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JMU's Houston Gets One-Year Extension, Raise
HARRISONBURG – James Madison University took the first step in securing its championship-winning football coach for the foreseeable future on Thursday.
Coach Mike Houston signed an addendum to his original contract resulting in an additional year and a bump in pay.
His annual base salary was upgraded to $375,000 and the deal runs through the 2021 season.
A year ago, Houston signed a five-year contract at $300,000 per year to run through the 2020 season.
“The big thing is I think is that it shows a commitment by the university and by the athletic department to myself and our program,” Houston said in a phone interview on Thursday. “It also rewards you for the way you’ve come in and done things."
In his first year at Madison, Houston guided the Dukes to an FCS national championship, an outright Colonial Athletic Association title and a program-record 14 wins.
He was named American Football Coaches Association FCS National Coach of the Year and CAA Coach of the Year.
JMU athletic director Jeff Bourne said the school had to be proactive with Houston following the successful season.
“Absolutely,” Bourne said by phone Thursday. “We thoroughly understand that any time a coach achieves at the level he did that there would be opportunities for them. Our goal is to make sure that we’re keeping our coach inline on a national front and in a position where they are competitive at the highest levels at the CAA with their compensation levels.”
Before taking the job at JMU last January, Houston had a two-year stint as coach at The Citadel after a three-year run at Division II Lenoir-Rhyne, where he led the Bears to the 2013 national championship game.
For leading JMU on its run in the 2016 postseason, Houston earned incentive-bonuses netting $87,500.
Houston said his wife, Amanda, and their two young sons are extremely happy in Harrisonburg, which is part of the reason why he wanted to sign the addendum.
“That’s easily half the equation right there,” Houston said. “With the kids the age that mine are, you don’t want to yank them around. We’ve moved three times in the last four years with the move to Lenoir-Rhyne to The Citadael and to The Citadel here, and certainly, I don’t want to keep doing that. You want to establish stability.”
It’s the same stability Bourne said JMU is yearning for after the school had three coaching changes in the last four years.
Houston said he could now tell recruits that he and his staff are secure at JMU.
Bourne said he is working with Houston to get contracts renewed for the nine of the 10 assistant football coaches. Defensive coordinator Bob Trott is the only assistant from the 2016 that was signed for beyond the championship season – his three-year deal runs through the 2018 season.
“We’ve been working on those diligently,” Bourne said. “There are obviously more individuals at stake, but it was important to get Mike’s contract done first, but we hope to bring closure to these very shortly.”.."
https://jamesmadison.rivals.com/news/jm ... sion-raise
This makes me more confident that Houston will be at JMU longer than 1 or 2 more seasons...