," Richardson said.
Richardson, after 12 years at Southern, entered the final season of his contract wishing to negotiate a new deal. Richardson's old contract had a base salary of $140,000, a housing allowance worth an additional $12,000 and the use of a courtesy car.
The contract also has incentives that could pay $25,000 to $30,000. These incentives are tied into graduation rates, national Division I-AA rankings, conferences and black college national championships.
Southern denied Richardson's request for a five-year contract extension and was willing to only offer a three-year deal.
"I don't think a lot of people would come back if he was to leave; a lot of recruits wouldn't come here because he changed the program around so much," said Mike Lymon Jr, a junior rehabilitation counseling service major from Donaldsonville, who is also a member of the Jaguar football team.
Within the football season Richardson was content to focus only on the season and let his lawyers, Wade Shows and Jim Wayne handle the negotiations. The lawyers began working on a new contract just before the Jaguars' season opener on Labor Day weekend. They rejected the school's initial offer of a package worth $205,000. A clause in the offered contract would allow the school to fire Richardson and reassign him within the athletic department for a salary equal to his new position.
"The negotiations were good; they were positive and when we all got together and came up with the decision, he accepted the final offer of the university," said Floyd Kerr, SU athletic director. " I feel good that we got it done in a timely manner so we can preserve recruiting and move the program forward stabilizing our football program."
Richardson's current contract expires at the end of June. This contract, a five-year extension put together in 2000 gives him a salary of $152,000 per year, including a housing allowance and up to $35,000 in additional incentives. If Southern had not offered a new contract Richardson would have continued to work at Southern until June, if he did not get a job elsewhere. He had drawn interest from other schools but declined to say which ones.
"I'm glad they got it worked out, so now I can build for the future," Richardson said.
Richardson's arrival at Southern in 1993, came after spending five seasons at Winston-Salem State University, where he went 42-14-1 and won three CIAA titles. In his first year the Jaguars finished 11-1, the first of four 11-win seasons. Richardson has never had a losing season in 17 years as a head coach, with a career record of 147-52-1 and 105-38 at Southern. In the 12 seasons at Southern, Richardson has captured four Black College National titles, five Southwestern Athletic Conference titles and four Heritage Bowl Championships. This past season, Richardson guided the Jaguars to an 8-4 record to winning the SWAC's Western Division before falling 40-35 to Alabama State in the SWAC Championship Game on Dec.11, 2004.
Season ticket holder Lionel Brown, a graduate student in history from Baton Rouge said, "He will keep the program going strong from what you have seen in the past -- he always had a pretty strong program."
The only preceding coach to have a better record at Southern is Arnett William "Ace" Mumford, who is enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame. A.W. Mumford, the namesake for the Jaguars' football stadium, had a 176-60-14 record at Southern from 1936 To 1961. He won eleven Southwestern Athletic Conference championships and six Black College National championships.
Posted By: Will Moss
Thursday, January 27th 2005 at 8:41AM
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